The God of Small Things As an Expression of Human Tragedy

In a Postcolonial Culture

(An attempt to apply my academic research methods)

Taher Muhammad El- Barbary

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Introduction

The most surprising thing about any real piece of creative writing is that the readers don't only read it, but also live its very details. The God of Small Things is one of these few works which cannot be read only for the mere feeling of temporary pleasure, but for the exploration of man and his/ her passage through a world of changes and challenges. Every epoch in world history has its own stresses, cares, crises and catastrophes to which the human and his/ life is subject.

Human life in the post-colonial world is the very material of many modern and contemporary works worldwide. India, for example, had been one of the British colonies. Therefore, India's history has been shaped under the murderous authority of the colonizer.

Critically speaking, the term colonialism and post-colonialism are of great importance in any critical reading of Indian literature. The characters in a work like, The God of Small Things, seem to be the very product of this history; I mean the history of colonialism in a colonized country. At the one hand, there's the author who is the

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creator of this human characters suffering the catastrophe of being colonized and subjected to the tyranny of the colonizer; on the other hand, it's possible to stress that colonialism created its own tragedy and what can be classically referred to as tragic hero of colonialism.

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I

Postcolonialism

"Post-colonialism" loosely designates a set of theoretical approaches which focus on the direct effects and aftermaths of colonization. It also represents an attempt at transcending the historical definition of its primary object of study toward an extension of the historic and political notion of "colonizing" to other forms of human exploitation, normalization, repression and dependency. Post-colonialism forms a composite but powerful intellectual and critical movement which renews the perception and understanding of modern history, cultural studies, literary criticism, and political economy.

The purpose of this conference is to address the theoretical challenge of its diverse meanings and uses, and to assess its epistemological significance in the context of the interdisciplinary construction of contemporary knowledge. The conference also will endeavour to examine and discuss the relevance of the critical methods and strategies of post-colonialism to the praxis of explanation, education and emancipation in the context of globalization and empowerment

"Colonialism" is a term that critically refers to the political ideologies which legitimated the modern invasion, occupation and exploitation of inhabited lands by overwhelming outside military powers. For the local populations, it implied the forceful elimination of resistance, the imposition of alien rules, and the parasitic utilization of natural resources including manpower. This term appeared in the context of Marxism and became a cornerstone of the discourse of resistance during the 20th century. It was meant to counter the positive connotations attached to the use of "colonization" -- understood as a legitimate "civilizing process" often

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reinforced by a religious agenda -- by calling attention to its actual economic motivations and denouncing its ruthless oppression.

"Post-colonialism" appeared in the context of decolonization that marked the second half of the 20th century and has been appropriated by contemporary critical discourse in a wide range of domains mapped by at least half a dozen disciplines. However, in spite of some two decades of definitional debates, this term remains a fuzzy concept stretching from a strictly historical definition to the more encompassing and controversial sphere of its contemporary kin-terms similarly prefixed by a morpheme that indicates temporal succession while suggesting transcending perspectives (post-structuralist, post-modern and the like).

Indeed, on the one hand, "post-colonial" may refer to the status of a land that is no longer colonized and has regained its political independence (e.g., post-colonial India). In this sense, "post-colonialism" will pertain to the set of features (economic, political, social, etc) which characterizes these countries and the way in which they negotiate their colonial heritage, being understood that long periods of forced dependency necessarily had a profound impact on the social and cultural fabric of these societies (the post-colonial condition). It may also apply to the former colonizers in as much that both extended contacts with the alien societies they conquered, and the eventual loss of these profitable possessions, deeply influenced the course of their economic and cultural evolution.

On the other hand, "post-colonialism" may designate, and denounce, the new forms of economic and cultural oppression that have succeeded modern colonialism, sometimes called "neo-colonialism". The term tends to point out that cooperation, assistance, modernisation and the like are in fact new forms of political and cultural domination as pernicious as the former imperial colonialism or colonial imperialism were: the devaluation of autochthonous ways of life and their displacement by the ethos of dominant nations which

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are technologically more advanced. Obviously, these two senses are intimately linked but foreground different aspects of a single process: the cultural homogeneization of ever larger areas of the globe.

This process raises several kinds of conceptual and pragmatic problems. One of the most challenging is to understand the historical conditions in which this new analytical tool emerged and how its epistemological impact transformed policies and practices not only in the academic agenda and beyond but also in the management of representation. Crucial questions in this respect bear upon the source of the authoritative voices, whether they originate among the former colonizers or the former colonized and using whose discourse, whether they use the rhetoric of atonement or the rhetoric of resentment, whether they promote strategies of true empowerment or opportunistic strategies of protracted control.

