Oppression and Retaliation: A Study of Prem Chand’s Resignation and K.S. Duggal’s The Masters

Abstract

Basic human rights get denied very often. To expose the denial of human rights, literature is used effectively The storiesResignation by Prem Chand and The Masters by K.S. Duggal represent the whole of India and portray struggles from the pre-independence era to
the contemporary struggles against terrorism in the border states of India.Resignation and The Masters show how the feudal mode of power which is invested in one group leads to inhuman treatment of the powerless. The stories focus the pre-independence days. The protagonists of the stories- the Indian office clerk under the British Sahib during colonial times and the common man struggling under the Zamindari system are presented in a context when they cannot but retaliate. The marginalized groups are distanced from the power centres. The position of the authority changes when the system changes. The protagonists are motivated to retaliate in different ways. The short storiesResignation and The Masters are indeed an eye-opener to the struggles of the subaltern