Honor

While India is officially a secular country, religion plays a central, public role in inhabitants’ daily lives. The country’s constitution guarantees freedom of religion and outlaws discrimination based on religious affinity. This populous country of 1.4 billion people (almost 18% of the total world population) is home to various religious believers: Hindus (approximately 80%), Muslims (approximately 14%), Christians and Sikhs (approximately 2% each), Jains, Buddhists, and others (less than 1% each) (“Religious Composition of India.” Pew Research Center, 2021). In Honor, the Hindu/Muslim dynamic is a major point of contention. As educational website Asia Society explains,

India is a hierarchical society. Whether in north India or south India, Hindu or Muslim, urban or village, virtually all things, people, and social groups are ranked according to various essential qualities. Although India is a political democracy, notions of complete equality are seldom evident in daily life. (“Indian Society and Ways of Living.” Asia Society).

There are several hierarchies explored in the novel, not just that of Hindu/Muslim—including male/female, educated/uneducated, wealthy/poor, and rural/urban. Characters’ identifiers change their places in various hierarchies; placement matters less than how one relates to others. This dynamic is called relational power. For example, being educated and wealthy will grant authority in some settings, but in others, maleness will override these identifiers. For example, Smita is an educated and relatively wealthy woman, but in India, her male interviewees wield power over her. She is only acknowledged when accompanied by Mohan, an educated and wealthy man whom others assume is her husband.

Caste is another identifier of status within Hindu society. It is a hereditary privilege centered on “purity” and can determine a person’s career and marriage options, as people from lower (or “polluted”) castes are destined for careers that reflect “pollution.” The Dalit (formerly called the pejorative “untouchables”) continue to be discriminated against despite laws to prevent this. Caste divisions and discrimination are more commonly seen in rural settings like that in the novel, as cities can offer migrants a certain level of anonymity. For example, Abdul dreamed of moving his family to the city to escape village traditions of caste and religion. His wife, Meena, expresses her lower status by sitting lower than those of higher status. After Abdul is killed and Meena is injured by her two brothers, she tries to lower herself at the police station until her lawyer, Anjali, stops her (84), and she also does it when she and Smita sit outside a hut (89). The idea of “pollution” is illustrated when Meena wonders if Smita will drink water from a Muslim household; she assumes Smita is Hindu and of a higher caste. Meena’s daughter, Abru, is seen as a living example of “pollution” due to being born of a Muslim man and Hindu woman. While Meena’s brothers want to punish her for disobeying them and dishonoring their family (by marrying and having a child with a Muslim man), their fellow villagers want to destroy Abru.

Indian society is not only hierarchical but also patriarchal. Meena’s former village works as a larger version of family, with Rupal Bhosle, head of the village council, making decisions for other members. He advises Meena’s brothers to take action against her and prevents other members from speaking with Smita and Mohan. Meena’s eldest brother is the head of their respective family, meaning Meena and her younger sister, Radha, have to give him their salaries—their factory jobs previously being forbidden by him. Part of Abdul’s appeal is his treatment of Meena as an equal. He not only shares his food but also prioritizes feeding her. When he learns of her pregnancy, he is thrilled to have a child with her, regardless of the child being a boy or girl. Overall, Abdul represents an India that is able to break free of hierarchy and patriarchy—a hope that lives on through Abru.