IRWLE VOL. 7 No.

2 July 2011

Arundati Rai’s The God of Small Things – A Post-

Colonial Reading
Rajeev. G

The adjective “post colonial” signifies the notion that the novel or
be it any piece of writing for that matter, goes beyond every possible
parameters of the locality, region and nation to participate in the global
scenario today which is an aftermath of European colonization. The God
of Small Things written in the post colonial Anglophone by Arundhati Roy
does reveal a decisive post colonial condition; through its dialogues,
characters and various events and instances it encompass. Ms Roy refers
to the metaphor “the heart of darkness” in the novel which is a sort of
ridiculous reference to Conrad’s novel the heart of darkness. She says
that, “in Ayemenem, in the heart of darkness, I talk not about the White
man, but about the Darkness, about what the Darkness is about.”
(Frontline, August 8, 1997).

The God of Small Things tells the story of one family in the town of
Ayemenem in Kerala, India. The temporal setting shifts back and forth
from 1969, when Rahel and Estha, a set of fraternal twins are 7 years
old, to 1993, when the twins are reunited at age 31. The novel begins
with Rahel returning to her childhood home in Ayemenem, India, to see
her twin brother Estha, who has been sent to Ayemenem by their father.
Events flash back to Rahel and Estha’s birth and the period before their
mother Ammu divorced their father. Then the narrator describes the
funeral of Sophie Mol, Rahel and Estha’s cousin, and the point after the
funeral when Ammu went to the police station to say that a terrible
mistake had been made. Two weeks after this point, Estha was returned
to his father.

The narrator briefly describes the twins’ adult lives before they
return to Ayemenem. In the present, Baby Kochamma gloats that Estha
does not speak to Rahel just as he does not speak to anyone else, and
then the narrator gives an overview of Baby Kochamma’s life. Rahel looks
out the window at the building that used to contain the family business,
Paradise Pickles and Preserves, and flashes back to the circumstances
surrounding Sophie Mol’s death. Through flashbacks Roy is telling a
story about what happened in the family when Estha and Rahel were
young. Horrible memories are revealed, like the smarmy soda salesman
selling yellow, sweet sodas; Sophie Mol's death; and the forbidden love
with an untouchable.

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In “Black Skin, White Masks”, Fanon (psychiatrist, philosopher,

revolutionary, and a major post colonial author) suggests that
colonialism, with its explicit conceptual under-pinnings of white racial
superiority over non-white peoples, has created a sense of division and
alienation in the self-identity of the non-white colonized people. The
history, culture, language, customs and beliefs of the white colonizers
are imposed on the colonized and they are eventually coaxed to consider
them as universal, normative and superior to their own local indigenous
culture. This creates a strong sense of inferiority in the colonized subject
and leads to an adoption of the language, culture and customs of the
colonizers by the colonized as a way of compensating for these feelings of
inferiority in their self-identity. This creates a divided sense of self in the
subject formation of the colonized.

Through this study I intend to do a post colonial analysis of the

novel. “Post colonialism”, the term itself is in want of a cohesive
definition. It contains within it historical and geographical notions. All
post colonial experiences are nearly the same regardless of history. To
conquer, to subjugate, to occupy and to dominate another being are all
intrinsic colonial stops. This discussion has also been formulated against
issues like identity, hybridity, cultural differences and conflict. Roy’s
novel, even though complex, incoherent and fragmented, conveys a
deeper meaning that runs into notions regarding human perspectives,
values and attitudes of a post colonial nation. The relation between India
and English has been a long and troublesome one. In India, the cultural
impact of imperialism dominated the urban elite class and the semi-
westernized upper and lower middle classes. The women writers of post
colonial India too hail from either elite or moderate backgrounds and
their writings reflected their experiences.

Here, Arundhati Roy, we see her capitalize on her straddling of

different cultures as an Indian writer writing in English by making this a
crucial element in the identities of her major protagonists. The twins
portrayed in the novel are often found speaking Malayalam and English.
Their world itself is plotted by a whole range of western references. Rahel
expresses her love for her mother Ammu by quoting Kipling’s Jungle
Book: “We be of one blood, ye and I” (Pg no 329). We also find that Estha
is an ardent fan of Elvis Presley. These can be traced as instances of self-
betrayal. They identify themselves with things and people which are alien
to them. It is like forging a new identity; a new English identity.

