The Treatment of Bibi Haldar

Born to Bengali immigrants in London, Jhumpa Lahiri was raised in Rhode Island, though she often visited Kolkata to visit extended family. As a child, she felt split by her bicultural identity, never quite “enough” of either. Her father and mother, a university librarian and teacher, respectively, raised her in a distinctly Indian-American household, which later influenced her writing and literary interests. Lahiri received her BA in English literature from Barnard College in 1989 then went on to pursue three master’s degrees (in English, creative writing, and comparative literature) and one doctorate (in Renaissance studies) at Boston University. She began working on the short stories that would make up Interpreter of Maladies while in graduate school and later published multiple award-winning English novels including The Namesake and Lowland, the short story collection Unaccustomed Earth, and works of non-fiction. She has won significant literary awards and is also a celebrated translator working in Italian. Since moving to Rome, she has published a novel in Italian, Dove mi trovo, and the story collection Racconti Romani.

Although not directly addressed in the story, the partition of India in 1947 lingers in the background of Interpreter of Maladies, particularly in stories set in India like “The Treatment of Bibi Haldar.” British India was divided into two separate states after the colonial power receded, causing a refugee crisis drawn along religious lines. Bibi’s mistreatment throughout the story reflects the traditional and colonial orders that lingered in society, especially as former colonial outposts attempted to modernize. Kolkata—where Lahiri’s family was from and the city she visited most often as a child—suffered from overcrowding and economic stagnation, which led to social unrest. While conditions improved when the government conducted large public works projects in the 1980s, this history was very much alive in Lahiri’s imagination.

“The Treatment of Bibi Haldar” is one of nine short stories in Interpreter of Maladies, all of which deal with themes of loss, alienation, dislocation, and belonging. It is most closely related to “A Real Durwan,” which follows another estranged woman in Indian society. These stories belong to the broader genre of postcolonial literature. This genre rose to popularity during the decolonial movements of the 1960s and ’70s and is often associated with academic theorists such as Edward Said or writers including Chinua Achebe (Nigeria), Amitav Ghosh (India), and V. S. Naipaul (Trinidad). Lahiri’s direct style and deep emotional themes often draw comparison to Arundhati Roy, an Indian novelist and activist whose 1997 novel The God of Small Things also considers the rapidly shifting political landscape in India. Additionally, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s short story collection The Thing Around Your Neck raises similar questions about power, womanhood, and isolation in a new land. Finally, in addition to having studied with the notable Holocaust memoirist Elie Wiesel, Lahiri also describes being influenced by the realism of Alice Munro and Virginia Woolf.