Another important issue is the extent to which the contemporary notions of colonialism and post-colonialism can legitimately help conceptualize all past colonizations and their political, economical and cultural consequences. Are these notions valid epistemological tools to better understand the past? Do such conceptual extensions result in defusing the ethical questioning of modern European colonization. Does post-colonial discourse describe "normal" processes of cultural change through conquest and domination or does it engage human responsibility in the novel context of global awareness? Can multi-voiced reassessments of history impact upon the present or is the critical discourse of post-colonialism a mere epiphenomenon that is a symptom of broader and deeper interacting forces?

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IIArundhati Roy:

A Novelist Born in A previous British Colony

Arundhati Roy (born 24 November 1961) is an Indian novelist. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel, The God of Small Things, and has also written two screenplays and several collections of essays. Her writings on various social, environmental and political issues have been a subject of major controversy in India. Roy was born in Shillong, Meghalaya to a Keralite Syrian Christian mother and a Bengali Hindu father, a tea planter by profession. She spent her childhood in Aymanam, in Kerala, schooling in Corpus Christi. She left Kerala for Delhi at age 16, and embarked on a homeless lifestyle, staying in a small hut with a tin roof within the walls of Delhi's Feroz Shah Kotla and making a living selling empty bottles. She then proceeded to study architecture at the Delhi School of Architecture, where she met her first husband, the architect Gerard Da Cunha.

The God of Small Things is the only novel written by Roy. Since winning the Booker Prize, she has concentrated her writing on political issues. These include the Narmada Dam project, India's Nuclear Weapons, corrupt power company Enron's activities in India. She is a figure-head of the anti-globalization/alter-globalization movement and a vehement critic of neo-imperialism.

In response to India's testing of nuclear weapons in Pokhran, Rajasthan, Roy wrote The End of Imagination, a critique of the Indian government's nuclear policies. It was published in her collection The Cost of Living, in which she also crusaded against India's massive hydroelectric dam projects in the central and western states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. She has since

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devoted herself solely to nonfiction and politics, publishing two more collections of essays as well as working for social causes.

Roy was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize in May 2004 for her work in social campaigns and advocacy of non-violence.

In June 2005 she took part in the World Tribunal on Iraq. In January 2006 she was awarded the Sahitya Akademi award for her collection of essays, 'The Algebra of Infinite Justice', but declined to accept it.

IIIEastha and Rahel: Two Characters in a Defamed

Previous British Colony

The God of Small Things is about a family living in India after the Declaration of Independence. Their story isn't told in chronological order but it is revealed bit by bit to the reader.

Rahel and Esthappen (Estha) are seven year old fraternal twins. They are living in Ayemenem with their mother Ammu and her brother Chacko, their grandmother Mammachi and their great-aunt Baby Kochamma. Their father Baba lives in Calcutta. Ammu left him when the twins were two years old.

The family is expecting the arrival of Margaret and Sophie Mol, Chacko's ex-wife and daughter, who are living in England. Since Margaret's second husband Joe had died in a car accident, Chacko invited them to spend Christmas in India in order to get over the loss. When they have arrived, Sophie Mol is taking centre stage. So Rahel and Estha stroll around on the river bank and find an old boat. With Velutha's help they repair it and frequently cross the river

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to visit an abandoned house on the other side. Velutha is an Untouchable, whom Ammu and Chacko have known since their childhood. Their family have given him the opportunity to visit a school and employed him as a carpenter and mechanic in the family's pickle factory.

During the guests' stay Ammu is more and more attracted by Velutha. One night they meet at the river where they sleep with each other. As it is not possible for an Untouchable to have a relationship or even an affair with somebody from a superior caste, they have to keep their meetings secret. But one night Velutha's father observes them and, feeling humiliated by his son's overbearing behaviour, reports everything to Mammachi and Baby Kochamma. As a consequence they lock up Ammu in her room. There Rahel and Estha find her and, through the locked door, ask her why she's being locked up. As she is angry and desperate, she blames the two children that without them she would be free and they should go away. Hurt and confused they decide two run away and stay at the abandoned house. But Sophie discovers the twins' plan and demands to be taken along. While the three are crossing the river, which has risen from heavy rainfall, their boat capsizes. Rahel and Estha are able to reach the other shore but Sophie cannot swim and is carried away by the current. After a long search for Sophie, the twins go to the abandoned house and fall asleep on its veranda. Neither do they see Velutha, who is sleeping on the veranda nor does he notice the twins' arrival. Earlier that night, Velutha had visited the house of Ammu's family, not knowing that their affair had been discovered. When he arrived Mammachi insulted him and chased him off.

