• Saroj Kumar Pasayat
• Manisha Mishra

Sashi Despande is among those Indian novelists who have in a sustained manner questioned the traditional disparities and discriminations existing in the contemporary society. Particularly her most cherished thematic concern is the women’s struggle for emancipation from the yoke of patriarchal subjugation. Taking note of the long tradition of Indian patriarchy, she has explored the multitudinal dimensions of it both in family and social spheres. She has represented a variety of patriarchies in a most subtle and sensible manner in her novels through a scope of relationships. But she is sensitive to the realities and necessities of man-woman equilibrium in spite of the lopsided dynamics within. Her first novel Dark Holds No Terror serves an interesting note on the New Patriarchy which theoretically situates itself in a significant divergence to the traditional one. But the critical probing of this new patriarchy reveals its identity as a transmuted form of the traditional one. In spite of the socio-economic and political changes within the society, the residue of patriarchal subjection and discrimination continues. Manohar, the liberal, sensitized and modern hero becomes a sadist in his relationship with Sarita, the protagonist. Sarita’s quest for “a life of her own” evades her till; she realizes the futility of searching for it through an illusion of man-woman equilibrium. Her struggle for emancipation encounters hurdles she never expected and she prepares to take the final plunge. Her scrambling through the contour of “Darkness”, a gift of patriarchy, enlivens the gender dynamics in contemporary Indian society presented in the novel.

- New Patriarchy, Gender dynamics, Indian patriarchy, Residue, Equilibrium, Subjugation etc.

"Darkness to Twilight in Sashi Deshpande’s DARK HOLDS NO TERROR: Study of Patriarchies", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no.445-451, June 2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1908A10.pdf

"Darkness to Twilight in Sashi Deshpande’s DARK HOLDS NO TERROR: Study of Patriarchies", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no. pp445-451, June 2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1908A10.pdf