Ecological Discourse in Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance

Rohinton Mistry• Born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India in 1952.• Degree in Mathematics from the University of Bo

mbay in 1974, and • Emigrated to Canada with his wife the following y

ear, settling in Toronto, • Worked as a bank clerk, studying English and Phi

losophy part-time at the University of Toronto • Completed his second degree in 1982.

Rohinton Mistry• 1989 Swimming Lessons and Other Stories

from Firozsha Baag

• 1991 Such a Long Journey

• 1995 A Fine Balance

• 2002 Family Matters

On A Fine Balance

• …in India seventy-five percent of Indians live in villages and I wanted to embrace more of the social reality…So I made the tailors come from a small village and Maneck come from a hill station in the North…I wanted to give a strong sense of the different locales and I wanted to root the reader in those places so that he or she has a very clear sense of where these people are coming from (Interview, Nasta 204)

Criticism:

• From Feminists:

People who honor Indira Gandhi

• From writerly standpoint:

Diamond: At times Mistry’s storytelling is more theatrical than novelistic. There is a “disproportion of background to foreground”

Characters/Their Places

• Maneck Kohlah: Parsee, Hill CountryFather is a Grocery Shopkeeper, Entrepreneur of own soft

drink made in basement (Kashmir)Student of Refrigeration at University in the City

• Ishvar and Omprakesh: Hindu, Remote Village Chamaar Caste: Untouchable Leatherworkers who

become Tailors

• Dina Dalal: Parsee, City Environment Daughter of a medical doctor; becomes a

seamstress

Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra Guha: • Population of India:

1. ecosystem people: 4/5 of rural people; over half of total population

(traditional use of resources: shelter, water, food and clothing)

2. omnivores: 1/6th of populationstimulate development; industrialize;“enjoy the produce of the entire biosphere”

3. ecological refugees: displaced ecosystem people

Homes at Risk• Dina’s Home in “residential dist

rict of The City

• Maneck Kohlah’s Home in the Mountains

• The Village: the produce only for the upper caste

• Hutment Villages

• The City Streets

• Landlord wants her to move for development

• Deforestation for Tourism

• Untouchables become ecological refugees; family planning policy corruption

• Hutment villages torn down for development

• Beautification policy

Semiosis in the Novel“artifactual world from the material of nature”

(Tuan Yi-Fu)Hair: Natural Resouces

Making Clothes: Labour Politics

Body: Vulnerable Body of the Land

Balance/Imbalance: Generational Sustaining Life and Philosophies

Hair and Gender Struggles

Dina’s Long and Short Hair in Adolescence

a.School Experiences

b.Brother’s Power and Sexual Threat

c. Hairdresser Friend Zenobia

Hair as Commodity

Rajaram, the Hair Collector Middleman

a. collects from barbers for wigmakersb. stores it in his hut in the shantytown

c. Hardwar Temple Town: sacrifices of hair to God d. Steals hair from people in marketplace e. Murders beggar couple for their beautiful hair

f. Reads hair as bald guru g. Mail Order readings done with help of former

Proofreader

Beards as Ethnicity and Danger

Maneck: Hidden Identity in Global Context

(Maneck “masks” Identity with Beard)

The Sikh Taxi Driver Shaves Beard Off for Safety

Hair is a mark of ReligionCaste Ethnicity Sexual Development Independence BeautyFertility of the Land

Natural Resource as Commodity for Global Market

Clothing• Mahatma Gandhi:

[One] ought to learn how to handle and make simple tools. Imagine the unifying and educative effect of the whole nation simultaneously taking part in the processes up to spinning! Consider the leveling effect of the bond of common labor between the rich and the poor …[Home-spun cloth] to me is the symbol of the unity of Indian humanity, of its economic freedom and equality, and therefore, ultimately, in the poetic expression of Jawaharlal Nehru, “the livery of India’s freedom. (260)

Mahatma Gandhi Spinning

The Quilt

1. The chronology of their time together

2. The good and bad memories together

3. Maneck’s quiltmaker God

4. Ishvar’s padding as amputee beggar

• Eco-Gandhians:

a. global

b. traditional

c. social equality

• Hindu Ecologists

a. Five Elements

b. small-scale industry

c. decentralizaiton

d. use non-polluting tech. e. nuclear fusion etc.

