Abstract:
Suppression, all pervading mercurial phenomenon
accommodating marginality of caste, race, money, etc., nurtures
some of the major disparities in human society, only to deprive the
deserving souls of the credit and bliss of fulfillment. The
deprivation not only stubs the burgeoning acknowledgment of the
bounties of life but also smashes the tender sensibilities only to let
the resentment settle in. The apparent quality of untouchability by
birth and the inherent qualities of the sublimity of soul always
remain in tussle for “… a real individual, lovable, thwarted,
sometimes grand, sometimes weak (with) … broad intelligent face,
(and) graceful torso” (Anand vii). Viewed against the backdrop of
social iniquities and flagrant violations as the disdainful baggages
of History, the most “striking aspect of the novel, The God of Small
Things is the treatment of the dalits. Velutha stands out as the
representative of the untouchables in the novel. They were a class
of people who were not allowed to walk on the public roads, not
allowed to cover their upper bodies and not allowed to carry
umbrellas. To add to the humiliation they had to put their hands
over their mouths when they spoke, to divert their polluted breath
away from those whom they addressed” (Manavar 124-125). In
spite of all these social barbarities, unpleasant choices and denied
the space to explore successfully, Velutha manages to become the
god of the small things to a woman and her children who matter to
nobody. His supposed lacuna, a low caste birth, makes him more
outstanding against the backdrop of so-called superiors.
Indubitably, his societal duties and responsibilities include no
rights, no equality and no dream of acceptance, not to speak about
respect. Societal paralytic incumbency fails to etiolate his human