Which are our novels that give us the sense of birth of a country? I find most such novels have women at the centre. Sometimes she is a 'fallen' woman (as in Umrao Jan), sometimes she is a slave (not just hidden behind purdah, but locked up in castles as well), or subservient in love. The oppressed woman frequently appears as a heroine in what appears to be a national allegory, to borrow Fredrick Jameso's term. When the novel and the country were born together, in India, the focus became the woman's freedom. The crucial texts are not those like Pariksha Guru which depict contemporary social reality directly, but those texts where truth and delusion coalesce, facts and desires get interwoven sometimes in dreams - and most of these happen to be love stories. These are imaginative creations, not imitations of some other model. Such novels have remained neglected by and large, because our approach has remained technical. We did not talk about the form of the content or the content of the form.

The identification of such neglected novels and tracing their trajectory can be a process of intellectual liberation for us. In this year 2000, seen by many as the beginning of a new millennium, we must start looking at the history of the novel in India in our own terms.

According to the author when the novel and the Country were born together ______ became the prime focus of India.

The woman's freedom

The correct answer is Option (3) - The woman's freedom