Envisioning agents in contemporary Tharu novels: An assessment of self and structure

Abstract

As the contemporary Tharu novels present, Tharus in Nepal have experienced both success and failure in their attempts to overcome the barriers structurally imposed on them. The formation of agency has taken a very difficult path in their society. The present study explains the exploitation of landlord to bonded laborers, creation of agency and the activities of them in Chhabilal Kopila’s Churiniyan and Krishnaraj Sharbahari’s Lal Kerani. In the backdrop of the Kamaiya system, this study reads the novels as the documents imagining the tension between the self and the society in quest of change at both levels: personal and structural. For one thing, Kopila creates agency and the agency challenges landlord’s exploitation through meetings, dharna, and street demonstration. However, the agency collapses in the end, thereby presenting the failure. On the other hand, Sharbahari imagines Tharus winning their freedom, rescuing themselves from the structural discrimination. This study has read the two novels through the critical design that Michel Foucualt has developed for the critical concept of body politics. Finally, the Tharu novels hold the story of success and failure of people while making the agents in their society. The imagination helps understand the nature of interaction between the self and and the social structure in Tharu society in Nepal.