Family and Patriarchy

Indian culture is deeply patriarchal and even more so in the 1930s while the country was still ruled by the British. Family history and standards are carried down by sons, highlighted in the novel as a perpetual connection between the son and the father. The first introduction of Bakha to the reader focuses more on Lakha and his social position. For example, Bakha is described as “able-bodied, the son of Lakha, the Jemadar of all the sweepers in the town and the cantonment, and officially in charge of the three rows of public latrines which lined the extremest end of the colony, by the brook-side” (9). Caste is inherited at birth, through one’s father, and so each man in the novel is also introduced with his relation to his father. Bakha’s closest friends, Ram Charan and Chota are introduced with their castes at...