Independence

Set in Bengal during the final years of British rule in India, the novel follows three sisters whose lives are upended by their country's violent path to independence. In August 1946, in the village of Ranipur, eighteen-year-old Priya Ganguly plays chess with Somnath Chowdhury, the village's wealthy zamindar, or landowner. Priya dreams of becoming a doctor like her father, Nabakumar, a physician who treats the poor for free, keeping the family short of money. Her mother, Bina, a talented quiltmaker, worries about finances and dowries. The eldest sister, Deepa, is beautiful and Bina's favorite. The middle sister, Jamini, born with one leg slightly shorter than the other, is dutiful but resents the affection denied to her. Amit, Somnath's only son and Priya's lifelong best friend, gives Priya gold bangles studded with rubies, a romantic gesture she is not ready to confront.

After Priya assists her father in a difficult cesarean delivery, she asks to attend medical college. Nabakumar objects, describing the prejudice women face there, but Somnath proposes a compromise: Let Priya take the entrance exam, and if she fails, the matter ends. Nabakumar reluctantly agrees.

The family travels to Calcutta and meets Nabakumar's clinic partner, Dr. Abdullah Khan, and Abdullah's nephew Raza, a young doctor and leader in the Muslim League, the political party advocating for a separate Muslim-majority nation. Deepa is immediately drawn to Raza. On August 16, the League's Direct Action Day, a mass political rally, triggers catastrophic Hindu-Muslim riots. Nabakumar rushes to his overwhelmed clinic and is caught in crossfire when he steps outside to help a wounded man. The family crosses the riot-torn city in borrowed burkhas, full-body veils used as disguises, to reach his bedside. When a Hindu mob stops them, Bina removes her veil, reveals the sindur, or vermillion marriage mark, in her hair, and persuades the mob leader to escort them. At the clinic, the sisters gather around their dying father. He whispers, "Take care of," but cannot finish. Both Priya and Amit vow to fulfill his request, each believing the words are meant for them. Nabakumar dies as Jamini sings a patriotic song.

Grief transforms Bina. She bans Somnath and Amit from the house, falls into deep depression, and sleepwalks one night to the river to mime scattering Nabakumar's ashes. The family's finances collapse as quilt customers cancel orders. Deepa begins a secret correspondence with Raza, while Priya studies for her exam using textbooks Raza provides. When Priya and Deepa take quilts to Calcutta, a shopkeeper refuses their business after seeing Raza's Muslim skullcap. They sell at a smaller shop instead. Deepa's relationship with Raza deepens, and when Somnath's housekeeper reports the affair through Manorama, Somnath's widowed sister, Bina strikes Deepa for the first time and banishes her. Deepa flees to Calcutta, living under a Muslim identity as "Aliya" at the League office.

When Bina threatens to marry Priya off, Priya reveals that Amit has proposed. The engagement proceeds, but Priya fails the exam, which Somnath believes was rigged. He offers to fund her education in America. At the American Library, Mrs. Avery helps Priya identify the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, which accepts her on probation. Deepa and Raza stage a fake marriage using a forged nikah, or Islamic marriage contract, to protect Deepa's Hindu identity. They move to Dacca in East Bengal, soon to become part of Pakistan, where Raza joins the new government and Deepa has a daughter, Sameera. Raza's opposition to the government's plan to impose Urdu as the official language draws dangerous enemies.

Priya's departure for America fractures her relationship with Amit, who accuses her of putting him last and throws his engagement ring in the river. In Philadelphia, Priya excels in her studies and begins a tentative relationship with Dr. Arthur Manchester, a young obstetrics professor, but letters from home carry troubling news of rising violence.

On Independence Day 1947, Hindu-Muslim violence erupts in Ranipur. Hamid, the fisherman whose wife Nabakumar once saved, warns Jamini and Bina. Jamini drags her mother to a pond to hide, then runs to help a neighbor. A man from the mob catches Jamini and attempts to rape her. Bina strikes him with a brick; he slams her head against a tree. Jamini rams his torch into his chest, but he burns her stomach and forehead before Amit arrives on horseback with armed men.

In Dacca, Raza is shot dead on a highway, supposedly by Hindu rebels. Sharif, Raza's young associate, finds no evidence of insurgents and suspects Major Mamoon, an army officer who has watched Deepa with unsettling interest. Mamoon positions himself as Deepa's protector while tightening his control, suggesting she remarry a powerful man. Deepa smuggles a desperate letter to Abdullah: She is a prisoner, pressured to marry the man she believes killed her husband.

Priya learns that Bina has arranged for Jamini to marry Amit, arguing it is the only way to secure Jamini's future after the attack destroyed her prospects. Priya returns to India and reunites briefly with Amit, but Jamini tells Priya she cannot bear losing him. Priya departs, leaving a letter: "I can live with lost love but not with the guilt that would poison that love forever."

Before boarding her return ship, Abdullah gives Priya Deepa's smuggled letter. Priya cancels her passage. Amit, Priya, Hamid, and Jamini travel by motorboat to the East Bengal border. The plan: Deepa will perform a concert near the border, slip away during a mosque visit, and reach the waiting boat. But Mamoon accompanies Deepa, and soldiers surround the mosque.

Jamini executes a backup plan she devised alone. She enters the camp, finds Deepa mid-concert, and orders her to switch burkhas. Jamini takes the stage in Deepa's distinctive blue veil while Deepa, in a plain black one, escapes with Pari, a member of her household, and Sameera through the back of the tent.

Priya returns to the camp, strips the blue burkha from Jamini, and pulls her into the night. Mamoon discovers the abandoned garment and raises the alarm. Soldiers open fire. Jamini falls; Amit sprints from the jeep, lifts her, and carries her to the vehicle. As they speed toward the river, Priya discovers Amit has been shot through the back. She bandages the wound with torn saris and administers morphine. On the boat, Amit whispers his realization about their father's unfinished words: "He didn't mean take care of my family. He meant take care of each other." When Priya says, "You are with me. We are home," Amit dies.

Jamini writes that she is pregnant; she and Amit married before the rescue. Priya declines Arthur's proposal, calling herself "a hollow reed filled with absence," and works at Abdullah's clinic. After Gandhi's assassination on January 30, 1948, Priya tracks down Sarojini Naidu, a renowned freedom fighter, poet, and the first woman president of the Indian National Congress, in Calcutta. Sarojini writes to Bidhan Chandra Roy, the new chief minister of Bengal, asking him to give Priya a chance at Calcutta Medical College. She tells Priya, "You are a daughter of independence. You must carry the flag forward."

An epilogue set in 1954 shows the reconstituted family living in the Chowdhury mansion. Priya runs clinics in Ranipur and Calcutta. Deepa manages the estate. Jamini and Bina create quilts that sell at New Market. Sameera, now seven, plays chess with an aged Somnath, and Jamini's five-year-old son Tapan calls Priya "Pia-Ma." When Manorama suggests yet another suitor, Priya looks toward the gate and hears phantom hoofbeats, Amit's voice calling her name. She holds Somnath's gaze and says, "I am happy."