Incomplete Essay on The God of Small Things

Before Spring Break I had hoped to finish this essay on The God of Small Things, focusing on Velutha as the Black Christ, if you will. Though not explicitly about blackness, race, colonialism, and color prejudice appear throughout the novel. The countless references to Velutha's ebony chest in contrast to Ammu's chestnut-brown complexion, for example, appears often. In addition, Roy's constant references to the Heart of Darkness and the extremely racist views lighter-complected Indians share toward dark-skinned folks like Velutha made it easy to begin writing an essay that would analyze over the

longue durée how the peoples of South Asia perceived "Black Africans" and darker peoples in their midst. It would be foolish to suggest that anti-black prejudice only existed in the subcontinent following the arrival of European imperialism, and India's long history of trade with East Africa included the slave trade, further complicating perceptions of blacks (look up the Siddis of India). 

Moreover, I would also like to point out a powerful critique of the novel I came across from another like-minded soul on the internet. Does Roy essentially dehumanize our Black Christ, Velutha, by making him seemingly flawless? All of the novel's other characters have obvious imperfections, yet Velutha is so Christ-like he is selfless, playful and loving, and portrayed as a victim of his society's extreme prejudices and oppression without having any responsibility in his reception by said society. Thus, does Roy perpetuate the dehumanizing of the dark peoples by again not giving Velutha the full, flawed humanity found in Ammu, Estha, Rahel, and the rest? Instead of making him sub-human, like Conrad does in Heart of Darkness or in other works of the western canon, she makes a god out of him. Does this contradict the message of the novel for unconditional love and acceptance of all since the ebony-hued man is elevated above the other characters in the novel? Even the innocent children, also victimized by the oppressive forces in society, also become a Judas figure by selling out Velutha at the novel's conclusion...Regardless, this is a powerful novel whose universal message could have taken place anywhere. These thoughts were stuck in my mind after re-reading the novel in March, however, and deserve critical attention. Perhaps I shall return to this essay someday and actually write something meaningful with it. 

Africa, Blackness and Velutha: Race in The God of Small Things

"Africa?" Kochu Maria sniggered. "Africa's full of ugly black people and mosquitoes."

Indian writer and activist Arundhati Roy’s sole novel, The God of Small Things, though set in the southern state of Kerala, India, is a novel about race, as well as many other things. Through the character of Velutha, whose name means white in Malayalam, to contrast with his black skin, the intricate world of color prejudice, racism, and colonialism are thoroughly explored. In the case of Velutha,, he becomes a Black Christ whose life reveals how human society erects, in the words of Roy’s narrator, “Another edifice constructed by the human mind, decimated by human nature.” The Black Christ of Ayemenem’s life serves to illustrate how the false social categories humans impose on one another, the Big Things, cannot separate us from uniting based on the Small Things. Essentially a love story, Roy’s novel becomes universal because it is a story of men, women, and children who seek happiness despite the social conditions created by history that prevent one from, in the words of Roy, “to pursue beauty to its lair.” 

Important to acknowledge in any critique of Roy’s novel, is the long history of internally woven issues of race and color within India. Dating back to the Love Laws, which “lay down who should be loved. And how. And how much.”  Thus, colonialism, with its pernicious influences on Indian cultures, cannot be blamed entirely for the caste system and skin color prejudice. Indian societies prior to British imperialism were far from heaven, and in fact, were places of extreme inequality along gender, caste, and age lines. The very fact that Ammu had no future after divorcing her husband, thereby losing all chances for happiness because of her dishonored status as a divorced woman, illustrates the degrees to which Indian societies were far from ideal. Therefore, one cannot “blame the white man” for everything, despite the writer of this essay’s predilection.  

Nevertheless, the negative impact of European colonialism on Indian perceptions of blackness and Africa must be acknowledged. Of course the long history of the East African slave trade to India and the Middle East must be accounted for as well when studying Indian attitudes toward dark-skinned peoples. It is significant that Kairu Saipu, the Englishman who went mad in the process of going ‘native,’ who lived with an Indian boy in the History House/Heart of Darkness, is called Black Sahib. This Black Sahib, who had “gone native,” who spoke Malayalam and wore mundus, is described by the narrator as Ayemenem’s own...