49 pages • 1 hour read
Balli Kaur JaswalErotic Stories for Punjabi Widows
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Challenges of a Hybrid Identity
From the opening chapter of the novel, Nikki introduces the concept of the “East-West Mix” (1, 3) as part of The Challenges of a Hybrid Identity. For the modern and self-proclaimed feminist Nikki, at least initially, this concept is a point of criticism; she accuses both her mother and her sister of mixing of cultures, which is something she looks down on. Over the course of the novel, however, Nikki comes to accept that she too is a blend of cultures—a person with a hybrid identity. Denying part of herself, namely her Indian Sikh heritage, leaves Nikki unmoored and rootless; postcolonial theory refers to this phenomenon as deracination. It is only after Nikki has spent time immersed in Southall that she begins to rejoin her split selves into a hybrid whole and, in turn, gains the self-acceptance to follow her dreams and fall in love.
Although Nikki is not ashamed of her Indian heritage, she rejects what she views as vestiges of an outdated and patriarchal system. A clear example early in the novel is Nikki’s rejection of her sister’s desire to advertise for a husband and, if that fails, to allow others to find her a “suitable boy.” To Nikki, this process is too close to an arranged marriage, in which the families or a matchmaker would select a partner. Mindi counters that the methods Nikki’s English friends use, such as online dating or going to nightclubs, have low success. Nikki, however, remains repulsed at the traditional method. For Nikki, following any traditions of their mother’s time amounts to a rejection of the increased opportunities of women of their generation.
As much as Nikki attempts to shame her sister, her own full embrace of modern British life—largely to the exclusion of her heritage—has not helped her to become a happy or fulfilled person. Nikki begins the novel working at a meaningless job in a pub, having quit her law studies and moved out—she is physically as well as culturally removed from her family. Her father has also recently died, and Nikki fears that her arguing with him partly caused his death. Nikki’s relationship with her mother and sister is strained. She lives almost entirely in a British world of clubbing and feminist rallies. Yet when Nikki makes her first trip to Southall to post her sister’s ad on the temple bulletin board, she experiences an almost existential crisis on noticing the bilingual signs: they “gave Nikki a slight headache and the sensation of being split in two parts. British, Indian” (13). The signs, she realizes, represent her true self—something more hybrid than her ideal of being fully modern/Western.
Nikki’s students also struggle with their hybrid identity. Some of the women in her class, despite having lived a primarily Indian existence, did try at some point to embrace the British side of their identity. These attempts, though, are often stymied by anxiety and, at best, a lack of understanding of their first culture. Kulwinder’s “first and last attempt to be British” (21) elicited great anxiety, as Kulwinder struggled to educate teachers gently and in her second language, resulting in the family’s ultimate relocation to the Sikh neighborhood of Southall. Tarampal’s attempts to learn the language of her adopted country failed, as she felt the English themselves never made their country or language friendly to her.
Part of what assuages the struggles of a hybrid identity is community. Often in the novel, the temple represents that sense of connection with others. While Nikki initially laments her inability to connect with her Sikh heritage, wondering “what did Mindi see in this world that she didn’t?” (63), she finds herself drawn to the temple and the life that surrounds it. Temple dal tastes better than regular dal. She meets Jason outside of the temple, and she finds her path to a meaningful life after spending time with the temple widows in her English class. In contrast, the moments when Nikki faces rejection from what she considers her community are deeply painful. When an ignorant tourist suggests that someone with brown skin like Nikki is a foreigner, Nikki is stung by the woman’s rudeness; this moment is a harsh reminder that to most Europeans (or, in this case, Americans), Nikki will remain an outsider.
To fulfill her desire for a meaningful job or a “calling” (6), Nikki must embrace both parts of her identity and lay claim to her community, finding a role within it. Her desire to be an independent and modern young woman, once connected with helping her community, has a powerful outcome: Nikki commits to preventing “what happened to girls like Maya” (380). In the end, while Nikki does not necessarily embrace all the same elements of her culture as her sister, Nikki does learn from Mindi the importance of balance. Embracing both sides of her identity finally enables Nikki to turn the “East-West Mix” she once derided into a confident and grounded British Sikh young woman.
Inter-Generational Tension Among Immigrants
As much as the inhabitants of the Punjabi Sikh community feel tension with the outside world, they also experience tension within their community. One of the most notable inner-community sources of tension in the novel is the gap that exists between older immigrants and their first-generation children. Each generation’s unique challenges lead to stark differences in values, beliefs, and cultural practices. These Inter-Generational Tension Among Immigrants, which tend to be especially intense surrounding expectations about women’s societal roles, can harm both the old and the young.
The older generation, which tends to be more traditional, often judges younger people harshly for deviating from expectations, especially expectations related to gender norms. For example, on first meeting Nikki, Kulwinder wishes a more “traditional” woman had applied for the job, “not this haughty girl who might as well be a gori with her jeans and her halting Punjabi” (31). “Gori” is a somewhat derogatory term that the people in the community use to describe a white girl who is, to Kulwinder, inferior to a traditional Sikh woman. Kulwinder passes this judgment based on the way Nikki is dressed as well as her lack of fluency in the Punjabi language. Kulwinder finds such young women to be “self-indulgent,” “crass,” and “demanding” (30). Similar, if more subtle, judgments also emerge about Maya from various characters throughout the novel. Taken to an extreme, the older generation’s expectations foment violence against women, as with the Brothers using their network of adults, especially male adults, to assert control over young women.
