IQR Journal of Literature and Linguistics
Volume 1, Issue 1, Sept 2025
Cultural Constraints in Modern Indian Fiction
Syed Shafi. Tajamul Ahmed, Naveen Kumar
Abstract
Modern Indian fiction is interlaced with various literary dimensions ranging from tensions between modernity and tradition, social obligation, cultural continuity, individual freedom, caste hierarchies and transformation. This study seeks to understand the concept of cultural constraints as represented in traditional and modern literature. It delves into the core elements of cultural constraints from gender roles to colonial legacies and how such elements evolve and alter the contemporary narrative styles and approaches to writing fiction. The paper focuses on works of Arundhati Roy, Anita Desai, Jhumpa Lahiri, and other Indian origin writers. It depicts characters drawn from selected works and analyzes how deeply such identities impact social cultural freedom and limitations It also seeks to understand the concepts of diasporic struggle. social burden, emotional intelligence, generational conflicts and other literary aspects, and how such literary themes define, redefine, and restrict and set free the Indian subjective. Ultimately paper argues that the negotiations of cultural constraints are integral to modern Indian literature and it has a big role in transforming socio cultural landscape.
Keywords
Cultural Constraints, Modern Indian Fiction, Indian English Literature, Cultural Identity, Cultural Freedom
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