Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things: A Communist Critique

Abstract

When Arundhati Roy’s semi-autobiographical novel, The God of Small Things, was published in 1997, it received both praise and criticism. While many critics and reviewers from around the world praised it for its technical virtuosity and thematic concerns, the voices and reactions heard from Roy’s native country, India, were disconcerting. In Kerala, a state in the south-west coast of India, where the story takes place, conservative Christians and hardline communists alike stood against the novel’s publication and distribution in India, despite the positive media attention Kerala would draw through this Booker prize winning novel. The reactions of the members of the Church and the communist party, who have revolutionized the Kerala society from time to time, make one curious about the moral and ideological controversy of Roy’s narration. Was it really her critique of communism that angered the critics, or was it her careful unraveling of something unexpected and hideous in the political and religious establishments in Kerala? This paper shows Roy’s promotion for Communism with reference to The God of Small Things.