Social Impediments of the Third World Women: A Study of Manju Kapur’s A Married Woman (2002)

The article will detect the social hurdles experienced by the Third World Indian Women in the light of Manju Kapur’s celebrated novel, A Married Woman (2002). The obstacles such as early marriage, forced marriage, gender discrimination, domestic work, family tradition, social taboos, education inequality, discourage for degree, patriarchal hegemony, sexual politics that block the way of female freedom, education, employment and empowerment will be explored here. The common picture in the South Asian Indian patriarchy is that either educated or employed all Third World women face some common obstacles. So far been employed or empowered they have to compromise their will and choice for the sake of family or society. Patriarchy means men-women disparity but Indian women are colonized by both religious patriarchy and social taboos. Women in Third World context are restricted by both familial and social obligations. Hence, patriarchy in India is religious patriarchy and social cultures are different for men and women. In this fiction, Kapur’s resistant heroines Astha and Pipeelika are intellectually liberated from the tie of patriarchy but again enticed by a lot of social and familial customs they suffer from identity crisis and existential problems.


Introduction
The present paper is going to find out the social and familial obligations that marginalize the Third World Indian women ages after ages. These obstacles are The novel tells the story of Astha, the protagonist and a talented painter who comes of a Delhi-artistic, culture-minded family. She is her parent's only child.
Her liberal progressive father wants to educate her, but problem creates her traditionalist mother who just wants to see her daughter settled in a safe arranged marriage. As a girl, Astha is brought up with large supplements of family teachings about her actual duty that is "to be married". A Married Woman (2002) centers round the life story of Astha from her adolescence to adulthood. The novel narrates her before marital and after marital love affairs. Like a romantic girl, she has her dreams and aspirations. As a common school going girl, she often imagines of handsome and romantic young lover. In her teenage period, she falls in love with a boy of her age, Bunty. They exchanged a number of love letters. It was her first love. But this love affair is interfered by her mother as she complained to Bunty's father that his boy disturbs her daughter. Ultimately, there is the break up between Astha and Bunty.
Leaving behind all the memories with Bunty, she takes entry into a college.
During her college days, she again falls in love with Rohan, a teacher of the college. She is emotionally engaged with Rohan. But this relationship is finished within a few days. Rohan refuses to marry her after passing time with Astha.
Finally, she decides to be settled in an arranged marriage and accepts one of her mother's approved suitors. Her marriage is settled with Hemant who is America returned, educated and solvent. Hemant is the only son of his parents, except that he has two married sisters Seema and Sangeeta. Astha's mother thought that it is a nuclear family like them. Besides, Hemant is a nice boy holding a position in society and self-governing business and property.
The wedding ceremony held after Astha's MA exams. In her in-law's house, Astha submerged herself in the role of daughter-in-law and wife. Her husband trains her to follow marital routine. Something like love develops between them, but gradually it starts to reflect a power structure where one is dominative and another is dominated.
They became the parents of a daughter. But like a traditionalist husband, Hemant wants a baby boy. Astha conceives again and gives borth to a son, Himanashu. Astha is honoured with heavy jewellery and all the family members think that the family is complete now. After Himanshu's birth Hemant changes from

