Although not the first words in the novel—a short prologue precedes the first official chapter—the opening of that first chapter may bring to mind one of the most famous opening lines in the history of the novel. Following the lead established by Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities, the narrator engages the power of two literary devices, paradox and repetition: "Independence changed everything. Independence changed nothing."
What the narrator of Alka Joshi's The Henna Artist is doing here is much the same thing that Dickens does when his narration asserts that "It is the best of times. It was the worst of times." Ambiguity, confusion, and the ability for two oppositional concepts to be true at once are immediately established with the paradox asserted in this repetitive observation. The story told in the novel will go on to prove this paradox can actually manifest in reality.
This is the story of a young Indian woman named Lakshmi who manages to make an escape from an abusive marriage and establish herself as the most popular henna artist in Japiur. In doing so, Lakshmi succeeds in establishing her own independence from the control and violence perpetrated against her by her husband. Success, however, also instills an increasing dependence upon secrecy and the goodwill of others. The very freedom she has enjoyed since escaping the marriage is also the very thing that most threatens her independence. Fame at any level is a two-edged sword and the more popular she becomes as an artist the closer she comes to her independence vanishing into complete dependence at the mercy of the oppressor she rebelled against and escaped.
The story is set in the India of the 1950s, shortly after the country finally gained its independence from the repressive colonial rule of the U.K. Lakshmi's complicated sense of independence parallels that of her entire country. Faced with self-determination for the first time in the lifetime of its citizens, the reaction to newfound freedom comes with built-in fears related to freedom and responsibility that reflect the personal experience of the novel's protagonist. The unexpected arrival of her husband, who brings with him a sister she never knew she had throws her carefully calculated independence into turmoil. A little money is enough to take care of the threat of her husband. It is the arrival of the sister that really threatens to change everything for Lakshmi. The parallel between the native Indians' relationship to the British before and the relationship after independence is perfectly demonstrated in the response made after hearing of plans by a maharaja to convert his palace into a ritzy hotel: "Can you imagine? We fought for independence and threw the English out, only to have them move back into our palaces?”
The point being that even without the British in actual control of the government, Indians will still find themselves economically dependent upon them (and other foreigners) to maintain their independence. Lakshmi is successful enough at her art to become economically independent. Until, that is, her abusive husband shows up with Radha, the sister. From that point on, the economic independence enjoyed by the henna artist is continually chipped away at due to a series of bad decisions by others that lead to the necessity of either being dependent upon men and doing what is demanded or maintaining independence at the cost of paying for it.
At every step along the path of her story, Lakshmi is forced to make certain sacrifices to get her independence and maintain it. At all those points, she is never really truly independent. Her dependence upon the actions and decisions of others are not just necessary, but brittle. Things could come crashing down around her at any minute with no opportunity for autonomy. The novel tells a story that is a portrait of the paradox of independence being able to change everything and change nothing at the same time. It is the story of nations and of people, but especially of those people who are born into a system in which they are always at the mercy of whoever is in charge.
