Feministic Analysis of Arundhati Roys The God of

Feministic Analysis of Arundhati Roy's the God of Small Things
in the Light of Post Colonialism
Shiva Zaheri Birgani1, Sayyed Rahim Moosavinia2

1
Department of English Language and Literature, Boroujerd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Boroujerd, Iran .
2
Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran
[email protected]
Abstract: This paper attempts to analyze the mentioned novel based on postcolonial studies
in Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things. The concepts that can be mentioned in this
novel are history, diaspora, hybridity, the role of women in Indian society, globalization,
resistance and orientalism. These concepts are used from postcolonial theorists, Edward W.
Said and Homi K. Bhabha.Prominent issue is the role women in Indian society, because there
are several female characters, such as Ammu, Rahel, and so on in TGST. Economic growth
causes change in Ayemenem. It becomes a globalized community. Postcolonial resistance is
an important issue in the novel. When Roy uses English language which it is a colonial
language, she does a kind of resistance against colonization itself. Roy refers to the
children’s life as a means of resistance.
Keywords: Colonial discourse; postcolonialism; other; resistance; diaspora; feminism.
I. Introduction
The present researcher believes that it may be seen as a kind of Orientalism in TGST.
Loomba, in her book Colonialism/Postcolonialism (1998), believes that anti-colonial or
nationalist movements have tried to show the image of the Nation-as-Mother to make their
own ancestors “and also to control the activity of women within the imagined community.
[…] these movements encourage women to create 'sons who may live and die for the nation”
(180). The nation is shaped as a home, and its leaders are like paternal roles and fellow-
citizens are brothers and sisters. For example, “the King was a Father to his people” (ibid 81).
The family and the State completed each other.In colonialism, the family becomes the
symbol of anti-colonial movement because it indicates inner space (182). When appropriated
families of colonized subjects in colonial situation and intrusions were imagined, “the family
will be symbol of resistance” (ibid).
Here, the ideal woman is in opposition to the memsahib. The ideal woman is drawn by
brahminical notions of female self-sacrifice and devotion. When an ideal gentlewoman is
constructed, this woman is separated from their lower- class sisters, who are servants or
sources of folk or popular music and tales, dramas and wit. In this condition, many forms of
women’s popular culture are marginalized. These forms expressed difficulty of women “in
male-dominated society or sexual desire using powerful humour, sharp” (ibid). Women are
half the population of any nation. Even we know little or nothing about the “widows
themselves and of the fact of their pain” (ibid 185). The discussions around these “widows”
have a striking place within postcolonial theory because they “are the agency of the
colonized” (ibid). The women’s voices become absent in the immolation discussion. This
absence shows the “intermixed violence of colonialism and of patriarchy” (ibid). Women are
“real targets of colonialist ad nationalist discourses” (ibid).
According to Loomba, in her book Colonialism/Postcolonialism (1998), there are
“some writings of women for eminent scholars” (186). These writings worked a long side,
within or in opposition to the nationalist and anti-colonial notions. The more feminist study
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DOI : https://doi.org/10.33258/birci.v2i4.561 172
Budapest International Research and Critics Institute-Journal (BIRCI-Journal)
Volume 2, No 4, November 2019, Page: 172-181
e-ISSN: 2615-3076(Online), p-ISSN: 2615-1715(Print)
www.bircu-journal.com/index.php/birci
emails: [email protected]
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retrieves the lives of women under colonial rule, and it shows “women as individuals as a
potential collectivity” (Loomba 186). They were the target of earlier patriarchal rewritings of
tradition. Anti-colonial struggles are different in their attitudes to “female agency and
women’s rights” (ibid). Ghandhi has non-co-operation movement. It is called “proto
feminist” (ibid 187). Gandhi ignored women’s fighting, and followed “the conceptions of the
family and society” (ibid). In India, women’s fighting confronted strong political interaction.
