International Journal of Research ISSN NO:2236-6124

Foucault’s theory of Panopticon in ’s

Ms.Priya Antony, Assistant Professor, Department of BBA, Bharata Mata College, Thrikkakara

ABSTRACT: The aim of my study is to explore Foucault’s concept of Panopticon in Benyamin’s Goat Days. Panopticism is a social theory developed by Michel Foucault in his book, Discipline and Punish. Foucault discusses Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, a building with a tower at the center from which it is possible to see each cell in which a prisoner is incarcerated. Each individual is seen but he never knows from where he is being observed.

In the novel Goat Days, the Arab is the symbolic representation of the power which controls its subject through surveillance. This act of surveillance in the novel can be interpreted with Foucault’s concept of Panopticon. Visibility is a trap. Constant observation by the master created a kind of psychological as well as physical terror in the character Najeeb. The farm’s brutal supervisor keeps Najeeb in control with a gun and binoculars and frequently beats him with a belt. Through this apparatus of power Najeeb loses his real self and begins to behave like a goat.Desert occupies a space more than merely setting the backdrop to this novel. In this work, panoptic surveillance acts as disciplinary power system over an individual, rather than disciplining a society. It acts on individual freedom and leads to the dehumanization of particular person in the masara of Arabian country. The physical and mental torture which he faced in the masara is described by the victim.

Thus, Najeeb, the protagonist becomes self-disciplining to the disciplinary power of the Arbab. Arbab acts as the force of supreme power and Najeeb becomes the representative of the powerless. Attribution of power by powerful over a powerless subject is well illustrated by the novelist. Controlled activity is the key element of the novel. For every activity in the desert and masara, Arbab maintained an organized order for Najeeb and all duties of the masara was performed in a systematic way. Though his life is miserable a systematic behaviour is expected by the Arbab from Najeeb. Such a control is an indispensible part of a disciplinary power.

Desert has always been a mysterious place yet difficult to survive as well as comprehend for man. There are many works based on diasporic literature which focus on the experiences and analyses the problems, burden and longing for homeland.TheNitaqat system, the Saudi labour policy reserving ten percent of jobs for locals introduced in , agitated the lives of around six lakhs migrants. The displacement of Arab workers caused by the Gulf war affected the South Asian migrant labourers most. The inefficient socioeconomic structures of their homelands forced them to spend most of their life span away from their families working as slaves for extremely low wages. Often they have to survive in poor unhygienic conditions and have their passports held by employers. It is their experiences of suffering and survival that the Indian author Benyaminin his much acclaimed novel Aadujeevitham(2008) voices through the narrator-protagonist, Najeeb Muhammad who is a real life person. It is translated into English in the name Goat Days (2012) by an English Professor Joseph Koyipally.The forty three chapters of the novel begin in the “prison”, hazardous life of the main character Najeeb in the “desert”, final “escape” and “refuge” to the home country.

This study focuses on Michel Foucault’s concept of Panopticon in the novel which results to the deconstruction of Najeeb’s identity and the loss of his real self. The concept of the design mainly ensures surveillance in prison but in the novel for Najeeb, prison act as a relief for him and it is the desert and Arbab who represents the Panopticism. The alienation of a man in a desert becomes a powerful symbol of a life in a neo globalized world were we drop our capacity to distinguish between dream and reality.

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Panopticism is a social theory discussed by Michel Foucault as a disciplinary structure in his book, Discipline and Punish (1977) and also in an interview entitled ‘The Eye of Power’ (1980). “The Panopticon is an architectural device described by the eighteenth century philosopher, Jeremy Bentham, as a way of arranging people in such a way that, for example, in a prison it is possible to see all of the inmates without the observer being seen and without any of the prisoners having access to one another.” (Mills 45)

