Subaltern Subjectivity and Resistance in Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance

Abstract

This research project attempts to spotlight on the growing acts of resistance from the part of subalterns in the novel, A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. Here, by criticizing the atrocities and perpetration of so-called rich and upper class people over subalterns and showing the subaltern resistance, the writer is trying to show the growing subaltern consciousness in India. The subaltern characters undergo trial and tribulation in the novel. The society presented by Mistry is not an idealized one. Superstition, violence and gender inequalities are rampant. It is also the site of the repetition of caste-based brutality. The lower castes are beaten, tortured and killed for trivial reasons. Although the characters, who have defied the suppression, have either got death or agony and insults, they constantly and continuously resist the tyranny of powerful people, who tend to regard dalits, or lower class people as non-humans. By showing almost all the characters in the position of resisting the brutalities and atrocities of upper class people, this research work argues that Mistry is trying to focus on the growing consciousness and resistance among marginalized people in post-independent Indian society, where subalterns want nothing but equality, justice, freedom, coexistence, and of course, communal harmony because it is a question of balance.