heat and dust

Roles of Women

Heat and Dust

By Jude Bashto

Heat and Dust is an enchanting novel written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, a distinguished novelist and screenwriter. The novel mainly explores the cultural shock that the narrator experiences while comparing it to the shock experienced by her step-grandmother some 25 years earlier. During the course of the novel the narrator continues to retrace her step-grandmother’s steps, and while doing so we find her following the same path and ultimately making the same, or extremely similar, choices. You see the narrator, a young girl from England, is intrigued by the enigma of her step-grandmother Olivia’s scandal, this scandal being the fact that she abandoned her British husband, choosing to run off with an Indian prince instead. In addition to comparing the narrator’s experiences with her step-grandmother’s, the novel also touches upon the differences between modern-day India and the India in which Olivia lived. This essay aims to explore the role of women in both the British and Indian societies, in addition to the roles of women back then and the roles of women nowadays.
The two women who’s personalities the novel delved into were Olivia and the narrator, both of whom were British women who migrated to India later in their life. However the main distinction between both characters is that Olivia was forced to go to India due to her husband’s job, while the narrator did it out of her own free will. This is a key point when comparing between the roles of women in different times since if Olivia were to do as the narrator by travelling unaccompanied she would be ridiculed and her actions generally frowned upon. This goes to show that by time, women gained more independency.
Several British-born individuals throughout the novel reported having been disappointed in life in India, however none can be as disappointed as Olivia, who’s life only became duller and more tedious, mainly because she had nothing to do since she couldn’t go out to the market, nor could she busy herself with chores (since her servants did pretty much everything for her). This contrasts heavily with the several locations and public markets that constituted the narrator’s experience in India. This exemplifies the liberation of women throughout the years, where they were given more freedom, rights, and responsibilities. Although this phenomenon is celebrated around the world there exists certain societies that oppose it and therefore oppress the few individuals that supported it.
For the most part, the women observed in the novel had no responsibilities, save for the wife of Inder Lal, whose family pretty much constituted a full-time job. On the other hand, the women in the upper echelons of society, of which the bureaucrats and their wives were a big part, had little to no responsibilities since their wealth allowed them to hire servants. And so, the social norm therefore dictates that they must spend their time gossiping over a cup of tea while occasionally attending some ball or banquet held by another high-ranking wealthy individual. This contrasts heavily with modern-day societies where most women choose to –and are at times forced- to have a job, and banquets and balls aren’t held as often as they once were.
However feminist this novel may seem with its portrayal of women and tracing of the liberation of womanhood, it didn’t fail to include a somewhat noticeable degree of sexism by involving both the narrator and Olivia in sexual affairs with married men, making them seem both promiscuous and cruel for robbing a woman of her husband’s affection. This particular role women seem to take in every love affair has not changed for the better, where in every relationship the female counterpart is viewed as the “evil” side which leads males into ruin. This same story can be traced as far back as Marc Antony and Cleopatra, even Adam and Eve.
The ending of the story exemplifies another major transition of women’s rights, especially the right to keep a illegitimate child. For one, the Nawab’s mother arranged an abortion for Olivia’s child, since it would cause quite a scandal for the Nawab’s family if people were to find out. Olivia didn’t have a say in this, which goes to show how powerless women were, even regarding their own body and child. However the narrator who was pregnant with Inder Lal’s child chose to give birth to her child, and was not forced to abort it. This evolution of women’s rights may seem encouraging however it does not portray the evolution of womens rights everywhere, since the concept of forcing a woman to give up her child still exists, some cultures even went beyond that, committing such atrocities as honour crimes, even seeing these crimes as an outstanding achievement that a man should be proud of.
All in all, “Heat and Dust” truly portrays the evolution of feminism in most societies, though sadly not in some societies we may or may not be living in. But as females are beginning to play a bigger role in society, their responsibilities are increasing as well. Hopefully there will come a day when no woman is forced to abort her child as Olivia was.