Arundahti Roy Biography: I Have Never Been Particularly Ambitious. I Am Not a Careerist

CONTEXT THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS

Arundahti Roy Biography: “I have never been particularly ambitious. I am not a careerist, I am not trying to get anywhere in a career. It is more important to engage with society, to live it, to have different experiences”, said Roy, addressing the audience at Sharjah International Book Fair. Arundhati Roy (November 24, 1961) is an Indian novelist, political activist. She is best known for her first novel The God of Small Things which won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. She was also awarded with Sydney Peace Prize in 2004. Roy was born in Shillong, Meghalaya to a Keralite Christian mother and a Bengali Hindu father. Roy’s father was a Bengali tea planter, and her mother was a Christian of Syrian descent who challenged India’s inheritance laws by successfully suing for the right of Christian women to receive an equal share of their fathers’ estates. Though trained as an architect, Roy had little interest in design; she dreamed instead of a writing career. She spent her childhood in Aymanam in Kerala which she mentions in her autobiographical book, The God of Small Things. The novel is filled with Roy’s Childhood memories. Roy has also concentrated on penning down political issues. She has written on diverse topics such as Narmada Dam project, India’s nuclear weapons and American power giant Enron’s activities in India. She also served as a critic of neo-imperialism and has been linked with anti- globalization movement. Her career began with television and movies. She wrote screenplays for “In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones” (1989), a movie which talked about her experiences as an architecture student and she appeared as a performer. Later, she wrote for “Electric Moon” (1992) both movies were directed by her husband Pradip Krishen. Arundhati Roy received great attention in 1994 when she criticized Shekhar Kapoor’s film Bandit Queen based on Phoolan Devi. She denounced the movie calling it “The Great Indian Rape Trick” in her film review. Furthermore, she condemned the fact that the incident was recreated without the consent of the living rape victim. Also, she charged Kapoor with misrepresenting Phoolan Devi’s life and for sketching a very partial picture. After her much acclaimed novel, Roy began working as a screenplay writer again and wrote for television serials such as “The Banyan Tree” and the documentary “DAM/AGE: A Film with Arundhati Roy” (2002). In early 2007, Roy announced that she would begin working on her second novel. Roy proficiently uses her celebrity position and her gift of writing. She wrote an essay on dams, “The Greater Common Good” and “The End of Imagination” which reflected her intense condemnation of India’s nuclear testing which shook up the whole country. The elites did not appreciate her critique, the nationalists despised her for questioning India’s nuclear resource. The author’s subversive nature has made her accustomed to criticism. “Each time I step out, I hear the snicker-snack of knives being sharpened but that’s good. It keeps me sharp”, said Arundhati Roy when interviewed by an Indian magazine. She won the Lannan Foundation’s Cultural Freedom Award in 2002 for her work regarding the civil societies that are adversely affected by the world’s most tyrannical governments and monopolies. In addition, she was awarded a special recognition as a Woman of Peace at the Global Human Rights Awards in San Francisco in 2003. Roy was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize in 2004 for her social campaigns and for promoting tolerance and non-violance. CONTEXT THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS

She also received the Sahitya Akademi Award, a national award from India’s Academy of Letters for her collection of essays on contemporary issues, The Algebra of Infinite Justice. However, she declined it in protest against the Indian Government for pursuing violent and ruthless policies and being brutal to industrial workers and an increasing militarization and economic neo- liberalization. In November 2011, she was awarded the Norman Mailer Prize for Distinguished Writing. India: India's extraordinary history is intimately tied to its geography. A meeting ground between the East and the West, it has always been an invader's paradise, while at the same time its natural isolation and magnetic religions allowed it to adapt to and absorb many of the peoples who penetrated its mountain passes. No matter how many Persians, Greeks, Chinese nomads, Arabs, Portuguese, British and other raiders had their way with the land, local Hindu kingdoms invariably survived their depradations, living out their own sagas of conquest and collapse. All the while, these local dynasties built upon the roots of a culture well established since the time of the first invaders, the Aryans. In short, India has always been simply too big, too complicated, and too culturally subtle to let any one empire dominate