In the nineteenth century, “women” were not in “any public anti-colonial protests” (ibid). The
terms shaped at that time caused to make “the nationalist movement from 1920s onwards”
(ibid). Women’s roles were expansion of “their household roles-caring”, “subservient”,
“nonmilitant” (ibid).
There were some attempts “to restrict their agency” (ibid). Moreover, women had
various responses against these attempts. Many women were active in colonial struggles.
These women were not feminist; they did not see tension between their own struggles and
those of their community at large. They worked outside purely household spaces, some
women were leadership. These women explained new conceptual spaces for women. They
went “into public spaces in the name of motherhood and family” (ibid). In addition, Loomba
mentiones that:
Women continue their struggles for equality after formal independence and
describe the nature of postcoloniality. Anti-nationalisms legitimized women’s public
activity. Postcolonial countries more easily admit women’s participation in politics than
metropolitan ones because of this nationalist legacy. In recent years, there has been an
effort to exploit women’s political activity and even religious fundamentalism. The
Hindu, Islamic or Christian right-wing movements are taken place by active women in
the different parts of the world. Women used trickily the question of religion. “It has
surfaced as a major factor in women’s relationship to the nation and to postcolonial
politics”. Many postcolonial systems repressed women's rights, and used religion to
reinforce their subordination. The Islamicisation of civil society constructed national
identity in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia. Religion has a key role
‘in mutations of postcolonial identities and gender roles. Islam is understood as more
prone fundamentalist appropriation than any other religion’. In India, women like
SadhviRithambara and Uma Bharati are key players for Hindu nationalism by entreating
fears of Muslim fierceness’. ‘Women are objects as well as subjects of fundamentalist
discourses. The relationship between women, nation and community is variable, both in
the colonial period and afterwards. Colonial and anti-colonial histories complicate
feminism. Women tried to struggle for self-determination, democracy, anti-imperialism
and re-shaped their under-standing of themselves. Amerita Base suggests that women
had participated in nationalist struggles in contemporary period. (189)
A national feminist conference was been disposed in 1987, 79 percent of the members
were active in black, labour, working- class, church, and other political movements. Women
are known with more anti-imperialist or working-class than with the concerns of white First
world feminism. The women’s movements have been divided according to class, colour,
religion, location, sexuality and politics. Black women in the USA may have the politics of
white feminism, but the independent feminists regard the issues of sexuality and fierceness in
India. “Nationalist or class-based movements” have subordinated questions of “women’s
sexuality or autonomy” (Loomba 190).
In India, women’s movements try to pay to the questions of sexual and
household fierceness and also of equal pay for equal work. Totally, postcolonial
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women’s movements have fought ‘against state repression rape, racism,

patriarchy, or better working conditions and for choice of sexual direction’.
Postcolonial women’s movements have tried to defy the assumption that they are
inspired by its Western counterparts. These movements follow their local and
native roots. They re-wrote local histories, pro-co women's rights, and used religion
to reinforce their subordination. The Islamicisation of civil society constructed national
identity in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia. Religion has a key role
‘in mutations of postcolonial identities and gender roles. Islam is understood as more
prone fundamentalist appropriation than any other religion’. In India, women like
SadhviRithambara and Uma Bharati are key players for Hindu nationalism by entreating
fears of Muslim fierceness’. ‘Women are objects as well as subjects of fundamentalist
discourses. The relationship between women, nation and community is variable, both in
the colonial period and afterwards. Colonial and anti-colonial histories complicate
feminism. Women tried to struggle for self-determination, democracy, anti-imperialism
and re-shaped their under-standing of themselves. Amerita Base suggests that women
had participated in nationalist struggles in contemporary period. (189)
A national feminist conference was been disposed in 1987, 79 percent of the members
were active in black, labour, working- class, church, and other political movements. Women
are known with more anti-imperialist or working-class than with the concerns of white First
world feminism. The women’s movements have been divided according to class, colour,
religion, location, sexuality and politics. Black women in the USA may have the politics of
white feminism, but the independent feminists regard the issues of sexuality and fierceness in
India. “Nationalist or class-based movements” have subordinated questions of “women’s
sexuality or autonomy” (Loomba 190).
