912 Roy, Arundhati
In earlier times, when Indians went abroad, as
the Ayemenem patriarch Pappachi the entomologist
does, they did so temporarily to educate themselves.
But in modern times, such journeys are permanent,
for the new elite go abroad and abandon their coun-
tries to become emigrants of prosperous nations.
Similarly, by the end of this novel, Rahel has moved
to America, Chacko to Canada, and Baba to Austra-
lia, just like many other residents of Ayemenem, all
in search of their pot of gold.
In addition to abandoning their homeland,
these modern Indians abandon their belief systems.
Baby Kochamma abandons her allegiance to the
Christian faith and to serving God. After joining
a convent, she rescinds her vows when they do
not aid her in her personal agenda. The powerful
Marxist party that Velutha has put all his faith in
abandons him when he goes for help to fight false
charges of rape, his request dismissed as a personal
matter that has no place in party politics. The
enlightened Rhodes scholar Chacko abandons all
love and reason after his daughter, Sophie Mol,
accidentally drowns, holding his sister and her chil-
dren responsible for Sophie’s death. He rips apart
Ammu’s already fractured family, separating Ammu
from her children and thereby sending her to an
early death and her children away forever. The
Ayemenem police abandon their responsibility to
order and fair play by mercilessly beating to death
a pariah who dared to be more of a human than
all the powerful people of Ayemenem put together
and who, despite his disenfranchised and socially
powerless position, dared to have compassion for
abandoned members of powerful families such as
Ammu, Estha, and Rahel.
The theme of abandonment appears on a third
and most devastating level in the abandonment of
people. Pappachi abandons all communications with
his wife when Chacko puts a stop to his wife abuse;
Baba abandons wife, family, and decency for alcohol;
Ammu and Velutha abandon their families by dying
prematurely; Vellya Paapen abandons his love and
allegiance for his son, Velutha, because of centuries
of brainwashing abuse. Hence, in this novel, the
most sacred and intimate relationships are aban-
doned either for the most inane and trivial matters
or because of misplaced loyalty and eons of abuse.
However, despite all the abandonment that goes
on in the novel, there are two people who do not
abandon each other: Estha and Rahel. They remain
close despite all the time and space that is forced
between them, because they are indeed two separate
individuals, but one entity, “we.” Furthermore, Estha
does not abandon his compassion or his responsi-
bility. He does not abandon the sick, mangy dog
Khubchand, choosing to nurse the pitiful creature
through the last stages of its incontinent, pathetic
life. He does not abandon his responsibility in
causing Velutha’s death, holding himself eternally
accountable for choosing Ammu over Velutha, even
though he was forced into the choice.
Finally, everyone in the novel abandons some-
thing that is sacred and significant, hiding such gross
negligence in the crevices of social mores, except
one—Estha—who deliberately abandons nothing,
but unconsciously abandons everything—sensation,
speech, sanity—and living only in the reality of what
once were Little Ammu and the love he had known
for and through her.
Sukanya B. SenapaticommodIFIcatIon/commercIaLIzatIon
in The God of Small Things
Many scholars contend that the hegemony of
Western colonial nations continues to paralyze the
morale of former colonies, despite their liberation
at least a half century ago. This problem is further
exacerbated by the instantaneous dissemination of
these master cultures through electronic images.
While in the not too distant past, British colonizers
had to force Indian natives to buy imported goods
from England through bans imposed on the pro-
duction and selling of indigenous goods, Western
colonial nations no longer have to use such force.
According to scholars, native minds have been
effectively colonized, disabling them from inde-
pendent thought and engendering in them only the
desire to mimic their former masters. This mimicry
creates a bigger market for the culture and material
goods both produced and consumed by colonial
master nations. In The God of Small Things, this
commercial relation between the British coloniz-
ers and the colonized Indians is revealed through
the rapid commercialization of Ayemenem and