Opinion | From Mahadevi Verma To Shivani: Women Who Challenged Patriarchy With Their Pen

Celebrating women's achievements also means acknowledging these courageous literary voices that helped reshape the conversation on dignity, freedom, and equality for women in India

When, in the early 1970s, Shivani’s Chaudah Phere first began appearing in serialised form in the widely read Hindi magazine Dharmyug, its popularity grew with every instalment.

Long before the novel reached its conclusion, Shivani began receiving hundreds of letters from students of Allahabad University who had already become ardent admirers of the protagonist, Ahilya. Their appeal was heartfelt and urgent: “Please, please Shivani ji, do not let Ahalya’s life end in tragedy."

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Whether Shivani was moved by these letters or followed her own literary instinct, she chose not to condemn her heroine to the familiar fate of sacrifice. Ahilya would not surrender her happiness at the altar of patriarchy or a hollow notion of family honour. Instead, her journey became a quiet but powerful act of defiance.

Ahalya’s mother had endured the cruelty of a marriage marked by rejection; her husband constantly belittled her simply because she was illiterate. After years of humiliation, she finally walked away from the marriage and sought refuge in an ashram in Kumaon. Ahalya’s own life mirrors similar tensions. Her father, who outwardly prides himself on being modern and progressive, refuses to acknowledge her wishes. She wants to marry Raju, an army officer she loves, yet her father attempts to arrange her marriage to an arrogant and chauvinistic government officer without even considering her consent or feelings.

Shivani portrays Ahalya’s suffocation, loneliness, and emotional turmoil with remarkable sensitivity. Bound by the weight of her father’s social prestige, Ahalya initially prepares herself for a lifetime of sacrifice. However, with the intervention of her paternal aunt, she eventually breaks free from the shackles of so-called social morality and marries Raju. In doing so, she claims not only her love but also her dignity and freedom.

Ahalya’s choice may appear quiet, almost understated, but it represents a subtle rebellion, an assertion that a woman’s life cannot be dictated solely by patriarchal authority or societal expectations.

Ahalya’s quiet assertion of agency was not an isolated moment in Hindi literature. It formed part of a larger literary awakening in which women writers began to place the experiences, anxieties, and aspirations of women at the centre of their narratives. And, Shivani was neither the first nor the last to give voice to such inner rebellions.

Decades before Shivani, Mahadevi Verma had already laid the foundations of a feminist consciousness in Hindi literature. In Shrinkhala Ki Kadiyan (Links in the Chain), she reflected on the many invisible restraints imposed on Indian women. In her essay ‘Hindu stri ka patnitva’, she argued that marriage in traditional society often reduced a woman to near servitude, denying her financial independence and a voice of her own, while confining her to the prescribed roles of a dutiful wife and self-effacing mother.

Authors such as Ismat Chughtai and Amrita Pritam challenged social conventions and exposed the hypocrisies of a patriarchal society with remarkable courage.

Krishna Sobti, one of the most luminous voices of Hindi literature, brought a rare boldness and originality to her writing. Her celebrated work Mitro Marjani created a sensation when it appeared in 1967. At a time when even a general discussion of intimacy and desire was considered socially improper, the idea of speaking openly about a woman’s own desires was almost unthinkable. Sobti nonetheless ventured into this forbidden terrain. Through the unforgettable character of Mitro, she offered a candid and unapologetic portrayal of a woman aware of her own emotional and physical longings – challenging entrenched social conventions and compelling readers to confront realities long kept in silence.

Mannu Bhandari, one of the most popular voices of modern Hindi fiction, portrayed women as thinking, feeling, and independent individuals who quietly challenged social conventions. Stories like Yahi Sach Hai, which was later made into a film titled Rajnigandha by Basu Chatterjee, resonated widely for their emotional honesty. With rare sensitivity, Bhandari wrote about the complexities of love and relationships, giving her women characters something society had long denied them – a guilt-free right to seek their own happiness.

Another name that cannot be left out in this distinguished lineage is Mridula Garg. One of the most prolific voices in contemporary Hindi literature, with over thirty books spanning novels, short stories, plays, and essays. Her bold novel Chittacobra published in 1979, stirred national controversy and even led to her arrest on charges of obscenity, reflecting how unsettling her exploration of women’s inner lives was for a conservative society. Yet Garg has always resisted easy labels. In an interview with The Hindu in 2010, she remarked that she did not see her writing as “feminist", observing instead that guilt had long been imposed as a defining metaphor of womanhood – whether in matters of love, work, or desire. Her women, she insisted, refuse to carry that burden. In that quiet defiance lies Garg’s own powerful conception of empowerment: the belief that every woman must be free to define herself in her own way.

The most recent addition to this illustrious tradition is Geetanjali Shree, whose writing seeks to uncover the silenced inner worlds of women. Her novels often present strong yet deeply conflicted female protagonists navigating the pressures of a patriarchal society.

Taken together, these writers transformed Hindi literature into a powerful forum where women were no longer merely characters within a narrative but voices shaping the narrative itself. Their works, spanning generations, chart the gradual but unmistakable emergence of women’s agency in Indian literary and social consciousness.

As we celebrate International Women’s Day, it is worth remembering that long before the language of “empowerment" became fashionable, it was these women writers who quietly began challenging the entrenched structures of patriarchy. Through their poetry, stories, and novels, they brought into the open the silences, anxieties, and aspirations of generations of women. Whether it was Mahadevi Verma exposing the invisible chains of domesticity, Shivani’s heroines asserting their right to dignity, Mannu Bhandari’s women claiming a guilt-free right to happiness, Krishna Sobti confronting social taboos, or writers like Mridula Garg and Geetanjali Shree exploring the complex inner lives of women, each of them expanded the space for women’s agency in Indian literature and society.

Their words did more than tell stories; they unsettled accepted norms, raised uncomfortable questions, and compelled society to rethink its assumptions about women’s roles and rights. On Women’s Day, celebrating women’s achievements also means acknowledging these courageous literary voices who, with nothing but the power of the written word, helped reshape the conversation on dignity, freedom, and equality for women in India.

(Pragati Pandey is a Noida-based freelance writer who writes on books, pop culture, and ideas. Views expressed are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of News18)

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