Category: The God of Small Things

Throughout the world, many countries face social problems which are usually influenced by the differences between the citizens of that society. Different scenarios can be taken in place when talking about the struggle that many individuals face and that deal with the social problems that are brought upon them. When talking about the struggle that people deal with, the caste system can be shown with the contrast of how an entire country can be responsible for the creation of a caste system that often differentiates people based on their occupations and job responsibilities into different castes. This can be displayed where the higher class are able to walk over the lower-class individuals while the people in the lower class are unable to do anything about it. People belonging to different castes are not the only ones that face discrimination, sexism is also a huge example of discriminatory problems found in many countries where women are treated as individuals less capable than men as they lack the same amount of physical strength, even if they may be more capable in different areas. Many countries as a whole also develop stereotypes that help them place others into a mental class system where one might believe for another person to be a more or less capable individual than themselves. Within the novel, The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy showcases the truthful picture of the troubles of Indian women, specifically their suffering who and what they care about, their anxieties, and under deserved humiliation under a male-dominated society. From a psychoanalytic perspective, Roy uses satire and writing techniques in her novel, The God of Small Things, to communicate certain truths about the source of India’s social problems, such as the caste system and how women are portrayed in India. Roy emphasizes prominent issues that are evident in this novel that include the behaviors of the patriarchal society and the effects of a male-based authority seen in the way Pappachi treats Mammachi. In addition, the novel explores the issue of the inequality of women, which is seen through Ammu, who goes against the gender expectations placed on her by the hegemonic society she lives in. This novel involves the prominent issue that includes the discrimination arising from the caste system, in which a division in the society of social classes was created.

To begin, the caste system plays a crucial role in India as it originated over two thousand years ago. Roy foreshadows the idea that the concept of difference is imposed on humans and this is conveyed in the caste systems shown in The God of Small Things. In the novel, there are two main social groups: The Untouchables and the Touchables. One of the main characters in the novel, Velutha, is characterized as an untouchable that grew up with the Ipe family and later on in the novel becomes a very qualified carpenter and helps Mammachi in her pickle factory by fixing all the machines. A lot of times throughout the novel, we see Velutha is given some rough punishments than normal for crimes that have not even been proven to be committed by them. An example of this would be how Velutha was being beaten to death even though the police officers did not have any evidence other than Baby Kochamma’s testimony. We see this sense of discrimination against the untouchables repeatedly, but it is most significant in a discussion between Chacko and Comrade Pillai, where Pillai says:

But see comrade, any benefits that you give him, naturally others are resenting it. They see it as a partiality. After all, whatever job he does, carpenter or electrician or whatever it is, for them he is just a Paravan. It is conditioning they have from birth. This I myself have told them is wrong. But frankly speaking, comrade, Change is one thing. Acceptance is another. You should be cautious. Better for him you send him off. (Roy 264)

Although Comrade Pillai is the head of the Communist Party in Ayemenem, he puts on a false appearance. As the main ideology for communism is equality for all, Pillai is an example of hypocrisy. We can see a visual example of this of how he wants to see all men being treated equally, but we can see the untouchables being treated as lesser people rather compared to how touchable are treated. As he attempts to change the views of their community, what he truly believes on the inside is not in people’s control. He participates in marches and places laws for his party but when it comes to applying these changes, he turns Velutha away. However, Comrade Pillai is quick to address that even though people may support change, it would not be as easy for them to accept the people that they have been casting aside for as long as they can remember. The caste system has been an Indian tradition for many long decades, and this is considered a part of society where it shows that India’s untouchables are still considered to have the lowest jobs, live in constant fear of public humiliation, and remain disassociated from citizens of the upper-caste. An article published by National Geographic talks about how the police and government in India do in fact support the caste system. Reporter Hillary Mayel tells readers that, “There have been large-scale abuses by the police, acting in collusion with upper castes, including raids, beatings in custody, failure to charge offenders or investigate reported crimes’ (Mayell, Hillary). This research quote supports the extremities of the caste system as occupations as noble as police officers and government officials are supporting these essentialist ideologies. Many crimes go unreported due to the fear of retribution, intimidation by police, and simply the knowledge that these professions will do nothing to help. The brutality in all of this is that people like police officers and government officials are known for their ability to help citizens in need. Moreover, they swear to an oath to protect and serve the citizens they represent, although knowing that they support such behavior loses all the credibility they have. This relates to the novel since police officers and government officials are similar to Comrade Pillai as they both work for citizens. In conclusion, a caste system is a form of social stratification of the Touchables and the Untouchables in Indian society. This is analyzed through the novel, National Geographic and the lens of the psychoanalytic theory as it is a belief that indicates right or wrong given to citizens by society.

Next, gender discrimination is shown in India since the beginning of time. Roy analyzes the social issue of women in India through The God of Small Things by examining a hegemonic society that has a power structure through male-based authority. To begin, the character Pappachi, the father of Ammu, is seen in the novel as a cruel bitter man. One of his great discoveries that he came upon was that he found a new species of moth, however, the discovery is not credited until after his retirement when the moth is named after another entomologist. The credit of finding out that the species belongs to another entomologist is Pappachi’s biggest failure in life, as this resulted in Pappachi taking all of his frustration and anger out on his wife Mammachi, as he constantly abuses her.

Pappachi would not help her with pickle-making because he did not consider pickle-making a suitable job for a high-ranking ex-Government official. He had always been a jealous man, so he greatly resented the attention his wife was suddenly getting. … Every night he beat her with a brass flower vase. The beatings weren’t new. What was new was only the frequency with which they took place (Roy 46).

This quote signifies Pappachi as a husband and a father where it’s evident that he thinks of himself as a man of higher class, someone who should be valued more than a person that works in a pickle-making factory. Moreover, when Mammachi’s business starts becoming successful, instead of acknowledging and appreciating the work Mammachi puts in, his jealousy is channeled through beating his wife. Relating this quote to research conducted by the International Research Center on Women, “Men feel the need to gain as much power and control as they can, they steal away power and control from women. They deny women the right to make decisions for themselves, they leave women unable to direct their own lives so that they can direct their lives for them. Ultimately, they’re trying to increase their sense of significance and status, in an effort to offset the discontent and sense of lack created by humans” (Taylor, Steve). This research was conducted by men in India as it shows that they believe that sometimes women have to be beaten. This is shown as people have accepted this in the society that they live in as it contributes to the factor of how women are to be treated. The beliefs and stereotypical roles put forward by the society include how women must maintain their gender expectations to be accepted in society and be considered female. This research quote can be seen connected within the novel, as where it can be seen that Pappachi feels that Mammachi’s significance in society is higher than his and this results in him inflicting pain on her. Furthermore, as they live in a patriarchal society, Mammachi’s main role is to care for the needs and desires of Pappachi as well as accept her inferiority. As Mammachi did not cater to his needs and did not follow the superstructure designed, it is revealed that the beatings were not new, just more frequent than usual. In conclusion, Pappachi is a character in the novel who portrays the view of men in Indian society, analyzed through research from the International Research Center on Women, and lens of the psychoanalytic theory as a narcissist with an imbalanced ego.

Thirdly, the effects of abuse and lack of freedom that women in India face can be compared to the novel by examining the protagonist’s actions as an individual who experiences the trauma of abuse growing up. One of the main characters, Ammu, is shown as a strong independent woman that grows up with the trauma of abuse in her past. While growing up, Ammu was beaten by her father and this contributed to her hatred towards the patriarchal society that India consists of. After Ammu’s marriage, she finds out that her husband turned out to be an abusive alcoholic that had no respect for her and from this, she leaves him with her twins, Estha and Rahel, and travels back to her original home in Ayemenem. From her failed marriage, Ammu suffers a lot as she develops many different personalities. This is evident in the novel when Roy says “What was it that gave Ammu this Unsafe Edge? This air of unpredictability? It was what she had battling inside her. An unmixable mix. The infinite tenderness of motherhood and the reckless rage of a suicide bomber. It was this that grew inside her, and eventually led her to love by night the man her children loved by day” (Roy 44). Ammu is one of the most inspirational characters in the novel as she portrays herself as both a strict and loving mother. She has the ability to resist social norms and this is evident through how she was not ashamed of her divorce. Ammu’s ability to resist gender expectations and roles makes her unique when compared to other women in her household as they are all dependent on what others think. Through all this Ammu as an independent woman wants to see her children behave well and grow up in a society where they can be accepted without a dominant living father figure in their household. With all the trauma that Ammu had experienced growing up her positive identity and self-esteem shows that she is still a very contrasting character when compared to typical Indian women. According to the Hindu Business Line, author B. S. Raghavan, tell readers that:

The revolutions in knowledge, information, communications, technology, and social mores seem to have made no difference to women’s perception of themselves as submissive and deferential subordinates, as homemakers, child-bearers and child-readers and generally as the supporting cast, and not as decision-makers and game-changers in their own right. So much so that they would rather silently put up with domestic abuse, including beating and other forms of mental and physical torture, than complain to their parents, leave alone suing the husbands under the provisions of appropriate laws relating to penal offenses or divorce (Raghavan, B. S).

