The cultural and religious aspect in clear light of day
Much of the conflict in India during the time if Anita Desai’s novel Clear light of day Centers upon the religious an cultural tensions between the Muslims and Hindus. As well the dividing lines between the roles of the families in the different segments.
Religion and cultural can have a very profound impact on ones life, it can be for the good an on the other hand for the worst. Compare to the western world where both males and females go out and work for a better fiscal arrangement, in india in anita’s times the male was the only one that work for the family while the wife stayed home looking pretty and go out with her husband in the night, wife didn’t even take care of their children.
In terms of religion the das family was Indian’s but by learning Urdu, Raja separated himself from his family and Hindu friends and connected himself to the Hyder Ali family. Going to the Hyder Ali's garden parties brought him close to Muslims and their conversations, and he began to view things the way they did. "When the boys at the Hindu College found that Raja was one Hindu who actually accepted the idea of Pakistan as feasible, they changed from charmed friends into dangerous enemies". This caused his Hindu friends to think that he was a traitor to the Indian cause. "When he spoke to them [fellow students] of Pakistan as something he quite accepted, they turned on him openly, called him a traitor, drowned out his piping efforts at reasonableness with the powerful arguments of fanatics" . Eventually Raja marries into this Muslim family that he had visited so many times in his youth. Raja's reading of Urdu and Iqbal separated him from his siblings, while uniting him with the Muslims.
The typical women in India was suppose to marry, and be subservient to her husband like tara, but bimla didn’t think about life like thst she resented all traditional culture of the hindu tradition and became a more feminist lady, she didn’t married, she smoke and drink rum like other men, and sat at the same table as them and form in loud, political conversations challenging their manhood.
Religion and culture in the book can be used as either a means of dividing or uniting people. It can be used, as in Clear Light of Day, as a way to reinforce religious divisions, or, separate family members while another family is benefiting from that change.