Dalits in a Fine Balance-A Subaltern Study

DALITS IN A FINE BALANCE: A SUBALTERN STUDYtc "DALITS IN A FINE BALANCE\: A SUBALTERN STUDY"

“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 ground 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!