business permits her to live independently. Her em-
ployees, the low-caste Ishvar and Omprakash Darji,
are delighted to have jobs. The fourth member of
the little family is Dina’s boarder, Maneck Kohlah, a
college student. However, their happiness is short-
lived. Government officials bulldoze the slum shan-
ties and remove the residents, including the two
Darjis, to be forcibly sterilized; afterward, they be-
come beggars. Another government ruling deprives
Dina of her home and her business, and she be-
comes a drudge in her brother’s household. Disillu-
sioned with life, Maneck kills himself.
Though Mistry admits that chance plays a role in
the lives of his characters, what they have to fear most
is the cruelty of other human beings, as reflected in
the caste system, the greed of government officials,
and religious intolerance. The only power one has,
Mistry suggests, is to will to be good rather than evil.
Impact Such a Long Journeywon the 1991 Governor
General’s Literary Award for Fiction and the Com-
monwealth Writers Prize and was short-listed for the
Trillium Award.A Fine Balancewon the 1995 Giller
Prize, the Canada-Australia Literary Prize, the
Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize, and the Common-
wealth Writers Prize for Best Book. Both books were
short-listed for the Booker Prize.
Thus, with his first two novels,
Rohinton Mistry established him-
self not only as a superb realist but
also as one of Canada’s finest writers.
Further Reading
Allen, Brooke.Twentieth-Centur y At-
titudes: Literar y Powers in Uncertain
Times. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee,
2003.
Bahri, Deepika.Native Intelligence:
Aesthetics, Politics, and Postcolonial
Literature. Minneapolis: Univer-
sity of Minnesota Press, 2003.
Morey, Peter.Rohinton Mistr y. Man-
chester, England: Manchester Uni-
versity Press, 2004.
Rosemar y M. Canfield Reisman
See also Immigration to Canada;
Literature in Canada; Minorities in
Canada.
Montana Freemen standoff
The Event Standoff between federal agents and a
right-wing extremist group
Date March 25-June 13, 1996
Place Justus Township ranch, in Brusett,
Montana
The patient approach of the Federal Bureau of Investiga-
tion (FBI) in negotiating with the Montana Freemen led to
the surrender of the Freemen without the violence that had
been anticipated and that had marked FBI confrontations
with several other extremists in the 1990’s.
The Montana Freemen were one of many extremist
groups established in the 1990’s that were part of the
Patriot movement. Like other Patriot groups, the
Freemen perceived the federal government as hav-
ing been corrupted and controlled by a Jewish con-
spiracy. In addition to strong anti-federal govern-
ment beliefs, the Freemen espoused a Christian
Identity religious doctrine, which holds that Cauca-
sians are the descendants of the biblical Adam, Jew-
ish people are the descendants of Satan, and ethnic
minority groups are subhuman.
The Freemen standoff had its origins in a Janu-
ary, 1994, incident in which twenty-six FreemenThe Nineties in America Montana Freemen standoff 581
A sign erected at the Montana Freemen compound reads, “Grand Jury. It’s the law!
Why not? Who fears the evidence?” The antigovernment militants were demanding
that they be tried by a jury of their own choosing. (AP/Wide World Photos)