However, part of the older generation’s judgment stems from the rejection they experienced as immigrants. Both Kulwinder and Tarampal, for example, found it far harder than the next generation to find a place in England. They tried to act British—to learn the language, educate those encountered without ever offending, and even to use the right soap. In the end, the cultural differences were so great and the resources so limited that they “built Southall because [they] didn’t know how to be British” (390). The trauma of that rejection persists. Kulwinder, even as a British citizen, feels certain she must need a visa for her trip to India; Kulwinder even asks her travel agent, who “reminded her patiently that she was a British citizen, and had been for over two decades” (107). Given these experiences, the older generation are especially loyal to and dependent on the Sikh Punjabi community. When their own children turn away from the traditions of that community, effectively threatening an important safe space, the older generation accordingly reacts with frustration, scorn, and concern.
Part of the older generation’s judgment also stems from justified fear for their children. Younger people, especially women, breaking the community’s norms are only “looking for trouble” (30), according to Kulwinder. She is correct. Temple men and women gossip about modern and untraditional dress and behavior. Far worse, the Brothers harass and even harm women who do not meet the standards of propriety and piety they have imposed on their fellow Punjabis. Offenses may include wearing jeans; having short hair; smoking; or having romantic relations with a man, especially a British man. For Karina and Maya, these offenses resulted in death by what scholars call an honor killing—when a woman or girl is killed by a family member or others in her community for allegedly engaging in behavior that could bring dishonor. Postcolonial theory closely aligns the nation with its treatment of women, with traditional/conservative societies sometimes condemning entire families for the behavior of a female member. Political scientist Partha Chatterjee explains the women/nation connection in Chapter 6 of his foundational study The Nation and Its Fragments (1993), which is entitled “The Woman Question.”
In turn, the younger generation imposes their own judgments and stereotypes against their elders. Nikki, who strives to be modern and open-minded, initially thinks of the women in her community as “temple women” who will “end up all the same—weary and shuffling their feet” (63). However, her students turn out to be far more open-minded and dynamic than the “weary and shuffling” stereotype of Nikki’s imagination. Nikki is shocked in particular to discover that the women in her class not only have desires but also want to express them in their erotic stories.
As Nikki gets to know these older women, she is also shocked at the level of oppression that they have endured living under British society and the patriarchal and conservative rule of the Sikh community, both in the Punjab and in Southall. When the widows go to the pub, one remarks, “It’ll be like when we first arrived in London. They’ll see us in our salwaar kameez [traditional Punjabi clothing] and they’ll be thinking, go back to where you came from” (313). The women worry that the Brothers or their collaborators, like Kulwinder, will end their classes for being too noisy. Nikki must learn over the course of the novel that her elders are fully human, just like her, and that these women have valuable experience that can inform her understanding of her own experiences. Ultimately, the women help Nikki see that her aggressive and direct feminist activism is not the only way of resisting the patriarchy; for example, the women often take advantage the invisibility their age grants them.
Erotic Storytelling as Female Empowerment
The novel emphasizes the transformational capacity of storytelling in the context of helping women find and exercise their voices. The widows in the temple English course are especially marginalized and silenced in their conservative and patriarchal community. When the class begins, even their teacher, Nikki, expects little of them and views them as having very limited creative potential. However, storytelling—specifically erotic storytelling—gives these women a pathway to express themselves and prioritize their desires. By telling erotic stories, these women not only empower themselves but also disrupt stereotypes about older, traditional women.
In addition, in the novel itself, the juxtaposition of the erotic stories with the main narrative is startling. On the one hand, the erotic stories emphasize women’s enthusiastic consent and celebrate women’s pleasure. On the other hand, in reality, women in the community have much to fear. Nikki’s character arc features her discovery of profound violence against women. This violence not only happens in but also is perpetuated by the very community that should be keeping these women safe. Men like the Brothers and even members of the women’s own families can follow and retrieve them, force them to marry against their will, and even kill them if the patriarchy suspects them of inappropriate behavior.
When Nikki first describes her job at the temple, she portrays herself as a kind of savior who will rescue the widows from their lives of misery and oppression. She tells her sister, “I’m doing something to help empower women” (36), viewing the women in question as largely helpless. Mindi, who better grasps the nuances of life in Southall and knows that revealing personal experiences could be dangerous for women, warns her sister to “be careful.” This contrast between the sisters highlights the diverse ways in which feminism can manifest and the importance of ensuring change occurs from the bottom up versus the top down. Nikki thinks she is going to “change their lives by tapping into their personal experiences” (36). The women’s lives do change, but not exclusively or even mainly because of Nikki; rather, the women themselves bring about change by discovering their voices through erotic storytelling.
When Nikki hears the first erotic story, her response is, “This is not the type of story I had in mind” (82). Her stereotypes about temple women precluded her from imagining these women had any interest in physical intimacy, especially concepts featuring taboo subjects such as extra-marital relationships or relationships with members of the same sex. The American feminist writer Audre Lorde explains the potential of the erotic in a 1984 talk:
The erotic is a resource within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane, firmly rooted in the power of our unexpressed or unrecognized feeling. In order to perpetuate itself, every oppression must corrupt or distort those various sources of power within the culture of the oppressed that can provide energy for change. For women, this has meant a suppression of the erotic as a considered source of power and information within our lives (Lorde, Audre. “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power”).
In other words, portraying the erotic as “dirty” or “sinful” is key to keeping women in particular submissive and silent; it’s a way to ensure women stay out of touch with their instincts and do not tap into their creativity. Accordingly, the erotic storytelling in the novel does the opposite, assisting the women with claiming the authority to tell their own stories and identify their own desires.
Despite the efforts of the community to silence the women, such as by confiscating the manuscript and refusing to copy it, the stories circulate not only in Southall but also throughout Punjabi communities in Britain. More women begin showing up at the class, wanting to share stories of their own. When Kulwinder reads the stories, she regains her ability to identify her own physical desires, and she reconnects with her husband. The erotic stories thus become vehicles for change and empowerment for women.