Discipline may be identified neither with an institution nor with an apparatus; it is a type of power, a modality for its exercise, comprising a whole set of instruments, techniques, procedures, levels of application, targets. And it may be taken over either by specialized institutions (houses of correction) or by institutions that use it as an essential instrument for a particular end (schools, hospitals) or by state apparatuses whose major function is to assure that discipline reigns over society as a whole (the police). The disciplines are techniques for assuring the ordering of human multiplicities. But the pecularity of the disciplines is that they try to define in relation to the multiplicities a tactics of power that fulfils two criteria: first, to obtain the exercise of power at the lowest possible cost; second, to bring the effects of this social power to their maximum intensity and to extend them as far as possible, without either failure or interval. Discipline arrests or regulates movements, it dissipates compact groupings of individuals wandering about the country in unpredictable ways, and it establishes calculated distributions. It must also master all the forces that are formed from the very constitution of an organized multiplicity, it must neutralize the effects of counter power that spring from them and which forms a resistance to the power that wishes to dominate it-that may establish horizontal conjunctions. (Rabinow 206- 207)

The innovations of forcible power are all brought together in a single architectural innovation, “The Panopticon”. That is every person is isolated in a small room where they all may be observed at all times by a single person in the central tower. Each person could be clearly seen by the central observer but each inmate would see neither the observer nor any other inmate. The new mode of punishment is designed for constant, anonymous surveillance of its subjects. Under this surveillance, the person never knows if or by whom he is being watched and the subject is automatically trained to resist any impulse of misbehaviour. Jeremy Bentham envisioned the same basic concept for prisons, factories, schools, camps, hospitals etc. A.S.P Ayyar through his historical novels namely Baladitya(1930) and Three Men of Destiny (1939) tries to subvert the notion of panopticism into synopticism, implicitly conveying the idea of a free .

Throughout the novel the narrator has been constantly observed by the Arbab which can be connected to Foucault’s concept of panopticon. Though the concept is designed to organize a group or for the correction home, in the novel the Arbab use it to observe his slave and not a group. It is the protagonist Najeeb who is regularly observed by the Arbab. The Arbab makes Najeeb conscious that he is frequently surveyed and therefore has to follow the codes prescribed. If he breaks any of the rules, he will be killed. Existence for Najeeb becomes a hazardous task. Each day he experiences relentless surveillance by his Arbab with a pair of binoculars and a double barrelled gun.Najeeb’s daily work inside and outside the masara were always controlled by the omniscient presence of the Arbab. So he had a fear in his mind that he was constantly observed by someone. So the fear generated in his mind forced him to continue as a slave in the masara. As a result his life was suppressed and controlled by a power. He was compelled to do exhausting jobs without adequate amount of food and water and sometimes we see that he is unable to fulfil his primary needs. Whenever he tried to escape, he was caught and severely punished.

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Najeeb was an aspiring young man who desired to go abroad for a better living. He was a man who lived in the midst of poverty. Once when a friend told him about a visa for sale, he felt a desire that had never experienced before as it was a usual carving of most of the ordinary malayalis. As he was a worker of sand mining, it was a huge task for him to meet the daily expenditure of his family. He somehow managed to pay for the visa and as every person at that time did, he went by train to Bombay. He stayed with his friend Sasi for one week and went to Dubai. During his journey he had a companion named Hakeem. As informed by the Bombay agency they waited for their sponsor at the airport for a long while.

Later an Arab came and took them along with him to the masara (house of goats). Hakeem and Najeeb were sent to different places and the real agony of Najeeb began in the masara where he had no water, no proper food and no shelter. The only food that he could get was plain water and khubus (a special kind of food in gulf countries). Najeeb had to look after thousands of goats and camels and the only companion he had was a “scary figure”. He was lamenting at Najeeb’s fate and wailing. In the masara the scary figure became his partner to do the chores. Najeeb assisted him for each work. But their companionship did not last for long. After two days the scary figure disappeared from the masara and days later Najeeb could get some remaining of a skeleton which he assumed to be of the scary figure.