In the morning the children's absence is detected. Then they receive the message that Sophie Mol has been found dead by the

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river. Baby Kochamma goes to the police and wrongly accuses Velutha of attempting to rape Ammu and kidnapping the children. When the police find Velutha sleeping on the veranda of the abandoned house, they beat him up so heavily that he almost dies. The twins wake up and observe the whole procedure. At the police station they are forced by Baby Kochamma to confirm the wrong statement which she has made. In the following night Velutha dies in prison.

After Sophie Mol's funeral Ammu and the twins have to leave the family's house because Chacko, manipulated by Baby Kochamma, accuses them of being responsible for Sophie Mol's death. Estha is sent to his father in Calcutta where he attends school and later college. Ammu is forced to leave Rahel in Ayemenem in order to look for employment. But Ammu is not able to earn enough for a living and so she dies of bad health a few years later alone in a hotel room.

Rahel returns to Ayemenem at the age of 31. She hasn't seen Estha since they were separated after Sophie Mol's funeral. She married an American and moved with him to Boston. After their divorce she has been working to make a living. Now Rahel returns to Ayemenem because she wants to see Estha, who has already returned to their family's house. During his stay in Calcutta he someday stopped speaking. After spending a whole day together in Ayemenem, Rahel and Estha, sister and brother, are sleeping with each other

The fact that Estha has stopped speaking and that Rahel and Estha sleep with each other are only two aspects in which one can see how deeply hurt they still are by the events with Velutha and Sophie Mol that happened long ago.

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The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy is a novel with autobiographical traits. There are a lot of similarities between the author and one of her characters, namely Rahel. Both of them spent their childhood in Ayemenem and later studied architecture in Delhi. Another parallel exists concerning the parents. Both their mothers lived in Ayemenem and were Christians while their fathers were Hindus and worked on tee plantations. Roy's origin is reflected as well by the free use of Malayalam words as an enrichment to the English language which she plays with in her own way.

In my opinion the story is told in a very interesting way although it may take some time to enter completely into its world and to get accustomed to the author's style. Since the reader is jumping back and forth in time one only gets little bits of information, but the more one gets to know the more one wants to know. During the first reading some questions may occur and are only answered towards the end of the book. One knows for example that something has happened or is going to happen but not how, where and why. Altogether the story is worth a second reading as one detects tiny details and hints which one misses at first.

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IV

Velutha: A Different Tragic Hero

Velutha is Vellya Paapen's younger son. He's also Estha and Rahel's best friend, even though he's only three years younger than their mother. We first meet Velutha in 1969 when the family is on its way to the movie theater. Rahel sees him marching in the street with the rest of the communists. We learn then that several years ago, he disappeared and nobody knew where he was, though there were plenty of rumors about him (including that he had been to prison).

When we see him participating in the march, he has been back in Ayemenem for five months and has been working for Mammachi as the factory carpenter. We learn that he's an Untouchable, at the bottom of the social totem pole. A lot of the other factory workers are frustrated that someone who is supposed to be beneath them is earning so much respect.

It's hard to name a part of Velutha's life that isn't shaped by his social status or political beliefs. His relationship with Ammu is perhaps the most important example. As a kid, Velutha used to make little wooden toys for Ammu, though he would have to place them in her outstretched hand so he wouldn't touch her. Eventually she stopped flattening her hand out, and by allowing him to touch her, Ammu broke down the social barriers that divide them.

Even though Ammu comes to realize that she's in love with Velutha, however, she warns Estha and Rahel not to spend too much time with him, because she knows that it can only lead to trouble. She has a hard time telling herself the same thing, though, when she realizes just how, well, hot he is:

She saw the ridges of muscle on Velutha's stomach grow taught and rise under his skin like the divisions on a slab of chocolate. She

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wondered at how his body had changed – so quietly, from a flat-muscled boy's body into a man's body. Contoured and hard. A swimmer's body. A swimmer-carpenter's body. Polished with a high-wax body polish.He had high cheekbones and a white, sudden smile. (8.80-81)

Whew, we need a cold shower. But seriously, Velutha's relationship with Ammu shows us the way he chooses to disregard societal rules in favor of love, and how this decision, however much we think it is the right one for him, is ultimately his downfall. Velutha, by our standards, doesn't do anything wrong by loving Ammu, and vice versa. Still, we see how his low social standing allows him to become an easy scapegoat. The police feel little remorse for brutally beating him. The narrator doesn't just show us, but also tells us that Velutha doesn't deserve what he gets. His death is shaped by his social class, just as his life was.een the author and one of her characters, namely Rahel. Both of them spent their childhood in Ayemenem and later studied architecture in Delhi. Another parallel exists concerning the parents. Both their mothers lived in Ayemenem and were Christians while their fathers were Hindus and worked on tee plantations. Roy's origin is reflected as well by the free use of Malayalam words as an enrichment to the English language which she plays with in her own way.