This research quote goes against the equality rights that women want as they are starting to believe that these gender roles are what they are good for. Many women in India that get abused think that keeping silent is another way for them to be okay with the way that they are being treated, however, this can have some negative effects on them not only physically but mentally as well on the way they act and think. In terms of Ammu’s children, Ammu wants to raise Rahel in a way that she can be an independent woman. Indian women are setting an example for their daughters or even sons, illustrating that accepting these forms of abuse is admissible. In contrast, when Ammu is abused by her husband, not only does she divorce him, but she also has the courage to hit him back with a vase and face her community as well as her family after the terrible mistake of leaving for freedom. In conclusion, the aspect of women in India conveyed through Ammu and other women in the Indian society is analyzed through the Hindu Business Line and lens of the psychoanalytic theory as these women are all attempting to deal with their superego.

Lastly, caste discrimination is the most complex human rights issue facing India today. In Indian society, the caste system seems to be something that many people in India have accepted and from this, caste discrimination shows to have an effect on the struggle of women that are against exploitation in a male-dominated conservative society. Moreover, Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things foreshadows the caste problem that is faced by the untouchables in an educated society. It explores the role of politics and its effects on the common men. In the novel, Roy’s character Velutha portrays his black complexion and his low birth suggest his social inferiority and the resultant segregation and subjection that he is subjected to. The laws of India’s caste system are conked out by the characters of Ammu and Velutha, an Untouchable or Paravan. Velutha works at the Paradise Pickles and preserves factory owned by Ammu’s family. Yet, because he is an Untouchable, the other workers rail against him and he is remunerated less money for his work. Velutha’s occurrence is disquieting to many who believe he proceeds above his station. His own father comments on this problem: ‘Perhaps it was just a lack of hesitation. An unwarranted assurance. In the way, he walked. The way he held his head. The quiet way he offered suggestions without being asked. Or the quiet way in which he disregarded suggestions without appearing to rebel’ (Roy, 73). In the context of this novel, Roy portrays Velutha as someone who doesn’t really adopt a different lifestyle simply because he is of an apparent lower class. Velutha doesn’t adhere to the unfortunate limitations placed upon him to the idea that of being a lower class and he openly acts in a way that implies that he doesn’t regard him being an inferior person. Hindus believe that being untouchable is punishment for having been bad in a former life. By being good and obedient, an untouchable can obtain a higher class. Velutha’s lack of triumph causes him many problems throughout the novel. The caste system is considered a part of society which shows that it would be hard to change regardless of how many people support it. This idea is supported by the fact, “Changing an organization’s culture is one of the most difficult leadership challenges. That’s because an organization’s culture comprises an interlocking set of goals, roles, processes, values, communications practices, attitudes and assumptions” (Forbes). The history of a culture can help us understand the problems that one can face when trying to introduce change into a longstanding tradition. Over time a culture develops itself into the roots of the community and different values and processes are developed surrounding that specific culture. After all this time, when one tries to change it, even with the support of all those involved, it can still be a huge challenge as you are not only changing the culture, rather you are changing the mindsets of all the people that you want to impact, something not everyone complies with. When you look at these problems through a psychoanalytic view, it is easy to find that there are different kinds of shame that take part in forming these mentalities. In conclusion, caste discrimination can be seen connected through the psychoanalytic theory as its beliefs it also shows signs of resentment since the untouchables start to resent the touchable who caused them to feel shame.

In conclusion, Roy uses satire and writing techniques such as the use of rich character voices in the novel The God of Small Things showing strong emotions to address truths about the sources of India’s social problems such as the caste system and the inequality that women face in India, observed through the psychoanalytic lens. As the caste system plays a crucial role in the discrimination of many Indians, the concept of segregation amongst classes can be compared to the concept of the superego as it restricts the way Indians perceive other Indians of the lower class. Even though all of these social problems vary in size and frequency, they came together to form the tragedy that takes place in the novel, which includes a man losing his life for crimes he did not commit, as well as the destruction of countless others.

Ammu’s life reflects the ongoing struggles that women have to endure on a daily basis. The novel depicts how women have struggled to “escape traditional values, patriarchy, and colonial power” (Culda, 2019). Throughout the novel, there are different categories in which inequality is portrayed: gender assumption and gender stereotypes. Both of which have affected Ammu’s life extensively. This essay aims to examine how Ammu’s life was affected by gender inequality and “double standards” throughout the novel The God of Small Things, written by Arundhati Roy, which was set in Kerala-India in the 1960s. I will also be analyzing Ammu’s home life as well as her relationship with Baba and how the two contribute to the overall theme of gender inequality.

The novel is based in Indian society with many difficult problems that affect, not only Indian society but societies around the world. “Men and woman. are affected by unwritten laws, social norms, moral norms, gender norms and mostly oppression”. (Culda, 2019) In Indian society, women suffer more because of their position within their homes and within different societies. India is a democratic society which means that men and women are theoretically equal. However, in India, it has been said that although India is a democracy, women are not treated as equals. The Indian society consistently objectified women as opposed to treating them equally. Masculinity is favored in Indian society, however, in the novel woman are favored and the author demonstrates gender inequality through the woman in the novel.

Gender assumption is a theme that occurs many times throughout the novel. In a quote from the novel we can see how gender assumption negatively affected the woman of India- “Ammu completed her schooling the same year that her father retired from his job in Delhi and move to Ayemenem. Papacy insisted that a college education was an unnecessary expense for a girl, so Ammu had no choice but to leave Delhi and move with them. There was very little a.young girl to do in Ayemenem other than to wait for Marriage proposals while she helped her mother with the housework.” (Roy, 1997) This quote shows that men insisted that women do not need to study in a higher education institution because they are solely responsible for taking care of the household. As we can see from the above quote, Ammu was prohibited to continue her education due to the fact that she was a woman and higher education was deemed unimportant for her and all women in India. Ammu was forced to follow her father back to Ayemenem to prepare for marriage and take care of the house and children. This is one example of how there is a problem of gender and subordination (Hidayah, 2006).

Women did not receive equal rights within their own homes, among their own family members. Chacko, Ammu’s brother, treated Ammu as if she was not on equal terms with him. When discussing their parent’s wealth and financial status, Chacko was set to inherit almost all of the family’s assets. Chacko made a statement that clearly demonstrates how women are oppressed in their own households: “what’s yours is mine and what’s mine is also mine” (Roy, 1997). This is an example of “double standards” as even though Ammu and Chacko are siblings they did not get the same treatment growing up. Chacko was entitled to the family’s belongings because he was a man. Furthermore, Chacko a self-proclaimed Marxist does not only oppress Ammu but also makes the

woman who works with him feel insignificant. “He would call pretty women who worked in the factory to his room, and on the pretext of lecturing them on labor rights and trade union law, flirt them outrageously” (Roy, 1997). This shows that Chacko has no problem sexually harassing women in the workplace, due to the fact that he was a man. He views women as objects and not as human beings.

Baba, who was Ammu’s husband lost his job when the twins were two years old. He repeatedly told Ammu that he is able to keep his job provided that Ammu sleeps with his boss. This is an example of how Ammu’s now ex-husband did not view Ammu as a human, but rather as an object that he is able to manipulate as he pleases. Women are not respected as much as they should be, by even their husbands. Ammu refuses to go forward with the act of infidelity and Babe punches her in response. This is another example of how women are frowned upon by men in this society. When Ammu leaves her relationship with Baba she is scowled by Baby Kochamma. She constantly berates Ammu for her failed marriage while encouraging her brother, who seems to have new and unfamiliar woman regularly “She allows her brother to have an illegal relationship with unfamiliar women but frowns upon Ammu for thwarting the ethical boundaries of the family.” (Sheeba, 2017)

The God of Small Things is a novel that tells of the suffering that women endured during this time in India and how Ammu was a victim of the suffering and gender inequality. Ammu had to “bear the brunt of male domination silently” (Sheeba, 2017). Ammu not only had to fight for everything that she wanted in life but had to do that with gender inequality and double standards weighing over her shoulders. She fought against inequality in her home life as well as in her relationship. Ammu is a tragic character as she did all she could for herself as well as her children, but she was no match for the brutality of discrimination and gender hardships.

With Roy deriving the reference of India as the ‘Heart of Darkness’ from Joseph Conrad’s novel titled as such, it is apparent that the God of Small Things mirrors Conrad’s criticism on the detrimental and lasting impacts of colonialism. Sophie Mol, a clear metaphor of British powers, arrives at Ayemenem with the obsession of ‘taming’ the east, which is portrayed as inferior and backward. Her drowning and subsequent death are thus symbolic of the British Empire’s eventual failure to exert complete control over India when it regains independence in 1947. However, India’s independence clearly comes at a price. Upon Sophie’s death, the Ipe household, a metaphor for India, is left traumatized. The degree of their trauma is displayed through Roy’s kaleidoscopic narrative that disrupts linear time with foreshadowing and flashbacks. The fragmented timeline mimics the psychological effects of victims of colonization, as alluded by Ammu and the twins, who are haunted by their past. Ammu to her death, ‘refused to acknowledge the passage of time’ in order to deny the disintegration of her family; whilst the twins are rendered into ‘frozen two-egg fossils’ who have incestuous sex as a result of not being able to comprehend the depth of their trauma. It is evident that Roy actively condemns colonization through the effects on the colonized. Interestingly, she also explores the resulting effects of colonization on the colonizer. By bringing Sophie to India, Margaret Kochamma was ‘haunted by that decision for as long as she lived.’, which, given the strong criticism on colonization and imperialism in contemporary society — guilt from the British government and general public – seems like a plausible reaction to the atrocities committed by the British Empire. Perhaps Sophie’s death also directly expresses the literal truth in Rahel’s seemingly preposterous statement, ‘If she gets dirty, she’ll die. Rahel’s ‘dirt’ represents her ‘Indianness’, which the West actively discriminates against. Sophie’s consequent death after mingling with Rahel hence serves as a hyperbolic form of karmic justice, that Roy employs to express the extent of her resentment. Although it is undeniable that Sophie’s death is most directly caused by Estha, it is impossible to ignore the colonized’s self-annihilation – Kari Saipu’s suicide, when the Indian boy he was raping is taken away from him. The rape is no doubt a personification of the colonizer’s exploitation of India’s natural resources, and upon losing India as a colony, the British Empire was subjected to a massive economic decline. In this way, Roy presents colonization as a double-edged sword – there are no winners or losers.

