Nina in a Feminist perspective

I honestly don't hear too much of Nina in all that I've read about her, except that (with fair exception that she is a grandmother) the classic traditionalist mother who wants to keep everything stable and just like the old days. Which is interesting, because this brings up two conflicting aspects of her which to this day leave me confused about whether she is to promote women as powerful or equal figures to men or if they are as always subservient.

She's the matriarch of the whole family, so it is in fact a woman that orchestrates everything that happens in the Gupta family (Okay, I know, it's bad logic. It's like saying that because a woman picked up a bag of money off the street, then it symbolizes that women are supposed to be in control of the money and thus economy... but that's beside the point.)

But then again she also has a role as the "nurturing mother," who raises the sisters by herself after their mother passes away and takes it upon herself to make sure both of the girls are happy and well raised as well as protected. This can, then again, go more into honoring family values and bonding.

However, one thing that Aloka points out earlier in the book is that Nina/Thakurma makes plenty of social commentary in regards to life in Darjeeling, and advocates teh growing influence of women in social, economical, and political matters:

"In my last letter I had mentioned how women in the village of Sonagunj were trying to get elected to their community council. As you well know I am all for them. It was our ancient poet Kalidasa who once said, 'Look for a land where women are in good spirits, for that is a prosperous country...'


Aloka smiled. Grandma's letters always began with a commentary on some aspect of social or political life-- she had been nicknamed All Indian Radio by her neighbors." (10)

Another thing that makes her represent the power that women have in society is when she herself defies social  boundaries and expectations put upon her, and as a result becomes a respected legend. In chapter 26 starting on page 160 there is a length flashback where Nina recounts to Aloka and Sujata, then children, about how her marriage with her husband and their grandfather came to be, even though they were of different social class. She describes the way that she was mistreated by her judgmental mother-in-law, up until the day she confronted her:

"I sprang up faster than a tigress leaps at her prey, threw off the veil, and took the pins out of my hair, alowing my tresses to cascade down my back and over my face. Mouths fell open. They'd never seen such long, shiny, locks, and certainly no one expected a young married woman to assert herself in this fashion. 'Choop karo,'  I said. Shut up. My mother-in-law nearly fainted, her old cousin breathed terribly hard, and the rest looked up at me in shocked silence. I felt glorious" (170)

Letting down you hair is according to the book impolite in Indian culture, so by breaking expectations of her as a wife that she couldn't meet, Nina in this scene has asserted her power and her independence in oen swish of her hair.