In India, women’s movements try to pay to the questions of sexual and household
fierceness and also of equal pay for equal work. Totally, postcolonial women’s movements
have fought ‘against state repression rape, racism, patriarchy, or better working conditions
and for choice of sexual direction’. Postcolonial women’s movements have tried to defy the
assumption that they are inspired by its Western counterparts. These movements follow their
local and native roots. They re-wrote local histories, pro-colonial symbols and mythologies,
and express their voice. Today, these movements have to debate “the dynamics of
globalization”, and “the postcolonial nation-state” (ibid 191).
In addiation, Loomba mentions that earlier women’s labour directly or indirectly
enforced the colonial machine. “Globalization” often reproduces “the general effects of
colonialism” (ibid). These women’s labours are now experimented by medical experiments,
and there are “the receivers of drugs and contraceptives banned in the West” (ibid 192).
Fundamentalists believe that Western or imperialist forces are “responsible for all manner of
evil, such as women’s repressions” (ibid 192). But globalizations make an “international
women’s development network” (ibid). The governmental or feminist organizations try “to
improve women’s health”, or “working conditions”, also “moving enlightenment from the
West to the rest of the world” (Loomba 192). “Global imbalances profoundly structure
feminist agendas in the postcolonial world” (ibid). In postcolonial communities, women have
attended fully postcolonial politics, “from the established forms of political action to the new
social movement such as, environmental programmers” (ibid).
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II. Methodology
The present researcher tries to analyze the novel based on some postcolonial concepts.
Hybridity is based on White who believes that history is the title of scientific discipline in the
nineteenth century. In postcolonial regions, there is migration and transition of the different
nations always. In the result of this transition of the peoples, the new identities had been
made .This condition createstranscultural identity. Hybridity became significant concept in
postcolonial studies. The present researcher tries to work on diaspora and hybridity from
Bhabha’s view. The writer and the character of Ammu are women. And they belong to
diasporic community, the researcher wants to work on the role of women in Indian society.
Other concepts are resistance and orientalism. Said worked on the two last concepts. The
process of the world shrinking and becoming a single place refers to globalization. This
happens in complex society. India tries to inject foreign investment for globalization.
III. Discussion
3.1. The Role of Women in Indian Society in the God of Small Things
Roy dares to cross the boundaries of caste to face the most hideous form of
ostracisation and stands on the fringes of Indian society. Indian society does not provide any
satisfactory choice to women who stand apart from the usual pattern of accommodation to
wifehood and integration into the in-laws. Thus, transgression is regarded by patriarchy not
enough powerful to disrupt the natural established order, though to some extent, particular
individual actions affect social reactions, and exclusion/death remain specifically the ultimate
punishments. Yet, the philosophy of Hindu women, i.e. passive resistance is disturbing. On
the one hand, this supposes that women have no choice, although Western interpretations
challenge this deeply socio-religious rooted myth. Western women are to free Indian women
from such typecasting and promote more direct actions. Certainly, moral superiority is a myth
that could keep women stranger to themselves, judges of other women if not fearful or
contemptuous towards their male counterparts. Indeed, Indian women could experience a vast
array of human emotions and actions beyond defined Indian traditional women roles.
A woman protagonist leads a life in complete conflict with traditional values. The novel
implies the traditional ways of life are changing and women are starting to think in a different
way. It is deconstructing stereotyped representations of some aspects of Indian family life and
culture which shape it, i.e. a rigid interpretation of the Sacred Book (The Vedas), established
sexist prejudice, a tight family budget in a society that still privileges dowry and the belief
that a Hindu woman belongs to her husband’s family. Through the process of construction
and deconstruction of the woman protagonist, the novel demonstrates the power of literature
to create awareness and sensitivity of the struggles that the main woman character faces are
the result of the changing times, notably the inner workings of her minds, her personal
perplexities and social confrontations as individual growing into themselves. We can see this
matter in this part of the novel in which Amm’s brother, Chacko, decided about Ammu’s
relationship with Velutha.