When Velutha is murdered in the History House, a symbol of the lasting effects of colonization, Rahel’s plastic wristwatch that has the ‘time painted on it’ reading ‘ten to two’ is abandoned in it. The watch’s defiance of the passing of linear time communicates the permanence in the atrocities of colonialism: even though the History House has successfully transformed itself into a luxury hotel, the Meenachal River next to it – the river that took Sophie’s life, was ‘thick and toxic’, implying the futility of appearance as the colonizer’s impact on the former ‘abandoned rubber estate’ cannot be disguised. The passing on the effect of the detriments of colonialism resembles a hereditary disease that plagues the land of the colonized, and its legacy is perpetuated through the indoctrination of ideals, such as White superiority, within family units through generations. Pappachi’s insistence on imitating the British, who he views as superior, is almost psychotic and absurd: ‘until the day he died, even in the stifling Ayemenem heat, every single day, Pappachi wore a well prepared three-piece suit and his gold pocket watch. Although Chacko recognizes him as an ‘Anglophile’, he is still affected by the residue effects of Pappachi’s indoctrination of White superiority throughout his upbringing. Chacko’s hyperbolic love for Margaret Kochamma, who ‘he adored for not adoring him’, exhibits the same streak of illogic inherited from Pappachi. Despite Margaret’s mundanity, Chacko deemed her ‘self-sufficiency’ remarkable and spoke of her with a ‘peculiar pride’ after their divorce. He objectifies himself and justifies Margaret’s ‘trading in’ of him for an average Englishman, who he considers ‘better’. Despite subconsciously mimicking an English aristocrat (‘he read classics. And rowed for Balliol.’), it is evident that he is still somewhat grounded in his traditional Indian outlook of marriage that operates on imbalanced power politics (‘it was impossible for him even to consider making the bed… didn’t apologize for the cigarette burns in the new sofa.’) The irony in the subsequent breakdown of Chacko’s marriage illustrates the ‘man of two worlds’ theory, proving the truth in its claim that ‘no matter how much the native was exposed to European influences he could never truly absorb them’. Interestingly, Kari Saipu proves the theory also works in reverse: although he ‘spoke Malayalam and wore mundus’, the colonized clearly does not think he has integrated himself into their culture, which is evident in the sarcasm of his nickname, ‘The Black Sahib’. Roy’s comical insertion of quotation marks in ‘The Englishman who had “gone native”’ highlights language and dress as a superficial, rather than an intrinsic understanding of culture.

However, the importance of language in perpetuating the erosion of the colonized’s identity as a result of colonization cannot be downplayed. The modern definition of ‘Anglophile’ is a lover of the English, yet during the late 60s, it was ‘Person well disposed to the English’. The passivity in ‘well disposed of’ speaks nothing of ‘love’, but rather promotes the colonized to internalize the oppression they face and serve the British. The contradiction in meanings alludes to the subjugation of the colonized under colonial power upon being imposed with a language that they do not have a thorough understanding of, hence enabling colonizers to create history and alter interpretations to their own will. Chacko extends the belief that ‘planting the language of empire in a new place — remains the most potent instrument of cultural control’ to include history, which colonizers erode due to the colonized’s an incomplete understanding of the imported language. For history to be understood, one has to ‘go inside’ — however, the juxtaposition of ‘go inside’ and ‘trapped outside’ suggests that this is impossible as ‘their footprints had been swept away. Without access to one’s history, the colonized like Pappachi are ‘brought into a state’ of Anglophilia. The passivity ‘brought’ exudes signifies a lack of choice and forced understanding in the colonised, which echoes Rahel’s love for Sophie as ‘they’re first cousins. So they have to’, despite this love’s baselessness and absurdity as she just met her.

Sophie’s ‘rejection outright and extremely rudely, all of Baby Kochamma’s advances and small seductions, illustrate the colonized’s lack of self-awareness and internalized racism that fuels their fruitless idolization of the colonizer. Some, like Kochu Maria, are deluded into thinking the English love them back. She makes unwitting remarks like ‘When she grows up, she’ll be our Kochamma, and she’ll raise our salaries’, when in reality the English underpaid them to accelerate the growth of the British economy, through retardation of India’s capital formation. Kochu’s lack of education perhaps contributed to her internalized racism, for instance, the first comment she made of Sophie Mol is ‘She has her mother’s color, reflecting the obsession and awe with whiteness, which is associated with purity. Despite Pappachi’s Anglophilia, his job as an Imperial Entomologist subjects him as an instrument in the colonial machine that alienates Indians from their own environment and culture. Roy invokes the study and classification of insects as metaphorical to the colonizers’ scrutiny and systematic definition of the colonized’s land, making it understood on their terms. Similarly, Baby’s ornamental garden cultivated through botanical knowledge acquired from the University of Rochester subjects her as a tool to colonial attempts in taming and controlling the Indian environment. Unsurprisingly, she is not only oblivious to her own circumstances but is also obsessed with pleasing the English. This is demonstrated through her constant, yet rather embarrassing attempts, such as questioning seven-year-old Sophie on Shakespeare’s Tempest and making the twins ‘rehearse’ an English car song all week long.

Although a handful of natives began to acquire European education and then to challenge Europe’s presence and position in their native land with the intellectual weapons of Europe itself’, Chacko and Ammu’s situation proves this futile. Chacko preaches and recognizes that they are ‘Prisoners of War’ that ‘adore our conquerors and despise ourselves, yet he chooses to ‘Marry our conquerers’. He also turns a blind eye to the struggles back home, ignoring Mammachi’s detailed letters on ‘her sordid squabbles with her husband and her worries about Ammu’s future’, as he was besotted with ‘the long back white girl that waited for him. Upon Ammu’s outburst, ‘must we behave like some damn Godforsaken tribe that’s just been discovered’, at Margaret’s racial insensitivity, he immediately comes to Margaret’s defense and asks Ammu to apologize. Chacko’s paradoxical nature sheds light on the deep indoctrination he has been subjected to, although he is consciously aware of the colonized as the oppressed, he subconsciously subjects himself to the colonizer. This perpetuates Ammu’s futility in protesting against racial injustice, proving ‘Native women occupy the residual and unspecified category of the Other’. The alienation, or ‘Otherness’, that native women are subjected to is also reflected in Kochu’s deprivation of education, which renders her illiterate with no chance of upward social mobility, thus giving recognition to denial of spoken and written word as an active tool of oppression. Arguably, India’s reluctance to progress in some ways, such as its endorsement of warped gender politics, may produce impacts as detrimental as those of colonization. Prominent female figures within a community, namely Mammachi, unknowingly abuse their power by supporting India’s backward sexual politics that regulated female sexuality, consequently perpetuating the low social status native women occupy. She dismisses Chacko’s sexual liaisons as ‘Men’s Needs’, yet demonizes Ammu’s sexual desires and validates their physical and familial punishment to her as a consequence. On a wider scale, the general public also actively contributes to strengthening the defines between different social strata by continuing the practice of the Caste system, although it was outlawed in 1950. Through endorsing and normalizing sexual discrimination and classism within society, Indians are in fact further enabling themselves to be ethnically discriminated against by the colonizers, which paradoxically, the educated, like Chacko, so condemn.

Although Roy presents the impacts of colonialism as most potent and direct, which is seen through the lasting trauma of the Ipe family, it is undeniable that India’s backward social and sexual politics contributed to perpetuating these detriments. However, despite their difference in terms of influence, they all operate on the power of generational indoctrination, which the book’s sequel, ’The Ministry of Utmost Happiness’ confirms. The sequel’s hauntingly similar depiction of its characters’ constant battle towards self-assertion in a society held in thrall to the taxonomy of class and Caste, appears to be a mere continuation of that in ‘The God of Small Things. Perhaps even Roy herself is not convinced by her repetitive statement, ‘Things can change in a day, after all.

The term Third World is to some degree obsolete, initially meaning nations that did not have a place with the ‘First World’ (the Western, capitalist nations) or the ‘Second World’ (the Soviet Union with socialist allies). As emphasized by Robert Young, the term Third World was considered as a positive, empowering name for an alternate point of view on “political, economic, and cultural global priorities” than the transcendent enraptured world with capitalism on the one side and Soviet communism on the other. Nevertheless, that third way was never appropriately explained, and after some time the term rather progressed toward becoming related with the issues of the Third World rather than special solution, and it step by step turned into a pejorative. Another shortcoming with the idea is that it hides the numerous social and cultural contrasts that exist inside the Third World; there is merely no such uniform group of nations. A different term would possibly be ‘women in developing countries but since that idea is similarly unclear and since ‘Third World women’ is an idea that has remained broadly being used in numerous areas, it will be a theoretical and strategic purpose of departure in this paper, as we go after a more nuanced understanding. It is critical to recall however that these ideas are, as McLeod puts it: “provisional categories of convenience rather than factual denotations of fixed and stable groups”. Nevertheless, which idea we use, the reality remains that an average Third World woman does not exist, which is the reason any ordinary tag would hide various historical and cultural distinctions.