• Ecological Marxists

a. global

b. modern science and technology

c. social leveling

• Appropriate Technologists

a. local self-reliance

b. reconciliation between traditional and modern knowledge and technique c. social equity

Dina’s Home/Shop (Tailoring)

• Learning the trade: Dina and the Tailors

• The Singer Sewing Machines Rented

• Ethnic cooperation (Multiculturalism)

• Egalitarian

• Global Boutique market Recyling: Cloth scraps used in quilt

Prakrti (Cosmic Matter in Five Elements)• Maneck’s father’s ashes:

“He pictured the ashes, carried by all this shining water, travelling everywhere over the mountainside. His father had got his wish—he was being strewn abundantly, with more thoroughness than any human could have exercised: nature’s mighty and scrupulous hand had taken charge, and he was everywhere, inseparable from the place he had loved so deeply.” (586)

Beggar’s Procession

• Beggarmaster’s son’s death

Parade/police stop beggar’s procession

Body of son strewn about again

The Cremation (Avinash, too)

Dina and Maneck Hesitate to join it

Two Mother Figures of India: Dina Dalal and Indira GandhiSimilarities: Dina head of a “household”-the NationInvolved in global markets on small-scale

Differences: An Accidental FamilyEmergency Measures for the NationUnsustainable Development Projects

Indira Ghandi• She lived (1917-84).• President 1959-60 and 1966-77 Details of her Life: • Leader of the Congress Party. • She was Minister of Information 1964-66 and member of Rajya Sabha 1964-67 • President 19.01.1966-24.03.1977 • In 1975 she declared a state of emergency and ruled as a dictator.• She lost the 1977-elections and imprisoned. • After her release she was leader of Congress (I) 1978-84 and • President 14.01.1980-31.10.1984 • Premier she also held posts of Minister of Foreign Affairs, Defence, Finance, Home

Affairs etc. • Killed by Sikh Life-guard. • She was daughter of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (1947-64(†)), • married to Feroze Gandhi in 1942. • Her younger son Rajiv Ghandi, was Prime Minister (1984-89(†)).

The Nation/Earth/Body

Rajav Gandhi: Indira’s son

Balances at Risk

• Bicycles and Accidents with Motor Vehicles

• Playing Chess with Avinash, the political activist

• The young with the old

• The caste balances

• Acrobatic Balance of Monkey Man

• Hope and Disillusion

Monkey-man

The Acrobatic Balance

• “The children were lifted high above the ground. Their faces disappeared into the ight, beond the reach of the kitchen lights. The audience gasped. [Moneky-man] raised the pole higher, gave it a little toss, and caught the end upon his palm. His stringy arm muscles quivered. He moved the pole to and fro, making the top end sway like a treetop in a breeze. Then another little toss, and the pole was balanced on his thumb.”

Some References• Chapple, Christopher Key, and Mary Evelyn Tucker, eds. Hinduism and Ecology: • The Intersection of Earth, Sky, and Water. Cambridge, MA: Harvard College • Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School, 2000. • Coward, Howard. “Religious Responses to the Population Sustainability

Problematic: Implications for Law.” Environmental Law 27:4 (1997). • Gadgil, Madhav, and Ramachandra Guha. Ecology and Equity: The Use and Abuse • of Nature in Contemporary India. London: Routledge, 1995. • Gandhi, Mahatma. The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His

Life, Work, and Ideas. Ed. Louis Fischer. New York: Random House Vintage Books, 1962.

• Marten, Gerald G. Human Ecology: Basic Concepts for Sustainable Development. • London: Earthscan, 2001.• Mistry, Rohinton. A Fine Balance. New York: Random House Vintage • International, 1997. • Nasta, Susheila. Writing Across Worlds: Contemporary Writers Talk. London:

Routledge, 2004. 198-206• Nelson, Lance E., ed. Purifying the Earthly Body of God: Religion and Ecology in • Hindu India. Albany: NY: State U of New York P, 1998. • Rao, K. L. Sheshagiri. “The Five Great Elements (Pancamahabhuta): An Ecological

Perspective,” Chapple and Tucker, 23-38. • Rukmani, T. S. “Literary Foundations for an Ecological Aesthetic: Dharma, • Ayurveda, the Arts, and Abhijnanasakuntalam.” Chapple and Tucker, 101-119.