The study of feminism as a mark of feminist agency is examined across a range of feminist scholarship followed by reflections on the concluding scene of Ashapurna Devis novel in Bangla Pratham Pratisruti and ends with some conclusions based upon ethnographic work on Indian women and inheritance.  The explorations of different sites of fiction and ethnography indicate that individual acts of womens resistance should be kept separate from the systemic changes that organized movements seek to effect. (authors)