Untouchability writ large: Rohinton Mistry's narration of the Indian nation

Abstract

Language and literature are means employed by writers to confront and expose the realities of nationhood. A Fine Balance (1995), though written in English by Canadian based Indian, Rohinton Mistry, tackles the idea of nationhood with reference to the Indian nation. This paper is a discussion of the portrayal of the Untouchable characters, and how their status in the caste system is used to render, lndia, its culture and people as exotic. Caste is mysterious to those outside India, because it is indigenously Indian. By highlighting and exploiting the plight of the Untouchables and their tragedies in relation to unjust caste practices the author attracts foreign readership. The suffering that the Untouchables experience in the hands of the Touchables enhances the cl iche of a barbaric and backward Other. The author has actualized a world and filled it up with the characters that he has created, and has set them up against Western ideals of ethical behaviour, social equality, democracy and prosperity. The India that is narrated lacks these Western moral values because the tragic lives of the Untouchables and the theme of caste segregation are exaggerated in order to pander to a Western framework.