Reconfiguring Family and Gender in Postcolonial India: A Study of Manju Kapur’s Home

Abstract

This paper explores the transformation of family structures and gender roles in post-Independence India through Manju Kapur’s novel Home (2006). Situating the novel within a postcolonial feminist framework, the essay examines how the Indian joint familyonce a cornerstone of cultural identitybecomes both a sanctuary and a site of patriarchal control. The paper interrogates the intersection of modernity, tradition, caste, and class in shaping female subjectivity, particularly through the experiences of Sona and Nisha. Drawing on Kapur’s use of silences, trauma, and resistance, the study illuminates the subtle yet profound ways in which women contest, adapt to, and are constrained by familial expectations. By focusing on the everyday life of a Delhi-based middle-class family, Kapur’s Home offers a critical narrative of how nationhood and domesticity co-construct each other in postcolonial India.