Symbolic Violence and the Domestic Interior: A Critical Study of Social Excommunication in Sudha Murty’s Mahashweta

The contemporary Indian novel serves as a vital record of the shifting parameters of feminine identity, a theme meticulously explored in Sudha Murty’s Mahashweta. This research interrogates the fragile intersection of intellectual agency and patriarchal aesthetic mandates, focusing on the protagonist Anupama’s descent into social ignominy following the onset of leukoderma. By examining the collapse of her marital bond, the study exposes the “transactional” nature of traditional domesticity, where a woman’s existential value is often tethered to her perceived physical “purity” rather than her scholarly achievements. Through a theoretical lens focusing on social stigma and ontological resilience, the paper analyzes Anupama’s transition from a victim of symbolic violence to a vanguard of the “New Woman”. Ultimately, the study posits that Anupama’s reclamation of her identity through Sanskrit pedagogy and her categorical rejection of a dehumanizing marital contract represent a radical rupture in the patriarchal script, advocating for a model of fulfillment grounded in economic independence and psychological sovereignty.