Ecological Discourse in
Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance
Rohinton Mistry
• Born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India in 1952.
• Degree in Mathematics from the University of
Bombay in 1974, and
• Emigrated to Canada with his wife the following
year, settling in Toronto,
• Worked as a bank clerk, studying English and
Philosophy part-time at the University of Toronto
• Completed his second degree in 1982.
Rohinton Mistry
• 1989 Swimming Lessons and Other Stories
from Firozsha Baag
• 1991 Such a Long Journey
• 1995 A Fine Balance
• 2002 Family Matters
On A Fine Balance
• …in India seventy-five percent of Indians live in
villages and I wanted to embrace more of the
social reality…So I made the tailors come from a
small village and Maneck come from a hill station
in the North…I wanted to give a strong sense of
the different locales and I wanted to root the
reader in those places so that he or she has a
very clear sense of where these people are
coming from (Interview, Nasta 204)
Criticism:
• From Feminists:
People who honor Indira Gandhi
• From writerly standpoint:
Diamond: At times Mistry’s storytelling is
more theatrical than novelistic. There is a
“disproportion of background to foreground”
Characters/Their Places
• Maneck Kohlah: Parsee, Hill Country
Father is a Grocery Shopkeeper, Entrepreneur of own soft
drink made in basement (Kashmir)
Student of Refrigeration at University in the City
• Ishvar and Omprakesh: Hindu, Remote Village
Chamaar Caste: Untouchable Leatherworkers who
become Tailors
• Dina Dalal: Parsee, City Environment
Daughter of a medical doctor; becomes a
seamstress
Madhav Gadgil and
Ramachandra Guha:
• Population of India:
1. ecosystem people: 4/5 of rural people;
over half of total population
(traditional use of resources:
shelter, water, food and clothing)
2. omnivores: 1/6th of population
stimulate development; industrialize;
“enjoy the produce of the entire biosphere”
3. ecological refugees: displaced ecosystem
people
Homes at Risk
• Dina’s Home in “residential
district of The City
• Landlord wants her to move for
development
• Maneck Kohlah’s Home in the
Mountains
• Deforestation for Tourism
• The Village: the produce only
for the upper caste
• Untouchables become
ecological refugees; family
planning policy corruption
• Hutment villages torn down for
development
• Hutment Villages
• The City Streets
• Beautification policy
Semiosis in the Novel
“artifactual world from the material of
nature” (Tuan Yi-Fu)
Hair: Natural Resouces
Making Clothes: Labour Politics
Body: Vulnerable Body of the Land
Balance/Imbalance: Generational
Sustaining Life and Philosophies
Hair and Gender Struggles
Dina’s Long and Short Hair in Adolescence
a.School Experiences
b.Brother’s Power and Sexual Threat
c. Hairdresser Friend Zenobia
Hair as Commodity
Rajaram, the Hair Collector Middleman
a. collects from barbers for wigmakers
b. stores it in his hut in the shantytown
c. Hardwar Temple Town: sacrifices of hair to God
d. Steals hair from people in marketplace
e. Murders beggar couple for their beautiful hair
f. Reads hair as bald guru
g. Mail Order readings done with help of former
Proofreader
Beards as Ethnicity and Danger
Maneck: Hidden Identity in Global Context
(Maneck “masks” Identity with Beard)
The Sikh Taxi Driver Shaves Beard Off for
Safety
Hair is a mark of
Religion
Caste
Ethnicity
Sexual Development
Independence
Beauty
Fertility of the Land
Natural Resource as Commodity
for Global Market
Clothing
• Mahatma Gandhi:
[One] ought to learn how to handle and make simple tools.
Imagine the unifying and educative effect of the whole
nation simultaneously taking part in the processes up to
spinning! Consider the leveling effect of the bond of
common labor between the rich and the poor …[Homespun cloth] to me is the symbol of the unity of Indian
humanity, of its economic freedom and equality, and
therefore, ultimately, in the poetic expression of
Jawaharlal Nehru, “the livery of India’s freedom. (260)
Mahatma Gandhi Spinning
The Quilt
1.
2.
3.
4.
The chronology of their time together
The good and bad memories together
Maneck’s quiltmaker God
Ishvar’s padding as amputee beggar
• Eco-Gandhians:
a. global
b. traditional
c. social equality
• Ecological Marxists
a. global
b. modern science and
technology
c. social leveling
• Hindu Ecologists
a. Five Elements
b. small-scale industry
c. decentralizaiton
d. use non-polluting tech.
e. nuclear fusion etc.