Inside the postcolonial literary discipline, there has been a growing discourse about First World feminism in relation to Third World women. However well-implied, comprehensive cases of worldwide womanhood always run the risk of criticizing somebody and of leaving culturally discrete examples of power and abuse unnoticed. Chandra Talpade Mohanty reprimands western feminists in her essay ‘Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses’ and blames many of them for unknowingly recreating the inconsistent power relations that as of now is grinding away politically and economically, inside their survey. Mohanty demonstrates how Third World women are on numerous occasions are defined as religious, family-oriented, ignorant, and local, putting them in a situation as ‘the other’ as opposed to the purportedly increasingly dynamic and modern women in the First World. Besides, Mohanty responds against how western feminists will, in general, allude to monolithic, global patriarchy that “apparently oppresses most if not all the women” in the Third world and they will, in general, depict women as weak misused objects and unfortunate victims, as opposed to the, assumed powerful male exploiters. She closes: “Sisterhood cannot be assumed on the basis of gender; it must be forged in concrete historical and political practice and analysis”. Mohanty additionally notes that the relationships between women are usually overlooked, just as various types of connections among women and men. This is the reason Roy’s novel is especially fascinating in light of the fact that it centers on how women relate to other women yet in addition to various types of men. There is no standard dichotomy in the novel but instead a majority of relationships. Probably it is at this point clear to the reader how unrealistic it is to accept that all women share the equivalent social or political interests simply because of their comparable bodies. Women as a group are bound to be profoundly isolated by boundaries like class, ethnicity, and nationality.

All women “live in an ‘imperialist’ situation in which men are colonialists and women are native… some basic relations of inferiority and superiority, of powerlessness and power… prevail between women and men in all countries”. The ‘Sati-Savitri’ picture of women, anticipating them as delicate and obedient, mellow and quiet, feeble and docile, has offered a route to the possibility of utilizing women as an infant doll. The phallocentric frame of mind of thinking about women as the item, the capitalist perspective on regarding women as commercial objects, the lustful demeanor of treating women just as sex items have decreased them to the subaltern other. Despite the fact that Ammu wedded Velutha by resisting her family esteems and tossing a challenge to the caste-submitted society, she turns into a casualty of her intoxicated husband’s savagery. Not long after marriage, Ammu found herself in a similar net of male misuse. Her alcoholic husband torments her physically and pesters her psychologically. Ammu’s physical misuse by her husband demonstrates the common Indian male’s acquired supposition of prevalence. Velutha even goes as far as possible by imposing her to acknowledge the proposition of having sex offered by his English supervisor Mr. Hollick. The endeavor of utilizing Ammu as a product and consistent physical assault caused upon her by her better half forces Ammu to abandon him.

Chase for sexuality is vital to colonial interference as is shown by Said in his Orientalism. Sexual abuse of the factory women and the tea pickers by Chacko and Mr. Holick individually is a declaration of the coherence of such sexual quest in the postcolonial time. The superior white Englishman is coveting his subordinate’s wife; it is the colonizer’s coveting. Prior to this, he pined for the poor tea-pickers and ended up fruitful. The tea-pickers did not challenge, neither did Ammu’s husband. It is the silence of the colonized just like Velutha’s in front of Mammachi and Chacko.

Inspector Thomas Mathew’s tapping of Ammu’s breast with his police baton is postcolonial depravity of sex propagated by an Englishman – a colonizer Mr. Hollick does it with the local Indian women; Chacko, the Anglophile does it with the factory women and Inspector Thomas Mathew with Ammu. Mathew’s lustful look at Ammu’s breast and flinging foul remarks on Ammu by addressing her as ‘Veshya’ are an indication of the shared traits among the powerful and the ruling class. Another resemblance that is regularly found with the power mongers is that the influential individuals abuse their intelligence to deal with sex and society. Michel Foucault (1980) in his idea of ‘Discourse’ demonstrates how various discourses in the social battle for power utilizing knowledge. He expresses that power controls sexuality and utilizes knowledge for its very own advantage and in this way directs the knowledge of sexuality to guarantee a knowledge-based organization of authority. Mr. Hollick, Chacko, Pillai, and Mathew know that the powerless don’t have a say, they cannot challenge. So they set out to direct them as they wish. Mr. Hollick utilizes his colonial status, Mr. Chacko his ‘Oxford’/capitalist knowledge, Pillai his knowledge into a socialist belief system, and Inspector Mathew his knowledge into criminology in misusing Ammu and Velutha. Arundhuti Roy voices against the commercialization of sex in the worldwide market cornered by men. A woman aches for balance physically and spiritually. Ammu feels that she is not just in possession of a man who by virtue of being a man, has his sole directly over her body. Apart from her physical self, she is also a person who longs for emotional communication. In The God of Small Things, Roy shares the stunning knowledge of the obscene and animalistic nature of man.

Roy has investigated the inconveniences of divorced and widows in The God of Small Things. The destiny of divorced women also is brought to the fore in The God of Small Things. Comrade Pillai’s way to express the word as ‘Di- divorced, presents mortality to Rahel. Divorced Margaret is close to a prostitute in Mammachi’s eyes. Baby Kochamma’s frame of mind towards isolated Ammu is typically Indian. Indian culture occasionally acknowledges widowhood sympathetically, however not a divorced woman. A widow does not have any status either in her parents’ home or in the community. The reality turns out to be obvious from the remarks made by Baby Kochamma: “She subscribed wholeheartedly to the commonly held view that a married daughter had no position in her parent’s home. As for a divorced daughter – according to baby Kochamma, she had no position anywhere at all. And as for a divorced daughter from a love marriage, well, words could not describe Baby Kochamma’s outrage. As for a divorced daughter from inter-community love marriage – Baby Kochamma chose to remain quaveringly silent on the subject.” (Roy 45-46).

Roy’s perspective is that even in a generally educated society like Kerala, womens’ sufferings have been doubled by individuals from their very own family and own gender. Ammu’s return to her home in Ayemenem with the twins makes an exceptionally upsetting situation. It significantly outraged her relatives. Everyone is hesitant to offer a space for a divorced person. It is not clearly past their capacity to give her a good means for survival in her own family. Her unwelcome arrival to Ayemenem offers the individuals from the family and society the chance to resyrain her. Kochamma conveys her hatred on their faces. Her own family ignores her and affront her on different events utilizing various reasons. Local people likewise begin keeping away from her. No one comprehends her and accordingly socially she is treated as an outsider. Despite the fact that she ought to have rights to her share, she is driven out by her own home. She turns into a subaltern in her very own family. She builds up a feeling of estrangement. For a period, Ammu digests the disgrace heaved by her sibling, Chacko, and the awful comments of the neighborhood moralists as she has the weight of raising her kids without any help. She can neither neglect them nor can raise them up in a solid domain. They resemble achievements around her neck for the transgression she submitted by damaging the ‘adoration laws’. Being a divorced person and mother of two kids, Ammu has no ‘Lucus Standi’ in society. She and her children are parasites at her own home. Thus male domination within her family and social prejudice against a divorcee doubles Ammu’s sufferings and distress and ultimately pushes her into the pit of isolation, and frustration (Chaskar 170).

The idea of subalternation and silencing of women had been there in the mind of Indian people from time immemorial. In the Vedic time, numerous Indian women needed to forgo their lives in the Chita (funeral pyre) after the demise of their husbands. Widows used to accept that they had no presence of their own and in this way, after the death of their husband, numerous women believed that it was pointless to live alone. If anyone survived and tried to lead a normal life, she had to face various troubles and vexations and had to lead an utterly miserable life as a social outcast and religiously untouchable undergoing patriarchal subjugation, social condemnation, and economic discrimination (Chaskar 170). Generally, the marriage of widows was considered taboo. So, widows were denied the right to have a second companion after the end of the first. Hence, in the patriarchal society, women were rendered down and out from multiple points of view. Despite the fact that the circumstance of women has improved a great deal in post-independent India, there are numerous issues yet to be tended to and settled.

The devilish impact of patriarchy has pushed the ‘gendered subaltern other’ to a delicate and defenseless state. Subalternization and silencing of women go on at various levels and in various structures and hues in India and are propagated by various powers in the society. Age-old conventions of patriarchy, social and religious practices, and political and authoritative operators, combined with information and power have contributed enormously to the subalternation and silencing of women. Thus Ayemenem, the anecdotal town of The God of Small Things, situated in Kerala, presents incidents every now and again happening all over India.

Patriarchy is psychological, social, cultural, and crude explicit. Subalternization and subdue of women go on at various structures and shading in Indian culture and are sustained by various powers in the society. As a member of the prevailing patriarchal culture, Reverend Ipe dependably attempts to control the female members of his family. Pappachi likewise thinks about his family’s honor and protects the biased values. Mammachi turns into prey to patriarchy. Aleyooty Ammachi, Rahel’s great grandmother’s accommodation, and disappointment are obviously recommended in one of the images hung on the wall of the Ayemenem house:

“Aleyooty Ammachi looked more hesitant. As though she would have liked to turn around but couldn’t. Perhaps it wasn’t as easy for her to abandon the river. With her eyes, she looked in the direction that her husband looked. With her heart, she looked away.

