This paper analyses the marginality of women as portrayed in Mulk Raj Anand?s Untouchable and Arundhati Roy?s The God of Small Things. It examines how women characters suffer humiliation, depersonalisation, sexual exploitation, and social exclusion under patriarchal, caste-based, and class-driven power structures. Through characters such as Sohini, Mammachi, Ammu, and Rahel, the study highlights gender oppression within family, marriage, religion, and society. Anand depicts the exploitation of low-caste women in a rigid caste hierarchy, while Roy presents the marginalisation of women across generations in a patriarchal social order. The article argues that both novelists expose the hypocrisy of social morality and challenge the unjust systems that sustain female subalternity in Indian society.
Research Scholar, Department of English, Magadh University, Bodh-Gaya
