DALITS IN A FINE BALANCE: A
SUBALTERN STUDY
Dr. R. K. Dipte
“In a B.B.C.
TV panel discussion board before the award ceremony for the 1996 Booker Prize,
Geer accused Mistry of painting an untrue and unreasonably cruel portrait of
India in his second novel, A Fine
Balance.
Subaltern,
meaning of inferior ranks, is a term adopted by Antonio Gramsci to refer to
those who are subject to the hegemony of the ruling classes. Subaltern classes
may include women, peasants, workers, - downtrodden and other groups, denied
access to hegemonic power. Gramsci claimed that the history of the subaltern
classes was just as complex as the history of the dominant classes, although
the history of the latter is usually that which is accepted as ‘official’
history. Mistry, in A Fine Balance,
enlists””, atrocities committed on the poor during the Emergency. In this
context Jennifer Takhar comments: “... Mistry’s own brand of verism attacks and
revises institutional history which has so far too long shamelessly neglected
the lives of the poor common man. He serves to provide a corrective for the
factual lacunae of institutional history. A
Fine Balance concentrates its attention on the terror experienced during
the Emergency which historical texts have only superficially covered.
According to
Gramsci, the history of subaltern social groups is necessarily fragmented and
episodic, since they are always subject to the activity of ruling groups even
when they rebel. In Rohinton Mistry’s A
Fine Balance chamaars (dalit/cobblers) are the subalterns whom the
prevailing caste system denies the right to live a simple frugal life or to
earn the bread honestly. The slur of untouchability, which stuck to them by
birth, never leaves them.
“Chaturvarnya maya srishta gunkarma vibhagana
[I divided the people into four varnas according to their qualities and the
work they do] says Lord Krishna in the Srimad Bhagwat Geeta. And the poet in
Mulkraj Anand’s The Untouchable
recommends the use of flush system, which he thinks would free the latrine
cleaners from contact with human waste considered to be the root cause of their
pollution and untouchability. He thinks, as the possibility of pollution
disappears, so will untouchability. However, the hope proves misplaced, as it
is revealed in A Fine Balance: These
Chamaars give up their traditional occupation of leather-working and train
themselves as tailors in the hope of freeing themselves from the cruel claws of
untouchability.
“But no one could predict how two chamaar-turned-tailors would fare in
the village.” (p.161)
“still, it was uncertain if centuries of tradition could be overturned
as easily.”
“Among the upper castes, there was still anger and resentment because
of what a Chamaar had accomplished.”
“There is a dead cow waiting for you’, he [Thakur] notified Narayan
through a servant” (p. 169)
Mistry
attempts to portray the reality of India by weaving together four worlds in the
fabric of the novel. The first is the middle class urban world of Dina Dalal -
a pretty widow in her forties. Then, there is a glimpse into the rural India
provided by Ishwar Darji and his nephew. There is another world, the predatory
world of university students, symbolised by Maneck Kohlah, a sensitive Parsi
boy. The novel is as much about the shared lives of these four major characters
as it is about their separate entities. There are four major characters from a
family of the cobbler community. Dukhi is the father of Ishwar and Narayan.
Omprakash is the son of Narayan. Ishwar prefers to remain bachelor. Narayan and
Om are rebels. Narayan wants to exercise his right to vote. Omprakash spat when
he sees Thakur. Dukhi and Ishwar mutely suffer humiliation. When his [Dukhi’s]
wife was raped: ‘ Dukhi pretended to be asleep.... He felt an urge to go to
her, speak to her, comfort her. But he did not know what words to use, and he
also felt afraid of learning too much. He wept silently, venting his shame,
anger, humiliation in tears; he wished he would die that night.’ (p.120). When
Ishwar sees Thakur, he advises his nephew to keep away from him. But neither
reconciliation, nor rebellion helps them escape the wrath of the high caste
people.
“A good
novelist possesses the power to blow life into his characters and make his men
and women real to our imagination. He must make the reader take interest in the
men and women and in what happens to them or within them. A novel that lacks
these qualities is a flop.” Mistry allows his readers to experience compassion
for and insight into the characters. Readers are driven into an emotional
world. One feels guilty and ashamed that a human being can treat another human
being with such stone-heartedness. Regarding casteism in India Arundhati Roy
avers: “I believe that the Dalit struggle for justice and equality in a society
wracked by caste prejudice is going to be and ought to be the biggest challenge
that India will face in the coming century.” CO Readers’ hearts are full of
disgust and pathos at witnessing the sport which disrupts lives of these subalterns;
their only crime is that, by chance, they were born in low caste families.