The portrayal of the picture demonstrates how Ammachi’s life was to the prevailing patriarchal culture, a fundamental agency of female domination, manipulation, and subalternation. Ammachi wanted to see the magnificence of the world with her very own eyes however she could not move her eyes on account of her better half’s ethical inflexibility. The representation clarifies how patriarchal society controlled their lives and put a huge effect on the taste and decisions, likes, and dislikes of women in India. Pappachi, Ipe’s commendable successor, forced standards, guidelines, and confinements on the female members of the family and controlled their lives.

Arundhuti Roy’s The God of Small Things is a striking prosecution of patriarchy and the inequity and abuse delivered upon women in this androcentric culture. Mammachi, Ammu, Baby Kochamma, Margaret Rahel are examples. Mammachi’s entomologist husband, Pappachi, torments her psychologically and physically (Roy 47-48). Mammachi’s pickle-making occupation gains Pappachi’s apprehensive glares rather than support. He dislikes the recognition she gets in the public eye for her ability in it. Pappachi’s arrogance puts Mammachi’s art for music to an end. Few words of acclaim from the music educator incites him to put a finish of her training suddenly. Pappachi used to hit Mammachi and lastly stopped speaking to her until his passing. Along these lines, Mammachi’s situation in her very own home is no superior to a ‘subaltern other’. She turns into a ‘subaltern other’ in her very own home.

Chacko, another patriarchal voice in the Ayemenem house, appreciates all benefits, which are purposely denied to his sister, Ammu. He sexually misuses female workers in his pickle manufacturing plant. He calls pretty women who work in the factory to his room, and on the pretext of lecturing them on labor and trade union law, flirt with them outrageously (Roy 55). Chacko’s room is stacked with books. He has perused every one of them and quotes long sections from them just to dazzle and charm the pretty women working in his manufacturing plant. This self-declared Marxist pulverizes the basics of Marxism however communism and socialism do not empower sex exploitation. Rights forever, freedom, property, and quest for joy are unavoidable rights invested on people by their creator. Roy’s The God of Small Things raises criticism against the distortion and abuse of power, politics, social frameworks, traditions, standards, culture, custom, religion, and knowledge. Roy’s voice of challenge conveys a huge load in criticizing religious and social foundations like the church, family traditions, civil administration, etc.

Caste and class system still shake and stun Indian culture. Political groups utilize the station and network card to receive the most extreme rewards. Indeed, even dynamic democrats, regardless of their political philosophy, accidentally sustain social disparity, religious narrow-mindedness, and racial separation. The diverse experiences include the Indian and settlers, Hindus and Christians, the last being to a great extent an inheritance of the British Empire. In Kerala, both the locals and the pioneers live with the awareness of being once colonized and the colonizers separately. The diverse experiences during the British Empire still aggravate society despite the fact that India rose as a free state in 1947. The only difference that becomes obvious is that those evils have returned in a new mold (Hossain 107-1033). Roy exhibits an intense sense in introducing and unfurling the entire situation with discrete rightness. Casteism and class feeling is a social and cultural contradiction. In India, higher caste individuals relish more riches and freedom than lower-caste individuals who perform manual occupations. Among the lower caste individuals, untouchables have the most reduced standing and as a rule the least monetary position. The ‘touchable’ workers at Paradise Pickles sniff at him because Paravans were not meant to be carpenters. (Roy 77,159). Despite the fact that Velutha is more gifted than some other workers in the manufacturing plant, he is paid less by Chacko. He abuses Velutha on the ground of his being an untouchable Pariah. Untouchables happens to be a subaltern race in post-independent Indian culture.

Inspector Matthew and the ‘crusader of the abused’ Comrade Pillai, intentionally greet each other to support the false FIR held up against him by the scheme of Baby Kochamma, only on the ground that every one of them is touchable while Velutha is untouchable. Comrade Pillai does not specify that he is a supporter of the Communist Party. At somewhere else Comrade is seen discussing with Chacko, the proprietor of the Paradise Pickles, Velutha’s release from his work:

“But see, comrades any benefits that you give him, naturally others are resenting it. They see it as a partiality. After all, whatever job he does, carpenter or electrician or whatever, it is for them he is just a Paravan. It is conditioning they have from birth… Better for him you send him off.” (Roy 279)

The essential standards of the communist party – fairness and social equity for all – give an impression of being a way to fulfill their lustful greed and other special needs, prompting common hardship in the state. The socio-political air of Ayemenem is totally dirtied with deception, trickery, shamefulness, and disgraceful human conduct and result in a nightmarish situation. When Chacko came to know the relation of Ammu and Velutha he threatens to oust her from the house and break all her bones (Roy 225). According to Syrian high society Christians, the untouchables Veluthas and Vellaya Pappas are not human beings; they are not any more significant than animals. To the previous, the latter are Pariahs, the ‘Pariah dogs’. Caste awareness is so prevalent in Indian culture that the pure and high attempt a wide range of strategies to parade their prevalence. The maid Kochu Maria puts on Kunukku in her sewn-up earlobes just to awe others about her touchableness.

Only the Small Things are ever said. The Big Things lurk unsaid inside.

The god of small things is an extremely touching rendering of the interpersonal complexities of the members of one family. It plays a game of cat-and-mouse with the boundaries of social and cultural dichotomy, contrasting it with the passionate yearnings of the human conscience. In the desolate village of Ayemenem in Kerala in the 1960s, with communism and modern ideologies rattling the age-old social customs, Roy weaves a suspenseful narrative that is part political commentary, part psychological drama.

The book spans over two decades but follows no chronological order. The story is told through unfolding memories and flashbacks. It begins, figuratively speaking, at its chronological end. We already know what is going to happen, we just don’t know how. There is perhaps no single tragedy or antagonist that could be considered the undoing of the Ipe family. Roy’s tale is a dark but whimsical take on the incidents leading up to the present. Touching upon the cruelty of separation, the narrative opens with the reunion of Rahel and Estha, fraternal twins who were separated when they were seven. While the book has no distinguished narrator, it is through the perspective of Rahel that the readers discover the most heartbreaking moments. What makes this even more gut-wrenching is that for a very large portion of the tale, Rahel and Estha are only seven years of age- they have no concept of the social obligations and restrictions that plague the adults around them. They are merely children and struggle to find explanations for the actions of their elders. The perspective may be of a child, but the god of small things is by no means children’s literature.

Roy beautifully balances the aftermath of a family tragedy with a background of honour and taboos, love and sexuality, social obligations and personal desires. She tackles some rather uncomfortable issues like intercaste sexual relations, child sexual abuse, mental illness and incest.

Roy paints a complex yet subtle picture. The story is not about what the children know, rather what they understand. While the children have an air of blissful naivety, their emotions are not oversimplified. They are children and may live in a world of their own marking, yet they are not untouched by the barely disguised animosity and resentment being shown to them. This becomes especially evident after the arrival of their cousin Sophie. It is perhaps this feeling of being unwanted that eventually leads to the events of Sophie’s drowning. The twins escape to the History House for the first time, starting a chain of events that ruin the lives of so many in a merciless game of crime and punishment, innocence and guilt, right and wrong.

‘What came for them? Not death. Just the end of living.’

The children – Rahel, Estha and Sophie – are perhaps the biggest victims in the story. Victims of a world they did not understand, a world that did not understand them. Victims of the politics of the adults, of the trickery of the adults, of the rules framed by the adults. Roy very sensitively captures the effect this has on their emotional and mental well being. It could be said that they never really could grow up, never really recover. The incidents of the book leave a wound so deep that it’s not healed even after 25 years. Rahel and Estha considered themselves as two parts of a whole but had to spend most of their lives separated from each other, for no fault of theirs. While both the twins go through profoundly traumatic events, Estha is more severely affected- both because of being molested by the Orangedrink Lemondrink man and because of being the one who condemns Velutha to death. In trying to protect his sister, his world changes overnight. The effect of this is that when we meet him at the starting of the novel, Estha has been mute for a rather large part of his life.

‘It is curious how sometimes the memory of death lives on for so much longer than the memory of the life that is purloined. ‘

Mortality is a recurring theme in the story. Not only are we confronted with the untimely death of Sophie Mol, but Velutha is also brutally executed for no fault of his. Ammu’s death is a moment of extreme anguish, even more so for the readers who know the reasons behind her situation. Roy not only deals with the ground realities of death but also its effects on those left behind.

‘That it really began in the days when the Love Laws were made. The laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much.’

Roy quite beautifully portrays the human emotions of love and fear. Fear in the story is not just portrayed as a reaction to something scary, it is shown to be a very powerful motivator. The ‘Love Laws’ that dictate who should be loved and how are invoked throughout the book. Love is shown to be the influence behind the biggest decisions of all the characters’ lives. Baby Kochamma’s unrequited love for Father Mulligan transforms her into a bitter, manipulative woman. Ammu and Veluatha’s forbidden romance dooms them both to death. Rahel’s fear that Ammu does not love her anymore is what causes her to board the ship to history house for the first time. Estha may not have an understanding of what happened with the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man but he does realise that something was wrong. This nurtures in him a sense of fear, a desire to escape, feeling unsafe in his own home. Rahel and Estha’s love is expressed physically at the end of the book, resulting in the taboo of incest. (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008) Love is a powerful force in the novel, yet it is not easy to come by. It is twisted and wrapped and withheld as a means of bending others to your will.

