Thematic Study of Manju Kapur's Difficult Daughter

Set up against the backdrop of 1940's a time when India's struggle for freedom was in its full swing. The novelist, Manju Kapur successfully presents different shades of life, painted on the canvas of Difficult Daughters. The novel has many strands with different hues e.g. woman emancipation, love, marriage, war etc. woven together in the smooth and soft textured fabric of Difficult Daughters. With all its lucidity in language, the novel, through the upheavals in the life of the protagonist, conflicts of mindsets and values and the relationship of one character to another bring into light several issues of the time like condition of woman, gradual disintegration of joint family system, impact of Western culture on Indian mind, transition from Indenisation to westernization which further agravated the problem of married life. Education, especially for women, and also some of stalk realities related to marriage and partition.