Abstract:

This paper examines the pervasive theme of loneliness and the strategies of emotional survival in Indian women's fiction, tracing its evolution from the psychological explorations of Anita Desai and Shashi Deshpande to contemporary voices such as Banu Mushtaq, Anisha Lalvani, and Alina Gufran. Drawing on feminist and psychoanalytic frameworks, the paper argues that loneliness in this literary tradition functions not merely as a personal emotional state but as a structural condition produced by patriarchal institutions, cultural dislocation, and the psychic costs of negotiating tradition and modernity. The study analyses how women writers depict the manifold manifestations of female isolation—within marriage, family, urban spaces, and diaspora—and the diverse strategies of survival their protagonists employ, ranging from psychic withdrawal and creative expression to small acts of defiance and self-destruction. Special attention is paid to the emergence of Dalit and Muslim women's voices that foreground how caste and religious identity compound the experience of loneliness. The paper concludes that Indian women's fiction offers a vital counter-narrative to romanticised depictions of womanhood, illuminating the quiet, often invisible labour of emotional survival in contexts that systematically deny women autonomous subjectivity.

Keywords:

Loneliness, Emotional Survival, Indian Women's Fiction, Patriarchy, Alienation, Feminist Literary Criticism, Anita Desai, Shashi Deshpande, Banu Mushtaq.

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