MOTHER DAUGHTER CONFLICTIN DIFFICUL T DAUGHTERS

Manju Kapur's novel Difficult Daughters is a story of a daughter's journey back into her mother's painful past. It spans the genres of fiction and history and falters in both. In the beginning, Ida, the narrator and daughter of protagonist, trying to reclaim her mother's secret life, turns out to be main story. Difficult Daughters was the outcome of her own conflict with her mother Virmati and Virmati with her mother Kasturi. Set in the pre-independence era, the novel traces the story of Virmati, the daughter of well-todo Arya Samaji Brahmin parents. Virmati's entire life is a battle against tradition, against her parents and against the inevitable end of a girl's life-marriage. Her progress parallels the new-found freedoms of educated Indian women, but double standards prevail, increasing awareness of the ties that bind. This paper brings out the mother – daughter conflicts in the novel.