57 pages • 1 hour read
Jhumpa LahiriWhen Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1999A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Background
Authorial Context: Jhumpa Lahiri
Content Warning: This section references wartime violence, including sexual assault and genocide.
Jhumpa Lahiri was born in London, England, in 1967 but moved to America just three years later. Her parents were Indian immigrants from the Indian state of West Bengal, and much of her fiction is autobiographical in nature, taking inspiration from her own experience and the experiences of friends and family. Likewise, her works often thematically revolve around the joys and challenges familiar to Southeast Asian immigrants who must navigate social and cultural differences while attempting to build a life in a new place. “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine” is typical of Lahiri’s writing in this respect; she even gives Lilia’s father the same career as her own (also a college professor).
Growing up and attending school in Rhode Island, Lahiri went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Barnard College of Columbia University in 1989 and a master’s in English, a master of fine arts in creative writing, a master’s in comparative literature, and a doctorate in Renaissance studies from Boston University. Interpreter of Maladies was her first published work, released in 1999 to widespread critical acclaim. Lahiri went on to write two novels (The Namesake and The Lowland) and one more short story collection (Unaccustomed Earth) in English before shifting her focus to writing primarily in Italian.
Historical Context: The Partition of India
“When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine” takes place in 1971, but its historical context dates to the Partition of India in 1947. Upon gaining independence from Britain, India was divided into two “Dominions” (essentially self-governing nations that were still within the British Empire) based on religion: The Muslim majority territories became Pakistan, and the Hindu majority territories became India. Pakistan was split into two zones (East and West) on either side of India. Certain states—including Bengal—had large Hindu minorities and were therefore split between India and Pakistan, leading to mass migrations on both sides of the border.
As time passed, even Bengal’s Muslim population grew discontented with Pakistani rule, feeling economically and culturally oppressed by West Pakistan, which maintained political dominance; the Hindus in the region suffered additional religious persecution. In 1971, West Pakistan committed genocide against East Pakistan in an attempt to suppress a growing Bengali independence movement. Hindus and intellectuals were particular targets, but many other Bengalis were killed as well, and hundreds of thousands of women were subjected to genocidal rape. The genocide and the resulting conflict, the Bangladesh Liberation War (also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence), are why Mr. Pirzada cannot get in contact with his family and worries about their safety. There is not a reliably accurate or agreed upon number for how many people were killed during the conflict, but the most accepted figures range in the 300,000 to 2 million range (the story suggests 300,000).
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