Velutha's Marginalized Sublimity in Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things/ 37

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