Clear Light of Day

Chapter 3 encourages a closer look at gender and class. As Raja grows older and is afforded access to activities outside the home, Tara and Bim become more aware of the restrictions placed on girls and women in their society. When Aunt Mira asks the Das children what they want to be when they grow up, Bim declares that, like her brother Raja, she wants to be a hero, but the narrator notes that ”she would secretly have preferred to be a “gipsy or a trapeze artists in a circus” (116). Even in rebelling against societal expectations of women, she is following her brother’s lead. Still, she chafes against his gendered assumptions. When he brings home books of boyish adventure for himself and romance for his sisters from the stall in town to which the girls do not have access, she wishes instead to read heavier tomes such as Gibbon’s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Bim rejects Tara’s conventional desire to become a wife and mother, choosing instead to become what would be called a “New Indian Woman” and embracing the opportunities of education and financial independence forged by First Wave Feminists like Virginia Woolf.

Tara and Aunt Mira are shown to be two sides of the same vulnerable coin. Mira follows the more traditional path of the Hindu Indian woman. She marries at the very young age of 12 and is sent to live with her husband’s family while he pursues his studies in England. Once he dies her status plummets, for she is now a widow and deemed a harbinger of bad luck for the family, perhaps even responsible for her husband’s death. She must wear a white sari for the remainder of her life as a mark of her perceived “lowly” status. This can be seen when she refuses to wear the sash that was part of her dowry, as it has a crimson design. Serving as a nanny for the children of her wealthier relative is a step up in society, and one which the caring and maternal Mira embraces. In the context of her life, Mira’s alcohol addiction reads as a manifestation of Trauma, Memory, and Silence—a way to silence her traumatic memories and thus a self-protective measure, though it eventually kills her. Tara, while more modern and privileged than her aunt, still chooses to follow the conventional life of mother and wife. She hopes to improve her situation by marrying Bakul and leaving the family home, where she was neglected by her parents and treated cruelly at times by her sister and classmates. Though her mother appears on the surface to have followed the same conventional path, she does not provide a good role model. She neglects her children, too absorbed in her own pleasures with her friends at the club, or later with her own experience with diabetes.

In order for Bim to achieve her dreams of independence, not only must she achieve an advanced education, but she must also remain unmarried. She is fortunate that her family is financially comfortable and socially liberal enough to allow their daughters to pursue a higher education. She rejects marriage to a kind and cultured young doctor, perhaps seeing a nightmare vision of her own future in his mother, who appeared at their meeting “so bathed, so powdered,” surrounded by cabinets full of miscellaneous bric-à-brac, asking questions about the number of servants in Brim’s household (94). She cannot understand why the Misra sisters are so anxious to be married, insisting to Tara that they should instead pursue an education. Tara asks her why, to which Bim replies “darkly” and “mysteriously,” “because they might find marriage isn’t enough to last them the whole of their lives” (143). However, she adds that she will never leave her family, suggesting that perhaps the doctor was right in telling Bim that she wanted to sacrifice herself for her family. Bim’s ambivalence is on display here, for how could she lead a life of independence and fulfillment if she planned on never engaging with the wider world? At this moment, Tara must look away because she is worried that her willingness to leave her family for her own fulfillment will be revealed to her sister as a form of selfishness. While Bim and Tara appear on the surface to embody a dichotomy between modern and conventional women, the relationship is more complex and inter-connected.

Class is also a focus of this section of the novel, with Aunt Mira’s lack of money making her even more vulnerable to the caprices of her husband’s family, for whom she performs unpaid work for room and board. As members of the middle class, the Das sisters are cushioned from relying on others for their sustenance. Their position in society also allows them access to an education, which Bim believes is key to the emancipation of women. It is ironic, however, that her education binds her to her family, who depend on her salary to pay for the rent and food. While Tara lives a freer life, she does depend on the finances and approval of her husband. The Hyder Ali family is wealthy, owning several houses in the neighborhood, including the one which the Das family rents from them, and which Raja inherits. While their wealth can help them escape from the building violence in the Punjab region, it cannot entirely protect them when communal violence finally erupts. They must remain in hiding in Hyderabad, and they have left behind many of their valuable belongings, including Benazir’s gramophone and the family dog. Bim incorporates both of these items into the Das family home, and they symbolize the many riches left behind by families fleeing their homes on either side of the Partition.