Papa seemingly envisioned Indian-born-and-bred women as pure, like the portrayals of Sita from the Ramayana popularized by India’s Hindu elite. In the version of the ancient epic that I grew up hearing, Rama repeatedly tests the commitment of his wife, Goddess Sita, daughter of Mother Earth, demanding she prove her purity by walking through fire and later banishing her in a forest over concerns about her chastity. Papa was going to India to find a chaste, obedient, devoted woman. A woman uncorrupted by the West.
