Honor

Fire plays an important role in Honor, as well as Hindu culture and religion in general. It is fire that kills Abdul and maims Meena, leaving her with a scarred face that looks like “a map created by a brutal, misogynistic cartographer” (69). Fire is connected to death, as bodies are traditionally burned and more recently cremated in Hinduism, compared to the “burial” traditions of Islam or Zoroastrianism (exposure to the sun and consumption by birds). For Muslim people, cremation is forbidden, seen as destruction of property belonging to the divine. For Parsi people, cremation or burial is seen as an act of pollution.

Fire is generally seen as having the power to cleanse and purify in many cultures and religions. Hinduism has several gods and rituals connected to fire, such as the Vedic fire ritual. Fire in the form of burning coals is used to test Meena’s “purity” (virginity) in the novel. While she had not been physically intimate with Abdul at this point, she loved him and was therefore not “pure” of heart. She did not pass the test, as it, like medieval witch trials, resulted in false positives to condemn women. Fire is also a source of light and life, as Meena named her daughter Abru (“honor”) “to tell the world that you can burn a man alive, but still not put out the nobility in his heart” (323). In other words, she named Abru “to make sure that [her] daughter would keep Abdul’s flame alive within herself” (323).