it for long. True to the haphazard ambiance of the country, the discovery of India's most ancient civilization literally happened by accident. British engineers in the mid-1800's, busy constructing a railway line between Karachi and Punjab, found ancient, kiln-baked bricks along the path of the track. This discovery was treated at the time as little more than a curiosity, but archaeologists later revisited the site in the 1920's and determined that the bricks were over 5000 years old. Soon afterward, two important cities were discovered: Harappa on the Ravi river, and Mohenjodaro on the Indus. The civilization that laid the bricks, one of the world's oldest, was known as the Indus. They had a written language and were highly sophisticated. Dating back to 3000 BC, they originated in the south and moved north, building complex, mathematically-planned cities. Some of these towns were almost three miles in diameter and contained as many as 30,000 residents. These ancient municipalities had granaries, citadels, and even household toilets. In Mohenjodaro, a mile-long canal connected the city to the sea, and trading ships sailed as far as Mesopotamia. At its height, the Indus civilization extended over half a million square miles across the Indus river valley, and though it existed at the same time as the ancient civilizations of Egypt and Sumer, it far outlasted them. The first group to invade India were the Aryans, who came out of the north in about 1500 BC. The Aryans brought with them strong cultural traditions that, miraculously, still remain in force today. They spoke and wrote in a language called Sanskrit, which was later used in the first documentation of the Vedas. Though warriors and conquerors, the Aryans lived alongside Indus, introducing them to thecaste system and establishing the basis of the Indian religions. The Aryans inhabited the northern regions for about 700 years, then moved further south and east when they developed iron tools and weapons. They eventually settled the Ganges valley and built large kingdoms throughout much of northern India. The second great invasion into India occurred around 500 BC, when the Persian kings Cyrus and Darius, pushing their empire eastward, conquered the ever-prized Indus Valley. Compared to the Aryans, the Persian influence was marginal, perhaps because they were only able to occupy the region for a relatively brief period of about 150 years. The Persians were in turn conquered by the Greeks under Alexander the Great, who swept through the country as far as the Beas River, where he defeated king Porus and an army of 200 elephants in 326 BC. The tireless, charismatic conqueror wanted to extend his empire even further eastward, but his own troops (undoubtedly exhausted) refused to continue. Alexander returned home, leaving behind garrisons to keep the trade routes open. While the Persians and Greeks subdued the Indus Valley and the northwest, Aryan-based kingdoms continued developing in the East. In the 5th century BC, Siddhartha Gautama founded the CONTEXT THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS religion of Buddhism, a profoundly influential work of human thought still espoused by much of the world. As the overextended Hellenistic sphere declined, a king known as Chandragupta swept back through the country from Magadha (Bihar) and conquered his way well into Afghanistan. This was the beginning of one India's greatest dynasties, the Maurya. Under the great king Ashoka (268-31 BC), the Mauryan empire conquered nearly the entire subcontinent, extending itself as far south as Mysore. When Ashoka conquered Orissa, however, his army shed so much blood that the repentant king gave up warfare forever and converted to Buddhism. Proving to be as tireless a missionary as he had been as conqueror, Asoka brought Buddhism to much of central Asia. His rule marked the height of the Maurya empire, and it collapsed only 100 years after his death. After the demise of the Maurya dynasty, the regions it had conquered fragmented into a mosaic of kingdoms and smaller dynasties. The Greeks returned briefly in 150 BC and conquered the Punjab, and by this time Buddhism was becoming so influential that the Greek king Menander forsook the Hellenistic pantheon and became a Buddhist himself. The local kingdoms enjoyed relative autonomy for the next few hundred years, occasionally fighting (and often losing to) invaders from the north and China, who seemed to come and go like the monsoons. Unlike the Greeks, the Romans never made it to India, preferring to expand west instead. In AD 319, Chandragupta II founded the Imperial Guptas dynasty, which conquered and consolidated the entire north and extended as far south as the Vindya mountains. When the Guptas diminished, a golden age of six thriving and separate kingdoms ensued, and at this time some of the most incredible temples in India were constructed in Bhubaneshwar, Konarak, and Khahurajo. It was time of relative stability, and cultural developments progressed on all fronts for hundreds of years, until the dawn of the Muslim era. Arab traders