Downtrodden Society in Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things

Abstract

Arundhati Roy's Booker Prize renowned novel deals with the ravages of caste system in South Indian state, Kerala. Roy portrays both the sad predicament of untouchables and also the struggle of a woman trying to have accomplishment in life in a patriarchal society. Velutha transgresses the established norms of society by having an affair with a woman of high caste. The final upshot of this love affair is the tragic death of an "Untouchable" by the "Touchable Boots" of the state police, an event that makes a mockery of the idea of God. God is no more in control of "small things" rather the small things have an crucial power over God, turning him to "The God of loss" The society represented in The God of Small Things is Syrian Christian. The Christians of Kerala are divided into five churches: Roman Catholic, Orthodox Syrian, Nestorian, Marthoma, and Anglican. Syrian Christians claim the Apostle Thomas as their founder. The term "Syrian" refers to the West Asian origins of the group's ancestors and to their use of Syriac as a liturgical language. For centuries, their spoken language has been Malayalam. Syrian Christians have a history that predates European rule. While the Jesuits made only limited alteration to community life in 1830s and 40s, the nineteenth-century British Colonial state played a significant role in undermining Syrian Christian-Hindu connections. The proposed paper studies the conflict that exists in The God of Small Things at individual and societal levels. The novel graphically shows that how people are helpless to resolve these levels of friction. Velutha, the outcast, can never co exist peaceful with the "touchable" communities for so long as the stigma of untouchability attached to him and countless others like him. Velutha is "highly intelligent," an excellent carpenter with an engineer's mind, but he is also the God of Small Things and he fails to leave any impression on the sand of time.