Partitioned Sisterhood: Gendered Independence in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's Fiction

This paper examines the representation of gendered independence and female solidarity in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's fiction, with primary attention to The Mistress of Spices (1997), Sister of My Heart (1999), and The Vine of Desire (2002). Drawing on feminist literary theory, postcolonial criticism, and diaspora studies, the paper argues that Divakaruni's narratives construct a complex, often contradictory 'partitioned sisterhood'—a form of female solidarity that is simultaneously enabling and limiting, forged in the crucible of patriarchal constraint but fractured by class, desire, geography, and cultural dislocation. The paper traces how Divakaruni's women protagonists negotiate independence not through straightforward liberation but through a series of painful, partial, and ongoing negotiations with tradition, community, and selfhood. The analysis also situates Divakaruni's project within the broader landscape of South Asian diaspora literature and its engagement with feminist politics.