In TGST, the primary purpose is the isolation of the individual soul, particularly of
woman, and the secondary purpose is the political considerations. The novel seeks to define
the many voices of the previously marginalized otherand establish a claim to woman cultural
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identity. Woman's selfhood has been subordinated, diminished when it has not been
outrightly denied. An important step in recognizing the interconnections between the local
(India) with the global (diasporic) is exploding cultural stereotypes that determine a self in
terms of otherby locating India on the opposite side of the tradition vs. modernity dichotomy.
In TGST, the concept of hybridity is revealed in its simple sense, i.e. a blending of two
cultures and in the interest of individual progressive thinking and social justice. In fact,
conservative Hindu spreading that set up monolithic cultures has disturbing implications for
Indian women who have a stake in challenging patriarchal/traditional Indian behavior and
thinking.
The woman has an in-between space in the postcolonial debate which “allows for much
diversity and flexibility in identity” (Bhabha 1994: 211). Criticism of colonialism on an
ideological basis and the stress on the colonizer / colonized dichotomy exclude hybrid
groups. But, hybrid groups that developed as an impact of colonialism represent a
fundamental sign of domination and exploitation. These women have to create their own
identity between both of two cultures. Racial hybridity is extremely important since they do
not define themselves as either Anglo or Indian solely. They resist complete identification
with the Indian and the British and claim their own space and subjectivity. They have a
generous space of culturality within which they can operate as individuals. The in-between
spaces lead to “new signs of identity and innovative sights of collaboration and contestation
in the act of defining the idea of society itself” (Bhabha 1994: 2).
TGST challenges static notions of identity, specifically the construction of third world
or post-colonial women. Indian women are located in terms of underdeveloped, oppressive,
highly illiterate and religious fanaticist. Postcolonial Indian writer, as feminist argues that she
needs to engage critically with the historically specific and dynamic location of women in
India so as to a participate in cultural reproductions that reduce women's lives to a particular
fixed patriarchal pattern and to avoid over creating binary appositions between modern,
educated, free, Western women, and oppressed, poor, traditionally bound third world women.
In an attempt to reclaim and write against the representation of third world women as the
exoticised other, Roy serves political aims by writing against patriarchy. Yet she writes in the
context of a society/community whose members do not have the luxury skills to read and
write but are nevertheless the ones who represent and speak for these women.
Roy’s novel based in India which the cross-cultural undercurrents are spanning
continents, gives a new vision of Indian women, pleasing to Western mind and feelings and
yet, reflecting partly Indian woman to come to terms with her self, a process which would
certainly have not been affected within the particular socio-cultural location. In the novel,
Indian women who resisted Hindu traditions are accused of transgressing and violating the
oppressive patriarchal patterns within Indian family structure and therefore are condemned to
ostracisation up to death.
As to the postcolonial diaspora, it is not solely immigration into Great Britain or
elsewhere from other countries, but it is indeed a constant reminder that pre-colonized
subjects are in the colonizers’ land because they were in their own homeland. The specific
phenomenon of immigration transgresses Western British sense of fixed boundaries and
challenges the cultural identity of the White Englishman/woman as being homogeneous. It is
perceived probably as threat to British national cohesion. The choice of Indian diasporic
women is not only colonization in reverse and the voice of the other, but also the voice of
hybridity. This diasporic novel struggles with patriarchy. Diasporic women need not solely
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define themselves in terms of their difference from mainstream of their countries of birth, but
there is also this urge to differentiate from the country that lies behind them. This crucial
need to escape, takes place in the context of differentiating and making a space for the Indian
woman writer. It is especially the presence of various contradictory and sophisticated
ideologies within the diasporic communities that renders Indian women's works so fruitful for
queries of women identity and existence at a micro level from steady examinations of family
li Roy’s novel based in India which the cross-cultural undercurrents are spanning continents,
gives a new vision of Indian women, pleasing to Western mind and feelings and yet,
reflecting partly Indian woman to come to terms with her self, a process which would
certainly have not been affected within the particular socio-cultural location. In the novel,
Indian women who resisted Hindu traditions are accused of transgressing and violating the
oppressive patriarchal patterns within Indian family structure and therefore are condemned to
ostracisation up to death.
