Independence
Priya and her sisters, Jamini and Deepa, have come of age as India is on the verge of its independence. Secure in her family’s West Bengal village as the “smart” sister, as Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Independence opens, Priya is dreaming of following in her father Nabakumar’s footsteps as a doctor. She nurtures this plan even as her mother wishes to see her married and her friendship with the son of a dear family friend deepens into love.
Yet independence brings intercommunal violence and eventual partition. One night in Calcutta, riots trap Nabakumar’s Muslim colleagues Dr. Abdullah and Raza at the clinic the three share. Nabakumar goes to join them and meets a tragic fate. The family’s fortunes drop. Priya, no less than her sisters, must make wrenching choices about loyalty, aspirations, and love in the aftermath.
As the chapters alternate between the sisters, Divakaruni deepens both their insecurities and their connections to each other, even as their lives seem to move apart. The action in Independence shifts from the small West Bengal town of Ranipur to Calcutta to Philadelphia and back, over the course of the mid-to-late 1940s and early 1950s. The depth of characterization and empathy Divakaruni generates for not only each of the three sisters but the secondary characters as well is astounding. The novel’s writing style is deeply lyrical and transportive.
Independence shows the subcontinent newly returned to its people and then divided in conflict through the striving of these sisters and their rivalrous bond. For anyone who wants to know more about that moment, this novel is highly recommended.
