Robinson Mistry’s novel, A Fine Balance, focuses on India’s political and social situation during the Emergency Period: a period of oppression, violence, tyranny and corruption. In other words, Mistry deals with the human experience in his novel. In this novel the social and the political are intertwined. The author has been able to show this in his novel through the characters’ different experiences presented to the reader. Their fate and their life are profoundly bound to the political situation of India. In this paper, we will discuss the impact of national and cultural politics on the individuals and how one social class played an important role during the period of beautification.
During the Emergency, it became a must to control birth …show more content…
When returning to their village, both of them were compelled by the politics of the country, to become sterilised individual. Despite the unemotional style of writing of the author, the reader is able to decipher the cruelty and atrocity of this scene. In his description, the author shows how both of them were silenced. First, they were deprived of their masculinity when the burning coals were held to their genitals and secondly, they were silenced when their mouth have been burnt by the coals. In other words, they were deprived of their identity in their own country. Furthermore, as a result of this castration, both are them were handicapped physically and mentally therefore they could not continue to work. Mistry demonstrates in his novel the powerlessness of the lower castes before the gigantic power of the elite during the Emergency period. During this process of …show more content…
They would strip you and whip you for stealing” [....]. “They would take turns doing shameful things to your lovely soft body”. [...] “I don’t have anything. That’s why I came here, for the sake of my child”[...]. “I only have to shout out once” he warned and slipped his hand inside her blouse (Mistry 2004, p.109).
Here the author brings our attention to the irony of the word attributed to people belonging to the lower caste, the “untouchable”. The irony is how far the “untouchables” are untouchable. Roopa’s body is regarded as soulless object that can be exploited by the watchman. As Dewnarain said, “there are two ways to read politics: first in the sense of state and national politics and the second in terms of cultural which focus on the role of the individual within the family , the community and the nation” (Bhautoo-Dewnarain2007, p.64).
To conclude, Rohinton Mistry paints in his novel the images of the subaltern and the women victims of Emergency. His novel is an attempt to bring to light the realities of India through storytelling. Despite the fact that he is writing about history, it however does not abstained the reader from enjoying the
During the Emergency, it became a must to control birth …show more content…
When returning to their village, both of them were compelled by the politics of the country, to become sterilised individual. Despite the unemotional style of writing of the author, the reader is able to decipher the cruelty and atrocity of this scene. In his description, the author shows how both of them were silenced. First, they were deprived of their masculinity when the burning coals were held to their genitals and secondly, they were silenced when their mouth have been burnt by the coals. In other words, they were deprived of their identity in their own country. Furthermore, as a result of this castration, both are them were handicapped physically and mentally therefore they could not continue to work. Mistry demonstrates in his novel the powerlessness of the lower castes before the gigantic power of the elite during the Emergency period. During this process of …show more content…
They would strip you and whip you for stealing” [....]. “They would take turns doing shameful things to your lovely soft body”. [...] “I don’t have anything. That’s why I came here, for the sake of my child”[...]. “I only have to shout out once” he warned and slipped his hand inside her blouse (Mistry 2004, p.109).
Here the author brings our attention to the irony of the word attributed to people belonging to the lower caste, the “untouchable”. The irony is how far the “untouchables” are untouchable. Roopa’s body is regarded as soulless object that can be exploited by the watchman. As Dewnarain said, “there are two ways to read politics: first in the sense of state and national politics and the second in terms of cultural which focus on the role of the individual within the family , the community and the nation” (Bhautoo-Dewnarain2007, p.64).
To conclude, Rohinton Mistry paints in his novel the images of the subaltern and the women victims of Emergency. His novel is an attempt to bring to light the realities of India through storytelling. Despite the fact that he is writing about history, it however does not abstained the reader from enjoying the