Critique of Post-Emergency Indian Official History in Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance

Abstract

The research paper analyzes the historical fiction A Fine Balance by Indian Parsi writer, Rohinton Mistry from the perspective of New-Historicism. It revisits the history of Post-colonial India; particularly Post-Emergency mainstream history from the perspective of Mistry’s marginalized literary characters in order to argue that the official history of post-emergency India ignores the socio-political as well as cultural sufferings of the marginalized communities such as Parsi, Chammar and women. It further analyzes and critiques that the mainstream narration of Post-colonial India as a nation of independence, freedom and equality bears irony because of the socio-political exclusions of the marginal communities from the mainstream in the name of caste, race and gender. The caste-based treatment against the characters like Dukhi, Narayan and Ishvar, the religious violence against Muslim character like Ashraf and the patriarchal dominance against the female character’s individual freedom like Dina Dalal fictionally contradict the official post-colonial metanarrative of independence, freedom and equality. In order to strengthen the argument, the researcher borrows the theoretical insights from Foucauldian ‘New Historicism’ and the theoretical concept of ‘Irony’ to show that the mainstream history is ironical to the actuality of the time. The paper exposes the discursive construction of post-emergency Indian official history of the marginal people of the Indian society. The paper concludes with finding that literature through the fictional narrative contributes to offering an alternative view to the actuality of the history.