52 pages • 1 hour read
The Space Between Us
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Themes
India’s Social Fabric of Class, Caste, Gender, and Religion
The Space Between Us uses juxtaposition and multiple points of view to highlight the intense gap between Bhima and Sera’s socio-economic stations. What they share in common is their gender and the experiences born of this identity, but the “space between them” is born of every other social identity that makes up the fabric of Indian society: class, caste, and religion. When their identities are considered intersectionally, Bhima and Sera no longer have solidarity or much in common.
Sera and Bhima come from different religious and socioeconomic backgrounds. There is an intimate relationship between the two women born from their shared experience as women. Sera and Bhima both live for their children, which society expects them to have, and then suffer for the sake of their children’s well-being. Sera endures and shields Dinaz from Feroz’s abuse over the years; she believes that Dinaz and Viraf’s company after Feroz’s death is her reward for all her suffering, highlighting the belief that her suffering was required of her. Bhima spends her life working first for her children, and then her granddaughter, an extension of her children. Bhima vows to raise Maya to have a better life than Maya’s mother or grandmother ever did; she takes pride in Maya’s intelligence and supports her education, pinning her hopes of a better future on Maya. All these hopes come dashing down with Maya’s pregnancy. The unbridgeable “space” between the women’s intersectional identities becomes apparent through the motif of pregnancy.
Maya’s pregnancy exposes Sera’s generosity as a savior complex and a way to recapture Bhima’s attention so Bhima can go back to prioritizing work at the Dubash household. Despite the confidence shared between the two women, they are not on equal footing. Although Sera supposedly treated Bhima better than her peers treat their domestic workers, there is never a moment where Bhima’s position as a worker blurs with that of a family member. Although Sera and Bhima are united by their gender, the space between them born of their differences in class, caste, and religion, are too much to overcome.
Bhima actively perpetuates the attitudes of India’s social fabric that harm her. Bhima lives in a slum, but she started life higher up in the socioeconomic hierarchy in a chawl, or multi-family apartment complex. She moves to the slum because of unfortunate financial circumstances, and despite years of living there, does not see it as home. She holds herself above the squalor of the place and believes she “belongs” elsewhere. Her attitude toward Muslims, one of the most targeted minorities in India, reflects her ingrained social conditioning as a Hindu, who form the majority community within the country. Sera, in fact, educates Bhima about the atrocities committed against Muslims. Her initial response to Hyder offering her water is reminiscent of the revulsion Sera feels at Bhima’s touch. Sera’s response to Bhima is ironic. Parsi families are nominally opposed to the caste system that labels Bhima an untouchable, yet Sera refuses to touch Bhima.
Umrigar portrays how aspects of class, caste, gender, and religion are complexly interwoven to create the social fabric of India through the paradoxical and self-harming attitudes that Sera and Bhima display throughout the book. These complex portrayals of Bhima and Sera’s internal biases and opposition to their own interests reveal the complex relationship between oppressor and oppressed within intersectional identities in India.
Misogyny and Abuse in Relationships
For years, Sera endured physical and emotional abuse at Feroz’s hands in silence. The misogyny and abuse that Sera experiences are not exclusive to her story. Numerous other characters and relationships in the story see expressions of the same, the result of a deeply patriarchal society. Misogyny and abuse are the largest uniting threat between Bhima and Sera’s lived experiences.
While Feroz’s behavior toward Sera clearly stems from a cruel and controlling nature, Gopal is driven to violence by his life experiences. After losing his job, part of his hand, and any hope of reparations, Gopal develops an alcohol addiction, self-hatred, and contempt for his wife. He becomes a financial and emotional burden on Bhima. Rather than confront Gopal or hold him accountable, Bhima blames herself for bringing about her husband’s downfall. When Bhima does stand up to him, Gopal blames her for “emasculating” him and uses this emasculation as an excuse for his abuse.
The abuse and exploitation in Viraf and Dinaz’s relationship is more subtle than that experienced by the older women. Sera feels pride and affection when she observes Viraf and Dinaz’s interactions, far more egalitarian than her own had ever been with Feroz. She believes her child has escaped the fate of her own marriage. However, Viraf abuses his position as a wealthy man to exploit Maya and lie to Dinaz. Viraf blames his infidelity on Dinaz’s pregnancy, relying on the misogynistic trope of the “hormonal” and “moody wife” to excuse his actions. Rather than responding with empathy, understanding, and support, Viraf turns to another woman whom he knows he can easily exploit, and subsequently hide his actions from his wife and family. That he does so at the cost of Maya’s future and Bhima’s relationship with the Dubashes, revealed the deeply misogynistic and bigoted attitudes Viraf truly holds, despite his demeanor.
Similarly, Raju is unfaithful and places the consequences on the woman closest to him. Raju's unfaithfulness leads to a positive AIDs diagnosis for him and his wife, killing both of them. Pooja asserts that Raju loved her deeply and treated her well until they fell ill. Like Pooja, all the women in the story remain ignorant of men’s failings, either by choice, conditioning, or circumstance. Just as Pooja refuses to leave Raju’s side, Bhima stands by Gopal, and Sera tolerates Feroz; Dinaz is the only one who remains truly unaware of Viraf’s behavior, while Maya becomes deeply embittered toward the Dubash family and hides Viraf’s crimes because she is aware of the socio-economic imbalance between him and her.
The Space Between Us explores misogyny and abuse in relationships through the intersections of the different women’s identities. The phenomenon is perpetuated across socioeconomic lines, with women characters actively participating in the continuance of misogyny. Thrity Umrigar juxtaposes these women’s experiences and their often inconsistent internal lives to argue for the pervasiveness of misogyny and abuse within heterosexual relationships in India’s culture.
Education as a Vehicle for Social Mobility
Education as a means of accessing social mobility is the only means for the impoverished characters of the novel to climb the social ladder. Bhima and Sera remain united in their desire for Maya’s abortion, as they both believe Maya can resume her education afterward. Bhima hopes for Maya to be the first woman in the family not relegated to the life of a domestic worker. Both Bhima and Pooja, Maya’s mother, were uneducated and couldn’t read. Bhima shares painful stories from the past to impress upon Maya the importance of an education, such as Gopal’s accident, and Raju and Pooja’s deaths.
Bhima’s encounters with educated men undermine her self-confidence and show her inability to navigate a world made for these educated men. She is treated with disgust by the doctor in Delhi when she reveals she does not know what AIDS is. She feels similarly unconfident approaching the doctors when Gopal is recovering from surgery. Bhima is unable to understand the severity of his condition and has no way of knowing she ought to request a different course of treatment for Gopal’s infection. Bhima’s illiteracy is also what allows Devdas, the accountant at Gopal’s factory, to take advantage of the situation and cheat Gopal out of what he is due. Bhima’s helplessness in the situation is contrasted by the confidence with which Feroz and Sera stride in and command the doctor to help Gopal. Education is a tool to move upward, and the lack of it is a tool for the upper classes to exploit against the impoverished.
Bhima marvels at the power that education holds yet is aware that education is not a guaranteed safeguard. In the doctor’s case, he is forced to bow down to a man with more wealth and status than him. In Maya’s case, her family background, gender, and age leave her vulnerable to Viraf’s advances. There are other aspects that hold more power than education alone, as explored in the theme of India’s Social Fabric of Class, Caste, Gender, and Religion. For people like Bhima who have practically none of these factors to her advantage, education and the work opportunities it can lead to offer a reliable form of social mobility and protection against exploitation.
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By Thrity Umrigar
