Sukanya Ray
Volume-XIV, Issue-III, April 2026
Volume-XIV, Issue-III, April 2026 | ||
Received: 24.04.2026 | Accepted: 27.04.2026 | |||
Published Online: 30.04.2026 | Page No: | |||
DOI: 10.64031/pratidhwanitheecho.vol.14.issue.03W. | ||||
Fragmented Bodies,
Fragmented Identities: Gendered Disability in Mahesh Dattani’s Tara
Dr. Sukanya Ray, Assistant Professor of English, Kabi Joydeb Mahavidyalaya,
Illambazar, Birbhum, West Bengal, India | |
This paper examines Mahesh Dattani’s Tara
as a site of intersectionality between gender and disability. The titular
protagonist’s body is not only a physically disabled one but the battered
remnants of social injustices and prejudices meted out to the female. By
examining the partisan surgical separation, the paper questions the patriarchal
manoeuvrings that govern natural determinism to perpetuate cultural hegemony.
The surgery acts as a metaphor for the fragmentation of human souls depriving
humanity from a composite identity, rendering them deficit by prioritizing
masculinity and repressing femininity. Chandan is unable to retain the leg and
is a cripple too but naturally privileged due to his sex, his handicap is
lesser in comparison to his sister. Disability and gender work in tandem to
doubly marginalize Tara. Her disabled body is the battleground where
patriarchal mutilations, clinical corruptions and familial expectations are
contested, leading to Tara’s untimely demise. Tara’s death is more tragic than
pathetic since a conspiracy by her nearest ones caused her impairment, not
nature. Chandan writes their story, naming it as ‘Twinkle Tara’ but ends
up writing his own tragedy. Dattani being a man, writes Tara, so of
course, the narrative could never be unbiased, Tara remains perpetually unrepresented
and unwritten. Using Feminism and Disability Studies, the paper spotlights the
nexus between gender and disability and explore how these intersect to cause
the compounded marginalization of the female sex. | |
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