POSTCOLONIAL RESISTANCE IN ARUNDHATI ROY’S THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to investigate resistance in Arundhati Roy’s novel The God of Small Things. The subject of resistance is being conducted within the framework of postcolonial theory. Resistance Theory in postcolonial thoughts and literature, centers on the concept of resisting the dominance and hegemony of the powerful colonizers who hold their sway in different cultures with different camouflages. In The God of Small Things the same colonial hegemonic attitude is exercised by class conscious elite, the communist establishment, public administration, the police department, the Christian maternal system and the Christian priests which marginalize some of the “others” on socially constructed racial superiority and some “others” on the basis of patriarchal gender bias. Since margin is a site of resistance, the main characters, Ammu and Velutha reciprocate such marginalization by touching the vey untouchable cores of social fabric, transgressing the unfathomable arena of the colonizer’s moral and social codes. They paid the cost of their resilient living with their lives while the twins: Estha and Rahel posed different resilience to such treatment with their ascetic living, replacing social norms with their instinctual living and subsequently indulging in incestuous relationship.