had visited the western coast since 712, but it wasn't until 1001 that the Muslim world began to make itself keenly felt. In that year, Arab armies swept down the Khyber pass and hit like a storm. Led by Mahmud of Ghazi, they raided just about every other year for 26 years straight. They returned home each time, leaving behind them ruined cities, decimated armies, and probably a very edgy native population. Then they more or less vanished behind the mountains again for nearly 150 years, and India once again went on its way. But the Muslims knew India was still there, waiting with all its riches. They returned in 1192 under Mohammed of Ghor, and this time they meant to stay. Ghor's armies laid waste to the Buddhist temples of Bihar, and by 1202 he had conquered the most powerful Hindu kingdoms along the Ganges. When Ghor died in 1206, one of his generals, Qutb-ud-din, ruled the far north from the Sultanate of Delhi, while the southern majority of India was free from the invaders. Turkish kings ruled the Muslim acquisition until 1397, when the Mongols invaded under Timur Lang (Tamerlane) and ravaged the entire region. One historian wrote that the lightning speed with which Tamerlane's armies struck Delhi was prompted by their desire to escape the stench of rotting corpses they were leaving behind them. Islamic India fragmented after the brutal devastation Timur Lang left in Delhi, and it was every Muslim strongman for himself. This would change in 1527, however, when the Mughal (Persian for Mongol) monarch Babur came into power. Babur was a complicated, enlightened ruler from Kabul who loved poetry, gardening, and books. He even wrote cultural treatises on the Hindus he conquered, and took notes on local flora and fauna. Afghan princes in India asked for his help in 1526, and he conquered the Punjab and quickly asserted his own claim over them by taking Delhi. This was the foundation of the Mughal dynasty, whose six emperors would comprise most influential of all the Muslim dynasties in India. Babur died in 1530, leaving behind a harried and ineffective son, Humayun. Humayun's own son, Akbar, however, would be the greatest Mughal ruler of all. Unlike his grandfather, Akbar was more warrior than scholar, and he extended the empire as far south as the Krishna river. Akbar tolerated local religions and married a Hindu princess, establishing a tradition of cultural acceptance that would contribute greatly to the success of the Mughal rule. In 1605, Akbar was CONTEXT THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS succeed by his son Jahangir, who passed the expanding empire along to his own son Shah Jahan in 1627. Though he spent much of his time subduing Hindu kingdoms to the south, Shah Jahan left behind the colossal monuments of the Mughal empire, including the Taj Majal (his favorite wife's tomb), the Pearl Mosque, the Royal Mosque, and the Red Fort. Jahan's campaigns in the south and his flare for extravagant architecture necessitated increased taxes and distressed his subjects, and under this scenario his son Aurungzebe imprisoned him, seeking power for himself in 1658. Unlike his predecessors, Aurungzebe wished to eradicate indigenous traditions, and his intolerance prompted fierce local resistance. Though he expanded the empire to include nearly the entire subcontinent, he could never totally subdue the Mahrattas of the Deccan, who resisted him until his death in 1707. Out of the Mahrattas' doggedness arose the legendary figure of Shivagi, a symbol Hindu resistance and nationalism. Aurungzebe's three sons disputed over succession, and the Mughal empire crumbled, just as the Europeans were beginning to flex their own imperialistic muscles. The Portuguese had traded in Goa as early as 1510, and later founded three other colonies on the west coast in Diu, Bassein, and Mangalore. In 1610, the British chased away a Portuguese naval squadron, and the East India Company created its own outpost at Surat. This small outpost marked the beginning of a remarkable presence that would last over 300 years and eventually dominate the entire subcontinent. Once in India, the British began to compete with the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the French. Through a combination of outright combat and deft alliances with local princes, the East India Company gained control of all European trade in India by 1769. How a tiny island nation, thousands of miles away, came to administer a huge territory of 300 million people is one of history's great spectacles. A seemingly impossible task, it was done through a highly effective and organized system called the Raj. Treaties and agreements were signed with native princes, and the Company gradually increased its role in local affairs. The Raj helped build infrastructure and trained natives for its own military, though in theory they were for India's own defense. In 1784, after financial scandals in the Company alarmed British politicians, the Crown assumed half-control of the Company, beginning the transfer of power to royal hands. In 1858, a rumor spread among Hindu soldiers that