Gendered Gazes: Feminist Narratives in Modern South Asian Art and Literature

This paper examines how modern and contemporary South Asian women artists and writers employ feminist narratives to challenge and subvert patriarchal and colonial structures of looking and representation. Moving beyond Laura Mulvey’s foundational concept of the “male gaze,” the analysis explores the complex layering of colonial, nationalist, religious, and caste-based gazes that constrain female subjectivity in the region. Through critical engagement with seminal artworks (by figures such as Amrita Sher-Gil, Nalini Malani, Sheela Gowda, Bani Abidi, and Tayeba Begum Lipi) and literary works (by authors including Ismat Chughtai, Arundhati Roy, Mahasweta Devi, Kamila Shamsie, and Bama Faustina), the paper demonstrates how these creators deploy powerful counter-gazes. These strategies include reclaiming the body and domestic space, centering female subjectivity and desire, rewriting history and myth from feminist perspectives, confronting gendered violence, and articulating intersectional identities. The discussion highlights how these narratives dismantle objectification, assert agency, and create new visual and textual vocabularies for representing women’s experiences. Finally, the paper considers the evolving nature of feminist counter-gazes in the digital age, acknowledging both new platforms for resistance and persistent challenges. Ultimately, it argues that these diverse feminist narratives constitute a transformative project, forging a plurality of gazes essential for envisioning a more equitable South Asian modernity.