In my opinion the story is told in a very interesting way although it may take some time to enter completely into its world and to get accustomed to the author's style. Since the reader is jumping back and forth in time one only gets little bits of information, but the more one gets to know the more one wants to know. During the first reading some questions may occur and are only answered towards the end of the book. One knows for example that something has happened or is going to happen but not how, where and why.

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Altogether the story is worth a second reading as one detects tiny details and hints which one misses at first.

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VI

The Concept of Tragedy in a Post-colonial World

“The real tragedy of our postcolonial world is not that the majority of people had no say in whether or not they wanted this new world; rather, it is that the majority have not been given the tools to negotiate this new world.”

The idea of untouchability is explored at two levels in the novel. Firstly, we have socially untouchables, or Parvan, who are never allowed basic human rights. Secondly, we have metaphoric untouchables in high castes. Here discrimination expresses itself in marginalizing the women in their personal and public life. In this paper, I would like to analyze the ways and means that a system adopts to depersonalize a woman.

A complete appreciation of The God of Small Things requires an awareness of three things -- the roles of (1) the Syrian Christian community, (2) Communism, and (3) the caste system in Kerala. Kerala stretches 360 miles along the Malabar Coast of India. Although it is just 15,000 square miles in area, its population makes up 3.71% Of India's. Kerala is remarkable for having the highest literacy rate (81.29%) in the whole of India. The state experiences heavy monsoons during June-September and September-December. Most of its rivers are fed by the monsoons, and it is during this season that Sophie Mole drowns.

The community represented in The God of Small Things is Syrian Christian. The Christians of Kerala are divided into five churches: Roman Catholic, Orthodox Syrian, Nestorian, Marthoma, and Anglican. Syrian Christians claim the Apostle Thomas as their

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founder. The term "Syrian" refers to the West Asian origins of the group's ancestors and to their use of Syriac as a liturgical language. For centuries, their spoken language has been Malayalam. Syrian Christians have a history that predates European rule. While the Jesuits made only limited alteration to community life in 1830s and 40s, the nineteenth-century British Colonial state played a significant role in undermining Syrian Christian-Hindu connections. The old Catholic-Jacobite division gave way to as many as fourteen competing Episcopal allegiances. One of the most significant splits took place in 1888 when the Travancore High Court ruled in favour of the Jacobites (Mar Dionysius vs Mar Thomas Athanasius). The losers formed a separate ecclesiastical body, the Mar Thoma Syrian Church.

In the novel religious differences appear in the disagreements between Father Mulligan (who belongs to the Roman Catholic Church) and Reverend Ipe (who belongs to the Mar Thoma Church) as well as in Baby Kochamma's conversion to Catholicism and her consequent lack of suitors. The socio-political changes brought about by colonial rule led to upper-caste Hindus shunning the Syrian Christians. Between 1888 and 1892 every one of the main Syrian Christian denominations founded so-called Evangelical Societies that sought out low-caste converts and built schools and chapels and publicized mass baptisms. The God of Small Things thus refers to the school for "Untouchables" built by the great-grandfather of the twins, Estha and Rahel. However, as Roy points out, even though a number of Paravas and members of other low castes converted to Christianity, they were made to have separate churches and thus continued to be treated as "Untouchables." After Independence, they were denied government benefits created for "Untouchables" because officially, on paper, they were Christians and therefore casteless.

The Paravas, who speak Malayalam and use the Malayalam script, settled in the Neyyattikera taluk of the Trivandrum district and also in Quilon, Kottayam, and Ernakulam districts. According to the 1981

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census, their population in Kerala is 42,884. The word caste is derived from the Portuguese casta, which means breed, race, or kind. Castes are ranked, named, endogamous groups, and membership in a particular caste comes through birth. According to the Hindu sacred texts of the Rig Veda, there were four main castes and each caste performed a function in sustaining social life. Brahmins were the priests; Kshatriyas, were warriors and rulers; Vaisyas were landowners and merchants; and Sudras were artisans and servants. According to the code of Manu a marriage between a Brahmin woman and a Sudra man would result in a "Candala," who is described as "the lowest of men" and shares many of the attributes of the contemporary "Untouchable" (Moffit 34). Michael Moffit writes that ancient textual sources from the South suggest the existence of similarly ranked human relations and stresses that many attributes of contemporary South Indian "Untouchables" were apparently present 1500 years ago in the Sangam period (37). "Untouchables" are generally associated with professions such as leather workers, butchers, launderers, and latrine cleaners.

Sorry for not having documented my sources because most of the material of this attempt is taken from

different internet sites

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