As to the postcolonial diaspora, it is not solely immigration into Great Britain or
elsewhere from other countries, but it is indeed a constant reminder that pre-colonized
subjects are in the colonizers’ land because they were in their own homeland. The specific
phenomenon of immigration transgresses Western British sense of fixed boundaries and
challenges the cultural identity of the White Englishman/woman as being homogeneous. It is
perceived probably as threat to British national cohesion. The choice of Indian diasporic
women is not only colonization in reverse and the voice of the other, but also the voice of
hybridity. This diasporic novel struggles with patriarchy. Diasporic women need not solely
define themselves in terms of their difference from mainstream of their countries of birth, but
there is also this urge to differentiate from the country that lies behind them. This crucial
need to escape, takes place in the context of differentiating and making a space for the Indian
woman writer. It is especially the presence of various contradictory and sophisticated
ideologies within the diasporic communities that renders Indian women's works so fruitful for
queries of women identity and existence at a micro level from steady examinations of family
life and negotiations to the ideological religious imperatives that features Roy’s novel.
The novel represents the life of an Indian woman rethinking and reconstructing her
identity. Each woman feels marginalized in her own socio-cultural location and ultimately
tries to locate herself in the central position. The legacy of British colonialism has meant that
Indian women now live outside their native land with different perspectives on postcolonial
issues, raising specific voices which are powerfully articulated in their own defense.
Indeed, postcolonial Indian women novel emerged as a process that gathered space as
political independence was acquired and cultural decolonization intensifies. Given that
writing in English by women has developed greatly for obvious historical reasons, Indian
women writing could be described as writing backto the dominant English as a quest for the
establishment of woman cultural authority English serves as an ideological purpose and
propagates Western culture among the colonized. But, Indian women writer has illustrated
the power by which language with its signification of authority has been wrested from the
dominant cultural. Roy is writing from positions between or across cultures and revalorizing
marginalized cultural women identities. The construction/deconstruction of hybrid diasporic
women identity related to gender and caste are among the social concerns shaping the work
of the writer.
This powerful written testimonial mirrors the power of writing and literacy to free
women's lives from the chains of a restrictive real-life milieu. The writer is speaking of her
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own experience in her own voice. She finds it hard to set up a balance between her femininity
and autonomy, her Hindu traditions and Western modernity. She is both as woman and as
racially different, into the receiving/ host society, her writing reflects certainly her
disagreement with the officially accepted construction of correct behavior, aware of the
problems of traditionally structured disadvantages.
Roy criticizes traditional networks which remain active in India to repress women’s
ideas, impulses and feelings in conscious and unconscious ways. Her writing in English is
undoubtedly an inward thought as well as a personal release from Indian socio-cultural and
political boundaries though shared by Indian feminist writers.
A woman writer highly criticizes certain kinds of women within a text. For example,
the most evil figure in TGST is an older woman, the spinster aunt. She is absolutely
malevolent, almost monstrous in her malevolence, and it is she who triggers most of the
disasters that occur. Sometimes a woman writer tries to supposed to say good things about
women. Roy is very good at showing the ways in which women of all classes and all
generations are positioned by socio-cultural systems. Even this aunt, Baby Kochamma, is
very much embittered as a consequence of her own history, and we are shown precisely how
she has grown to be the way she is; not that it excuses her horrible actions, but Roy gives you
a very complex picture of the dynamics that interplay between cultural constraints and
individual choice.