‘Some things come with their own punishments.’

Roy also tells of what happens to those who break the rules- those who do what they want and not what society wants. Be it the laws of love or those of social division, people who break the socially accepted norms are punished by the society. Baby Kochamma defies her father and converts to Catholicism, so she is condemned to a life of bitterness and solitude. Ammu divorces her husband only to discover that she is unwelcome in her parental home. Upon the discovery of his relationship with Ammu, even Velutha’s family turns against him. Vellya Paapen even offers to kill his own son for breaking the ‘love laws’. Velutha and Ammu end up paying for their passion with their lives.

‘This was the trouble with families. Like invidious doctors, they knew just where it hurt.’

More than anything, The God of Small Things is a tale about family. It is a story of how families are forced together and torn apart. It is a story of a family and how each member of the family has a different idea of familial love, duty and obligation. Baby Kochamma’s obsession with the family’s social image causes her to torment and manipulate those around her. Mammachi’s differential treatment for her children is a driving force in the story, laced with Jocastaian undertones. Rahel and Estha’s relation is perhaps the most important one in the entire novel. They see themselves as one and being separated from each other drives them to the brink of mental sanity. Familial love in the story is constantly struggling against the social constructs of duty and honour. And unfortunately, it is rarely victorious.

‘.……..the world had other ways of breaking men.’

The book is also layered with political themes. In a world concerned with the big things, Roy directs the reader’s attention to the small things. Roy put emphasis on the Small things going on behind the Big Things like political and social upheaval. This is what makes Roy’s writing so poignant. Roy has an extremely sensitive portrayal of difficulties faced by the Untouchables, who are forbidden to touch the members of the upper caste. The story talks not only of the extreme caste discrimination prevalent in the society but also of the less evident forms of discrimination that the characters suffer. We see instances of religious discrimination when Baby Kochamma is looked down on for converting to catholicism. Christians could not marry Hindus, in the eyes of society. As a result, Rahel and Estha are shamed for being half Hindu. Chacko is also implied to have suffered racial discrimination at the hands of his English in-laws.

Through the characters of Ammu and Chacko, Roy talks of the misogyny in Indian society. There is a huge disparity in how the two of them are treated for getting a divorce or having extra-marital relations. After her divorce, Ammu’s life is treated as being over but no such parameter is imposed upon Chacko.

Neo-colonialism: A Comparative Essay

We live in a neocolonial era. US military involvement in the Gulf and the Horn of Africa, structural dependency in the Caribbean and Latin America, racial discrimination of Africans, and most of Asia, the Pacific, and the Middle East, multinational corporations’ worldwide hegemonies, information industries favored country treaties and trade blocs that exacerbate economic differences, a range of internecine conflicts tacitly backed by former colonial powers, widespread corruption in sponsored authoritarian governments across the so-called Third World; increasing ethnic violence. All of them serve as unwelcome reminders of Fanon’s thesis that colonialism does not end with political independence or the ceremonial lowering of the final European flag.

As a result of colonialism, post-colonialism arises. It refers to the discussion of the consequences of colonialism on culture and society (Huggan, 1997). It is concerned with culture from the end of colonialism to the present, or, in other words, the post-independence period. Throughout and after the colonial period, colonizers’ views, particularly Western concepts, have dominated world culture while conquered cultures have been sidelined (Bhabha, 1994). The colonizer’s culture is regarded as superior to the colonized culture, which is regarded as inferior. The relationship between the colonizer and the colonized is then viewed through the lens of post-colonialism. It casts doubt on the beliefs that the colonizer’s culture is superior to that of the colonized. Because many individuals in various nations throughout the world have been affected by colonialism, post-colonialism is an important means of articulating the colonized people’s experiences. The purpose of this article is to compare the ties between the colonial past and Neo-colonialism in The God of Small Things, A Small Place, and This Earth of Mankind.

Arundhati Roy’s novel The God of Small Things, published in 1997, is set in Ayemenem, Kerala, India, and alternates between 1969 and 1993. The story follows the Ipe family, a rich Syrian Christian family consisting of grandma Mammachi, her divorced son Chacko, her divorced daughter Ammu, and Ammu’s dizygotic twins Rahel and Estha, as they navigate post-colonial India. Despite India’s independence from Britain, colonialism’s negative consequences are still felt 22 years later. During British control, India was promised a civilized society full of academics and scientific breakthroughs, but the British had no way of knowing how colonization would intensify the Ipe family’s patriarchy. Chacko and Ammu, brothers who had the same possibilities in the beginning but a radically different conclusion, are shown in the novel as allegories for British colonialism, respectfully demonstrating the gap between the hope of British colonialism and the reality of its repercussions (Roy, 1997).

The British conquered India under the guise of improving the country’s prospects by teaching and developing its people in the sciences and other intellectual fields. It sought to abolish the caste system and promote equality, but it failed to see how profoundly sexism and classism flowed through India’s rivers like veins. Chacko and Ammu are siblings who were reared by the same parents, in the same environment, and with the same results. While they both started off the same way, sexism prevented Ammu from attending university like Chacko (Roy, 1997). Pappachi believed that a college degree was an unnecessary luxury for a lady, thus Ammu had no alternative but to leave Delhi and join them. In Ayemenem, a young lady had no choice except to wait for marriage proposals while helping her mother with the chores. The colonial reforms were unable to remove the ingrained belief that men and women had different values. As mentioned in the text, a woman is expected to clean the home, marry, have children, and then clean the house again. Ammu sees being educated and becoming a scholar as a cost, but Chacko sees going to Oxford as an investment. Since her father did not have enough money to finance a decent dowery, no proposals came Ammu’s way,” the paragraph continues, demonstrating obvious chauvinism. Why, if her father could afford to send Chacko to a famous British institution, couldn’t he afford to pay for his own daughter’s dowry? Their father, like the rest of India, did not allow colonization’s progressive prospects influence his views on gender roles. Chacko is the epitome of Britain’s aspirations for India’s people. However, it is important to remember that he came from a better social class and a wealthier family than others, and that his sister, who had the same start and opportunities as him, did not have the same success. A man of lower class, or lower caste, since that inbred belief could not be entirely eliminated, and especially not a lady of lower status, could not have done what Chacko did. Britain’s colonization of India was fraudulently marketed as an improvement, yet it exacerbated previously existing problems by a factor of two (Roy, 1997).

Britain warned everyone that they may end up like Chako, but they lacked the resources or care to send Indians to school in England. Instead, much of India will wind up like Ammu, with the same restricted prospects enticed by the possibility of something greater. It’s no surprise that Ammu rebelled against the Love Laws out of desperation, yet she still ended up worse than her contemporaries. Ammu would be welcomed, cared for, and believed in an ideal society, but Ammu has to suffer because British colonialism prioritizes upper-class males and ignores those considered lower-class (Roy, 1997). They restricted her possibilities for outcomes, and no matter what she selected, she would have been evaluated since she was a woman who had not traveled to England and so was not worth as much. Ammu is, in the end, the downtrodden people of colonial India’s voice. A bitterly angry story rife with injustice, treachery, and insanity (Roy, 1997).

The novel A Small Place (Kincaid, 2018), depicts the detrimental effects of global capitalism on Antigua, both during and after colonialism, as well as the subsequent neocolonialism or recolonization. The story depicts Antigua as a colonial city with colonial buildings and foreign invaders enjoying posh, opulent lives at the cost of locals. She condemns colonialism and all of its negative consequences, stating that current Antigua’s corruption is the product of ill habits learnt from its colonists, who imprisoned, murdered, and controlled via terrible administration. I mean the economic component that Hugh Hodges refers to as the transnationalization of capital and industry, which has allowed firms to transcend national borders and travel across the world to take advantage of cheap labor and establish new markets for goods and services. This comprises foreign interests that dominate the tourism sector, manufacturing, distribution, and lending and financing in these areas, as well as international corporate organizations and international agencies working in Antigua. Economic supremacy always leads to social and cultural domination. According to the book, the most common threat associated with the concept of global culture is that it will eventually result in homogeneous world culture, erasing existing cultural differences and leaving an impoverished, soulless, Americanized or Europeanized culture of commodity consumption in its wake. Globalization research, like postcolonial studies, raises concerns concerning the existence and survival of social and cultural identity (Kincaid, 2018).

From the slave trade, which supported the island’s wealthiest residents, to the extreme prejudice suffered by local citizens inside the education system, the story explores how racism shaped the little island of Antigua. With humans, racism has always existed. Racism treats people differently or unfairly just because they are from a different ethnic group, have a different religion, or are of a different nationality. Racism is defined as someone who believes that their race is superior than others and feels superior to others because of their vehicle. Because of prejudice, many individuals have died, lost their families and children, and have stayed homeless throughout history. Racism ignites a conflict that threatens to wipe humanity off the face of the earth. Feeling superior to or more powerful than another race exemplifies racism’s depravity. and their family. World War II is an excellent illustration of racism. One of the major causes of the conflict was the belief that one’s career was superior to that of other races. When this happens, conflict breaks out, and many people lose their lives. Slavery, which impacted African people, is another type of racism. One race utilized strength and might to conquer and subjugate another.

