This paper attempts to analyze the struggles the married women undergo to attain their freedom and individuality in the selected short stories in the collection called Arranged Marriage. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni an Indo American writer, has focused the contradictory status of Indian women, who are subjected to all kinds of abuses however, they are worshipped as goddesses. In all the short stories, the protagonists are found as victims. They are suppressed and oppressed in various ways. The male oriented society expects the married woman to unconditionally surrender her identity and be selfless submissive, meek and always dependent on men. The novelist through her work wants to give voice to such unfortunate women. She makes her women characters to question the social conventions and traditions and gives power and courage to over through the old myths and make them to carve an identity of their own.
Key words: Arranged marriage, Patriarchal structure, Marriage bond, Victimization, Pativarta, Transformation, Empowerment and Emergence. They are women in virtue of their anatomy and physiology. Throughout
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Works of most of the authors express their stance towards bringing about social change. Their themes explore the atrocities and maladies women undergo. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is one among such writers. She is an Indo American author. Women occupy the central place in her fictional world. Her works are largely set in India and the United States of America. She is a co- founder of a helpline called MAITRI, (Friendship) to provide legal, emotional and medical help, particularly to the South Asian women, who suffer domestic abuse and violence. Much of her work is partially autobiographical. Her writings are based on her encounters and experiences with suffering women in the organization. It is the fountain head for all the inspiration that, she gets for her