The "New Woman" vs. The Traditional Subaltern: Comparing the agencies of Sai and Nimi in The Inheritance of Loss

Abstract

The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai provides a powerful examination of the agency of women in the intersections of postcolonialism, patriarchy and globalization. This paper presents a comparative study of two central female characters – Nimi, the wife of the judge and his granddaughter Sai. Nimi, the "traditional subaltern," is a character who has been silenced and erased by the unfettered crossings of colonial neurosis and indigenous patriarchy. She is caged by her family, especially by her husband Jemubhai Patel, and also by her body, from her father up until she suffers from a terrible loss of sanity and selfhood. Resistance is all but a late, desperate silence, that can't earn her dignity in the strict codes of society in her time. Sai, on the other hand, is the "New Woman" whose agency is supported by being raised in a Westernized convent and by the changes in social structure in a globalized India. Sai actively negotiates her identity, challenges traditional norms and shows a capacity for choice in her relationships, unlike her grandmother. Nimi is a character who is imprisoned at home and whose birth name has been erased, but Sai uses her education as a “semantic structure” to express her anger, to challenge the ethnic conflicts related to the Gorkhaland movement.

It is suggested in this essay that education and cultural hybridity enable both Sai to accomplish a relative emancipation; however, they are both subject to the same "inheritance of loss". This loss is felt as disunified identities and a lack of authentic place in a world marred by colonialism and present political unrest. This study will show how the Indian woman's role is changing and how it is still being challenged by analyzing the naming process, the use of voice and the use of domestic space. Finally, the paper is a call for greater progress in transitioning from subaltern to "New Woman", but the overarching presence of the shadow of patriarchal control can not be overlooked.