ABSTRACT
Muli’s mother flatters Kia, Muli’s wife, to persuade her to contribute money and help for the wedding of Muli’s brother Anadi. After the wedding, Muli’s mother and wife again quarrel and separate. Muli considers himself victimized by his quarrelsome mother, and also by his ineffectual father, who makes no effort to prevent the separation. Muli thus reverses the conventional belief in India that wives, seeking greater independence, often instigate the breakup of joint households. Although Muli often quarrels with his wife, he always depicts her as blameless and victimized by his parents—a characterization that may well be idealized.
In one of the rare occasions in which Muli discusses his son, he mentions how he sent his son to school. Significantly, the incident involves both high-caste people who discriminate against Bauris and a rare high-caste person who exhibits no prejudice against them.
