1. Sheryl Doiron 1038597
ENGL2583A
Dr. Beauchamp
November 11, 2014
Cross Cultural Oppression of Women through Patriarchy
Throughout history women have struggled to survive in a world which was constructed
with a set of rules and norms that place men in roles of power. Social constructs ensure women
have been kept in a position of objectification, oppression, and can determine a woman’s course
through life contrary to what she would choose for herself. The Holder of the World shows a
cross-cultural portrayal of women’s roles in society and displays evidence that religions of a
patriarchal nature support the oppression of women, and continue to do so even today. These
factors can affect the development of a woman’s identity to a large degree and affect the choices
women are forced to make. Those with a strong internal core, despite oppression, can work
within and around the boundaries set by society in their attempts to control their own destinies.
Religion plays a fundamental part in society’s expectations of women. Mukherjee’s
novel is almost exclusively based on religions with patriarchal models, namely Christianity,
Islam, and Hinduism. The only exception to this within the text is Rebecca’s escape from the
confining society of the Puritans to her aboriginal lover. In her choice to shun the society she was
entrapped in, Rebecca would be free from many of the constraints women of the time period
faced. Her escape to an aboriginal society, with the exception of a few indigenous tribes, would
have led her to a culture which was much more egalitarian in nature, allowed women input into

2. the way they led their daily lives, and permitted freedom in sexuality and control over her own
body.
Mukherjee’s description of Rebecca’s departure implies she knew full well that she was
leaving a society that oppresses women to enter a different world. “She stands on a reed rug by
the window…peels her white, radiant body out of the Puritan window’s somber bodice and skirt
as a viper sheds skin before wriggling into the brush. Her body is thick, strong, the flesh streaked
and bruised, trussed with undergarments (Mukherjee 28).” The visible streaked bruising caused
by the constricting Puritan garments, the shedding of the Puritan skin, and the escaping into the
unknown of the brush acts as a nice metaphor for her breaking free of her prison of patriarchy
and displays the most obvious way women of the time period could have survived in a male
model, by leaving it. It also paints her as corrupt or evil in nature likening her to a serpent,
inherently thought of as part of the downfall of man in the Christian Bible.
Puritan lifestyle had a significant impact on the way in which Hannah originally
perceived the world around her and her place within it. Not only would this lifestyle have been
oppressive on its own, but knowing that her mother had run away with her aboriginal lover
would have made it far worse. “She had witnessed the fall, not Adam’s Fall, Rebecca’s Fall. Her
mother’s Fall, infinitely more sinful than the fall of a man. She is the witness not merely of the
occasion of sin, but of the birth of sin itself (Mukherjee 30).” Again the image from the Christian
Bible appears, likening her to Eve, the creator of sin and the reason for the casting out of humans
from the Garden of Eden. Due to her extreme Christian role models and the Puritan ideology she
was raised to believe, Hannah originally casts her mother as the worst kind of sinner and
includes her mother’s supposed sin as something which defines her sense of self.

3. This strict patriarchal religious upbringing, nearer to brainwashing, would have made
Hannah tainted by association to her adoptive family, to her opinion of herself, and her religious
community. Hannah formed a sense of self which not only played into the patriarchal system of
oppression of women, but went a step further and cast her as even below other women in her
own religious society due to her mother’s choices. “Had she been perceived the daughter of a
fornicator, not the offspring of an upright widow, no family would have taken her in (Mukherjee
29).” While Hannah herself has done nothing deemed as sinful, she identifies herself as evil by
lineage alone: ”For she, worthless sinner and daughter of Satan’s lover, had been taken in and
raised by decent souls( Mukherjee 42).” This low self-worth allows her and her exceptional
talents to be used by her adoptive parents for their own benefit.
As she matures and starts to build her own sense of identity, this starts to change and
eventually shapes her character and allows her to survive the journey which lies ahead. “The
hints of noncompliance, of contrary independence that her character had begun to reveal…there
was wildness about Hannah (Mukherjee 62).” She manages to use her object status to her own
benefit and, in exchange for a few pieces of furniture, is pretty much sold to Gabriel Legge
where her true self begins to form. She manages to enjoy a sense of freedom when Gabriel later
skips out and Hannah is told he is dead. The money which was supposedly left to her at his death
allowed her to be totally self-sufficient for the first time in her life. This time allows her to make
gains in her independent nature which serve her well for the trials ahead.
Her arrival in pre-colonial India later, with the return of Gabriel, would have been a truly
shocking experience for someone raised with Puritan values. To go from a society where sex is
deemed fornication and sinful, to one where bibis are kept by most men with society’s
acceptance showed her a whole other aspect of oppression of women. Many wives felt a sense

