ABSTRACT
‘The Offspring’ (1999) by Indira Goswami critiques some cruder and darker realities of the Assamese society which leans on rigid definitions of purity and austerity in terms of caste, class and morality. The chapter is based on the story in an English translation made by the author herself from original Assamese title ‘Xanskar’ which appeared first in a special edition, Katha: Imaging the Other (1999). This chapter examines how the writer debunks the myth of patriarchy by recreating a rebellious character Damayanti who deliberately acts to show her resistance against patriarchal mores institutionalized in her society. The theme of male desire and aspiration for an offspring finds its reflection in the story. Damayanti who was treated as a commodity, an object of sexual pleasure and as a means of acquiring an offspring to keep the family line of Pitambar alive, powerfully subverted male hegemony. She was successful in breaking free of the normative notion that the female body is a site to be guided and controlled by hegemonic power of patriarchy.
