Clear Light of Day

Anita Desai

Anita Desai, formerly Anita Mazumbar, was born in Mussoorie, a hill station North of Delhi, on June 24th 1937. She was the daughter of D.N. Mazumbar, a Bengali business man and a German woman named Toni Nime. Desai first began to write English at the age of 7 and published her first story at the age of 9. Later on, she was educated at Mary's Higher Secondary school in Delhi when she was the age to attend the high school there. After receiving her B.A in English Literature, Desai got married in 1958 to Ashvin Desai and had four children.
Among other things, Anita was an Indian novelist and short story writer that was especially noted for her sensitive portrayl of the inner life if her female characters, as well as her passion for exploring the tensions of family memnbers and alienated middle class women. Her book, Clear Light of Day was published in 1980, where she wove the hostor of Delhi with a middle class family into her novel. Other than Clear Light of Day, Desai also published Cry the Peacock (1963), Fire on the Mountain (1977) and In Costody in 1984.

The Partition in India

British India was divided in two and were founded on the basis of religion, with Pakistan (Muslim areas) as an Islamic state and India (Hindu areas) a secular one. Other than religious conflicts, the split was established because they were politically unstable as one and wanted to split and become independent. This border was determined by a British Government- commissioned report, usually referrd to as the Redcliffe Line. Under the leadership of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the Indian National Congress embarked from 1915 onwards upon a protracted freedom movement, combining peaceful civil disobedience and mass action into an effective strategy of resisting colonial rule.

The difference between Muslim and Hindu

Muslims and Hindus may seem to be the same but they are quite similar in a number of ways. A few of those ways are, firstly, Hindu's believe in a kind of polytheistic religion, meaning they believe in many Gods, whereas Muslims believe in one God. Secondly, cows may be seen as a sacred animal to the Hindu's but Muslim's on the other hand, eat cows as well as other meats such as lam, goats and chicken, but they think that a pig should not be eaten. Lastly, Muslim's believe in equality and Hinduism has a caste system with four major caste categories. These include the Brahmans, Kshantriya, Vaisya and the Sudras.

The traditional roles of women in India

In India, the women are expected to do house work and listen to what the man of the house says instead of being independent and doing things she would like to do, even though were still considered equal to the men in some cases. As soon as the young girls hit puberty in India, they usually got married at that age and moved out of the family house to go and live with their husbands. Women also practiced the purdah, which is the practice of women covering their bodies so as to cover their skin and conceal their form, and they were not educated enough or even at all in most cases since they were expected to stay at home and take care of the family.

Mohandas Karamchard Gandhi

Gandhi was born on October 2nd 1869 and died on January 30th 1948. He was the pre- eminent political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian Independence Movement. He is officially honoured in India as the Father of the Narion and his birthday is commenorated there as Gandhi Juanti, a national holiday, and this same date is see as the International Day of Non- violence worldwide.