Even in hardship, parents rarely hesitate to give their newborn a meaningful, positive name. Rasangam was raised with hopes that he would one day live like a king, but instead he spends his days cycling to and from the small grocery shop he runs to support his widowed mother, aunt, siblings and cousins.
Unable to pursue his dream of higher education, he often laments his fate. How can he explain the untimely burden of patriarchy thrust upon him?
Rasangam possesses a quiet eloquence, yet, as a soft-spoken man in a female-dominated household, he can never command the respect he yearns for — neither within the confines of his home nor across the village. He struggles against the many forces that shape his life: faith, family and tradition. Even after buying a car and a motorcycle, his social status remains unchanged. What must he do to break all shackles and earn respect? Tamil writer Salma’s new novel, The Binding, is a quiet meditation on overcoming such odds.
Salma is the pen name of poet, novelist and activist Rajathi, whose courageous voice has become central to contemporary Tamil literature. Her career is marked by several seminal works that have earned both critical acclaim and a devoted readership, particularly within the Muslim community in Tamil Nadu. Now as Rajya Sabha MP, her literary insight is poised to gain a wider political resonance.
Struggle for dignity
Though not fully content with his life, Rasangam finds strength in the deep bonds of his extended family. Mutual care and nurturing sustain the household, yet women continue to occupy a secondary place within the social order. There is little he can do to elevate either their status or his own. Gradually, he feels drawn more deeply towards faith, devoting himself to religious service and undertaking the Haj pilgrimage. Once he returns, Rasangam renounces worldly indulgences in pursuit of the social esteem he has always longed for.
Reading this nuanced novel is like peeling an onion, layer by layer. Rasangam may appear to be the central figure, but the secondary characters enrich the narrative with immense cultural depth. According to translator Janani Kannan, a U.S.-based architect who has won awards for translating Tamil novels and short stories, the structure of the novel resembles the texture of lived experience itself. It is, after all, a portrait of growing up with the suffocating constraints of a conservative religious family?
Author and Rajya Sabha MP Salma | Photo Credit: R. Ragu
Rasangam’s dutiful son, Imran, fulfils his father’s unrealised dream by going to college. Leaving the village behind, he joins an institution in a sprawling city and initially struggles to adapt to its vibrant and broad-minded atmosphere. Yet, he soon realises how deeply prejudice against his community runs, and how urgently his society must evolve with changing times. Securing a government job appears to him one credible path toward dignity and acceptance.
Enduring social prejudices
As he steps into a more diverse social world, Imran also encounters the growing anxieties surrounding interfaith relationships. Such expressions of love are often suppressed by political propaganda, raising troubling questions about the true nature of social progress. Imran is disturbed by this contradiction and feels the pain of a society whose progress remains conditional and selective. But the novel also reminds us that perspectives on progress are never absolute; what appears progressive to one may seem regressive to another, depending on time, place and context.
Salma approaches the fraught subject of “love jihad” with remarkable care and restraint. Rather than arriving at definitive conclusions, she presents its many complexities and contradictions. Broad-mindedness and progressive ideals alone, the novel suggests, may prove inadequate within an increasingly polarised political climate. The narrative comes full circle as Salma extends it into the next generation, juxtaposing evolving modern struggles against enduring social prejudices.
The reviewer is an independent writer, researcher and academic.