ABSTRACT
As the discussion of bicultural identity in the diaspora in Chapter 6 alluded, gender is as signifi cant a factor in identity development as culture. It is gender that is the focus of this chapter, which returns specifi cally to the presence of the new Indian girl as she is imagined in novels by Indian women writers: in these texts the girl’s body is validated as a source of power, and thus she embodies new Indian girlhood.
