Feminism and Indian Response to Kamala Das' My Story

Abstract

Kamala Das has been known for her unfiltered and honest style of writing. Her writing has been ahead of her time and has amused the Indian society to a great extent. She expresses her feelings as a woman about the gender discrimination happening in the country. Her writing is based on her observations and experiences that she had growing up in a conservative Nair family, where there were a set of predefined rules for girls. The decision making power was with the males of the family and females were supposed to follow that. In her book My Story she talks about her entire life journey and did candid confessions about her life in the Indian society. Starting from her childhood till her last days of her life, she says it all. Her honest confessions have been the topic of discussion amongst the writers and critics. The response to her autobiography My Story has been mixed as some researchers have praised her for her honesty and some critics claimed that her writing is full of biases.  In this paper we will discuss the essence of feminism as described in her book My Story and Indian response to it.