Importance of stroke

The author uses a stroke as the method in which Mir Nihal faces his greatest challenge and change. As Mir Nihal prays one evening, he falls over and is unable to move or speak. Doctors are brought in to declare that he has had a paralytic stroke. This forces him to remain bedridden as he watches the rest of the world carry on without him. This is metaphoric for the helplessness that many Indians feel since the British have taken over and left them with very little of their past culture.