Daughter of Luharu

by Monica Sudhir Gupta

on Dec 25, 2024

Roheeni was married when she was eight years old and had no one to watch after for her. She learned to endure a ghunghat (veil), backbreaking labor, heat, an absent husband, and an abusive mother-in-law. Will she finally speak up or will the story repeat itself when her daughter experiences the same fate after twenty years? As Roheeni negotiates questions of self-worth, love, marriage, parenthood, and most crucially, her identity, Daughter of Luharu is a remarkable tale of survival set against the backdrop of the partition and the independence movement. The novel offers a unique perspective on a woman's tribulations in pre-independence Haryana in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s and poses the crucial question: Has anything changed at all? It remains relevant even after seventy-four years of India's freedom.

Roheeni and others like her are India's own Thousand Splendid Suns, overcoming obstacles and overcoming constraints.