The Facade of Hegemonic Masculinities in The Dark Holds No Terrors

Written by Shashi Deshpande, The Dark Holds No Terrors is a cornerstone Indian feminist text. It aptly depicts patriarchal edifices, power privilege, and daunting social dimensions of Indian society. It portrays the trauma of Indian middle-class, working individuals who have been ensnared in complex matrices of society and politics. Though it has been criticised harshly, critical analysis of the social structure known as hegemonic masculinity has impacted and examined a variety of sectors in terms of its relevance for the analysis of gender studies and gender relations. This article seeks to discuss vestigial patriarchal structures in India and the relationship between men and women in The Dark Holds No Terrors. This will be approached through R. W. Connell's gender order theory to further explain the classical patriarchal paradigms and veracity of Indian Society.