Women in the Sacred and the Profane in Geetanjali Shree’s Tomb of Sand (2018)

Abstract

The Indian society is a kaleidoscope of cultures, beliefs and social customs. Geetanjali Shree in her Booker prize winning novel Tomb of Sand aims to convey these themes in a correlation to the concepts of women oppression and gender Norms. Shree questions the essence of the predominant behaviours, traditions, customs and social norms within the Indian society, and projects it to other societies and communities in order to achieve universality. She made use of the dichotomy of the sacred and the profane to trace the roots of gender roles and the negative connotations stigmatized to women. In the attempt of analyzing the novel, the present research makes use of Emile Durkheim’s social theory with a special focus on his notion of the sacred and the profane; in addition to the Feminist Theory to reflect on women’s struggles towards mental, psychological and cultural self-emancipation. The undertaken cultural study finds out that women’s subjugation is merely an inherited social practice that deprives women from their natural rights. The latter affects women’s self-image and confines them to a miserable state of mind. The findings of this research could be implemented and found helpful in other areas of studies as in Psychology, Sociology and even Politics.