Power Dynamics and Predicaments of The Marginalized in A Fine Balance

Abstract

Rohinton Mistry is an Indian born Canadian writer. His notable works A fine Balance documents hierarchical social texture of India during and the around the time Indian emergency. In A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry presents a wider spectrum of Indian society than his earlier novels. The major characters of the novel are drawn from the various marginalized groups of the society. If Dina is marginalized in Parsi patriarchal society, Om and Ishvar are marginalized in the caste ridden feudal society of rural India. The paper attempts to study traditional power structures of Indian society and their relation to the marginalization of the some section of people in post-independent India. An attempt is also made to understand nature of power and how it works in the subjugation of some people. Various concepts of power propounded by Foucault are to be used as theoretical framework while analyzing the proposed topic.