This Earth of Mankind by Pramoedya Ananta details the development of Minke, a local Javanese kid who enrolls at a prestigious Dutch-run colonial high school. He is a great student, a keen observer, and a descendant of Javanese nobility. As a result of these characteristics, he is able to critically examine the hazardous and complex environment in which he finds himself. When a highly unconventional family asks him to live with them, the protagonist’s life is disrupted. Minke encounters a diverse group of people in this household that push him to confront issues that plague his society, such as gender and racial discrimination (Toer, 1981). Nyali Ontosoroh was the leader of the home where Minke lived. Nyali is a half-European concubine in charge of her treacherous Robert and gorgeous Annalies, as well as the family dairy company. Minke and Annalies fall in love despite their ethnic differences. Robert, on the other hand, is dissatisfied with this connection and becomes an outspoken opponent of Dutch colonial control (Toer, 1981).

Nyai and Minke are highly educated, haughty, and strong-willed individuals who are unable to accept the authority and freedom that constitute their society’s hierarchy. Individual power and independence in their culture, for example, are highly dependent on the amount of European blood in their veins. As a result, the two heroes teamed together to fight the evils that plague their civilization. Nyai’s moral authority is unassailable, despite the fact that she is a concubine with no legal rights to her thriving company or her children. Despite his natural constraints, Minke is seen as self-evident by many Europeans, and by his actions and words, he demonstrated that he was equal to anybody else. She encouraged Minke to focus on humanity’s life rather than humanity’s death when she found out he aspired to be a writer. He also points out that stories about people, whether they are about ghosts, gods, ogres, or animals, are more difficult to grasp than those about the environment (Toer, 1981).

Minke and his mother have an extremely close bond. Her mother adores him despite his father’s rejection and insistence that he adopt the Javenese identity. Her mother is upset because of their connection because he writes his journal in Dutch. In a letter, she begs her son to write the journal in a language that she and his people can comprehend. It is clear from these talks that the figure of the native intellectual enjoys a positive connection with the general public. For example, he recognizes the injustices people face and directs his focus to redress them. His connection with Nyai, his concubine, is also ideal, because she has no objections to the intellectual figure pursuing her half-Javanese, half-European daughter. As a result, his connection with the Dutch is good, as he fits in well when he enrolls in their school. Furthermore, he keeps a journal in Dutch, as indicated by his mother’s complaint that he keeps a record in a language that neither she nor his people understand (Toer, 1981).

In comparison to The God of Small Things, A Small Place, and This Earth of Mankind, which concentrates on post-colonial behaviors and neo-colonialism, The God of Small Things, A Small Place, and This Earth of Mankind focus on post-colonial behaviors and neo-colonialism. In the novels, the local intellectual is forced to absorb the imperialist culture, which causes them to lose their individuality. The intellectual native attitude about their people changes dramatically as a result of this integration. The native scholar, for example, learns the methods of the colonialists and works for them while ignoring the misery of his people. Neocolonialism is the belief that even after a country has won its independence, it is still subject to the tremendous influence of its parents. These freshly formed countries are still living in the shadow of their parent countries, but on top of the roots they have planted. As a result, the question arises: are these post-colonial countries that have just regained their footing and won independence better off as a result of their independence? The close imperial dominance of parent states explains the fact that these newly independent nations are free, but not better off, due to their parent nations’ and imperialism’s continued influence.

Colonialism is a trait that has defined many of today’s contemporary nations’ foundations (Dirlik, 2002). Numerous previous tribes and cultures have benefited from the impact of many ancient nations. From Africa to India to Asia, all of these countries have had some form of cultural impact from another country. This comes as no surprise, after all, globalization is a well-known fact. Cultural imperialism and hegemony, on the other hand, are not as easily defined as globalization. Then there’s neo-colonialism, which has become a powerful force. Powerful countries employ neocolonialism for a number of reasons, and it is constantly changing not only particular cultures, but global culture as well.

In fact, neo-colonial endeavors may conceivably utilize any facet of culture. Language, for example, has been described as being utilized in a neocolonial manner (McLeod, 2020). Similarly, as in the instance of the God of Small Things book, education has been identified as a significant tool for neocolonialism (Roy, 1997). It’s also crucial to consider the long-term consequences of these actions. Globalization, or cultural homogeneity as it is more generally known, is arguably the most powerful factor impacting the global landscape today. For example, some projections predict a 90% decline in the number of languages spoken globally by 2100, while others clearly demonstrate that the number of speakers would be concentrated in a few languages by that time (Batibo, 2005). These global tendencies are inextricably linked to the practice of neocolonialism. While growing populations may help certain languages gain popularity in the future, it’s no wonder that the languages at the top of these lists have homelands that have a history of neocolonialism. While the word ‘globalization’ implies that the consequence is a varied global culture, the truth is that this continuing homogeneity of ethos is dominated by cultures that are most aggressive in their neocolonial aspirations. The culturally imperialistic activities of the core nations limit the impact of other cultures while strengthening their own, resulting in a global culture that is more dominated by the core than the periphery.

Arundhati Roy once in an interview said that her book, The God of Small Things is not about history but biology and transgressions. The transgressions in history began thousands of years back. ‘That it really began in the days when the Love Laws were made. Laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much. (The God of Small Things, 33) The scholars who read the novel might doubt that why should Christians be more concerned about the untouchable laws. The answer can trace from the novel and the history of Kerala. Syrian Christians in Kerala were originally from high caste rich Brahmins who voluntarily migrated into Christianity from the disciple of Jesus Christ, St. Thomas 2000 years ago. They felt very proud of their lineage and they married among themselves. Any type of transgression was intolerable and unthinkable for them.

This migration from one culture to another one was not completed in its full sense and this migration was itself a type of transgression to their original ancient religion. However, they did not renounce certain social practices and they inherited the age-old practice of untouchability even though they accepted Christianity. Untouchability was unknown to Christianity as per its principles. The Syrian Christians portrayed in the novel had many complexities due to this transgression from Brahminism to Christianity. Pappachi did not permit untouchables into the house. Caste Christians did not allow the untouchables to touch anything that touchables touched like Caste Hindus. In Mammachi’s girlhood, Paravans were expected to crawl backward with a broom for sweeping away their footprints. Therefore, Syrian Christians or Brahmins would not step into the footprints of paravans. She told the twins that untouchables were not permitted to walk on public roads. They were not permitted to cover their upper bodies and use umbrellas. They should place their hands over their mouths when they spoke to touchables for diverting their polluted breath away from the touchables.

For escaping from the social plague of untouchability, untouchables in Malabar converted into Christianity. They did not want to continue as untouchables in the Hindu religion. A number of paravanes, pelayas and pulayas were converted to Christianity and joined the Anglican Church at the time of British rule. This transgression happened as the incentive given to them like food and money. As a result, they were again transgressed and known as Rice-Christians. Later they realized that this transgression did not bring any expected results. On the other hand, they were placed from the frying pan into the fire. They were more segregated as Christians. They had separate churches, services, and priests. There was a special favour for them that they were given a separate Pariah Bishop. After independence, they were cheated that they were not entitled to government benefits like job reservations or bank loans at the lowest interest rates. Because, as per official records, they were all Christians and so considered as casteless. ‘It was a little like having to sweep away your footprints without a broom. Or worse, not being allowed to leave footprints at all.’ (The God of Small Things, 74)

When Velutha was eleven years old, Mammachi on vacation from Delhi noticed Velutha’s remarkable skill. She persuaded Velutha’s father Vellya Paapen to take admission to the untouchables’ school that was founded by Mammachi’s father-in-law Punnyan Kunju for the untouchables. Johann Klein, a carpenter from Bavaria came to Kottayam and conducted a workshop for the local carpenters under the Christian Mission Society. Every day after school, Velutha went to Kottayam and worked with Johann Klein. At the age of sixteen, Velutha finished his school education and became a talented carpenter. Traditionally, Paravans were not supposed to do the work of the carpenter. By the persuasion of Mammachi, Velutha became a skilled carpenter. Thus, he also transgressed his traditional work inherited from his ancestors.

All appreciated Velutha’s transgression from ancestral work into the carpenter’s work. He made a Bauhaus dining table with twelve dining chairs in rosewood and made a manger for the Infant Jesus to be born. Besides these carpentry skills, he was an expert in repairing machines. ‘Mammachi (with impenetrable Touchable logic) often said that if only he hadn’t been a Paravan, he might have become an engineer.’ (The God of Small Things, 75) Because he had repaired radios, clocks, water-pumps and looked after all the plumbing and electrical work of the Ayemenem house. Velutha was the designer of the sliding-folding door of the back veranda of the Ayemenem house. Velutha had freely touched the things that touchables touched. According to Mammachi, it was a big concession for a Paravan. Usually, she did not persuade Velutha to enter the house except for needy circumstances.

Velutha was an inevitable person in the Ayemenem house and Paradise pickles & Preserves because he reassembled the Bharat bottle-sealing machine and he maintained a new canning machine and an automated pineapple slicer. He was the man who oiled water pump and a small diesel generator. He built the aluminum sheet of the factory and the ground-level furnaces for boiling fruit. Velutha’s father Vellya Paapen was against any type of transgression. He was a paravan who had seen the crawling backward days in his childhood. Therefore, he always tried to stick to the established social code. He was very loyal to the Ayemenem family because when he had an accident with the stone chip, Mammachi had paid for his glass eye. He always felt that his new eye was the eye of the Ayemenem family. ‘His gratitude widened his smile and bent his back.’ (The God of Small Things, 76)

Vellya Paapen was afraid of his son, Velutha. He felt that Velutha might transgress everything. He was not afraid of what he said or what he did in his life but the way he did everything. ‘Perhaps it was just a lack of hesitation. An unwarranted assurance. In the way, he walked. The way he held his head. The quiet way he offered suggestions without being asked. Or the quiet way in which he disregarded suggestions without appearing to rebel.’ (The God of Small Things, 76) According to Vellya Paapen, these qualities were acceptable for the touchables. For Paravans, these qualities to be construed as insolence. Any way Vellya Paapen felt that Velutha had already crossed the boundaries decided for the untouchables. He expressed his fear and anxiety about his son.

