Colonialism, Race and Gender: An Intersectional Analysis of Women’s Marginalization in Roy’s The God of Small Things

Abstract

This study explores The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy through the lens of intersectionality, focusing on the interconnected systems of colonialism, race and gender that shape the experiences of marginalised woman characters. The existing literature written from the standpoint of feminist analysis of the  novel could be divided into four broader categories: first, the woman has been conceptualised as subaltern who are denied to speak for themselves; Second, the oppression against woman and their strategies for reclaiming their agencies have been discussed; Third, the discrimination against woman through the framework of liberalism has been discussed; Fourth, the concept of intersectionality has been used in which the intersection of caste and class in marginalisation of woman has been discussed. This study aims to expand and contribute to the fourth category of literature. The existing literature written from the standpoint of intersectionality only discusses class and caste and does not incorporate the intersection of race. This study aims to fill this gap by exploring and analysing the intersection of race, and gender in the marginalisation of women in the novel The God of Small Things. This study employed Kimberlé Crenshaw's and Chandra Mohanty framework of intersectionality, to investigate how the intersection of colonialism, race and gender within the novel, particularly in the lives of female characters Ammu, Mammachi, Baby Kochamma, and Rahel.