Discussion
In Indian patriarchy, marriages are imposed on girls. The girls are not allowed to make love or marry a man of their choice. Family is more important to women than to men. The institution of marriage offers to both the agent protection and social acceptability and so majority of women respect this institution. Marriage is her ultimate destiny which implies subordination to man. Females are the objects of family reputation and marriage is a more concerned issue than female education. To quote Kapur: "Astha was brought up properly, as befits a woman, with large supplements of fear." (Kapur: 01) Marriage is the medium of female exploitation in Indian patriarchy. Traditionally, it is taken for granted that a girl's duty is to get married, look after her husband, produce children for the sake of her family and take care of them; while all the creative works should be done by man. It is totally inhuman from the part of society to deprive a girl of her inborn right to survive and fulfill her needs. As Simon de Beauvoir says: "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. No biological, psychological, or economic fate determines the figure that the human female presents in society; it is civilization as a whole that produces this creature, intermediate between male and eunuch, which is described as feminine. Only the intervention of someone else can establish an individual as an 'other.'" (Beauvoir, 1949) The exploitation of women in the name of religion and social prestige is going to be reported by the present paper. Like, Anita Desai's Fire on the Mountain  In Indian patriarchy, the notion of protection entices women to be sexually passive and humble. Third World women are brought up with the importance of being protected by males. A woman should be protected in her childhood by her father, in her youth by her husband and in her aged days her son should protect her and in this way the woman does not deserve to be free. Such dominant patriarchal rules marginalize women to carry on their individual rights and freedom. As Karthika comments: "Women are treated as the "other" who has got comparatively less power in the society. The muscle power and the equations of strength are used cunningly to make the women believe that they are subordinate human beings." (Karthika, 2015) In this story, almost all the female characters are financially dependent on their fathers, husbands, brothers and sons. Sita, Mrs. Trivedi were dependent on their husbands; Astha's mother-in-law is dependent on her son; Sangeeta for her marital problems decides to live with Astha and therefore, she is dependent on her brother, Hemant. Astha before her marriage was protected by her father. After marriage, she is seen as an employed woman but she is controlled in every case by Hemant. She earns but her money spending is always decided by Hemant.
Motherhood is an obstacle for Third World women.  (Basu, 2007). Astha in this story builds up a same sex relationship with Pipee in order to be herself and to resist Hemant. But when she was with Pipee, she was used to be worried about her children.
In Third World Patriarchal society, gender discrimination starts from the womb and lasts till the tomb. Indian culture is a culture that idolizes Male domination in India leads to woman's subjugation, discrimination, and exploitation presents sexism in its worst form. Karthika says: "Ancient or modern, the society is always male-oriented and views women as objects for pleasure." (Karthika, 2015) More than half of the population of the world is made of woman but she is not treated on par with man despite innumerable evolutions and revolutions. She has the same mental and moral power, yet she is expected to serve, sacrifice, and submit each ill against her peacefully. Her individual self has very little recognition in the patriarchal society and so self-effacement is her normal way of life. In Indian society, the institution of marriage holds a place of prominence and the women usually abide by it. Since ancient time in India marriage has been regarded not only as a necessity, but also as a social and religious duty. This religious patriarchy is subjugating women in India.
Women in India are universally subjugated through ancient scriptures and Puranic texts. As Karthika V.K. says: "The story of subjugation of women had its roots in the myths and legends which are popular in India." (Karthika, 2015) The stereotypical myth depicts archetypes of Indian womanhood, such as Sati,  Internalized notion that is passed woman after woman is another important obstacle in Third World families. It is the woman herself, who often ill-treats the woman in Indian traditional families. The old women in Third World Indian society are the guardians of patriarchy. They are the followers of the age-old beliefs because they have been already internalized by the thought of patriarchal values. The mother-daughter; mother-in-law-daughter-in-law; and sister-in-lawdaughter-in-law relationships lead to the continuous dilemmas.
