Just every man thinking his own quom, his own needs, are most important, while all of India falls further and further behind. If Singh Baldwin was uncomfortable with translating the Punjabi words in her novel, she was also unwilling to gloss the history of polygamy and male privilege in India. Singh Baldwin says she gained a new understanding of women's everyday lives, and their desire for male children, when she began to recognize how polygamy operated in colonial India. Before, I didn't understand the economic reasons for polygamy. But now I see that it was a better alternative to divorce, which would have meant abandonment and destitution for Satya . . .
Sons become the only way for women to assert their status and provide for their old age.
Whatever happens, she clearly remains confident about her writing.