3.2. Postcolonial Resistance in The God of Small Things

Colonization refers to the domination of a group people over people’s land and goods.
Colonialism refers to the domination of various European powers into other land in the world
and it refers to a feature of human history. Colonialism essentially refers to a period of
history from the late fifteenth and the twentieth century. This notion rests during the history
of human life. The colonial rulers affected the lives of the colonized population. These rulers
believed that they have superiority and ordained mandate to rule over colonized population.
The colonies were full of labour and human resources. British Empire colonized lands
through the world such as India, America, Canada, and Australia.The British colonization
affected Indian society, culture and literature. Literature creates new genres, ideas and
identities. Such as John Donne some writers or poets use colonialist concerns in their
writings. Literary texts can oppose dominant ideologies. Moreover, many of English novels
were written about India during the British colonization. In the nineteenth century, British
literature represented that imperialism was an important part of the cultural representation of
England to the English. Another aspect of the relation between literature and colonialism
refers to dominant critical views, which sanctified within educational systems. Britain
changed literary studies to a discipline of study in British universities for colonial
administrators instructed in Western literature. Colonialism and literature are related to each
other.
The British colonization affected Indian society, culture and literature. Literature
creates new genres, ideas and identities. Such as John Donne some writers or poets use
colonialist concerns in their writings. Literary texts can oppose dominant ideologies.
Moreover, many of English novels were written about India during the British colonization.
In the nineteenth century, British literature represented that imperialism was an important
part of the cultural representation of England to the English. Another aspect of the relation
between literature and colonialism refers to dominant critical views, which sanctified within
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educational systems. Britain changed literary studies to a discipline of study in British

universities for colonial administrators instructed in Western literature. Colonialism and
literature are related to each other.
Postcolonialism is a subject of debate in contemporary literary and critical studies. This
is a state after the formal end of colonialism. This is originated from the Western. It depends
on Western philosophy labeled as the Euro-centric. It is a complex phenomenon that is
embodied with excessive jargon and branded as he latest catchall term to dazzle the academic
mind. The postcolonial Indian English fiction reflects the spirit of different regional literature
as a whole. The concept of nation became a curious debate in the postcolonial study. The
postcolonial Indian English fiction witnesses at least three generations of Indian novelists in
English. Arundhati Roy belongs to the third generation. She established the frame in
international arena. Indian English fiction succeeded to win almost every well-known literary
prize in the world. In colonialism, the family becomes the symbol of anti-colonial movement
because it indicates inner space. The family will be symbol of resistance. The repressed
peoples make anti-colonial nationalism to represent a selfhood during colonial rule. The
image of nation as a mother indicates both female power and female helplessness. This
mother defends her son against colonial pillages, but it is also herself devastated by
colonialism and she needs her son's protection. In Indian culture, the ideal woman is drawn
by “brahminical notions of female self-sacrifice and devotion” (Loomba 183). In Indian
society, women’s fighting confronted strong political interaction. Gandhi ignored women’s
fighting, and followed the conceptions of the family and society. Many women were active in
colonial struggles. They were not feminist; they did not see tension between their own
struggles and those of their community at large. They went into public spaces in the name of
motherhood and family. Women continue their struggle for equality after formal
independence and describe the nature of postcoloniality. Postcolonial countries more easily
admit women’s participation in politics than metropolitan ones because of this nationalist
legacy. The Hindu, Islamic or Christian right-wing movements are taken place by active
women in different parts of the world. Women used trickily the question of religion. Many
postcolonial systems repressed women’s rights, and used religion to reinforce their
subordination. In India, women like SadhviRithmabara and Uma Bharati are key players for
Hindu nationalism by entreating fears of Muslim fierceness’.