4. of superiority over the women of India, as their Christian mindset saw those of other religions as
so inferior to not even warrant attention. “Bhagmati was invisible to the women of white town
(Mukherjee 136).” Indian women’s oppression was so deep that even the white women, objects
of oppression, further oppressed those they saw as below their station: “Black bibis know their
place, so a wife’s safety lies in assigning them a place that is harmless (Mukherjee 137).”
Hannah, though, eventually tires of the whole set up and with Bhagmati’s assistance, attempts to
leave and claim window status on return to England.
In yet another roadblock to gaining her independance, Hannah and Bhagmati are captured
and give her a whole new perspective on the oppression of women. While she does experience a
sense of sexual empowerment with her somewhat voluntary dalliance with the Raja, she has
become the bibi. She takes on the role typical of a man when she rescues the prince from death
after a particularly fierce battle and returns him to his people, only to be criticized for her efforts.
In her attempt to end the war between the parties, she ends up, once again, held hostage. This
time her captor is an Emperor who puts her within a harem.
While Hanna manages to escape during a battle, we do not know much more of her story
or how she managed to get back to country of origin, we do know that she made it back to live
on the fringe of society and developed the resilience and character that made her a true survivor.
“She was no longer the woman she’d been in Salem or London. The survivor is the one who
improvises, not follows the rules (Mukherjeee 241).” Her entire identity shifted into realization
during a final confrontation with her latest captor: “This was the moment, if she was ever to have
one, when the gods that controlled the universe had conspired to put her Christian-Hindu-
Muslim self, her American-English-Indian self, her orphaned, abandoned, widowed, pregnant
self, her firangi and bibi self (Mukherjee 276).” In that moment Hanna realizes the suffering,

5. oppression, and abuse received at the hands of her male counterparts have made her who she is, a
survivor, not a label.
With new found self-awareness, Hannah’s opinion of her own mother has turned from
one of disdain, embarrassment and shame to the realization that as women, men and their
religious interpretations of a woman’s place in society are like the ocean’s current. “She had
travelled the world, a witness to unimagined visions, merely to repeat her mother’s folly, and to
live her mother’s life over (Mukherjee 245).” While she may still not have had pride in the
efforts her mother made to survive, she at least had an understanding as to why her mother had
made the decisions she had.
Women are carried along against their will and placed at the will of patriarchal model
religious codes enforced by men, tossed about, and occasionally drown in the undertow.
Regardless if Hanna was in a Christian, Hindu, or Islamic world, she was seen as being inferior
and put in the position of oppressed. “Given the way in which women are positioned as the
bearers of culture, their deportment, dress code and sexuality are often rendered markers of the
good society envisioned by different groups (Razavi, Jenichen 835).” The majority of women
bob along keeping their heads above the surface and do what needs to be done to survive. The
strong, on the other hand, swim against the current, allow it to drag them back a little to gather
more energy to continue on, then return to the fight for themselves and others like them. “Some
of the more insidious and lasting changes religious actors introduce in terms of practices and
meanings reshape people’s minds and become unquestioned social norms (Razavi, Jenichen
835).” Only those who question norms, stand up to them, and fight are able to change the place
women hold within society.

6. Through the voice of the narrator, Beigh shows that while modern society has changed so
much, it still has a core based in patriarchy and religion which influences women’s thoughts and
the way they identify themselves. Men are so accustomed to this model they often don’t even
realize they don’t get it. Venn’s response to Beigh’s questioning Hannah’s marriage shows that
those men who are not feminist supporters or conscientious of patriarchy’s role in societal norms
fail to even realize sometimes the choices involved are those of the lesser of evils. “In other
words, why not? She married because it was her time to get married (Mukherjee 70).” Hannah
didn’t marry because she wanted to find a partner for life, but rather as a means to an end.
“Either she will take society with her to a new level, or she will perish in the attempt (Mukherjee
60).” She married to escape one prison for another, but this in itself is still a choice. Anywhere
Hannah could make a choice, she did. While social constructs created by men and religion may
play a hand in women’s place within society, their sense of identity determines whether they will
be the victims of oppression, or instead the victors in their personal battle to survive within a
society constructed to control them.

7. Resources
Mukherjee,B.(2003). The holderof the world.Toronto:HarperPerennialCanada.
Shahra Razavi & Anne Jenichen (2010):The Unhappy Marriage of ReligionandPolitics:
problemsandpitfallsforgenderequality,ThirdWorldQuarterly,31:6,833-850