Motherhood

Throughout The Bandit Queens, Shroff thematically inspects motherhood. At the outset of the novel, Priya, Preity, and Saloni vocalize their frustrations with their children who “keep getting more expensive” (5). However, while each woman makes an aside about their child “crying all the time” or eating more food than they can afford, they follow the statement with negating caveats (5). Priya avers that “there’s no better blessing than a son” and they mutter about “the joys of motherhood” (5). The author enacts this scene in order to demonstrate the social conflation of motherhood and womanhood that leads the women to silence their frustrations. Preity, Priya, and Saloni are sure to follow their complaints with comments about their happiness as mothers because they know they will be considered dishonorable or bad women.

Shroff continues to inspect motherhood, in Chapter 7, when Karem asks Geeta if she wanted children. The protagonist...