Fire on the Mountain: Understanding the Text (Cambridge (CIE) IGCSE English Literature): Revision Note
Exam code: 0475 & 0992
Fire on the Mountain: Understanding the Text
Questions on Fire on the Mountain require you to offer a thoughtful, personal interpretation. This means that simply knowing the plot of the novel is not enough. You need to understand Desai’s themes, central ideas, settings, relationships, and key events, and be able to explain the significance of important moments within the novel as a whole.
To gain a fuller picture of the text, and to produce stronger, more contextually informed answers, it is helpful to explore:
The novel’s historical context
Its social context
Its literary context
Examiner Tips and Tricks
Alongside analysis of a writer’s choices, examiners also want to see that you understand the historical and social context of the novel. This means showing awareness of when and where it is set, and what life was like at that time. Context helps explain why characters behave the way they do and why certain themes are important.
You do not need to give lots of background information, but you should link context directly to the story or a character’s actions. For example, instead of just stating a fact about the time period, explain how it shapes attitudes, choices, or conflict in the play. This shows the examiner that you can use context to deepen your analysis, not just describe it.
Fire on the Mountain: Historical context
The end of the British Raj
The British Raj was the period of time when the British Crown ruled the Indian subcontinent:
This lasted from 1858 to 1947
Although British rule ended at this time, many of the colonial structures remained intact:
This included class hierarchy, English education, and the patterns of deference of service
It ended in 1947, when the British Raj was split into two states:
These were, at the time, the Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan
British hill stations
Kasauli, like other hill towns in India, was a British development:
It was founded as a retreat for British officials and dignitaries
Places like this served to separate the ruling classes from the local population, and the climate of the local area:
This kept them removed and different, and helped them to live in more comfortable conditions
Being higher in altitude helped them to keep away from the worst of the intense heat
These hill stations will have been designed in the colonial style, so the architecture would have been quite European
By keeping them above the general population, they were being elevated literally and socially:
Their location reinforced the impression of superiority
How this links to Fire on the Mountain | |
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The end of the British Raj | The end of the British Raj does not directly drive the plot of the novel, but impacts the characters through its lasting social, psychological and structural aspects that remained intact after its end. The novel deals with what is left behind, especially with Nanda and Ila both raised in an India under British rule, and whose families benefited from colonial social hierarchies, and characters like Ram Lal still impacted as seen in their deferential behaviour. |
One major link from the British Raj to the world of Fire on the Mountain is through the colonial class structures that persist. Nanda and Ila belonged to the elites, whose status was shaped by British rule. Their education, manners, and expectations reflect colonial values, and this sense of refinement and entitlement continues even after independence. Ram Lal’s continued use of terms such as “sahib” and “memsahib” shows how colonial hierarchies remain internalised. His deference appears habitual rather than enforced, suggesting that the psychological legacy of British rule persists beyond its political end. The novel suggests that the end of British rule did not dismantle class systems it had put in place. | |
British hill stations | Carignano, the house the majority of the novel is set around, is an example of a British hill station. Having Nanda located here, a house previously owned by British dignitaries, symbolises how colonial power structures endure through space and property. Independence changes ownership, but may not have fully changed the symbolic meaning of the place. |
The fact that Carignano is a hill station also continues the idea of the upper-classes being above common Indian people. Nanda is privileged and financially secure, although she does not appreciate it. She is largely disengaged from the people in Kasauli suffering with their daily lives, more concerned with herself. This could also reflect Nanda’s upbringing in privilege, so that she cannot see beyond her struggles as she is so far removed from real life. Desai draws attention to how colonial geography continues to structure social distance, isolation, and privilege long after the British have left. | |
Fire on the Mountain: Social context
Patriarchy in Indian society
The mid-1900s were a time where patriarchal societies were the norm, and this is true of India:
This was true across class lines, meaning that men led both upper-class society as well as poverty-ridden families
Women were expected to pursue marriage and prioritise the role of mother, which kept them financially dependent on men:
They would also be deemed as disrespecting their husbands for any behaviour that did not conform to society’s expectations
Control over women’s bodies and decisions was often still widespread:
Children were married off to wealthy men by fathers who wanted the financial benefits it would bring their family
There was limited reproductive autonomy, and resistance to women’s education, especially in rural areas
Domestic violence and marital infidelity were issues largely kept silent:
Cultural norms discouraged women from speaking publicly about abuse or betrayal, especially in respectable families
Privilege and social reform
Indian society remained highly structured around the class system that was seen during British rule:
There were many families who had benefited from these structures and were in a position to keep them in place
The urban elites were still given better access to education:
This led to more secure employment
These elites were given better jobs, education, and passed properties down to each other to keep hold of their strong positions
