You Better Not Never Tell Nobody but God: A Study of Sidhwa’s Fiction from Feminist Perspective

The feminists have particularly pointed out the issue of silencing women. The epigraphs in Walker (30, 2004) 'you better not never tell nobody but God' and Sidhwa (1989) reflect the silencing of women as it has been the norm that women's experiences are individual, not political. Sidhwa following Beauvoir (1983) that personal is political, covertly or overtly, uncovers the atrocities being inflicted on women of the subcontinent by patriarchy to engender them voiceless through various assumptions and ideologies. To this end, three novels, Water, The Bride, and Ice-Candy-Man have been analyzed to develop an idea of the tools which are employed to force women not to disclose personal experiences. For analysis of the texts, the ideas of different postcolonial feminists have been applied. The study shows that women remain silent in social and domestic matters. They docilely bear quandary and molestation as 'icons of honor' in idyllic as well as sadistic circumstances. They do not share their defilement as they are conditioned that silence is the only asylum for them. Sidhwa as a harbinger of the voice of women of the subcontinent has demystified the essentials of patriarchy as a firsthand witness of their silencing and subjugation.