Being in the masaraNajeeb lost his identity and he became a part of the goat life. As days passed, he happened to see Hakeem in the next masara. Later he was introduced to Ibrahim Khadiri and made a plan to escape. They were tired because of the hot sun. They wandered through the desert for days without food and water. In the midst of their journey Hakeem lost his life. Najeeb and Ibrahim Khadiri wandered for days. When they reached almost their destination Ibrahim disappeared. Najeeb somehow reached a place where he could see some vehicles. He got fainted in front of a Malabar restaurant which belongs to a malayali named Kunjikka. Kunjikka advised him to surrender to the police. The prison was a palace for Najeeb. Almost all of them in the prison were arrested for petty cases. The only thing that threatened Najeeb in the prison was that every week there was an identification parade in the prison; it is for the Arabs to identify the absconded workers. But after three weeks the embassy officials came and called out the name of Najeeb. He returned to his native land with several questions in his mind whether the Arbab was his real sponsor or he has been kidnapped by him.

The major effect of panopticn is to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility which assures the automatic functioning of power. The panopticon is the diagram of the mechanism of power reduced to an ideal form. In the work, Goat Days, panopticon surveillance acts to discipline an individual rather than disciplining a society. It acts on the individual freedom of a person named Najeeb. It leads to the dehumanization of a particular person in the masara of an Arabian country. The physical and mental torture which he faced in the masara is described by the victim. The victimized person dercribes the experience of surveillance as a panoptic system:

He shot at the sky with his gun. Demonstrated the range of the binoculars. He observed me from the top of his vehicle whenever I went out, and drove around me when he felt that I had gone too far. I feared he would never let me escape from this hell.(100)

Najeeb was always under the surveillance of the Arbab. Binoculars in the hands of Arbab and the vehicle which he used to patrol around act as a form of surveillance. Najeeb had to perform his daily chores under his constant control. His everydays jobs, inside and outside the masara were always controlled by the omniscient presence of the Arbab. Najeeb never knows from where he is being watched and automatically he was trained to be a part of goat life.

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Binoculars in Arbab’s hands function as a machine to carry out the surveillance. Arbab was always wandering in his vehicle with his gun and binoculars so that he could trace Najeeb’s vicinity. Masara that extended to a large portion were under his system of surveillance. Najeeb felt this desert as a prison. According to Foucault, the aim of the prison is to impose a disciplinary power over the prisoners, and to normalize. Here disciplinary power means to condition Najeeb from an autonomous life which he experienced in his native land, to a life which the Arbab expects to perform in the masara. So here the life of an individual who reached the desert to uplift a better life, fallen into the solitude of “desert prison” is presented. The conditioning takes place here through Arbab’s “hidden eyes”. Such a process of conditioning can be seen in several instances that happen in and outside the masara. For instance, when Hakeem was taken away to another masara, Najeeb jumped out of the vehicle and ran after the Arbab but even in the darkness Arbab turned back and drive him back to the vehicle. Another instance, after doing the morning bodily needs, Najeeb collected water in a bucket and walked behind the bales. But before the first drop of water fell on his backside the Arbab lashed at him with the belt. All these show the constant observation of the Arbab over Najeeb.

The novel opens with the attempt of Najeeb and Hameed to get arrested. In the very first words of Najeeb, the miseries and agonies they suffered are evident. Najeeb says: “Like two defeated men, Hameed and I stood for a while in front of small police station at Batha” (3). It was an attempt from their part to escape into their native land through Indian embassy. But at the same time they became part of the surveillance of a prison. It was an escape from the “desert prison” to a prison with an authentic authority. Again Najeeb became the victim of panopticon surveillance. Attribution of a disciplinary power and the method of self-disciplining appeared again in Najeeb’s life. But on making a comparison, both are attributions of same sort of power. The experience in the desert was brutal.