the British were greasing their bullets with the fat of cows and pigs, the former sacred animals to Hindus and the latter unclean animals to Muslims. A year-long rebellion against the British ensued. Although the Indian Mutiny was unsuccessful, it prompted the British government to seize total control of all British interests in India in 1858, finally establishing a seamless imperialism. Claiming to be only interested in trade, the Raj steadily expanded its influence until the princes ruled in name only. The Raj's demise was partially a result of its remarkable success. It had gained control of the country by viewing it as a source of profit. Infrastructure had been developed, administration established, and an entire structure of governance erected. India had become a profitable venture, and the British were loath to allow the Indian population any power in a system that they viewed as their own accomplishment. The Indians didn't appreciate this much, and as the 20th century dawned there were increasing movements towards self-rule. Along with the desire for independence, tensions between Hindus and Muslims had also been developing over the years. The Muslims had always been a minority, and the prospect of an exclusively Hindu government made them wary of independence; they were as inclined to mistrust Hindu rule as they were to resist the Raj. In 1915, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi came onto the scene, calling for unity between the two groups in an astonishing display of leadership that would eventually lead the country to independence. The profound impact Gandhi had on India and his ability to gain independence through a totally non-violent mass movement made him one of the most remarkable leaders the world has ever known. He led by example, wearing homespun clothes to weaken the British textile industry and orchestrating a march to the sea, where demonstrators proceeded to make their own salt in CONTEXT THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS protest against the British monopoly. Indians gave him the name Mahatma, or Great Soul. The British promised that they would leave India by 1947. Independence came at great cost. While Gandhi was leading a largely Hindu movement, Mohammed Ali Jinnah was fronting a Muslim one through a group called the Muslim League. Jinnah advocated the division of India into two separate states: Muslim and Hindu, and he was able to achieve his goal. When the British left, they created the separate states of Pakistan and Bangladesh (known at that time as East Pakistan), and violence erupted when stranded Muslims and Hindu minorities in the areas fled in opposite directions. Within a few weeks, half a million people had died in the course of the greatest migration of human beings in the world's history. The aging Gandhi vowed to fast until the violence stopped, which it did when his health was seriously threatened. At the same time, the British returned and helped restore order. Excepting Kashmir, which is still a disputed area (and currently unsafe for tourists), the division reached stability. India's history since independence has been marked by disunity and intermittent periods of virtual chaos. In 1948, on the eve of independence, Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic. His right-hand man, Jawarhalal Nehru, became India's first Prime Minister. Nehru was a successful leader, steering the young nation through a period of peace that was contrasted by the rule of Lal Bahadur Shastri, who fought Pakistan after it invaded two regions of India. Shastri died in 1966 after only 20 months in power, and he was succeeded by Nehru's daughter, Indira Gandhi. With the name Gandhi (though no relation to Mahatma), Indira was a powerful, unchallenged leader, and opposition remained negligible until she abused her power by trying to suppress the press. When the rising opposition began to threaten her power, she called a state of emergency and continued to reform the nation, actually making some positive economic and political changes despite her questionable tactics. Her most unpopular policy was forced sterilization, and she was eventually defeated at the polls in 1977 by Morarji Desai of the Jenata party. She won back power in '79, however, but was later assassinated in 1984 by a Sikh terrorist. Although India's political climate remains divisive, the country has attained apparent stability in recent years. Today, India seems poised to realize its potential as an international economic power. (From: http://www.geographia.com/india/india02.htm)

The Caste System in India: What is the caste system? According to Hindu tradition, Indian society is divided into hierarchical groups known as castes (jatis). Caste not only dictates one’s occupation, but also dietary habits, dress codes, and interaction with members of other castes. Members of a high caste enjoy more wealth and opportunities while members of a low caste perform menial jobs. Upward mobility is very rare in the caste system. Most people remain in one caste their entire life and marry within their caste.

