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A widow should be long suffering until death,
self-restrained and chaste.
A virtuous wife who remains chaste when her husband has died goes to
heaven.
A woman who is unfaithful to her husband is reborn in the womb of a
jackal.
The Laws of Manu
Chapter 5 verse 156-161
Dharamshastras
(Sacred Hind texts)
Set in 1938 Colonial India, against Mahatma Gandhi’s rise to
power, the story begins when eight-year-old Chuyia is widowed and sent
to a home where Hindu widows must live in penitence. Chuyia’s
feisty presence affects the lives of the other residents, including a
beautiful young widow, who falls for a Gandhian idealist.
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