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Why doesn't Th'amma like Ila? Why does she call her a whore so often? Does anyone know what is at the root of her dislike for Ila?

nadia | notabookshelf i think that the root of their conflict lies in their understandings of freedom. for Ila, it is the egoistic freedom: to do whatever she wants to do a…morei think that the root of their conflict lies in their understandings of freedom. for Ila, it is the egoistic freedom: to do whatever she wants to do and break free of all the rules and customs that she was taught to follow her entire life. she basically gives up her Indian identity in order to fit in, which she mistakingly sees as freeing (dating Nick + the conversation with her uncle and the narrator in the bar scene).
for Th'amma, freedom is collective. she says to the narrator in the hospital that she would come up and kill the British representatives herself, because to her, freedom can only be achieved once her entire country is rid of oppressors. Ila's agency is a complete opposite. Th'amma cannot accept that at all, so Ila is a whore because she gave herself over to everything that Th'amma has always been fighting against.(less)

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