Arundhati’s Literary Voice through the Lens of Rokeya’s Subaltern Enlightenment: A Reading on The Ministry of Utmost Happiness and Padmarag
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53103/cjlls.v5i4.222Keywords:
Subaltern, Social Construction, Tarini Bhaban, Jannath Guest House, EnlightenmentAbstract
“Subaltern” genders in South Asia denote the subordination of female gender and transgender, who cannot speak against the patriarchal social dominance. To make the subalterns speak, in 1924, Begum Rokeya in her Padmarag, and in 2017, Arundhati Roy in her The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, boldly resist in the same tone for the stigmatized and dispossessed against the social construction. To enlighten and boost up the silent spirits of the subalterns, Rokeya introduces “Tarini Bhaban” and Arundhati “Jannat Guest House,” two paradises full of reason, nature, freedom, progress, and happiness in the society of the Indian subcontinent. This paper aims to show “Jannat Guest House” and “Tarini Bhaban” as places of enlightenment for the subalterns, who are considered inferior rank in the society and family of the Indian subcontinent. The paper also explores the miserable socio-living conditions of those oppressed genders. In Rokeya’s time, women named Tarini, Soudamini, and Sakina were marginalized in patriarchal social power and denied health, education, employment, liberty, and individuality. Also in Arundhati’s novel, transgender Anjuman; straightforward woman Tilottoma, and many paradoxical identities are mistreated and rejected by their blood relations and excluded from any kind of social forms and organizations.
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