Gender, Caste, and the Widows’ Body inBharti Mukherji's Jasmine

Abstract

This study examines the intersection of gender, caste, and the politics of the widow's body in Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee. The novel portrays the life of Jasmine, a young Indian woman whose identity is shaped and reshaped through migration, violence, and cultural transformation. Within the traditional Indian patriarchal framework, widowhood functions as a social institution that disciplines and controls female bodies through religious, cultural, and caste-based norms. After the death of her husband Prakash, Jasmine confronts the restrictive expectations imposed upon widows, including self-denial, social exclusion, and the erasure of personal agency. Mukherjee challenges these conventions by presenting a protagonist who refuses to remain confined within the prescribed role of a widow. Instead, Jasmine reconstructs her identity through mobility, resistance, and self-determination. The novel further reveals how caste and patriarchal ideologies operate together to regulate women's lives and bodies. Jasmine's transformation from a submissive village girl into an independent transnational subject symbolizes a rejection of traditional structures that define women primarily through marriage and widowhood. Through feminist and postcolonial perspectives, the study argues that the widow's body becomes a contested site where issues of gender oppression, caste hierarchy, cultural identity, and personal freedom intersect. Mukherjee's narrative ultimately reimagines widowhood not as a state of social death but as an opportunity for self-renewal and empowerment. The novel thus critiques oppressive social traditions while highlighting the possibility of agency and identity reconstruction for women in both Indian and diasporic contexts.