Shame

In the novel Shame by Salman Rushdie, the character Sufiya Sinobia depicts the shame of Pakistan by demonstrating the inferiority of women to men in the aspect as a whole as well as based on their intelligence. From the moment Sufiya Sinobia was born, she was the shame of her family simply based upon the fact that she was a female. Her parents were expecting a recarnation of the boy they had lost and when they had Sufiya their response was, “Is that all, my God, So much huffery and puffery to push out only this mouse” (Rushdie 88) this further demonstrated Sufiya’s inferiority in the eyes of Pakistani parents. According to McLeod, women have the power of childbirth, but in Pakistan childbirth is only honored and appreciated when a boy is born. Sufiya’s own father denied her gender when she was born stating, “Mistakes are often made!” (Rushdie 88). It’s disheartening to read but from the moment Sufiya took her first breath she was the shame and denied by the very parents that should care for her. Sufiya also embodies the inferiority of women to men based upon intelligence. Sufiya becomes ill with a fever which eventually makes her mentally retarded.  In response to this defect her mother feels she has shamed her husband, “he wanted a hero of a son; I gave him an idiot female instead” (Rushdie, 101). Women throughout Pakistan are persecuted for the simplest fact of being a woman. They are not respected nor thought of as intelligent in any aspect. The only thing a woman is seen worthy of is sexual fulfillment. These ideals are not secluded to just Pakistan, they are seen through the eyes of men throughout India.

Notes- For this blog post, I tried to have a stronger for concise thesis statement to better set up the rest of my paragraph. I tried also to stick to one general idea and not bounce from idea to idea. 

Women in Pakistan

A major theme I discussed for Shame was the inferiority of women in Pakistan. Women in Pakistan face a lot of turmoil much worse than that of Sufiya. There are immense amounts of violent and sexual crimes against Pakistani women. The most common crimes are
The crime categories include honour killing, forced marriage, offenses relating to marriage, rape, attack on modesty and insult of modesty through word, gesture or act. I was shocked to find that martial rape is not even recognized in Pakistani Law nor is domestic violence explicitly prohibited .

Crimes Increase Against Pakistani Women

Although women do still face crime and violence, there have strives of improvement. There are some women present in political parties and activism. 

This photo is of Naela Chohan, who is an Ambassador of Pakistan as well as a feminist artist.

Cracking India

In the book Cracking India by Bapsi Sidhwa uses the narration of Lenny to capture the idea of nationalism and an imagined political community. In the book Cracking India it is apparent that the sense of community is imagined. The characters of the book all come together as a community, but in reality look down upon each other for their differences. Lenny describes the people of her community saying, "One day everybody is themselves and the next they are Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian. People shrink, dwindling into symbols."(101) And rather than come together as one symbol of nationalism they are each separated into their own. As the book goes on more and more lines are drawn between the different religions. The Queen's garden goes from a community into separate cliché. Lenny notices the change herself but can't define what it is or where her community went "..There is a subtle change in the Queen's Garden "(104).The characters continue to go to the Garden despite the change, to have that imaginary sense of community, but is it really there? Lenny's life is also very confined to a select few people and a select few streets. When she ventures from this, it is obvious she feels out of her element and out of her comfort zone of the safety of her community. Lenny says, "My world is compressed" which is true to a community, people stay where they know and don't like the mysteries of the unknown. I believe all this captures what McLeod was trying to get across that people like to have a sense of community even if it is imagined. People need to feel that sense of belonging. Lenny feels like she belongs in her small community despite their differences and their hidden animosity towards each other, they still in a sense are their own community. 

Religious Intolerance

A major theme in the novel Cracking India is religious differences and intolerance. Each characters comes from different religious backgrounds and it is because of that the Queen Garden loses its sense of community. It is because of religion that there are fights of physical and verbal matter between characters and why friendships are lost. 

Religious Persecution in Pakistan I found this article while searching for religious intolerance in Pakistan, and even today there is an extreme intolerance of religious differences. 

• Muslims: 175,376,000
• Sunni Muslims: 80%
• Shia Muslims: 20%
• Ahmadi : 2,000,000
• Hindus: 3,200,000
• Christians: 2,800,000
• Bahá'í Faith: 30,000 - 78,000
• Sikhs: 20,000
• Zoroastrian/Parsis: 20,000
• Buddhism: 70,000
• Other (included Animists, Atheists, Jews, etc: unknown  

Above is a list of the religions in Pakistan, those that don't fit under the category of Muslim are under the most persecution. The Muslims are intolerant to the minority religions.   

 

 Lastly, I wanted to add a video of important scenes from the book Cracking India, and that also illustrate some of the acts due to religious intolerance. 

The Overland Mail

 "let the tiger turn tail--
In the Name of the Empress, the Overland Mail!"

In the poem “Overland Mail” the subject matter of mail delivery is significant because it’s the only thing they have that can be called their own. The author Kipling describes the letters by stating, “We are exiles waiting for our letters from Home”, home is such a powerful word and in this instance I feel like Home is more than a physical place it’s a place of being which is completely mental, a place that cannot be overpowered.

The runner in the poem also depicts colonial mimicry by breaking the mold of how colonial powers would like to envision or portray the natives and embracing a true Indian man. Kipling describes the runner with phrasing like “O Lord of the Jungle” and “...Soft sandaled feet, strains the brawny brown chest.” Reading this poem I can picture the scene, the man, and his journey.

This can be threatening to colonial authority because it goes against how they try to portray the natives. Through artwork and texts they show the Indian males as feminine and this poem shows an Indian man as strong, and determined as he makes his way through the Jungle not for a colonial power but “In the name of the Empress of India.”

Despite Kipling’s use of colonial mimicry, the poem still shows the struggle. Kipling uses the imagery of hills and cliffs throughout the poem which to me is showing the runner’s effort to overcome.

This poem is  to illustrate the postal service that has been in India since the thirteenth century. The runners were referred to as dak runner which in Hindi Dak means post or mail. While running through the jungles the runner would light twigs to guide his way.
The runners faced many hardships and dangers such as, wild animals, bandits, swollen rivers and snow-capped mountains. They carried a stick and a spear for protection, but that did not provide much. Today runners are still used in some parts of the country where wheeled traffic is not possible. The photo above is entitled "A road in the Jungle" and it what I imagined when I pictured the runner in the jungle. The poem was written to echo the rhythm the Calvary Horses in the song "Parade Song of the Camp Animals" from the Jungle Book.

 This video comes from Disney's take on the Jungle Book and a similar song to the Calvary Horses which inspired the rhythm to the poem. Just as in the poem, Mowgli depicts orientalism. Showing an Indian man or in the Jungle Book's case a child in a simple cloth and illustrating him as less intelligent and controllable.