Mistry contrasts hopes and outcomes to achieve the pathetic effect. He blends bad luck with a dash of hope, egging us on - only to dash our expectations with a new set of conflicts and troubles; when they feel almost settled, one after another calamities befall them. Ishwar hopes to work with Nawaz, a tailor. His hope is dashed away when Nawaz replies, ‘You will have to search elsewhere.’(p.188). They hire a hut in a slum area, but the hutments are dismantled: ‘They had begun tearing into the structures of the front bumpers. They had begun tearing into the structures of plywood, corrugated metal, and plastic. People were crushed. Blood everywhere. And the police are protecting those murderers.’(p.364). Ishwar dreams of Om’s marriage and goes to the native village, and what turns out is that they had to return to the city as helpless crippled beggars.
These
subalterns are wronged by society. However, the cruel and hard experiences do
not squeeze out the humanity from the hearts of these downtrodden. Mistry
provides adequate number of incidents which throw light on the overflowing
stream of humanity, existing in these human beings, whom society treats worse
than animals
Mistry gives
humorous touch to these subalterns. When they come to city, they are naive to
the city life, and it creates humorous-cum-pathetic situation. An example can
be cited. Ishwar and Om buy a proper railway ticket, but, being unaccustomed to
the railway travelling, do not know that it entitles them to travel, they run
away like the persons without tickets, and are taken to a jail. Thomas Hardy’s
protagonists are puppets at the hands of Fate; Mistry’s subalterns are puppets
at the hands of the high castes.
However, the
language that these subalterns speak is not in keeping with the background in
which they have been brought up. The way/ they think, can gather thoughts and
argue, is far-fetched and does not seem possible. We do not expect that Dukhi
will be able to further arguments, the way, he does, when the schoolteacher
beats his sons. It is true that Ishwar and Narayan know reading and writing.
However, in the novel there is no indication that they show some special
interest in extra reading. or interact much with other people. Therefore,
Ishwar’s discussions with Dina Dalal, or his overall analysis of the Emergency
appear unnatural. Om and Ishwar are able to talk with Maneck, who is brought up
in a well-qualified Parsi family and is a college going boy, with equal
felicity.” Dialogue should be natural, appropriate, and dramatic; which means
that it should be in keeping with the personality of the speakers; suitable to
the situation in which it occurs.’ A
Fine Balance seems to have failed in this test. The way they talk Mistry’s illiterates, too are very learned and
knowledgeable. It is true that Mistry’s
subalterns use taboo words in their speech, which is quite natural for
illiterate people. However, it is not adequate. It would have been proper if these
subalterns had used the slang befitting to the surroundings in which they grew
up. Siddharth Singh’s criticism on Mistry’s discourse in A Fine Balance does not seem improper “Mistry fails in drawing you
into the narrative. The characters are silted, a while the Parsi ones are still
believable, the lower caste tailors are unbelievable. If a tailor could speak
the way Om does, and have the kind perspective that he has, well, he would not
be a tailor to start with. Mistry usurps the voice of the downtrodden, and
fails miserably in doing them justice”.
In A
Fine Balance Mistry exposes the horrifying facets of the Emergency and the
consequences felt by his protagonists. The situation become such that ‘Lots of
people have disappeared in the Emergency’ (p.570). R.Guha states: “It tries to
reconstruct history from the perspective of those who are left out by
traditional history or those who were not given their due place in history.
This is what qualifies the Subaltern Studies project...., Institutional history
does not catalogue Indira Gandhi’s faux pas during the emergency, the
repercussions of the poorer citizens and what they have to endure because of
the whims and blunders of politicians”:
Atrocities committed on the poor reach a climax in scenes like the site project and the family planning camps. Beggars are caught, auctioned and recruited on the site project. People, irrespective of age and marital status, are brought to the family planning camps. These hapless people are ensnared like sheep surrounded from all sides and wild dogs released on them. Ration cards were issued to those who had a family planning certificate and people had to choose between food and manhood. An official document does not record these atrocities, and Mistry has done a great service by unfolding the harsh reality beneath the Mother of the Nation’s Raj. He champions the cause of the oppressed and wronged. A Fine Balance is a chronicle that catalogues the true events that took place during this fascist rule.
“The force which holds together
the different castes within the whole of the caste system is the ideological
force of dharma. In A Fine Balance Pandit Lalluram avers:
‘Otherwise, there would be chaos in the universe. You understand there are four
varnas in society: Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra. Each of us belongs
to one of these four varnas, and they cannot mix.’ (p.138). Subalterns are
exploited and receive inhuman treatment at the hands of the upper castes.
However, there are lower and higher castes among low castes as well. Mistry
offers many incidents bringing out the true structure of dharma and caste
system in India. What Dr. Ambedkar calls’ graded inequality —, is witnessed in A Fine Balance. A Chamaar family is placed at higher order among low
castes. This chamaar family tries to maintain the dictum of untouchability for
the Bhungi. When a Bhungi comes to Narayan for sewing a dress, Narayan’s mother
shouts at him: “We are not going to deal with such low-caste people! How can
you even think of measuring someone who carts the shit from people’s houses?” A
very authentic picture of the caste system and subalterns in India, indeed!