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The Clash of Class in the Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

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The Clash of Class in the Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai ADALYA JOURNAL ISSN NO: 1301-2746 The Clash of Class in The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai V.Muruganandham, Dr. L. Rajesh, Research Scholar, Research Advisor / Asst. Professor, Dept. of English, Rajah Serfoji Govt. Dept. of English, Rajah Serfoji Arts College, (Autonomous) Govt. Arts College, (Autonomous) (Affiliated to Bharathidasan University) (Affiliated to Bharathidasan University) Thanjavur. Thanjavur. Abstract As the world is encountering the highly sensitive issues of racial discrimination, it is, in India, the class discrimination based on socioeconomic status haunting a great danger to its marvelous multicultural setting. The rich and the upper middle class relish dominance in all matters and seize every opportunity over the wealth that should fairly fall to the share of all the people of a society. They spend this wealth on the enhancement of the means of physical comfort and personal glorification. The poor working class and lower middle class, on the other hand, are obliged to live from hand to mouth in spite of their industriousness and hard work. So, the rich grow richer and the poor get poorer. Every aspect of the lives of the characters is directed by their social and economic class. This novel, The Inheritance of Loss quite clearly and constantly manifests Indian socio-economic class system. This paper attempts to exhibit the emotional tension of the lower class and the high handedness of the rich upper class in the Indian society. Keywords:lower-middle-class, discrimination, socioeconomic system, upper class, dominance, emotional strain, humiliation etc. The term ‘class’ is etymologically derived from the Latin ‘classis’ that means a system or mechanism that divides members of the society into sets based on social and economic status once. In the Eighteenthcentury the term replaced the classifications such as estates, ranks and orders as the basics means of classifying society into hierarchical divisions. The common social class categorisessociety into simple hierarchy of working class and upper class. The consciousness of class is not simply a mindful of one’s own class interest. It is a set of shared Volume 8, Issue 10, October 2019 172 http://adalyajournal.com/ ADALYA JOURNAL ISSN NO: 1301-2746 views concerning how society should be structured legally, culturally, socially, economically and politically.Generally, a class is distinguishedfrom other classes based on a person’s economic position in a society. A person’s prestige, social honour, the power and popularity areattributed to one’s economic success. Today, the general idea of social class usuallyassumes the three common categories: A very wealthy and powerful upper class; a middle class of professional workers and small business owners; and a lower class that depends on low wages for their livelihood and often experiences poverty and economic precariousness.The middle class is the extensive group of people who fall both socially and economically between the lower and upper classes.The clash of class means emotional strain between socially and economically uneven groups or different sets of people with different customs and beliefs. Kiran Desai, aremarkable Indiandiasporic writer, is familiar in the English-speaking world. She, as an immigrant writer, has successfully delineated the drama of conflicts of class and culture that causes tussle and trauma, pain and suffering, alienation and anxieties, in the minds of all the Diasporas settled in west lands, far away from the original native countries. Kiran Desai could feel the conflict of class in the minds of all the people and hasexhibited their spirits in her literary works. Her second novel, The Inheritance of Loss, is a work of multicultural setting as well as class conflict based on economic inequality. In this novel, Desai comprehensively touches upon many different issues, such as globalisation, multiculturalism, cultural conflict, and things that touch even the love-life of her characters.The Inheritance of Loss is about class discrimination. India’s stringent class system is the main theme of the novel. Desai calls attention to the social differences that notonly exist betweenthe East and the West, but also within every small unit in the society. Both the physical and psychological impacts of class systems are present in her novels. The hierarchical distinctions between individuals and groups are evident in this second novel. The feeling of class and cultural differences plays its parts in destroying the individual lives. Class discrimination is not only leading the characters into the barrenness of human relations and emotions, but also into a sense of despair and decay. Volume 8, Issue 10, October 