Gender Issues in Mahesh Dattani’s Tara

الملخص

‘Gender Issues in Mahesh Dattani’s Tara’ exhibits a shocking account of the gender bias in the form of deep-rooted prejudice and discrimination that exists in Indian society against the girl child. It is a shocking pointer to the patriarchal Indian society’s age-old bias against the girl child and its favoring and giving preference to whatever is ‘male’. It also focuses on the family as a microcosm of society where individuals are socialized to accept certain gendered roles and to give preference to what is ‘male’. The article explores how an individual falls an easy victim to the powers of patriarchy and how his life is painfully crushed between the two colliding forces of the family on the one hand, and that of patriarchy, on the other hand. Along with exposing the modern educated urban Indian family’s adherence to the conventional attitude of favoring anything that is masculine, it also portrays the corruption prevalent in the bureaucratic society and the ethical deterioration of the medical profession.