Class, Gender and Race Intersections in Indian Society in a Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

Abstract

Intersectionality is a feminist theory --- a major paradigm of research in women’s studies; a method of textual analysis as to how the intersection of different multiple identities combine together to enhance the process of exclusion, oppression and marginalization. It has its origins in class struggle movements and works like Marxist-feminist theory also to dig the root-causes of woman discrimination on the bases of class, caste, race and gender and investigates the reasons which are pushing them even farther away in their effort to access to basic necessities for survival. This article advocates a multilevel analysis which takes into account the reciprocal effects between various social practices which contribute together to speed-up the oppression of woman belonging to minority class with multiple identities in multicultural society of India with affected colonial past and dominant patriarchal and cultural ideologies, institutional arrangements, and ultimately the outcome of all these interactions in terms of power. This article also unmasks the age old held beliefs of equality, fair play and justice to expose all other forms of othering and exclusion of woman from social spheres regarding their age, marital status and nationality as well.  This paper argues Intersectionality specifically in Rohinton Mistry’s novel A Fine Balance to encapsulate the interconnectedness of gender, race, class and caste in Indian context involving the issues of age and nationality as well and will focus the character of protagonist, Mrs. Dina highlighting her struggle for survival in a world of ruthless competition and segregation as a result of converging identities and forces of power working against her jointly.

Key words: Intersectionality, class, caste, Marxist-Feminist, exclusion, Multiple-identities.