• Appropriate
Technologists
a. local self-reliance
b. reconciliation between
traditional and modern
knowledge and technique
c. social equity
Dina’s Home/Shop (Tailoring)
•
•
•
•
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Learning the trade: Dina and the Tailors
The Singer Sewing Machines Rented
Ethnic cooperation (Multiculturalism)
Egalitarian
Global Boutique market Recyling: Cloth
scraps used in quilt
Prakrti
(Cosmic Matter in Five Elements)
• Maneck’s father’s ashes:
“He pictured the ashes, carried by all this shining
water, travelling everywhere over the
mountainside. His father had got his wish—he
was being strewn abundantly, with more
thoroughness than any human could have
exercised: nature’s mighty and scrupulous hand
had taken charge, and he was everywhere,
inseparable from the place he had loved so
deeply.” (586)
Beggar’s Procession
• Beggarmaster’s son’s death
Parade/police stop beggar’s procession
Body of son strewn about again
The Cremation (Avinash, too)
Dina and Maneck Hesitate to join it
Two Mother Figures of India:
Dina Dalal and Indira Gandhi
Similarities:
Dina head of a “household”-the Nation
Involved in global markets on small-scale
Differences:
An Accidental Family
Emergency Measures for the Nation
Unsustainable Development Projects
Indira Ghandi
• She lived (1917-84).
• President 1959-60 and 1966-77
Details of her Life:
• Leader of the Congress Party.
• She was Minister of Information 1964-66 and member of Rajya Sabha 1964-67
• President 19.01.1966-24.03.1977
• In 1975 she declared a state of emergency and ruled as a dictator.
• She lost the 1977-elections and imprisoned.
• After her release she was leader of Congress (I) 1978-84 and
• President 14.01.1980-31.10.1984
• Premier she also held posts of Minister of Foreign Affairs, Defence, Finance, Home
Affairs etc.
• Killed by Sikh Life-guard.
• She was daughter of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (1947-64(†)),
• married to Feroze Gandhi in 1942.
• Her younger son Rajiv Ghandi, was Prime Minister (1984-89(†)).
The Nation/Earth/Body
Rajav Gandhi: Indira’s son
Balances at Risk
• Bicycles and Accidents with Motor Vehicles
• Playing Chess with Avinash, the political
activist
• The young with the old
• The caste balances
• Acrobatic Balance of Monkey Man
• Hope and Disillusion
Monkey-man
The Acrobatic Balance
• “The children were lifted high above the ground.
Their faces disappeared into the ight, beond the
reach of the kitchen lights. The audience gasped.
[Moneky-man] raised the pole higher, gave it a
little toss, and caught the end upon his palm. His
stringy arm muscles quivered. He moved the pole
to and fro, making the top end sway like a treetop
in a breeze. Then another little toss, and the pole
was balanced on his thumb.”
Some References
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Chapple, Christopher Key, and Mary Evelyn Tucker, eds. Hinduism and Ecology:
The Intersection of Earth, Sky, and Water. Cambridge, MA: Harvard College
Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School, 2000.
Coward, Howard. “Religious Responses to the Population Sustainability
Problematic: Implications for Law.” Environmental Law 27:4 (1997).
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Gadgil, Madhav, and Ramachandra Guha. Ecology and Equity: The Use and Abuse
of Nature in Contemporary India. London: Routledge, 1995.
Gandhi, Mahatma. The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His
Life, Work, and Ideas. Ed. Louis Fischer. New York: Random House Vintage
Books, 1962.
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Marten, Gerald G. Human Ecology: Basic Concepts for Sustainable Development.
London: Earthscan, 2001.
Mistry, Rohinton. A Fine Balance. New York: Random House Vintage
International, 1997.
Nasta, Susheila. Writing Across Worlds: Contemporary Writers Talk. London:
Routledge, 2004. 198-206
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Nelson, Lance E., ed. Purifying the Earthly Body of God: Religion and Ecology in
Hindu India. Albany: NY: State U of New York P, 1998.
Rao, K. L. Sheshagiri. “The Five Great Elements (Pancamahabhuta): An Ecological
Perspective,” Chapple and Tucker, 23-38.
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Rukmani, T. S. “Literary Foundations for an Ecological Aesthetic: Dharma,
Ayurveda, the Arts, and Abhijnanasakuntalam.” Chapple and Tucker, 101-119.