Jasmine

Chapter 10 introduces the reader to the slow but inevitable class and cultural violence that worked its way through India, even into the little village of Hasnapur. After her father’s death, Jasmine’s older brothers quit college to return home, take care of the family, and sell the 30 acres of land their father had owned. They open a scooter-repair shop and resign themselves to living in the village.

The new owner of their father’s former land is Canadian—a foreigner—and Jasmine feels “robbed” (48) and “disconnected” (48) whenever she sees the man walking on the paths that her father had once often traveled.

Her brothers entertain male guests at their home, and Jasmine enjoys listening to their theoretical talk of violence and politics. The violence is growing in India, where there are reports each day of bombs exploding, and innocent people hijacked and executed. One guest, a baptized Sikh named Sukhwinder, becomes increasingly more agitated and radical, advocating exile and violence against Hindus. Jasmine’s brothers brush off the man’s statements as foolish talk, but Jasmine is not so sure; she believes this man has “unforgiving eyes” (49). Sukhwinder follows Sant Bhindranwale, a militant Sikh leader, and firmly believes that all Hindus are “bent on the genocide of the Sikh nation” (50).