Their uncle Chacko quotes verbatim from the Great Gatsby, the
story of another “oxford man” (pg no 38). There are instances in the novel
where the children are deliberately pushed into an anglicized mode of
thought and living. Awareness of English language was given more
priority and the parents and guardians always took care of the fact that

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their children, nieces or nephews excelled in the language of the Angle-

land. Uncle Chacko describes a war scene in which he uses the word
“despise” (pg 53) which was a difficult word and Estha and Rahel were
made to look it up in the dictionary for the apt meaning. Another
instance in the novel in which Ammu says that “Pappachi was incurable
British CCP…. and in Hindi it meant shit wiper. Chacko said that the
correct word for people like Pappachi was anglophile. He made Estha and
Rahel look up anglophile in the Reader’s Digest Great Encyclopedic
Dictionary” (pg 52). When Sophie Mol, Rahel and Estha’s cousin comes
down from London, Mammachi (their grandmother) is extremely
apprehensive about her grandchildren’s ability to speak English
fluently. She surreptitiously listens to the twins speaking and punished
them if they spoke in Malayalam or if they made mistakes while speaking
in English. Such an ardent obsession with the imperial language and
codes is typical of a post colonial community, where an involuntary
subservience to the imperial hordes and an ingrained devotion to their
modes and customs typify their psyche. Sophie Mol, their English cousin
was presented to them as ideal. She is constantly compared to Rahel and
Estha, leaving them depressed and embittered.“Sophie Mol is loved from
the beginning even before she arrives and when she died the loss of
Sophie Mol became more important than her memory.”(pg 186).
Hybridity occurs in post colonial societies both as a result of conscious
movements of cultural suppression, as when the colonial power invades
to consolidate political and economic control, or when settler-invaders
disposes indigenous peoples and force them to “assimilate” to new social
patterns. It may also occur in later periods when patterns of immigration
from metropolitan societies and from other imperial areas of influence
[….] continue to produce complex cultural palimpsests with the post
colonial world.
Frantz Fanon talks about such a divided sense of the self in his
“Black Skin, White Masks”. He says “As I begin to recognize that the
Negro is the symbol of sin, I catch myself hating the Negro. But then I
recognize that I am a Negro. There are two ways out of this conflict.
Either I ask others to pay no attention to my skin, or else I want them to
be aware of it.”

Skin colour and race are seen to create a very different sort of
power structure. A white skin is an ideal of beauty which leaves anyone
with dark skin in a lower bracket. The impression that Sophie Mol leaves
for herself is, “hatted, bell bottomed and loved from the beginning (pg
186). This out of the bounds glorification of the west is peculiar of the
entire family’s behavior especially in Baby Kochamma’s. The sense of
inferiority complex at being Indian makes her speak with an artificial
accent and ask Sophie Mol questions on Shakespeare’s “Tempest”. “All
this was of course primarily to announce her credentials to Margaret
Kochamma (Chacko’s English wife). To set herself apart from the
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Sweeper class” (pg 144).

The spread of English throughout the globe via colonialism trade

and commerce has resulted in the emergence of a number of
accomplished writers today including Roy who is a representative of such
a cultural blend that looms large over the whole world. In The God of
Small things Roy strikes a phrase “led out of the history house” which
connotes different levels of meaning other than the peripheral one. It
means that we are people who are forced into an anglicized pattern of
thinking and practice which is enabled by the public school education
established by the colonial rulers. Roy herself is a representative of such
a phenomenon. As Chacko exclaims in the novel “we are the prisoners of
war. Our dreams have been doctored. We belong nowhere. We sail
unanchored on troubled seas. We may never be allowed ashore. Our
sorrows will never be sad enough, our joys never happy enough, our
dreams never big enough, our lives never important enough to matter”
(pg 53). It is quite true to say so. The post colonial mind is a fragmented
post-war ground; a war that’s won and lost. Edward Said (Palestinian
American literary theorist, cultural critic) argues that the West had
dominated the East for more than 2,000 years, since the composition of
“The Persians” by Aeschylus. Europe had dominated Asia politically so
completely for so long that even the most outwardly objective Western
texts on the East were permeated with a bias that even most Western
scholars could not recognize. His contention was not only that the West
has conquered the East politically but also that Western scholars have
appropriated the exploration and interpretation of the Orient’s languages,
history and culture for themselves. Such a cultural adoption and
moulding it to suit their tastes finds expression in Roy’s novel. Almost all
the major characters in the novel are live expressions of such a converted
cultural mould.

The power structures are carefully delineated in the novel.

