Indian Culture Portraye in A Stench of Kerosene

Indian Culture Portraye in A Stench of Kerosene

There are many goals the author attempts to achieve but the most

probable one is to alert the reader, as Amrita Pritam believes, of the

backwardness of the rural society in Indiafrom a feminist perspective.

She does this using a special approach in which she does not adopt the

critical method nor does she comment either with or against, in fact,

she takes the stance of an observer to try and repel the possible

accusations from the reader of her being biased, unjust and leaning

towards the western ideology. The story is like a reflection of Indian

customs and tradition where members of the community are obliged to

think of other individual views and so surrender by committing acts

for the simple grounds that others may resent it. This habit or ritual

is also found in many other societies showing that Indian way of life

is a mixture of different backgrounds and beliefs.

Moving on to the narrative under analysis, the writer carefully

selects the title which is also a powerful phrase that seals the story

and its main purpose. The 'Kerosene' of the title is the liquid used

for the Hindu practice of 'Sati' where the wife of a lost husband

soaks her clothes with paraffin or kerosene and sets herself alight

consequently burning to death. The writer could have meant that this

practice basically 'stinks' as much as kerosene itself, and its clash

with modern principles (i.e. old practices such as the 'Sati' are

ancient and merely history, not for acting upon.)

The story reveals that the oppressed character Guleri, who is the wife

of Manak another main character, is almost a slave, not only

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... is true and is one

which many other readers and I despise. On the other hand I believe

that aspects which are the like of not allowing a lady to travel by

herself have been slightly exaggerated and are not really oppression

on women, in fact they are the opposite; to protect her and ensure

that no one individual would harass or abuse her. The passage is most

certainly biased but not fully. Finally I believe that the writer had

a lot of good points in there to portray the backwardness contained in

those regions but did slightly exaggerate possibly for political

reasons.

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