Graduate Program
Communication Studies
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Semester of Degree Completion
2008
Thesis Director
Melanie Mills
Thesis Committee Member
Angela Aguayo
Thesis Committee Member
Unknown
Abstract
India is a secular socialist republic and one of the largest democracies in the world. It prides itself on its modern constitution, extensive educational system and progressive society. The sophisticated mainstream English print media - frequently staffed by erudite, internationally acclaimed journalists and managed by India's biggest business houses - sketches the image of a prosperous, "rising" and "shining" India through glossy publications. Beneath this superficial veneer of the story of India's progress is an underbelly of repressive practices, gender-based discrimination and human rights' violations which reveal a society in which women's rights are minimal, oppression is endemic and economic progress or emancipation is elusive. This thesis posits that the mainstream Hindu patriarchal society uses the metaphor of Sita, a religious and mythical figure, as the ultimate feminine symbol, to discipline and dominate the contemporary Indian woman. This project seeks to explicate the connection between the myth of Sita and the modem woman's position through narratives of women, including the author, who have ventured outside their boundaries rather than maintain the code of silence imposed on them by Indian society. Most of the narratives take place within the context of a crisis surrounding an agricultural movement against land acquisition by big business in West Bengal's Midnapore district. The thesis also scrutinizes the print media coverage of this fanners' movement in an effort to show how the mainstream media often ignores the woman's experience even when they are the ones who have to pay the heaviest prices for being part of a political environment. In exploring the way these women craft their stories within the constraints of their political and social existence, this project identifies very distinctive efforts by the women to enact their resistance.
Recommended Citation
Goel, Koeli M., "Stepping outside the sacred circle: Narratives of violence and disempowerment of the contemporary Indian woman" (2008). Masters Theses. 109.
https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/109
