Author: Diasha Saha

Abstract: Dominant discourses have often projected disability as a state of corporeal lack or a sentimental spectacle in desperate need of cure or at least, concealment. It is actually founded on certain social dichotomies which try to negate the scope of any enigmatic diversion of the body. The subcontinent’s literary and imaginative archive had frequently framed physical deformities as easy metaphors to exhibit moral frailty, karmic fate or romanticized inspiration, rather than as a lived reality and a political identity. However, recent developments in the field of life writings have paved broader avenues for disabled Indians to portray their unique selfhoods along with sustained attention on issues of infrastructural barriers, attitudinal biases and legal rights. This paper will critically examine two such significant contemporary productions, namely One Little Finger (2011) by Malini Chib and The Other Senses (2012) by Preeti Monga. The authors not only diversify the paradigms of modern, neoliberal lives but also place disability in cultural alignment with other marginalized identities on analogous grounds of vulnerability and dependency- the most crucial being with femininity. They neither euphemistically deny the material pain of disabled people, nor resort to the overly deterministic techniques to represent them as heroic super-crips. This paper will attempt to place the prevalent models of disability studies within the Indian cultural context and assess how the aforesaid narratives navigate through the connected facets between gender and disability, promoting inclusivity and offering revaluation without collapsing into policy pamphlets.

Keywords: Disabled bodies, patriarchal principles, self-representation, socio-cultural inequalities.

Article Info: Received: 10 Mar 2026; Received in revised form: 07 Apr 2026; Accepted: 11 Apr 2026; Available online: 14 Apr 2026

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.112.68