Interviews

‘Fiction is a way for me to interrogate the world…’: In conversation with Parini Shroff

Filled with clever criminals, second chances, and wry and witty women, Parini Shroff’s The Bandit Queens is a razor-sharp debut of humor and heart that readers won’t soon forget.

In conversation with HarperBroadcast, Shroff talks about writing her powerful debut novel, using humor and irony to drive unflinching social commentary on domestic and sexual abuse in her narrative and honouring the legacy of Phoolan Devi.

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Q. Tell us a bit about what went into deciding the title of the book.

Parini Shroff: This novel began as a short story many years ago called The Women. In 2021, when the project sold, my team and I began thinking of more encapsulating titles. “The Bandit Queen” was proposed but I was reluctant, especially given the various, existing adaptations of Phoolan Devi’s life, and how not all of them were made with her consent. Rather than exploit her narrative, I wanted to pay homage to her. Ultimately, pluralizing her popular nickname seemed like a way for the novel to tip its hat to her, but also be a separate work.

Q. You mention how the protagonists of the novel were also inspired by women in a microloan group that you interacted with. What are your thoughts on adapting such lived experiences and lives into fiction?

Parini Shroff: The premise of the novel was indeed inspired by the microloan meeting I observed, where I recall asking two questions: First, I was curious as to why the loans were only offered to women; second, I questioned what would happen if a husband were to steal his wife’s loan money for his own gain.

The answer to the first question, according to those who ran this microloan program, was that women were more dependable, less likely to squander the money on vices. Due to communal constructs, women also usually felt a societal pressure to honor their commitments, meaning the shame of defaulting on a loan was as compelling as a legal obligation to repay their debt. Apparently, men exhibited no such shame.

I was given a less concrete answer to my second inquiry. Smiles and shrugs: it had yet to happen. I think many stories have begun with the small, powerful, tantalizing words: what if. This one certainly did. What if a husband stole? What if his wife wanted justice, albeit dark justice?

Q. The narrative is enmeshed in forms of violence—domestic abuse and sexual violence inflicted on women, experiments performed on animals, and everyday micro- and macro-aggressions. All of this, undercut by dark humour and scathing irony. Tell us about this approach as a vehicle for furious social commentary.

Parini Shroff: While drafting this novel in 2020, I found humor, albeit dark humor, creeping into the pages. I worried this approach was irreverent and rejected it at first. I sought to respectfully and accurately address the scourges of domestic abuse, gender/religious/caste ostracization and patriarchy. But the humor was insistent, especially when these wry women would get together and banter. Then I realized humor could act as a bolster and prevent the book from collapsing under its own weight. Rather than minimizing these timely issues, the humor was highlighting them. If you can educate and entertain…that goes a long way toward eradicating ignorance.

Q. Solidarity among the women in the narrative becomes their strongest weapon against the misogynistic society. Essentially, the protagonists create a ‘Herland’. Would you say that women’s liberty is most accessible in this men-free zone?

Parini Shroff: Accessible? Likely. Sustainable? Less likely. The notion of a “men-free zone” also raises questions about inclusivity and intersectionality, as not all women have the same experiences or needs.

I think that brand of liberty is achieved when it’s not the default assumption that, between a man and a woman (in any dynamic, not only romantic ones), the former’s ambitions, desires, wants and needs take precedence over the latter’s. When compromise, sacrifice and adjustment become everyone’s work rather than women’s work, then perhaps we’ve re-wired our brains and priorities to the point where liberty is genderless. 

Q. A powerful strain in the novel is the fickleness of love—how it can hide the reality of abuse. How can we unlearn our complicity in patriarchy that gaslights emotional decision-making, and also deal with toxic love?

Parini Shroff: I don’t write fiction because I think I know things, I write expressly because I’m certain I do not. (This is also why I read.) Fiction is a way for me to interrogate the world, my shifting understanding of it and perhaps offer a voice of compassion.

There is no easy answer to that vital, and deeply urgent, question. I can share an observation, however. “Educate yourself,” is something we often hear, but specifics can be helpful. I think to listen, to reserve judgment, to practice self-awareness and kindness–even when we are tired, wounded, irritable, terrified—can make a huge difference. The internet can be an awful place of judgment, criticism, and blame. It can be so easy to be unkind. But if you can be brave enough for a few moments every day to practice kindness, it could quite literally save a life.

Q. The book smartly critiques the power difference between the male and female characters. An upstart gangster in the novel is reduced to a pile of nerves when he sees a lizard, for example. What is your response to critics of feminist revenge narratives who claim that such narratives can perpetuate ‘reverse-sexism’?

Parini Shroff: I’d encourage them to research systemic power; prejudices in many forms exist, but the machine of power and privilege behind them is what creates oppression. The entire concept of “reverse-sexism,” much like “reverse-racism,” is flawed because it assumes the parties start from equal positions of power and privilege.

Further, the villains in the novel were always going to be “taken down” by their own bigotry. The upstart gangster you mention is misogynistic and upholds caste. These fatal flaws are his downfall more than his superstitious aversion to lizards.

Q. What are your thoughts on representing the body as a site of horror or violence in literature—especially the female body? What are some challenges to writing stories that contain traumatic events and responses?

Parini Shroff: The biggest challenge for me is educating without exploiting. The female body has been historically objectified, sexualized, and subjected to violence and discrimination. Before this novel, I’d written fiction surrounding Partition and while researching for and writing historical fiction that marked and brutal, compassion was my compass. In The Bandit Queens, I speak of abuse suffered by fictional characters, but also abuse suffered by the very real Phoolan Devi. When writing, I address personal and collective trauma, as well as how women’s bodies are often maps of wars waged by others. Avoiding such topics does not heal, and neither does sanitizing them, but I’m also cognizant that each of us walk this world with wounds, and I would never wish to inflict harm on someone triggered by such traumatic events.

Q. As a debut author, what was a challenge that you faced while writing The Bandit Queens and what would your advice to aspiring writers be?

Parini Shroff: The hardest part of writing this novel was drafting the ending. There is a contract of sorts, between a reader and an author, and part of my responsibility was to deliver a satisfying ending. I had a village—friends, peers, my agent, my editors—helping me and I cannot count how many drafts of the last two chapters they endured before it finally felt right.

The Bandit Queens is happily my debut novel, but I’ve been writing fiction for most of my life. The road here has been paved with plenty of No’s, so that this book is in the world is a dream realized for which I am deeply grateful.

My advice would be to keep going. While writing, you may very well be handed some No’s before receiving your first Yes. There are necessary gatekeepers in the writing realm, and you might feel disheartened at times, but you must continue because your story is important to not only you, but the readers who will ultimately one day hold it in their hands.

In conversation with Kartik Chauhan for HarperBroadcast

 

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