Discipline “makes” individuals. It is the specific technique of power that regards individuals both as objects and instruments of exercise. One of the discipline’s concerns is with producing docile, healthy bodies that can be utilized in work and regulated in terms of time and space. Discipline works as a system of punishment and gratification. Disciplinary power, along with its accompanying discourses, progressively colonizes various fields of society and the subject bodies that occupy them. In Goat DaysNajeeb becomes an instrument for the exercise of power. His first experience in masara with the scary figure gives an idea about the surveillance and punishment by the authority. The scary figure was also an object for exercising power before Najeeb’s arrival in the masara. He has become a part of the goat life. The Arbab forced him to lead a life which has a very similitude with that of a goat and without any hesitation he does the entire chores of the masara with no complaints and objection. Najeeb describes him as:

He had matted hair like that of a savage who had been living in a forest for years. His beard touched his belly. He had on the dirtiest of Arab clothes. Also that horrible stink that can drive anyone away. (61)

The disciplines initiated a control of activity. The chief mechanism for this was the time table. The exercise of power included a control over the activity that is performed. For every activity performed by Najeeb in the masara, there was a control by the Arbab. All his activities were strictly observed and controlled by Arbab. All the duties in the masara were arranged in a specific order. As he was alone in the desert prison, it was his responsibility to perform the daily chores in the masara without any delay. His chores began early in the morning and it extended to late midnight. He has to fill water and food in the tanks for the goats. He has to take thousands of goats for rearing in the hot sun. After rearing goats, he had to take camels out and his duties continued till late night. Najeeb was tamed by the Arbab to lead a “goat life” by attributing his power over him.

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He followed these sorts of activities by losing hope in his life. He slowly adapted the newly formed life situation with a new identity as a “goat man.” The prison basically became a microscope of the larger society. It had its own experts, hierarchies, ranks and its own codes of conduct, protocols and procedures. Likewise each masara in the desert acts as a microscope of the larger gulf society. Najeeb is placed securely in the desert prison in such a way that any attempt of his escape would be caught by the Arbab. But the feeling to escape from the harsh reality of the masara was the only choice of Najeeb. An attempt of his escape is described in the novel as: The Arbab was standing upon his vehicle with his binoculars. As I was sitting on the other side of the sand dune, for the time being, I was outside the binoculars range. I took this as an opportunity to escape… I jumped up as if on Allah’s invitation. I thought of nothing else and bolted through the desert… Because of my extreme desire to escape, I did not look back at all. Far off, as far as possible, that was all my mind was saying. I had no idea where I was going, just run, just escape, that’s all, I kept telling myself. The goat hat was just behind me and it was running as if it would gore me down. Suddenly, I heard the roar of a vehicle behind me fear blazed inside me like fire. The Arbab had seen me running! I kept running, trying to go faster. Suddenly, a gunshot rang out. Fortunately it did not hit me…as soon as the second shot was fires; the goat came flying towards me with a loud cry…I ran and fell at his feet. The Arbab removed his belt and whipped me. (147-148)

The urge to escape from the masara was present deep inside Najeeb’s mind whenever he got an opportunity. The intensity to escape strengthened in his mind. But the fear of being observed by the Arbab restricted him from doing so. He was severely punished by the Arbab in making an attempt. Under the surveillance of the ArbabNajeeb became self-disciplined. Whenever he wanted to escape, a feeling was present within his unconscious that he was being observed. Many times he thought to escape from the masara. But the power (disciplinary power) restricted him from doing so. He was not allowed even to perform his daily needs. His routine was controlled by the Arbab. In a disciplined society individual freedom is curtailed with the effect of application of power. The extortion of individual freedom is visible in the work. For example:

All the goats had been brought back from the daily jaunt…every one of them had been supplied water and food. After performing the early morning bodily needs…I collected water in a bucket and walked behind the bales. Before the first drop of water fell on my backside, I felt a lash on my back…The Arbab snatched the bucket of water from me and then he scolded me loudly. (76-77)

Najeeb had restriction even in using water for his needs. The Arbab considered water as more precious than anything. So he never allowed Najeeb to touch water even for drinking without his permission. Whenever he made an attempt to take water without the Arbab’s permission he was severely punished.

