An Investigative Study on the Impact of Modernity on Female Consciousness: Based on the Short Stories of Usha Priyamvada

Abstract

Usha Priyamvada plays a unique role in giving a new facet to the literary tradition known as 'Nayi Kahani' (New Short Story movement), which belongs to the modern era of Hindi literature. As a leading writer of 'Pravasi' (Diaspora) Hindi literature—a distinct stream of modern Hindi literature—she socializes her creative writing primarily through short stories and novels. Among these, her short stories are particularly prominent.

When examining her short stories, it is observable that as a short story writer, Usha Priyamvada's central attention was focused on subtly exploring female existence, the female psyche, and the social practice of women. Her short story literature should be examined by dividing it into two phases: creations written in the early period and those written in the later period. The primary reason for this is that the background of the Indian soil where she lived became the center for the early short stories, while the background of living as an American citizen became the center for the later short stories. It is possible to observe how this difference caused a massive ideological impact.

While the project of modernity can be identified as having influenced female existence in both positive and negative ways, my exploration of the female characters in Usha Priyamvada's short stories revealed a specific pattern. In her later stories, the woman's encounter with the project of modernity was consistently depicted as pain, restlessness, loneliness, oppression, and a loss of family-centered security.

The objective of the present study is to investigate the nature of the impact caused by modernity on female consciousness. The significance of this study is established by its examination of the socio-subjective difference of women within Eastern and Western traditions. To the best of my knowledge, a study on the impact of modernity on female consciousness based on Usha Priyamvada's short stories has not been conducted until now. For this study, Usha Priyamvada's short story literature was utilized as the primary data source, while subject-related academic articles, journals, and books were used as secondary data sources. The study concludes that the central theme of Usha Priyamvada's short story literature is the portrayal of how the contradictions created by modernity affect female existence and how the female psyche succumbs to crisis as a result.