Displacing Androcracy: Cosmopolitan Partnerships in Bapsi Sidhwa’s Water

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Stefano Mercanti

Abstract

Set against the backdrop of Gandhi’s Freedom Movement, Water pushes the boundaries of India’s male-dominant cultural narratives beyond patriarchal predicaments by questioning the religious tradition and the oppressive constraints imposed on Hindu widows. This paper aims to show how Sidhwa’s characters move toward more caring and life-enhancing scenarios by portraying relationships of mutual support in which human beings give evidence of ‘other’ possible patterns of construction of the self and forms of co-existence, thus overcoming the rigid discourses imposed by dominator hierarchies.

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Articles (refereed)
Author Biography

Stefano Mercanti, University of Technology Sydney

Stefano Mercanto is Research Fellow and member of the Partnership Studies Group at the University of Udine. He is Endeavour Fellow 2011 at the Cosmopolitan Civil Societies Research Centre at the University of Technology, Sydney.