The novel, The God of Small Things presents the tragic consequences of migration from culture to another, transgressions of ethos and the evil influences of one country on the other. The family of Ayemenem was racially Brahmins, converted into Syrian Christians. Rev. E. John Ipe was a pious Christian, reputed and respected for his Christian ethos. It was reported that the chief head of the Syrian Christian church, the Patriarch of Antioch met Rev. E. John Ipe in Cochin. He had the honour of kissing the hand of Antioch. The pious and virtuous Christian origin of the family and its subsequent decay and decline suggests the rise and fall of the Roman Empire.

In addition to this, the references to foreign countries, England, Vienna in Austria, America, and similarly the visitors from Australia, Ireland, and England in the novel, stressed the various roles played through the migration on the decline of the family. It is pertinent to note that these acquaintances and associations influenced the concerned characters to acquire new habits, qualities, and attributes. For example, Pappachi returned from Vienna with jealousy for his young and charming wife. He indulged in wife-beating and attempted to spoil the beauty of his wife. Pappachi’s fashion and fascination for England made him Anglophile, and the resultant egoism, self-centeredness, inability to understand others’ emotions made him an enemy of his wife and children.

Chacko visited England only to return as a scheming and selfish villain. Baby Kochamma went to America to study. She came back as a bloated cucumber. She was desperate, intolerant, and sadistic. She was unable to see Ammu having sexual satisfaction from Velutha because she was deprived of the same. Besides, the foreign elements introduced in the novel were the Australian missionary friend of Baby Kochamma, who played a secondary role in the destruction of the Ayemenem House. Irish Father Mulligan, who ultimately died as a Hindu sannyasi and English man ‘Kari Saipu’s the History House also witnessed many things. If we read the opinions of Arundhati Roy as expressed in her non-fiction, the mention of these foreign countries in the novel suggested serious and dangerous implications, and they also reminded us of the cross-currents and under-currents of foreign influences on the colonial as well as the post-colonial India.

The migration of communist ideology into the village, Ayemenem, gave a new hope of liberation to the untouchables who were dissatisfied with their plight in life. Velutha desired recognition and respect like any other human being. Therefore, when communism offered liberation, he joined them and carried the party flag in the march in Cochin. However, unfortunately, he was not only cheated but also robbed of his love and life. The corruption and moral degradation of some communist leaders embodied in K N M Pillai, who lacked qualms of conscience to deny the truth that Velutha was a card holding member of the party and to positively precipitated his death at the hands of the police. The communism in the novel and comrade K N M Pillai hadn’t enough integrity to liberate the small beings at the bottom of the society, because the members consisted of new patriarchs like Chacko, an Oxford-educated communist-capitalist, lacking even ordinary morality when it comes to his ‘man’s needs’ and Comrade K N M Pillai, an entrepreneur, who makes business with Chacko privately and calls him, ‘management’ in public and prides himself in organizing Kathakali, based on ‘Mahabharata’.

Rahel’s marriage was the story of another transgression. She was studying at the School of Architecture. Larry McCaslin came to Delhi for collecting study material for the thesis. He met her two times in two places. The first time he noticed her in the school library and after that a few days later he met her in Khan Market. He felt a jazz tune in him and he followed her into the bookshop. However, both of them were not looking at books. Arundhati Roy describes her transgression. ‘Rahel drifted into marriage like a passenger drift towards an unoccupied chair in an airport lounge.’ (The God of Small Things, 18) She went to Boston with Larry McCaslin. He thought about Rahel that he had received a gift in life. The emotional discordance between them was reflected when they made love. Her eyes offended him and her eyes behaved as they belonged to someone else. The hollowness in Rahel led immediately into divorce.

Baby Kochamma had many transgressions in her life even though her transgressions did not lead to marriage. For the sake of love, she did transgressions to her religious denomination. Her father was a priest of the Mar Thoma Church. Even though she decided to convert into Roman Catholic and joined as a nun. Later she refused to reconvert and preferred to remain in her life as Roman Catholic. When she was eighteen, she fell in love with a young Irish monk Father Mulligan. He was in Kerala for deputation from seminary in Madras. The purpose of the deputation was to study the Hindu Scriptures and denounce them intelligently. Instead of denouncing intelligently the Hindu Scriptures, he became a Hindu sannyasi after renouncing Christianity. Therefore, the story of Baby Kochamma and Father Mulligan was very interesting with a lot of ironies and complexities.

Father Mulligan and Baby Kochamma’s father reverend E. John Ipe belonged to different denominations of the church. Every Thursday, father Mulligan visited the Ayemenem house to meet reverend E. John Ipe. Baby Kochamma at her tender age hovered around the dining table for the attention of father Mulligan. Baby Kochamma also tried to seduce the father Mulligan by exhibiting charity. Every Thursday morning, at the time of father Mulligan’s arrival, she forcefully bathed a poor village boy at the well and addressed him with a good morning. In the pretext of asking biblical doubts, she used to meet father Mulligan every time. ‘Every Thursday, undaunted by the merciless midday sun, they would stand there by the well. The young girl and the intrepid Jesuit, both quaking with unchristian passion. Using the Bible as a ruse to be with each other.’ (The God of Small Things, 24)

Biblical doubts and charitable activity continued for a year and father Mulligan had to return to Madras. At last, Baby Kochamma transgressed her denomination of the church and became a Roman Catholic. She joined in a convent in Madras with the hope of legitimate meeting, father Mulligan, and discuss theology. She expected nearness of father Mulligan and dreamed them together. Very soon, she realized the futility of her transgression. Senior sisters in the convent already monopolized the priests and bishops with biblical doubts more sophisticatedly than Baby Kochamma. She became restless and unhappy in the convent. She knew that Mother Superior used to read all letters before posting. Therefore, she communicated her grief to the family in the name of Koh-i-noor befooling the Mother Superior. Her mother pointed out that it was Baby Kochamma in the name of Koh-i-noor. Reverend E. John Ipe immediately went o Madras and brought back Baby Kochamma from the convent.

Reverend E. John Ipe understood that her daughter achieved more than enough reputation improbable to find a husband. If she could not have a husband, then the next alternative was arranged an education. Her father arranged to study a diploma course in Ornamental Gardening at the University of Rochester in America. After two years of education at Rochester, Baby Kochamma became extremely large and there was no trace of the slim attractive girl. Baby Kochamma became more in love with father Mulligan instead of forgetting him. Her love was also more passionate than ever. Diverting her attention, her father made her the charge of the front garden of the Ayemenem house.

Father Mulligan had tried to condemn Hindu Scriptures intelligently and at last, he transgressed to his religion and faith. He became a Hindu sannyasi, a devotee of Lord Vishnu. Out of curiosity and a plan of denouncing the Hindu Scriptures, he contemplated for years. Father Mulligan’s transgressions had more complications. Even though, he was in touch with Baby Kochamma for years. He used to write and send greetings on the occasions of Diwali and New Year. Baby Kochamma had a grievance against father Mulligan. She felt that father Mulligan offended her. Father Mulligan renounced the Roman Catholic vows for embracing Hinduism. Baby Kochamma expected that he would have renounced his catholic vows for embracing the love of Baby Kochamma. Instead of loving Baby Kochamma, father Mulligan loved the Hinduism very passionately and became the preacher of Hinduism. Father Mulligan sent a photo to Baby Kochamma in which he was addressing middle-class Punjabi widows. As a Hindu Sannyasi, father Mulligan was in a saffron coloured dress and Punjabi widows were in a white dress with sari palloos over their heads. ‘A yolk addressing a sea of boiled eggs. His white beard and hair were long but combed and groomed. A saffron Santa with votive ash on his forehead.’ (The God of Small Things, 298)

The character of father Mulligan was not only migrated into India with the Roman Catholic faith. He never went back to Ireland and he settled in India as a Hindu Sannyasi. He was a typical symbol of transgression and migration in the novel. The novelist had ironically presented the character, father Mulligan. Father Mulligan’s story was presented as a scathing attack on conversions of the Hindus into Christian faith by the Christian missionaries like Ancestors of the Ayemenem family who had converted the family of Velutha into the faith of Christianity from the Hindu religion.

Father Mulligan died in an ashram in Rishikesh because of viral hepatitis. His death did not stop Baby Kochamma’s identical entries in her diary, I love you I love you. Father Mulligan was still alive in the memories of Baby Kochamma. ‘At least her memory of him was hers. Wholly hers. Savagely, fiercely, hers. Not to be shared with Faith, far less with competing co-nuns, and co-sadhus or whatever it was they called themselves. Co-swamis.’ (The God of Small Things, 298) Baby Kochamma tried to reconvert from Hindu Sannyasi and came to lunch on Thursday in her dreams. Thus, Arundhati Roy had presented the theme of transgression with a more sarcastic tone.