Who is the god of small things?

“And when we look in through the windows, all we see are shadows. And when we try and listen, all we hear is a whispering. And we cannot understand the whispering, because our minds have been invaded by a war. A war that we have won and lost. The very worst sort of war. A war that captures dreams and re-dreams them. A war that has made us adore our conquerors and despise ourselves”

Chacko Ipe…The God of Small Things

Despite being written almost 22 years ago, there is so much about this book, the god of small things, that echoes our contemporary lives. The story is wittingly written as with each passing chapter the writer switches across chronological orders, forcing us to concentrate and dragging the reader deeper into the myths and paradigm of the1960 Indian subcontinent. Arundhati Roy in this debut novel of hers gave very detailed and vivid descriptions as she explored the world from the eyes of her protagonists, ranging from the young Rahel Ipe to Chacko Ipe, the failed Rhodes Scholar from Oxford.

Strong images ranging from class struggle, gender discriminations, and anglophilia framed the order of the day in Ayemenem. And these topics can be easily juxtaposed with our reality to reveal our society’s frailty in the face of change.

At the core of the book was the unraveling of the lives of the Ipe through a myriad of seemingly small events sparked by “the god of small things”. The general consensus of the reading community tend to suggest that the god of small things was Velutha, the man who Amu “loved by night, and her children loved by day”. I am of a slightly different opinion or rather a different interpretation. I think what makes good art is its openness to a variety of interpretation when viewed through a different lens. And that is the thrust of this article…a pointer to who the true god might be, given an accepted definition of gods, how they manifest and a somewhat familiar context.

The Ipe Family: Rise & Fall

The story paints a picture of the Ipes, a family with a fortune made from the founding and managing of the ‘Paradise Pickles & Preserves’ company. It dissects that critical juncture when everything they know began to unravel; when “the unthinkable became thinkable and the impossible became possible”.

To put the story in the proper chronological order (excluding all the historical snippets like Baby Kochamma’s crush on Father Mulligan), it starts on as the family prepares for the arrival of Sophie Mol and Margaret Kochamma from the United Kingdom, daughter and “wife (ex-wife, Chacko)” of Chacko Ipe. Chacko Ipe is the heir of the Ipe family crown jewel, the company ‘Paradise Pickles & Preserves’. He is also the son of the Ipe matriarch and founder of the company Soshamma Ipe (better known as mamachi) and her husband Benaan John Ipe (referred to as papachi). He is also the elder brother of Amu (mother of the twins Rahel and Estha).

The family packs themselves in the Plymouth vehicle, on the way to the cinema to see the film ‘Sound of Music’ for the umpteenth time. While driving, Velutha is spotted marching on the street with the Marxist movement.

While in the cinema watching the film, Estha’s miming of the songs disturbs members of the audience. He was asked to keep quiet, and so decided to leave the cinema room out into the hall where he could freely sing. Outside the cinema room, he meets the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man who (by employing cunning means) sexually molests him and rewards him with a free drink. Estha returns to the cinema room (disturbed by the incident but unable to speak about it) with a countenance and attitude make his family leave early; it even causes Rahel to offend Amu..and an action that made Rahel feel ‘loved, a little less’. The twins end the day sore and bitter.

Sophie Mol arrives.

Estha, hunted by the encounter begins to act strange, explore ways of self-protection and even escape from his house out of fear of the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man, who convinced Estha he could pass by, soon. Rahel, also feeling less loved follows her brother to the bank of the river and stumbles on Velutha. Amu comes to the bank of the river to get the children, sees the untouchable Velutha, for the first time in a different light. A sexual relationship ensues despite the associated stigma of such act (Paravan are a people of darker skin and, are at the bottom of the Hindu caste system. The term untouchables mean they shouldn’t be physically touched as they are considered dirty. The caste system requires elaborate rituals in relationships with these people, thus further deepening the divide and enshrining the already existing stratification).

Vellya, Velutha’s father finds out about their relationship and reports it to Amu’s grand aunt, Baby Kochamma who flairs up, verbally attacks Velutha and locks Amu up in the bedroom. Estha and Rahel go to see their mother, who blamed them for things they had no idea of. The result of this left the children (still bogged down with emotional traumas) puzzled with the decision to run away. Sophie Mol, their visiting cousin, begs to join them in the runaway quest, which they accept. The kids enter a boat on the bank of the river to take a journey across the river; a journey they had taken many times before, but this time things were different. The downpouring of rain capsizes the boat. The twins successfully escape, but Sophie Mol’s body was found later. She was dead.

A series of events following the death of Sophie Mol and at a parallel time, the discovery of the relationship between Amu and Velutha led to :

• Velutha’s beating and eventual death;
• The expulsion of Amu and her children from the Ipe household;
• The public opinion that the Ipe’s were responsible for the death of Velutha given the tension between the management and the brewing Marxist movement within Paradise and Pickle Preserves;
• The collapse of Paradise and Pickle Preserves;
• Chacko’s grief and eventual relocation of Canada;
• Amu’s early death;
• Ripping off the innocence of childhood from the twins, their unsuccessful lives, and their eventual incest.

Who is god, of small things?

A good starting point: who is a god? Many definitions of the concept of ‘gods’ exist, but the one most relevant for this context, I would construct as thus: a god is a being that exists outside a reality with abilities to enforce a certain type of order. The ability might manifest as an action, natural or supernatural; it may be cataclysmic but such action starts off a sequence of events that leads to the desired consequence which further reinforces the established order.

In the case of Lot (of the Tora and Old Testament Bible), it was the angels disguised as visitors who lured the men of Sodom and Gomorrah to lust at them and, further justifying the need to destroy the city. The men had defiled ethical laws relevant at that time and action was needed to tip the balance.

In the Greek mythology of Oedipus Rex, we see how Oedipus was cursed that he would kill his father and marry his mother. In trying to prevent that from happening, Laius (the king) set forth a series of events that eventually led to the fulfillment of the prophecy. In this case, the prophecy could be considered the image of god as mere hearing it, set forth a series of events and led to their destruction in the hands of their children. Their crime, Laius and his wife disobeyed accepted laws of hospitality.

In the god of small things, it was the same: an innocent boy, traumatised by a sexual encounter with a man sparked a series of events that eventually led to the demise of the burgeoning Ipe empire. The Orangedrink Lemondrink Man was that being that existed outside their reality whose action made their world unravel. He was the god of small things. As mentioned in the book, the Ipe family “all crossed into forbidden territory. They tampered with the laws that lay down who should be loved and how”.

Reverend Ipe had opened as a school for Paravans encouraging education to Velutha, albeit eventually. His grandson Chacko encourage the festering of Marxism ideologies and behaviours unfamiliar to the creed of Ayemenem. The family bred anglophiles, lovers of the film ‘sound of music’ and children who could have relationships outside the dictates of the Hindi’ caste system; even with untouchable. Their children sang “English songs and had porketmunny”. The Ipes had evoked the “worse type of war. A war (of the mind) that captures dreams and redreams them. A war that made them adore their conquerors and despise themselves”. And the god of small things lashed at the family because they had twisted that small thing and changed who they were supposed to be.

The book to me is an attempt at capturing our societal's response to change. It is about that crucial something as small that defines, and as solid that can be fluid. In a way, the story is about the fragility of identity and how unforgiving the gods might be, to those willing to change, even if it is for the better.

*Items in italics were quotes from the book.