The relationship between women, nation and community is variable, both in the
colonial period and afterwards. Women try to struggle for sel-determination, democracy, anti-
imperialism and re-shaped their understanding of themselves. Totally, postcolonial women’s
have fought “against state repression rape, racism, patriarchy, or better working conditions
and for choice of sexual direction” (Loomba191). Postcolonial women's movements follow
their local and native roots. They re-wrote local histories, pro-colonial symbols and
mythologies, and expressed their voice. Today, these movements have to debate the
dynamics of globalization, and the postcolonial nation-state. “Globalization often reproduces
the general effects of colonialism” (ibid). Globalization makes an international women’s
development network. “The governmental or feminist organizations” try to improve
“women’s health”, or “working conditions”, also moving “enlightenment from the West to
the rest of the world” (Loomba 192). In postcolonial communities, women have attended in
the full range of postcolonial politics, “from the more established forms of political action to
the social movement” such as, environmental programmers (ibid). Women’s labours are
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experimented by medical experiments, and there are the receivers of drugs and contraceptives
banned in the West.
IV. Conclusion
In conclusion,prominent issue is the role women in Indian society, because there are
several female characters, such as Ammu, Rahel, and so on in TGST. Economic growth
causes change in Ayemenem. It becomes a globalized community. Postcolonial resistance is
an important issue in the novel. When Roy uses English language which it is a colonial
language, she does a kind of resistance against colonization itself. Roy refers to the children’s
life as a means of resistance. The present researcher believes that it may be seen as a kind of
Orientalism in TGST. The results are given in a final item, the conclusion.History is a
significant feature in the postcolonial works. According to Ashcroft et al, in Postcolonial
Studies Reader (2006), White believes that history seeks “the title of scientific discipline in
the nineteenth century mould” (17). There are various layers of history in TGST such as, the
history of Syrian-Christian in South India, the history of the caste system in Hinduism,
Velutha as the Hindu God, Krishna, kathakali dance in Kerala, Communism Party in Kerala,
Naxalites in Kerala. Kerala is a complex community. The people with different beliefs live in
Kerala. Communism was so much more successful in Kerala. Because according to
Communism, the people must be equal to each other. So the lower class follows it in Kerala.
Diaspora is an important issue which was significant in TGST. Diaspora has taken place
in various layers of the Indian history. Diaspora has mostly taken place during migration and
transition. Hybridity is unavoidable in diasporic communities such as, Kerala. Kerala was a
complex and diasporic society. Hybridity refers to an in-between space. Bhabha believes that
the in-between space “allows for much diversity and flexibility in identity” (Bhabha
1994:211). There were biological, cultural and linguistic hybridity in TGST. The researcher
believes that hybridity is dangerous, because the character of Ammu declined by her illegal
relationship with Velutha and the twins declined by their incest (adultery between close
relatives) at the end of the novel. These characters had cultural hybridity and it caused their
declines.
The novel challenged static notions of identity, specifically the construction of
postcolonial women too. Roy as a hybrid diasporic woman tried to relate to gender and caste
among other social concerns. She tried to express her own experience in her own voice. She
used the Western language against colonialism itself. It is a kind of resistance.India injected
outside investment as part of its economic liberation in early 1990s. Kerala was affected by
this plan. This plan made economic growth. And Kerala becomes globalized. Roy believed
that globalization increased social inequalities in India. This globalization made sharply
divide between rural and urban India. India's future depends on its plurality and its political
alternatives. What is received in this novel is diaspora made in the different historical layers.
And hybridity happens in the result of diaspora. And hybridity is dangerous, because two
characters decline in the novel. And the future of India is in local, not globalization. Indian
government should have political alternatives.
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Feministic Analysis of Arundhati Roy's the God of Small Things

in the Light of Post Colonialism

Shiva Zaheri Birgani1, Sayyed Rahim Moosavinia2

women’s movements have fought ‘against state repression rape, racism,

3.2. Postcolonial Resistance in The God of Small Things

educational systems. Britain changed literary studies to a discipline of study in British

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