Marathi Literature as a Source for Contemporary Feminism

Contemporary Feminism Vidyut Bhagwat Unlike other radical movements in Maharashtra which refused to treat tradition as a deadweight opposed to modernity and emancipation, the feminist movement in the state ignored its own tradition of a succession of women saints and other women writers who had inverted and occasionally even subverted the classical ideals of womanhood embodied in the hegemonic texts. The movement paid a price for this failure; it appeared to be based on dry, upstart ideas lacking roots in the soil This paper seeks to demonstrate the continuity of women's protests in Marathi literature from the beginning to the present.