In this story, mothers want their daughters to like them but daughters want to learn from their own experiences. In this story, Sita-Astha relationship echoes such truths. Sita tries to arrange her daughter's marriage when she was only sixteenth years old. When Astha is in second year, Sita starts arguing with her husband why he is so indifferent regarding this serious matter. On the other hand, Trivedi-Pipee relationship refreshes previous Sita-Astha relationship. Mrs. Trivedi is intolerant of her daughter's unmarried status and her secular decision and from her parts; she tries her best to convince Pippe not to marry Aijaz. The relationship between Astha and her mother-in-law is based on some stereotyped envies by Astha and domineering attitudes by her mother-in-law. For instances, Astha envies Hemant's close bonds with his parents, his care and financial supports for them. In contrast, she misses her mother. On the other hand, Astha's mother-in-law, out of jealousy, says: "Such a husband" when Astha is gifted "a diamond ring" by Hemant on the occasion of their anniversary. Astha's mother in law thinks that her son is the best son in this world and being the wife of such husband Astha is really lucky. Similarly, Astha-Sangeeta relationship is not friendly one. Sangeta envies Astha's happiness; like Hemant's love and care for her, or her parent's liberal attitudes towards her which she does not find from her husband and in-laws. Due to internalized notions of patriarchy women envy women.
In Indian society, marriage taboo causes obstacles in the path of independent wish and freedom. From her childhood, an Indian girl is taught that she is born to marry, procreate and serve other mutely. She is brought up with the idea that is "Woman is Earth" that is why she has to be docile, humble and loyal as she is going to leave her parental house in order to serve her in-laws' house. In this story, Astha's mother is the guardian of patriarchal values who teaches her to pray to God for a "good husband". To quote Kapur, "Every day in her temple corner in the kitchen, she prayed for a good husband for her daughter." (Kapur: 01) Similarly, Seema, Sangeeta, Mrs. Trivedi, Pipee, Sita all met the same things from their up bringers.
In Third World context, a daughter is brought up with large supplements of fear that are the facts that she should be chaste, pure, and virtuous in order to be an ideal daughter, ideal wife and ideal mother. Such expectations and family teachings grow fear in their mind that impedes them. On the contrary, the In Third world society, conventional systems and customs are deep-seated and in the traditional system "Indianness" is structured around gender discrimination giving narrow space to female for freedom. Right from the marriage, the bride's integration into the family begins. She is directed and instructed into the lifestyle and habit of her husband's family. As Astha in Hemant's family, has submerged into the roles: wife, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law and mother. But despite her all efforts to dedicate herself genuinely to the well being of the family she is considered as an outsider. Astha wants a room that should be used for the sake of art and painting. She wants to possess some space of her own like Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own (1929). But this room was given to Sangeeta as she has to live with them. Again, Astha wants to buy a car with her inherited money from her parents. But now Hemant is the owner of this money.
Once again she is rejected. It is the tradition in Third World Indian society that a daughter-in-law has to sacrifice for the happiness of others. But when the same bride turns into a mother-in-law, she holds an authoritative voice, particularly over the daughters-in-law; as Astha's mother-in-law's influence over Astha. In the same way, Astha will practice this tradition on Himanushu's wife. The Third World women become not only advocates but even the custodians of the same culture that impedes their liberal thoughts.
Women in India are victims of child marriage which is not only a problem but also a creator of so many problems. Child marriage is a violation of female rights which has a negative impact on physical growth, health, mental and emotional development, and education opportunities that consequently creates poverty and illiteracy. In Third World societies, child marriage or forced marriage is the main problem that subjugates women with a frequent number of pregnancies, premature maternal death, child death, complications in child birth etc. For the evil of child marriage, child brides often become child widows and lose honour and right to marry again. In this story, Mrs. Trivedi became a widow in her childhood and she had no right to remarry and was parted from her husband's family members; Sita and Astha's mother-in-law were child brides; and Seema

Research Findings
Many researchers have so far been pursued on Kapur's A Married Woman (2002). They celebrated Kapur's female characters as liberated and resistant heroines with the bounties of glory. But the social problems that re-colonize them are not mentioned by them. However, this research finds out the social impediments such as child marriage, forced marriage, gender discrimination, domestic work, family violence, education inequality, discourage for degree, family tradition, patriarchal hegemony, sexual exploitation and so on that cause barricades for the Indian women to walk on the open road of liberty.

Conclusion
In A Married Woman (Kapur, 2002)  Trivedi are the victims of early marriage. Indian wives never dare to think of divorce and therefore, they often are victims of domestic violence or humiliation as Sangeeta faces in-law's house and Astha is often answerable for her any sort of negligence of household responsibilities to her husband and mother-in-law.
Motherhood and family reputation are also important obstacles for Third world women for which they cannot divorce their husband. From the very beginning of their life, they are taught to be the bearer and upholder of family honour as Astha experiences. After their husband's death, Indian widows are considered as outsiders, untouchables and sinners as Sita and Pipeelika suffer from such public isolation. In fine, these are the social and familial impediments for Third World women that create barricades in female education, empowerment, employment, identity and independence.