Issue #3: Book Review: A Burning by Megha Majumdar
I decide on books to read based on recommendations from my friends and close acquaintances or by waltzing into bookshops, sauntering between aisles, reading book synopsis, and...
I decide on books to read based on recommendations from my friends and close acquaintances or by waltzing into bookshops, sauntering between aisles, reading book synopsis, and choosing the ones that capture my interest. I didn’t follow this standard procedure when I bought A Burning. Like a moth attracted to bright lights, I was enamoured by its colourful cover. I didn’t even bother to read the synopsis.
The cover may be colourful, but the story is anything but. It’s a dark and poignant tale. Set in India against the backdrop of rising Hindu nationalism, A Burning opens with the news of a terrorist attack on a train that left over a hundred people dead. The book’s protagonist, Jivan, a poor Muslim girl who lives in the slum with her mother and bed-ridden father, sees the news on Facebook and posts something that gets her into trouble and changes the course of her life. She gets arrested and charged with sedition and terrorism and faces a possible death sentence.
Lovely and PT Sir are two characters who play vital roles in Jivan’s quest to clear herself of the criminal charges levelled against her.
Lovely is a hijra (a transgender woman) who dreams of becoming a Bollywood star. Ostracised and often humiliated because of her identity, Lovely was received by Jivan, who taught her how to read English and often gave her old textbooks. Lovely has the alibi that could set Jivan free, but testifying could cost her everything. Would you do the right thing even if it meant the door of opportunity might shut against you?
Once Jivan’s teacher, PT Sir becomes involved with a dangerous Hindu nationalist party and is used by the party to actualise their prejudiced views. Jivan’s criminal trial becomes politicised, and PT Sir becomes inextricably tied to the case. Like Lovely, PT Sir has to decide whether to do the right thing or follow his ambition.
The book confronts religious conflict, class and poverty, corruption, and gender prejudice issues. It has short chapters and is fast-paced and I liked that particularly. Narrated primarily through the voices of three remarkably different characters, I think the author did well to convey the nuances in the characters’ voices. The character development is good, but I wish the author spent more time conveying the characters’ motivations, but I imagine that is difficult to achieve without the story getting bloated. That said, I think Megha Majumdar’s debut novel is excellent. It’s not as exquisite and tear-jerking as Douglas Stuart’s Booker Prize-winning debut - Shuggie Bain, which I think everyone should read, but it comes close.
After reading A Burning, I was keen to learn about India’s hijras, so I researched*. Hijras* (intersex, asexual, and transgender people) are officially recognised as the third gender in India. Sadly, that recognition doesn’t shield them from being exploited, humiliated, and ostracised. I started digging into history and learned that hijras occupy a special place in Hinduism. They were once revered and believed to have mystical powers, but that reverence has waned and has been replaced with discrimination thanks to the British (are you even surprised?). The British colonial government passed a law that criminalised hijras in the late 1800s, with the specific aim of wiping out hijras. Why? Because hijras were portrayed as being addicted to sex with men, and this convinced the British colonisers that hijras were a threat to public morality. That law still has lasting effects on the hijra community today.