Each activity of Najeeb was keenly observed by the Arbab without his knowledge. The Arbab created a feeling in Najeeb’s mind that he is always under permanent visibility that assures the automatic enforcing of power. Najeeb is always caught in a power situation and it is achieved in such a way that he is constantly observed by the Arbab. At the same he is not sure of the moment, when he is watched. That means he is unaware of the visibility. Najeeb becomes the subject; that is the subject of visibility and the Arbab becomes the power that observes Najeeb. He strictly adheres to the orders and laws of the Arbab and becomes a part of goat life. He expressed his agony and emotions to them. He identifies goat’s face with that of human and gave names to each goat in the masara, not only by looking at their faces but also by relating their names to some character traits, the sounds they made and also by some incidents that reminded them about them.

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Apart from Najeeb there is a submissive character named Hakeem in the novel who is also a victim of panopticon surveillance. He was enslaved in another masara and the same sort of disciplinary power exercised on Najeeb is attributed on Hakeem. He was also undergoing a process of self-disciplining. But he was much reluctant as compared to Najeeb.

Identity constitutes our dressing, hair and appearance.In the novel there is a part in which Najeeb is given a thobe (typical Saudi Arab dress, a long, white, shirt-like garment, long sleeved, loose fitting and extending to the ankle, usually made out of cotton) and a pair of boots. When he unfolded the thobe he almost vomited from its musty reek. The clothes worn by a person will be a part of his/her identity. Najeeb doesn’t like to wear that dress. He says the thobe will make him a different person whom he is unaware of and he will lose many of his traits that he had acquired from his past life.

In the beginning, Najeeb felt that the whole thing in the masara had a disgusting odour, even for the milk. He had certain bodily characteristics that were a part of his identity. The smell that he likes and dislikes is a part of his bodily characteristics. But later on his ability to smell has changed and it is changed through force and by the constant observation. Habits play an important role in one’s personal life. Najeeb is forced to violate all his hygiene rules like brushing, bathing, sleeping at nine after dinner etc. Now Najeeb is not the same person who came from Kerala with particular likes, dislikes and body features. Those identities are changed through constant force. All these began the day on which he came to the masara. Sanitation has been an important element of his identity till then and his inability to follow habits develops an identity crisis in him.

“A true self is a sense of self based on spontaneous authentic experience and a feeling of being alive” (qtd.in Winnicott 23). That is real self means the inner core of personality that individuals recognize about themselves. Najeeb before going to Gulf was a man who had been working for a living. For him everything revolved around his family and his habits, likes and dislikes, love etc shaped an important element of his real life. Winnicott argues that, ideal self is what one visions as perfection and wishes to achieve. It comprises all the ‘should’ that an individual wants to achieve in his life. When there is a conflict between ideal self and real self, there arises an internal conflict or an identity crisis.

Moratorium is one of the identity status discussed by Erik Erikson. It is the status of a person who is actively involved in exploring different identities but is not able to make a commitment to any one of those identities. A person explores various identities when there is a clash within his existing identity. In the novel, Najeeb discovers different identities like that of a goat, the scary figure and he also tries to relate to the goats by giving them the identities of people that he knew. He explores all these identities because he was no longer able to relate to his past identity like that of a person who had kept cleanliness as one of his ideology, a person who thought of his family all the time. Najeeb is facing an identity crisis since he is not able to hold on to his identities of the past. All such thoughts that were a major part of his life had become alien to him. Najeeb is unsure about his abilities. He doesn’t recognize his strengths. Since there lacks a proper society in the novel, he is not able to associate himself to anyone else. He is uncertain about the future as he got trapped in the masara.

The Arbab cared only about Najeeb’s work and not about his discomforts. He was deprived of fundamental human rights, forced to live and work like a slave. When Arbab noticed about not taking the goats out, he answered Najeeb with his belt and warned that it would his end if any one of them was lost. Not only Najeeb but Hakeem also faced constant observation by the Arbab. Due to the continuous scrutiny Najeeb finds his own life as inferior to the life of a goat and his identity began to demolish.

