A Fine Balance has been an artistically drawn-out novel by Rohinton Mistry. The novel is a
mixture of joy and woe, heaven and hell in which the novelist has tried to cover the most
volatile and violent spectrum of contemporary history, which shook the social-political
stagnation of the country. Since the novel is set during the Emergency period in the mid-1970s, which is marked by huge political unrest and human rights violations, including detention, torture, and forced sterilization. According to T. Vijay Kumar: “A Fine Balance is a depressing novel set in a depressing period of Indian history."
In the novel, Rohinton Mistry tried to weave all his experience and memories he made in his
birthplace. A Fine Balance pictures together with a tale of the 1970s struggle in India and the midst of a state of Emergency. The Emergency period depicts the turbulent times when most of the parliamentary opposition, alongside thousands of students, trade unionists, and social workers who were put behind the bars to enable Indira Gandhi to retain power. This state of Emergency intrudes into the lives of many humans. Thus, Mistry highlights his concept and cruelty of the Emergency period by telling a tale of Dina Dalal along with Om Prakash, Ishvar, and Maneck Kohlal.
Dina Dalal is being depicted as an old woman, who is trying to earn her living by employing two tailors Omprakash and Ishvar besides that she gave a room on rent to Maneck Kohlal. So, apart from Dina's life of three other characters namely- Ishwar, Omprakash, and Maneck have been showcased. All these characters suffer from a sense of rootlessness. Since all of them belong to different parts of the country for say, Dina Dalal is set up in Bombay, Ishwar Darji and Omprakash are from rural India, and Maneck from the high altitudes of the Himalayas. All the characters at Dina's place.
Throughout the novel, we can see the harsh conditions in which each character is surviving and the political disturbance has added more to their problems and blighted their lives. In the end, we have seen the two poor tailors struggling only for a livelihood and are utterly-crushed-Ishvar and Om converted as beggars on the streets for small charities, till death comes mercifully to release them from this burden called life. Not only the economy was disturbed due to political tension but many people sacrificed their lives too as shown through the example of Maneck. Kohlah was crushed under the train. Alongside, Omprakash, Ishvar, and Maneck, Dina's life was also affected at the end she loses her struggle and is forced to leave her apartment and live at her brother’s place, forfeiting her independence.
Along with the depiction of Emergency, Mistry makes some revealing political insights also
through the take of Omprakash and Ishvar. However, in the novel, it is been showcased thatvcertain fundamental rights have been ceased from people. For example, if we see the Indian government they had passed laws where they have prohibited untouchability but in all practical purposes, the untouchability is carried on in different parts of India as Narayan says in the novel–
“Government passes new laws says no more untouchability, yet everything is the same. The
upper caste bastards, still treat are worse than animals …
“Those kinds of things take time to change.”
“More than twenty years have passed since Independence. How much longer? I want to be able to drink from the village well, worship in the temple, walk where I like.”
During the 1970s untouchability was a prominent problem specifically in rural areas. The book has tried to captures the emotions of Dalits or untouchables whose freedom was taken away and they were denied basic human rights. Even Dalits were denied to enter the temple of learning. Ishvar and Narayan learned about untouchability through instances that happened with them in school. The teacher used to shout: “You Chamaar rascals! Very brave you are getting, daring to enter the school! He twisted their ears till they yelped with pain and started to cry... Is this what your parents teach you? To defile the tools of learning and knowledge?"
Thus ultimately depriving them of the right to education. The transition in rural life, the change in aspirations of the lower castes, the attempts by the upper castes to preserve the old order is aptly delineated which is mentioned through a major instance in the violence perpetrated by Thakar Dharamsi and his henchmen against Narayan's family during the week of parliamentary elections.
The evictions of the poor from the cities, the forced labor camps, the sterilizations are the
manifestations of the Internal Emergency. On one hand, people talk about equality but on the other hand, all the untouchables live a life of ignominy where they have no rights, where their women are raped, their huts are burnt down, and they are brutally beaten up and they have nowhere to go, nobody to complain to, no one to whom they can approach for justice. As to when Dukhi decides to make his son tailor, he has to suffer the anger of Thakur: “What the ages had put together, Dukhi had dared to break asunder; he had turned cobblers into tailors, distorting society’s timeless balance. Crossing the line of caste had to be punished with the utmost severity,” said the Thakur.”
During the election, Narayan tries to assert his democratic right and cast his vote. For his
defiance, Narayan and the other two "Chamars" are forcibly gagged, flogged, and tortured and they were hanged in the village square. The conditions in the rural area were worst and the most affected class of people were those who belong to the lower caste and those who are economically backward. During Emergency, “the right to trial was effectively suspended; public meetings were banned; newspapers were subject to strict controls; and even the writings on freedom of Indira’s father, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Mahatma Gandhi were censored."
Rohinton Mistry very aptly portrays the callousness of the government authorities who are keener on achieving the targets of sterilization rather than thinking about the welfare of the poor. The overall situation in the country was grim since the 'Emergency' was announced.
Mistry's concept of India in the Emergency seems to be larger than life-size. Through the novel 'A Fine Balance', Rohinton Mistry tries to depict the dark period of Emergency which was a blot in the history of India. A Fine Balance is a microcosm of life in general and political disturbances, which Mistry observed while being in India. He wanted to draw an image of all the instances which he experienced in India be it - the cheap tricks of
political parties and its effects are on the local public. However, this political disturbance took a major violent blow when the violence against the body started the most drastic form in the enforced sterilizations initiated by Indira’s son and heir apparent, Sanjay. Ultimately, by the end
of the novel, we saw the dirty political game of the so-called 'bigwig' politician who made the locals of the country feel unsafe and unprotected.
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