Caste and Hegemony in Arundhati Roy’sThe God of Small Things

1. Presented by:
Sheikh Saifullah Ahmed
Student ID: MA191402
English Discipline
Khulna University

2.  Hegemony refers to cultural, ideological (ISA), or
political (RSA) domination.
 For that reason, hegemonic laws of caste are created
by the upper caste to control, oppress or dominate the
lower caste to achieve their specific purposes.

3.  Family being the smallest superstructural unit of the society
demonstrates the hegemonic values which are promoted by the
ideology of the society’s upper caste.
 Maintaining superiority in society, Baby Kochamma said, “How
could she stand the smell?.... She preferred an Irish-Jesuit smell
to a particular Paravan smell” (57).
 She is totally willing (ISA) to compromise Ammu’s happiness
and to send Velutha to Prison to death to maintain their Family’s
respectable appearances and to maintain the hegemonic law of
caste system.

4.  Mammachi is hegemonized by the existing social laws that
“Paravans were not meant to be carpenters…not meant to be
rehired…nobody else would hire him as a carpenter” (77).
 As Velutha is an Untouchable Paravan, he is paid less money for
his work than the other touchable workers.
 The hegemonic laws of caste stimulate Mammachi in believing
that Ammu had “defiled generation of breeding…and brought the
family to its knees. For generations to come,…people would
point at them at weddings and funerals…. They’d nudge and
whisper. It was all finished-now” (122).

5.  The fear of the Touchables instigated by the pre-existing hegemonic law of
caste system is supposed to be felt by Valutha’s father Vellya Paapen who
goes to Mammachi and reveals the truth about his son and sits outside his
house, waiting to kill Velutha.
 Mammachi introduces the Paravans to the twins as “to crawl backwards
with a broom, sweeping away their footprints so that Brahmins or Syrian
Christians would not defile themselves by accidentally stepping into a
Paravan's footprint. …they were not allowed to walk on public roads, not
allowed to cover their upper bodies, not allowed to carry umbrellas. They
had to put their hands over their mouths when they spoke, to divert their
polluted breath away from those whom they addressed” (270).
 It reveals how the hegemonic law of caste is installed in the children by the
family.

6.  Anglophilic behavior exhibited by Ammu’s family members
reflects the hegemonic responds to the colonial rulers.
 Such as dressing up “Airport Clothes”, the adults’ changing
of their accents, forcing the children only to speak in
English, Baby Kochamma’s showing off her understanding
of English Literature reflect the hegemonic responds to the
English.

7.  Church: It is ironical that the church makes a distinction
between lower caste and upper caste. When Ammu marries
outside her caste, she is an outcaste unaccepted by the
Syrian Christians.
 Baby Kochamma is described by Rahel to have disliked
the twins “since they were Half-Hindu Hybrids whom no
self- respecting Syrian Christian would ever marry” (22).

8.  Conversion of Christianity- The novel represents the most
tragic fate of the Untouchables, who converted to Christianity
and joined the Anglican Church hoping to shed their
Untouchability, but were segregated from society by being
made to have separate Pariah bishop.
 After Independence they found they were not entitled to any
government benefits like job reservations or bank loans at low
interest rates, because officially, on paper, they were
Christians, and therefore casteless (35).

9.  Hindu religion hegemony in case of Velutha- Hindus believe
that being an untouchable is punishment for having been bad in
a former life. By being good and obedient, an Untouchable can
obtain a higher rebirth.

10.  Mammachi has no problem with her son, Chacko having sex
with various women in the house after his divorce, but she has
serious objections with her daughter, Ammu having sex with a
man after her divorce. She attributes Chacko’s behavior to his
“Man’s Needs” (Roy 80).

11.  Pillai, the communist leader who pretends to be the supporter of
the rights of the working class is unable to free himself from
untouchability. During delivering a speech Pillai utters, “Caste is
class , Comrades” (281).
 Once he says about his wife Kalyani, “Even she will never allow
Paravans and all that into her house. Never” (278). The major
characters in the novel attempt to project themselves in ways
which are quite different from their real self.

12.  Comrade K.N.M. Pillai refuses to help Velutha when the latter
needs his help saying, “Party was not constituted to support
workers’ indiscipline in their private life” (287).

13. The term Police stands for
Politeness
Obedient
Loyalty
Intelligence
Courtesy
Efficiency

14.  The police is considered as the agent of the society who
preserves the equal rights for all. But Inspector Thomas
Mathew influenced by the hegemonic law of caste acts
differently.
 Roy describes the policemen’s violent actions as being done
out of fear, “…Civilization’s fear of nature, men’s fear of
women, power’s fear of powerlessness” (292).
 The sexual harassment of Ammu by Mathew shows how little
power women get in the society, especially if they have been
outcasted by society for committing social taboos.

15.  As Mathew says ‘If I were you, ‘I’d go home quietly’. Then
he tapped her breasts with his baton gently. as if he was
choosing mangoes from a basket.
 When Baby Kochamma goes to Kottayam Police Station to
reveal Velutha’s crime and forces police to put Velutha behind
the prison. Then police tells there is no case against Velutha.
Either Ammu has to say about her rape or the kids have to say
about their kidnapping.

16.  Maintaining power in society is hard work, and it is shown by
Kochu Maria, who would rather have reconstructive surgery
to repair her ear lobe, which was torn by her heavy earings
‘konokku’ then not wear the konokku again, since they were
a symbol of her being a touchable, upper-caste Christian”(82).

17. Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things. New Delhi: Penguin
Books, 2002. Print.

18. Thank You