Mammachi, Baby kochamma, the policemen etc stand aloof within their
realms of power and they see to it that the transgressors- Ammu,
Velutha, Rahel and Estha, who hold no power in the social hierarchies,
remain vulnerable and hence overruled. It is quite a notable fact that the
characters in the novel although they have adopted the Western ways to
suit their needs they remain stubbornly centered onto the power
structures their tradition had bestowed upon them. Pappachi (Estha and
Rahel’s grandfather), for instance, he is the British entomologist who is
hailed a British gentleman in the whole of Ayemenem. Even after his
retirement he refuses to go around in Indian clothes and followed
Western suiting. He drove a Plymouth and smoked a cigar. Despite all
the outwardly British trappings he remained a chauvinist at heart. He
beat his wife and children and he resented his wife’s success at the
pickle factory and her ability to play violin. The children who the are

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“small things” in the novel are the worst affected of all. They go against
the rule and make velutha, who is a “paravan”, an untouchable, their
God – The God of small things. He is their best friend, because he lets
them be, and also becomes a part of their world. As Rahel grows up she
realizes “it is after all so easy to shatter a story. To break a chain of
thought, to ruin a fragment of a dream being carried around carefully
like a piece of porcelain. To let it be, to travel with it as Velutha did, is
much the harder thing to do” (pg 190). The powerless being taken
advantage of by the powerful. The orange- lemon drink man sexually
exploits Estha at the film theatre and leaves him frightened and
insecure. “The orange drink lemon drink man knew where to find him. In
the factory in Ayemenem. On the banks of the Meenachal” (pg 140).

“In postcolonial terms, everything that has limited or no access to

the cultural imperialism is subaltern - a space of difference. Now who
would say that's just the oppressed? The working class is oppressed. It's
not subaltern....Many people want to claim subalternity. They are the
least interesting and the most dangerous. I mean, just by being a
discriminated-against minority on the university campus, they don't
need the word ‘subaltern’...They should see what the mechanics of the
discrimination are. They're within the hegemonic discourse wanting a
piece of the pie and not being allowed, so let them speak, use the
hegemonic discourse. They should not call themselves subaltern.” (From
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak ‘s “Can the subaltern Speak”). In the novel
“the other” has been made out of the children, Velutha and even
Ammu.At some point of time or the other,they are discriminated against;
the children by Ammu and their grand aunt Baby kochamma, Ammu by
her aunt and velutha by the so called “modalalis”( land lords) of the clan.

In Roy’s The God of Small things, the English figure as a typical

colonizer in the form of Mr. Hollick and as a liberated decolonizer as
Father Mulligan who is a spiritually elevated man. Ammu’s husband,
Babu, almost lost his job due to excessive alcoholism and he requests his
“superior” Mr. Hollick (Babu's boss at the Assam tea estate) not to sack
him. To which Hollick says “well actually there maybe an option…
perhaps we could work something out…you are a very lucky man-
wonderful family, beautiful children, an extremely attractive wife” (pg 41).
He shamefully suggests that Ammu should to be sent to his Bungalow to
be “looked after” (pg 42). The appearance of British as exploiters
suggests a post-colonial tendency. They act as instruments of imperial
oppression trying to crush down the colonized to the very extent of
extreme pathos. Characters like Hollick symbolize the cruelty and
carnality of the superior planter class. They strike a glaring contrast to
the impoverished labour class. A recent tendency shows a shift in stance
in terms of portraying English as paragons of cruelty. They cease to be
dark figures of villainy and crime. They are portrayed as more

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individualized and aware. Such a newer version of the British figure as

Father Mulligan in the novel. He is a priest in Ayemenem and later he
relinquishes Christianity and takes up Hinduism and becomes an ardent
follower of Lord Vishnu. Despite the knowledge of Baby Kochamma’s
(Ammu’s aunt) staunch affection for him, he never takes advantage of
her and remains on friendly terms with her until his death.

The God of small things presents life in “God’s own country” as

quite ungodly. Against the Godly scenery of Kerala the characters find
them sinned against, their childhood – innocence raped and their lives
ruined. What to Naipaul is an area of darkness, to Roy is the Heart of
darkness. But both are of interest and entertainment for the readers as it
clearly brings out those forces which vie for control over the outcastes
and the down castes. The “Big things”, inspite of their individual
difference unite whenever they face a threat from “Small things”. The
“Small things” –Ammu, the twins and Velutha, who get together for
mutual love and warmth and not for any material gains are crudely acted
upon and destroyed. They leave behind no memory of pain or concern in
the minds of the survivors. Their every mark is completely wiped off. The
novel carries with it throughout its main, the disturbing motif of the
“permanent distancing of ‘the other’ from the mainstream life and their
ultimate transgression by the mainstream powerful class.

WORKS CITED
1) Bhatt Indira and Nityanandam Indira :Explorations ,Arundhati
Roy’s The God of Small Things.New Delhi:Creative Books,1999.

2) Maya. D: Narrating Colonialism. New Delhi: Prestige Books,1997.

3) Dhawan. R.K: Arundhati Roy. New Delhi: Prestige Books, 1999.

4) Fanon Frantz : “Black Skin , White Masks”, 1952.

5) Said Edward: “Orientalism”, 1978.

6) Spivak Gayatri: “Can the Subaltern Speak”.

Mr.Rajeev, G
Assistant Professor
Department t. of English
NSS College,Manjeri
Malappuram Dist.
Kerala- 676122

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