Subjugation: Portraying Women Characters in Afghan Society and Indian Subcontinent as Delineated in the Novels of Khalid Hosseini and Arundhati Roy

Subjugation or subaltern means a lower-ranking or an inferior individual. This paper is a serious attempt to portray the exploitation and discrimination of women in the patriarchal social systems of the Afghan society and the Indian subcontinent as delineated in the novels of Khalid Hosseini and Arundhati Roy. In both the novels: A Thousand Splendid Suns and The God of Small Things, the women share the common plight of suffering, where the male folk treat them as mere objects and subject them to extreme oppression. A Thousand Splendid Suns describes the struggle of women to escape insubordination imposed upon them by the society and culture of Afghanistan. The God of Small Things highlights gender oppression through the examination of the marital and inter-gender relations of Ammu, Mammachi, Baby Kochamma and Rahel. All these female characters are resourceful, and smart and belong to the affluent class but they are deprived of fully realizing their capabilities. The novelists rightfully depict the story of these women, who show signs of resistance and try to thwart the male order but their struggle is overwhelmed by the ideology of the male-dominated social systems.