ROOTS OF INDIAN FEMINISM REFLECTED IN SHASHI DESHPANDE’S 'THE DARK HOLDS NO TERROR' (Pages 105-116) by Dr. Bharti Dave* and Dr. Margi Hathi** in THE ENGLISH RESEARCH EXPRESS / ISSN:2321-1164 (Online); 2347-2642 (Print)

'Feminism in the West has its roots in the 16th century; but in India the concept of Feminism found acceptance amongst the women of India almost in the latter half of the 20th century. After the acceptance of the term ‘Feminism’ for the several ongoing women’s movements all over the nation, the question was regarding defining feminism. Due to meagre theoretical representations highlighting the views of the Indian women, the concepts of Feminism established in the West soon found acceptance among the Indian feminists. But, the appropriateness of the Western concepts of Feminism in the Indian context was always questioned. Today when the noted scholars like Prof. Jasbir Jain and Prof. Avadhesh Kumar Singh discuss about the need of theorizing Indian Feminism, it becomes necessary to critically analyze the efforts made by Indian women towards improving their social status in society and also their achievements in all these years. It is even necessary to understand the basic thinking of Indian women and their definition of liberty and equality. This research endeavour is an attempt towards exploring the concepts of Indian Feminism by studying the female characters depicted in the selected novel written by Shashi Deshpande. The idea with which this research has been undertaken is to explore the ideas of Feminism expressed through the various characters in the fictional work. Keywords: Indian Social Discourse, Untouchability, Caste System, Marxism and Dalit Discourse.