Volume V Issue IV October-December 2025

Name of Author : Dr. Anju Bala

Title of the paper : Feminist Issues in Gita Mehtas A River Sutra

Abstract: The episodic novel A River Sutra by Gita Mehta is a multiplex narration of human desire, spiritual renouncement, and cultural myths which are placed at the sacred river Narmada. This research article discusses the feminist themes that dominate the text in the woven threads of the narratives of nested narratives that Mehta uses to discuss the failed aspects of the patriarchal society of India. Working within the frame story of a male bureaucrat who is also the one who wants to detach, the novel ironically reveals the long term somatic, social, and psychological insecurities of women who are habitually taken via ownership and violence by men. Through close-reading of the diverse paths of female characters such as the daughter of the abducted courtesan, the muse of the visually impaired weaver, the commodified child bride and the liberated minstrel Uma this paper will be arguing that Mehta reveals a tremendous cultural paradox at the same time that the river is called a nurturing Goddess, the historical women have been systematically undermined. The paper will show how Mehta employs the fluid geography of the Narmada to deconstruct the fixed patriarchal formations and how, in the end, female desire and creative expression are not feminine pollutions, but forces that can be used to facilitate the wholesome liberation of humanity and social upheaval.

Keywords : Feminist Dialectics, Patriarchal Deification, Somatic Vulnerability, Sacralized Geography, Gita Mehta.

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Page No. : 45-49