2019 173 http://adalyajournal.com/ ADALYA JOURNAL ISSN NO: 1301-2746 At the beginning of the novel, Jemubhai Patel, the judge plays chess, Sai, his granddaughter, reads an article, and the dog, Mutt sleeps leisurely but the old cook tries hard to light some damp wood to make tea for them. Through this scene, Desai illustrates the privileged and pleasurable moments of Sai and the judge. The magazine Sai is reading, suggests an intellectual atmosphere, education and a connection to the West. Here, the judge and Sai are the representation of sophisticated upper-class people. The cook represents the powerless and lower-class servitude. It is obvious that the cook is the servant and the judge, the master. By demonstrating these characters, Desai wants to emphasize the social class difference between them. The judge has been the authoritative master, and the cook the submissive all-around servant doing his best to fulfil the demanding tasks of the judge. He is a powerless man, with barely enough learning to read and write. He has worked like a donkey all his life and lives only to see his son, Biju. The clash between the retired judge,and his cook starts when the judge’s granddaughter, Sai comes to live with him. As a live-in servant to the judge, the cook's prestige is connected closely to that of the judge. As far as the cook is concerned, a servant anticipates to his employers not just for money but also for a lift in social status. However, the judge fails to meet the expectations of him, as he does not pay the cook well enough, nor does he grant him enough personal respect. The communication between the judge and the cook is limited to strictly necessary information and instructions. When the police arrive to investigate the robbery, the cook interrupts to be a part of the conversation. This irritates the judge, and he says: “Go sit in the kitchen. Bar barkartarehtahai’’(11). This statement is clearly patronising and corroborates the difference in rank between them. The judge talks bilingually to maintain the class distinction between them and to make sure that the cook has understood the message. At one point, when the cook appeals for raise in salary, he is told that his expenses are paid for housing, clothing, food, and medicines more than his salary. This incident displays how easy it is for educated people of high rank to tackle and take advantage of people from lower classes in society. There is no good-natured relationship between them, only master giving orders and a servant obeying his commands. Volume 8, Issue 10, October 2019 174 http://adalyajournal.com/ ADALYA JOURNAL ISSN NO: 1301-2746 The inner feeling of class identity is also portrayed in the case of the cook. His low social class and his view of himself as an inferior person prompt him to accept disgrace and unjust treatment. When the police come to investigate the robbery, they search the cook’s hut, exposing his poverty and privacy. The cook justifies this treatment because they need to search everything and it is the servant who usually steals: ‘‘Well, they have to search everything,’’ he said. ‘‘Naturally. How are they to know that I am innocent? Most of the time it is the servant that steals.’’ (IL. 18) Desai makes it clear with this fact that he is treated with prejudice and insulted.It shows the cook’s humble attitude towards the authorities and how he feels inferior compared to them. Thus, in this scene the cook becomes the victim of prejudice due to his social class and profession. This is exercised to some extent to treat others as inferiors if they are from a lower class. The two classes do not have trust on each other.The upper class always suspects and accuses the lower class of stealing. They also believe that the lower classes do not experience emotions that are experienced by the civilized. In this novel, the most humiliating scene takes place when the dog, Mutt disappears at the end of the novel. The judge sees the cook as nothing more than a servant. He threatens to kill the cook unless he finds out the missing dog. The cook, heartbroken at this treatment, gets drunk and comes home, admitting every sin that he has committed against the judge in the past: ‘I’ve been bad,’’ the cook said, ‘‘I’ve been drinking I ate the same rice as you not the servant's ricebut the Dehradun rice I ate the meat and lied I ate out of the same pot I stole liquorfrom the army I made chhang I did the accounts differently for years I have cheatedyou in the accounts each and every day my money was dirty it was false sometimes Ikicked Mutt I didn't take her for walks just sat by the side of the road smoked a bidiand came home I'm a bad man I watched out for nobody and nothing but myself. (Kiran Desai. 320) Volume 8, Issue 10, October 2019 175 http://adalyajournal.com/ ADALYA JOURNAL ISSN NO: 1301-2746 In the face of a wealthy employer who underpaid his only servant, the cook's actions do not seem unforgivable.
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