Relocation of the Judge and His Family in Kiran Desai’s the Inheritance of Loss: A Subaltern Study

Abstract

This essay argues the process of subalternation of some of the main characters of including the Judge, Justice Jamibhai Patel. The Judge, However, being a very prestigious post of Indian Civil Service is not the one who can be condescended to paradigm of subalternity. The very inflated ego and an affected sense of algophilia, disassociates the Judge from the Indian Community in the Kalimpong. Moreover, his service, The Cook, suffers from the same sense of fancy of British Raj. The other minor characters like Biju envisions a materialistically successful life as illegal immigrant in US, which shatters to pieces. The grand daughter Sai is also misfit to the household, distanced from her grandfather and gullibly heeds to the fabricated stories of the Cook. The Booker Winer of 2006, Kiran Desai shows the paradigm sift of the entire family cult and identifies how these people lost voices through the detachment and alienation from the broader society, and subsequently, subalternated.

Keywords: relocation, isolation, Subaltern studies.

DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/95-01

Publication date: January 31^st 2023