These elite families were comfortable and remained insulated from economic hardship:
Their education set them up for higher paid jobs, keeping them away from practical labour
Social connections were as important as education in getting good jobs
Social reform efforts had begun, but were not instantly accepted:
The Indian government started to promote things like vaccinations, women’s education, and legal reforms to stop child marriage
These reforms were often seen as a threat to tradition, economic advantage, and male authority
How this links to Fire on the Mountain | |
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Patriarchy in Indian society | Nanda is living alone in the hills as a reaction to a life where she felt chained up, stuck in a marriage she didn’t want and the role of a mother that became her sole focus, a role that began to dominate her sense of self. Her role is representative of elite women whose status came through marriage, rather than any personal autonomy: she has to live through a marriage defined by infidelity and duty. |
Raka is traumatised by living in a house where her father beats her mother: we see this when she is so shaken seeing other drunk adults at the town’s social club. Raka’s mother is a particularly tragic case, a woman who is beaten, but encouraged to return to the relationship by her own mother as there is great status and respect in being married to a reputable man of his social class. | |
Ila is left penniless after her parents die and leave all their money to her three brothers, with nothing for her or her sister. Her death comes from a society where men expect to have complete control, her killer a man who was annoyed about Ila trying to stop him marrying off his young daughter to a wealthy man. | |
All three women in the novel are oppressed as people by the male influences on their life. All three are left traumatised by men in their lives, and all three have fates shaped in significant ways by male power and authority. | |
Privilege and social reform | Nanda’s house in the hills, a former British hill station, shows how people of privilege inherited more when the British left. Nanda and Ila both remained in privileged positions after the end of the British Raj, at least until Ila was left with nothing by her parents and quit her job on principle. Her privilege blinds her to the risk of that decision, as a woman who has never faced poverty would not expect it to come to her so easily. She is unaware that she is unprepared for the realities of poverty in a society that also cares little for single women. |
Ila Das’s role as a welfare officer places her directly within the social reform movement. Her work reflects the state’s attempt to modernise society through bureaucracy and education rather than revolution. Desai shows these reforms within a context of strong resistance, especially in rural and patriarchal communities. Historically, reformers often faced hostility. Ila’s experiences reflect how reform was uneven, fragile, and often dangerous, particularly for women. | |
Fire on the Mountain: Literary context
Psychological realism
Psychological realism focuses on characters and their inner worlds as much as the lives they live:
Thoughts, emotions and motivations drive the narrative, much more than dramatic events
They are mostly character-driven texts:
The story will focus on their interior monologues, memories, ideas and their streams of consciousness
The narrative focus of these stories is more focused on how characters feel and their thoughts, rather than events:
Characters are likely to have internal conflicts, and are unaware of their behaviours, at least at the outset
The focus is more about why things happen, why characters feel as they do, why they are where they are, and why they react to events
Segmented structure
Texts may be split into sections, with chapters within them, to mark a clear shift in focus or perspective:
Each part can concentrate on a different time, character, relationship, psychological state, or event
It can also be done to signal the stages of development within the narrative:
This gives a weight to the change, emphasising a change in focus
It may also be to reinforce themes and to organise them:
This allows the novel to focus on that theme
It can also shape how each part is interpreted
This may nudge the reader to see the changes and compare these parts, and why they are split into the parts they are
How this links to Fire on the Mountain | |
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Psychological realism | In Fire on the Mountain, Desai presents human experience primarily through inner consciousness, emotional states, and the long-term effects of trauma, rather than through dramatic action. The narrative is driven by psychological issues, and the plot is gentle. Events matter for how the characters react. |
Nanda Kaul’s retreat into isolation is not explained through a single incident, but through an accumulation of emotional exhaustion, resentment, and disillusionment. Desai traces how these feelings shape her behaviour, revealing her state of mind as something developed over time. | |
The text is realistic, reflecting plausible social and psychological realities of mid-20th-century India. Nanda’s past marriage, Ila Das’s decline, and Raka’s withdrawn behaviour are not sensationalised. Rather, Desai shows how trauma manifests in silence, control, detachment, and avoidance. | |
The novel heavily relies on third-person narration and free indirect discourse, which allows the author to merge the perspectives of the narrator and characters, particularly Nanda. The narrative is filtered through Nanda’s consciousness, and descriptions of things like Carignano, the landscape and silence are shaped by how she feels and thinks. This allows the reader to experience her psychological state directly. | |
Segmented structure | There are three clear sections of the novel, and these are shown in the sections of the narrative:
This breaks the plot into significant events, but also highlights the change that Nanda undergoes. First (Part 1) she is stoic and firm in her solitude. This is broken in Part 2, and she begins to realise she is not quite who she thought, before a finale, in Part 3, where earlier deceptions and self-delusions are confronted. |
Sources
Desai, A. (1999) Fire on the Mountain (Vintage)
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