The Female Voice In Chetan Bhagat's One Indian Girl

The narrative of this story is voiced by Rahdhika Mehta, an Indian girl. It follows the flash-back/flash-forward format throughout. It takes place in a urban elite story world, and this setting shifts throughout as Radhika is in a corporate field of career (banker), it takes her to places like New York, Hong Kong, London, etc. The protagonist is suppose to represent ‘the modern Indian woman’ who attempts in excelling at all the aspects of life. Very often the conventional traits such as being a homemaker and marrying at an early age are looked down upon in the book even though it is has been the female’s choice. This perpetuates only a certain type of feminism which isn’t intersectional and all-inclusive. This novel plays largely with the stereotypes that the entire plot is driven by them, making it predictable.

The ways in which Bhagat tries to portray feminism or sexism is very blatant. There is no subtlety in these characteristics. He doesn’t try and incorporate them into the acts and mannerisms but rather puts them in dialogue so as to make it more overtly evident. Considering this is an attempt in feminist writing, this book has more sexist stereotypes pertaining colourism, career choices, marriage choices. A feminist reading into this would have to agree with the fact that a woman is allowed to make her own choices but there is a sense of superiority and inferiority when they talk about her and her sister’s achievements. In addressing stereotypes as well, he doesn’t do a very effective job, most of these are left open-ended. For example, “considering this a county where people burn brides, they did seem like nice people” Something so crucial and critical can not just be brought up in order to serve a purpose. He creates this setting of blatant sexism in order to create a contrast between the protagonist and the other characters who have some or the other sexist traits. For example, “I like the red. But it’s really short. Is it screaming for attention too much? She said.” (Radhika’s sister)The choice of attire is linked with the girl’s intentions. “For a rare breed of girls like me that hates shopping…” stereotypical generalisations which are evident throughout the book are exercised by all of the characters.