QUEST FOR IDENTITY AND SURVIVAL: A STUDY OF MANJU KAPUR’S HOME.

“One is not born, but rather becomes woman. No biological, psychological or economic fate determines the figure that the female presents in a society, it is civilization as a whole that produces this creature... which is described as feminine”(Simone de Beauvoir, 1983:16) Manju Kapur’s Home explores the complex terrain of the Indian family and reveals many issues that are deep rooted within the family – the revolt against the age-old traditions, quest for identity, the problems of marriage; and lastly the women’s struggle for her survival. Unlike Shobha De’s women, who are quite dreamy and who run after Hollywood and Bollywood, Manju Kapur’s protagonist in the present novel lives within the sphere of reality and successfully finds her ‘Home’. The novel presents Manju Kapur’s understanding of human characters and her maturity as a novelist. In this context Anupama Chowdhury observes: Home reveals a disturbing home truth that joint families cab both destroy and preserve our maturity, individuality and mental progress” (2008:33). The present paper intents to study the protagonist Nisha’s quest for identity and survival. Nisha refuses to reconcile with the patriarchal and male governed society and tries to establish her own individual identity.Since the establishment of the society, woman is stamped as the weaker sex, denied full justice, social security, economic liberation, and political awareness. In this context, Simone De Beauvoir comments: “The situation of woman is that she – a free and autonomous being like all creatures- nevertheless finds herself living in a world where men compel her to assume the status of the other ” (1986:167). But the Women Liberation Movement of 1960’s helped women to think over their condition and treatment of equality along with men. Manju Kapur’s Home encapsulates the idea of women’s liberation and the protagonist Nisha emerges as a new woman in the novel. Earlier in various socio-cultural situations, women were discriminate