Abstract: “Sometimes we feel we straddle two cultures; at other times, that we fall between two stools”, as Salman Rushdie believes and is truly applicable to “The Namesake” of Jhumpa Lahiri who corresponds her native Indian culture, specifically her Bengali heritage 13,316 km away in the distant land of the USA. Locating and analysing the interior fabrication of the oppressed and unheard female voice, the prominently expressed internalized sexism and benevolent sexism related to culture, tradition and language is the summum bonum of this study. The cumulative patriarchal pattern to subdue the resonant uniqueness of female identity and familial expectations is an age old conspiracy. “The Namesake” succeeds to project the inner catastrophes of the noticeable characters like Ashima Ganguly and Moushumi Mazoomdar along with the characters like Sonia Ganguly, Maxine Ratliff, Ruth, Lydia Ratcliff and Judy. Regarding rootlessness and cultural identity, the conflict between two terms, gender and sex are more prominent in the character of Ashima as she belongs to a conservative Bengali family where she learns from the household chores like cooking, stitching to Wordsworth. But Moushumi, the wife of Gogol and Ashima’s daughter -in-law is radical. This critical study is a conscious attempt to hear the unheard voices of the women characters against the hostile sexism in the diasporic domain of English literature.

Keywords: Suppressed, native, patriarchal, identity, gender, sex, internalized, benevolent, hostile, sexism, rootlessness, cultural, familial, expectations, conspiracy, diasporic, fabrication, otherness, cumulative.

| DOI: 10.17148/IARJSET.2022.9152