Books have a great impact on the society today. Words are a powerful medium to deliver ideas, emotions, or rather anything. The women of the society are voicing their opinions, having a visible impact on the society.

The authors of today, especially women, have been at a constant effort to voice their feelings in a way that change the perspective of the reader. Some of the great books written by women authors of India are listed below.

The Inheritance of Loss – Kiran Desai

The Inheritance of Loss is the second novel by the Indian author Kiran Desai published in the year 2006. The book was a major success and appreciated worldwide. Apart from the themes like migration, the difficulty of life in the past and the struggles to live, the main theme of the book is basically related to colonialism and the many effects of post-colonialism.

The plot of the book involves two main characters. One of the two characters, Biju, is an illegal immigrant in the US and Sai is an Indian girl trying be more like the British. The author efficiently describes the hardships faced by Indians. Some leading Indians had grown used to the British ways, neglecting traditional values hence, losing their true identity. The plot also shows characters with hatred and anger for the English Indians guilty of not valuing Indian traditions. The author remarkably succeeded in covering the true picture of Indians post-colonialism.

The book won international awards like the Man price and National book critics circle fiction award for years 2006 and 2007 respectively.

Interpreter of Maladies – Jhumpa Lahiri

The Interpreter of Maladies is a book collection of nine stories by the Indian-American author Jhumpa Lahiri published in 1999. The book is about the change that the Indians had to face at that time. It was a time of rapid growth and change which Indians found difficult to adapt to.

The title “Interpreter of Maladies” has accustomed meaning. A Malady can be a disease or an illness, hence “Interpreter of Maladies” is someone who can annotate someone else’s illness or pain. The stories are in the third-person narrative. The excellent narration makes this collection of stories exceptional.

The book won various awards like the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the Hemingway Foundation or the PEN award in the year 2000. The book was a great hit and sold a whopping 15 million copies worldwide.

The Twentieth Wife – Indu Sundaresan

The Twentieth Wife was author Indu Sundaresan’s first novel published in 2002. It is the first book of the Taj Mahal Trilogy. The book is about a young widow Mehrunnsia. Mehrunnsia was a daughter of some Perisian Refugee and was married to an Afghan commander. The books is about the real story of how Mehrunnsia became the queen of the Mughal Empire. We all know her by the name of Nur Jahan. Nur Jahan is famously known for her love for the Mughal Emperor Jahangir and all the obstacles she had to go through to marry him.

The book is about love and seductive ways of the Mughals, about the fantasies and romances, about obstacles and struggles, about politics and power struggles but the one element that is constant throughout this book is Nur Jahan’s search for love. The overall depiction by the author Indu Sundaresan is seamless and fascinating.

The author won the Washington state book award for this book in 2003.

Arranged Marriage – Chitra Divakaruni

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an Indian-American author and poet and professor of creative writing. Her book “Arranged marriage” is a series of very interesting short stories. She has tried to scrutinize lives of women with traditional values and their thirst for worthier life in America. Traditional values and beliefs act like an anchor making us feel tied down. The book shows us how difficult it can be for women to break loose of these chains and encroach the stereotypes. Basically, the book is meant to dazzle the sufferings of women to cut past the hindrance caused by the new and changing American culture.

“Arranged marriage” won Awards like the American book award and bay area Reviewer award.

The Thousand Faces of Night – Gita Hariharan

“The Thousand Face of Night” was the Debut novel of author Gita Hariharan. This book portrays the single face of a thousand lives. It is a feminist book, written from a definite female point of view.

Devi returns to India with an American degree and now she is sucked in the demands of her mother. She gets married but her marriage fails when her husband leaves her. The story is a detailed tale of Indian women caught up in gray costumes and ideology. This book was a brilliant breakthrough in the field of women empowerment and awareness. The message from the book was well received and appreciated widely.

The book was published on 1992 and won the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize in 1993.

Rich Like Us – Nayantara Sahgal

“Rich Like Us” is a fiction novel based on the historical and political matters in India post-independence and in mid-1970s. The plot is based in New Delhi and portrays two women, Rose and Sonali, who are facing problems because of the political instability.

Rose is a British immigrant who marries an upper caste Indian, Ram, who is a paramount businessman. Her struggles to learn and understand Indian way of living, customs and traditions can be effectively depicted in the novel. Indian culture being very different from her own, it is conclusive that Rose strived to understand the female character in India. Sonali, on the other hand, is a educated civil servant who helps rose when her husband dies. The picture of India during the historical period can be understood and envisioned closely while reading the book.

This book won the author Nayantara Sahgal Sahitya Akademi Award for best novel in 1986.

That Long Silence – Shashi Deshpande

“That long Silence” is a classic portrayal of the hardships faced by women in a middle class marriage in India. Originally published in 1988, this novel by Shashi Deshpande has a very interesting plot which portrays a family living in a small rural flat in Mumbai.

Jaya, the protagonist, struggles to run the house on her own with an unemployed husband and two underachieving children.

Jaya herself is a failed writer and the memories from her childhood haunt her. The story explains the title very tactfully and is a great novel to read.

Shashi Deshpande won the Sahitya Akademi Award for “That long Silence” in 1990 and Padma Shri in 2009.

The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy made her debut as a write with “The God of Small Things” in 1996. The plot is about two fraternal twins who get separated at a young age and reunite later when they are adults. Horrid incidents and family tensions is the reason for their separation. The characters are related and presented in a very distinct way. The descriptions of the characters and their individual lives is of great interest making the book appealing to the reader. The author has created her own version on Tamil-English which adds up to the overall grandeur of the book.

Arundhati Roy won the Booker Prize for this book in 1997.

Nectar in a Sieve – Kamala Markandaya

It is a 1954 novel by the author Kamala Markandaya. The book is about woman named Rukmani and her child marriage with a farmer named Nathan Back in the time of rapid urbanisation in India. The narration is in first person by Rukmani who tells the rough story of her life.

The plot of the story is grief-stricken and doubtlessly is apt to make the reader feel the lifelong traumas faced my Rukmani and the distasteful turn of events. Life doesn’t ease up on Rukmani despite her many true efforts as a wife and a mother. She brave-heartedly accepts all the challenges in her life and continues to take care of her family. It is heart-touching novel written flawlessly and with great attention to detail.

Lifting the Veil – Ismat Chughtai

Ismat Chughtai majored in Urdu style of writing. Popularly known for her strong use of vocabulary, Ismat Chughtai was known to be a hard-working yet controversial woman writer of the 19th century. “Lifting the Veil” is a book that comprises of short stories, each one beautifully written with an eye for detail. In a time when talking about sexuality was a taboo in the conservative Indian society, Ismat Chughtai wrote about sexuality bodaciously. Unbelievably frank for the time, the very open nature of the stories raised many eyebrows but the book was well received and till date, “Lifting the Veil” is known to be a marvelous Online Book Rental Library. Only if there were more writers like Ismat Chughtai at that time, the complicated India society and culture would’ve been easier to understand and point out the flaws in the basic ideology.

These books are milestones, in the way to rise of Indian authors. I feel every woman has the need to read these in order to understand the Indian society. Amazing books that will leave you having an amazing experience.