Castes fall into four basic groups known as varnas: Brahmins—priests, scholars Kshatryas—warriors, kings Vaishyas—traders, merchants, bankers Shudras—laborers, servants, peasants A fifth, large group of people known as Asprishya or “untouchables” exists in addition to these caste-groups. Untouchable jobs, such as toilet cleaning and garbage removal, bring them into contact with filth, bodily fluids, and trash. They are therefore considered “polluted” and not to be touched. As a result, they experience frequent social discrimination. In The God of Small Things, Velutha comes from a family of Paravans, a category of untouchables associated with fishing and boatbuilding. Reform of the Caste System: Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), a prominent figure in the early 20th- century movement for Indian Independence from British rule, campaigned to improve the rights of CONTEXT THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS the untouchables, whom he called Harijans meaning “Children of God.” He made symbolic gestures, such as eating with them. The Indian Constitution of 1950 outlawed discrimination against untouchables. This enabled them to obtain previously forbidden jobs and education. Untouchables have also contested their “outcast” status by forming their own social and political groups, referring to themselves as “Dalits” (the “oppressed”). Many have converted from Hinduism to Buddhism. Caste in Contemporary India: Although it is illegal to discriminate against “low” and “untouchable” castes in modern-day India, prejudice still continues. We see this in The God of Small Things, much of which is set in 1969, nearly two decades after the passing of this law. The growth of cities has created new forms of contact between different castes, which did not exist before, but it is still possible to see advertisements for housing and jobs specifying “Brahmins Only.” Much discrimination is unspoken, however, with “untouchables” regularly receiving lower pay and more menial jobs. (From Teaching The God of Small Things in Wisconsin Great World Texts: A Program of the Center for the Humanities, University of Wisconsin)

What is Postcolonial Literature? In a broad sense, postcolonial literature is writing which has been “affected by the imperial process from the moment of colonization to the present day” (Ashcroft et al, 2). In India’s case, this includes novels, poetry, and drama which were written both during and after the British Raj or “Reign,” which came to a formal conclusion with Indian Independence in August 1947. Although writing from India and other formerly colonized countries such as Nigeria, Jamaica, Pakistan, and Singapore has distinctive features, postcolonial literature shares some significant concerns and characteristics. Concerns: 1) Reclaiming spaces and places: Colonialism was, above all, a means of claiming and exploiting foreign lands, resources, and people. Enslavement, indentured labor, and migration forced many indigenous populations to move from the places that they considered “home”. Postcolonial literature attempts to counteract their resulting alienation from their surroundings by restoring a connection between indigenous people and places through description, narration, and dramatization. 2) Asserting cultural integrity: During colonization, the indigenous cultures of those countries subjected to foreign rule were often sidelined, suppressed, and openly denigrated in favor of elevating the social and cultural preferences and conventions of the colonizers. In response, much postcolonial literature seeks to assert the richness and validity of indigenous cultures in an effort to restore pride in practices and traditions that were systematically degraded under colonialism. 3) Revising history: Colonizers often depicted their colonial subjects as existing “outside of history” in unchanging, timeless societies, unable to progress or develop without their intervention and assistance. In this way, they justified their actions, including violence against those who resisted colonial rule. Revising history to tell things from the perspective of those colonized is thus a major preoccupation of postcolonial writing. Characteristics 1) Resistant descriptions: Postcolonial writers use detailed descriptions of indigenous people, places, and practices to counteract or “resist” the stereotypes, inaccuracies, and generalizations which the colonizers circulated in educational, legal, political, and social texts and settings. 2) Appropriation of the colonizers’ language: Although many colonized countries are home to multiple indigenous languages—in India, for example, more than 12 languages exist alongside English—many postcolonial writers choose to write in the colonizers’ “tongue”. However, authors such as Arundhati Roy deliberately play with English, remolding it to reflect the rhythms and syntax of indigenous languages, and inventing new words and styles to demonstrate mastery of a language that was, in a sense, forced upon them. 3) Reworking colonial art-forms: Similarly, authors such as Arundhati Roy rework European art-forms like the novel to reflect indigenous modes of invention and creation. They reshape imported colonial art-forms to incorporate the style, structure, and themes of indigenous modes of creative expression, such as oral poetry and dramatic performances. Sources-Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin. The Empire Writes Back. New York: Routledge, 1989. CONTEXT THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS