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He had acquired an identity from his earlier phase of life. But it was not static. It changes when circumstances need them to change. His life in the masara demands an entirely different identity from the one that he has already acquired. Identity crises is one of the major problems that everyone faces at some stage of life. It varies from person to person depending on the context and situation in which a person is placed. In the novel, the protagonist faces identity crisis in his traumatic conditions. He recognises himself with a goat, which reflects in the title Goat Days. The title suggests the animal like life of the protagonist that he had in the desert, which is completely controlled by the Arbab’s gun and binoculars. The label prompts us to think about the life of Najeeb who begins to dream and desire with the goats. As a reader we experience a sense of pity towards the protagonist of the novel.

No other novel has cast the migrant Gulf workers as its major character as Benyamin does. Their experiences have yet to be voiced within literature. Thus, Goat Days is truly a literary narrative, about people who are subjugated and subjected and provides an insight into the lives of many suppressed people who suffer in countries other than their homeland.

Works Cited Primary source Daniel, Benyamin.Goat Days.Trans. Joseph Koyippally.India:Penguin, 2012. Print. Trans. of Aadujeevitham.India: Green Books, 2008. Print. Secondary sources Abrams, M H and Geoffrey Galt Harpham.A Handbook of Literary Terms. New Delhi: Cengage Learning India, 2009. Print. Adler, Alfred. The Practice and Theory of Individual Psychology. Totowa: Little Field Adams, 1959. Print. Daniel, Benyamin. AadujeevithamKathakalParayumbol. India: Green Books Pvt Ltd, 2015. Print. Erikson, Erik. Childhood and Society.New York: Norton, 1963. Print. Fulcher, James and John Scott.Sociology. New York: Oxford UP, 1992. Print. Gupta, Balarama. “Diasporic Features in Goat Days.”The Journal of Indian Writing in English Vol 41.2 (2013): 12-15. Web. 10 June 2018. Horney, Karen. Neurosis and Human Growth.New York: Norton, 1950. Print. Jasmine, Fernandez. “Goat Days: A Study in Existentialism.” IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social SciencesVol 19.6 (2014): 42-45. Web. 12 May 2018. Joseph, Lisiya. “Goat Days: Benyamin.”Teresian Journal of English Studies Vol 5.1 (2013): 138-140. Print. Karkaba, Cherki. “Deconstructing Identity in Post-Colonial Fiction” ELOPE VII. (2010): 92-99. Web. 6 April 2018. Keenly, Brian.International Migration: The Human Face of Globalisation. New Delhi: Academic Foundation, 2009. Print. Kroger, Jane. Identity Development. Adolescence Through Adulthood. New Delhi: Stage Publications, 2007. Print. Mills, Sara. Michel Foucault. London: Routledge, 2002. Print. Moolasheril, Ayyappan. BenyaminteKettiyitAadujeevitham. Azhimugham. Feb (2014): 32-36 Web. 4 June 2018. Nayar, Pramod K. An Introduction to Cultural Studies. New Delhi: Viva Books, 2008. Print.

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Paranje.Indian Diaspora: Theories, Text, History. Delhi: Indialog, 2001. Print. Priya, K. “Ecolity in Benyamin’s Goat Days.” Literary SurveyVol 3.1 (2014): 55-59. Print. Rabinow, Paul. The Foucault Reader. New York: Pantheon Books, 1984. Print. Sen, Amartya. Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny. New Delhi: Penguin Books. 2007. Print. Sheridan, Alan. Discipline and Punish. The Birth of the Prison. New York: Pantheon, 1977. Print. Shipley, Joseph T. Dictionary of World Literature. Criticism, Forms, Technique.New York: Philosophical Library, 1943. Print. Waheed, Sara. “Literature in the Oil Age.Goat Days.”Arab Studies JournalVol2.4 June 2014. Web. 13 May 2018. Winnicott, D.W.The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment. London:Karnac. 1965. Print.

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