Abstract

Since times immemorial, the sociocultural milieu of India has insisted that males have the right to dominate and subjugate females. In other words, one can say that the voice of woman should be muted in this patriarchal society. Earlier, their desires were buried underneath men. They quest for self-identity and self-realization. They were oppressed, victimized, humiliated, marginalized, and repressed. Many Indian English novelists, such as Mulk Raj Anand, have drawn the specific issues and problems of women, apart from dealing with social and psychological issues. Anand had a deep concern for the dilemma of women. In “The Old Woman and the Cow” (also known as Gauri) Anand made a strong plea to give identification and approval of women’s rights. The objectives of his writing were to give equality and to express the sympathy for women by his humanistic approach. In the last two decades, the conspiracy of silence has broken, and women have been secluded from the “Purdah” (veil). The revolutionary and radical shifts have come in Indian conservative society as well. The article focuses on Anand’s literary text to scrutinize the depiction of changing images of woman from post-independence to the present.