Kerala and The God of Small Things A full understanding of and appreciation for Arundhati Roy’s novel The God of Small Things requires that the reader be well acquainted with the land and culture through which Roy weaves her tale. Roy achieves the rich descriptive texture and vivid imagery of her novel by writing about something with which she is intimately familiar; by gaining knowledge about Kerala the reader obtains the means by which to sense the passion that Roy feels for her homeland and her story. Geography, Climate, & Economy: Kerala lies on the southwest coast of the Indian Peninsula, stretching 360 miles along what is known as the Malabar coast. Its area of 15,000 square miles comprises just over one percent of the total land area of India, though its 29 million person population accounts for 3.5% of the Indian population. The state is bordered by Karnataka to the north and Tamil Nadu to the east, but Kerala is physically separated from neighboring states by the Western Ghat mountain range; this feature isolated Kerala from other Indian cultures for many years, and as a result allowed it to develop a society in which foreign culture is actually more evident than is the Indian influence. Because of its proximity to the Arabian Sea, Kerala is the first state each season to receive the monsoon rains, which contribute significantly to the 118 inches of annual rainfall. Most of Kerala’s innumerable rivers and backwaters are almost entirely monsoon fed, meaning they fluctuate in size from small rivulets in the summer to almost overwhelming volumes in the rainy season. It is during the monsoon rains that young Sophie Moll (The God of Small Things) is taken to her death by the high, swift waters of a deceptively powerful river. Heavy rains also contribute to the agriculture which forms the basis for most of the economy of Kerala and surrounding states. The Keralan spice trade dates back over three thousand years, and Kerala is still among the world leaders in the production and export of such spices as pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, and turmeric (Salman Rushdie’s The Moor’s Last Sigh is partly located in Kerala; the Da Gama/Zogoiby family’s fortune comes from trade in spice). Roy centers her story around the region of Kottayam, in the highlands of Kerala. The agriculture of this region is dominated by the production of coffee, tea, and rubber; it is a rubber plantation which the “history house” is situated, and where Velutha is first sheltered and finally destroyed. Language: Though English is spoken in much of Kerala, Malayalam is by far the principle language: it is spoken by a full 96 percent of the population of Kerala, as well as four percent of the population of India. Malayalam ranks eighth among the fifteen major Indian languages in total number of speakers. The language originated from Sanscrit and Tamil, but has evolved greatly with the influx of various foreign cultures and languages into Keralan society. Malayalam now includes literally hundreds of words and idiomatic expressions taken from languages such as English, Syriac, Latin, and Portuguese. Not only is Malayalam widely spoken, but it and other languages are also quite heavily read in Kerala; the state boasts a literacy rate of between 90 and 100 percent, possibly higher than any state in the world. Knowledge of that fact may make the phenomenal reading and writing abilities of young Estha and Rahel seem slightly more conceivable to a skeptical reader of Roy’s story. Communism: The Marxist sentiments portrayed in The God of Small Things are in some ways representative of the actual political climate of Kerala. In 1957 Kerala became the first state in the world (with the exception of the Italian principality of San Marino) to form a democratically elected communist government. In 1970, Kerala became the first state in India to abolish landlordism. Kerala is presently a democratic state, and is still under Marxist control. History, Religion, & Society: The political state of Kerala was formed on November 1st, 1956 with the joining of the Travancore-Cochin State and Malabar. However, Hindu mythology places the date much earlier; it contends that once, many thousands of years ago, the god Vishnu descended to CONTEXT THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS earth in the form of his sixth incarnation, Parashurama, in order to slay evil demons. After he battled the demons, Parashurama flung his Axe into the Arabian Sea, and where it landed Kerala arose from the depths of the ocean. Hinduism is strong in Kerala, as it is throughout India, but in Kerala, Hinduism has long been accompanied by several other world religions, including Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. The Syrian Christian faith practiced by Ammu and her family was begun in 52 AD when St. Thomas brought Christianity to Kerala. Jews migrated to Kerala even earlier, perhaps arriving from Jerusalem as early as 587BC. About sixty percent of the Keralan population is currently Hindu, with Christians and Muslims making up most of the remaining forty percent; small pockets of Jewish communities still exist in certain parts, including the town of Kochi and surrounding areas. One of the most apparent indications of the Hindu influence in Kerala is the prevalence and importance of the caste system in Keralan society. Though caste was originally present only in Hinduism, it was adopted and internalized by other religions as they began to appear in Kerala; caste has now become more of a social phenomenon than a religious convention in Kerala. The extreme importance of caste in the Syrian Christian society is apparent in the profound power that it holds over the actions of such characters as Mammachi and Baby Kochamma. (From Postcolonial Studies @ Emory University)