Narratives of Marginalization and Social Invisibility in Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance

Abstract

Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance (1995) is not merely a novel about 1970s India; it is a profound act of witnessing. set during the authoritarian clampdown of the Emergency (1975–1977), the story brings together four lives that society has pushed to the edges: Dina Dalal, a fiercely independent Parsi widow; Maneck Kohlah, a young student from the hills; and Ishvar and Omprakash Darji, two Dalit tailors whose very existence defies centuries of caste-based dehumanization. Rather than offering a detached sociological survey, Mistry immerses us in their daily struggles, the hunger they suppress, the dignity they cling to, the small joys they steal from a world determined to deny them. In doing so, he transforms abstract concepts like “socioeconomic inequality” and “caste oppression” into innate human experiences marked by sweat, silence, and resilience. At its core, A Fine Balance issues an ethical call for visibility not as spectacle, but as recognition of full humanity. Mistry’s narrative technique embodies this imperative: he lingers on details others might overlook the texture of worn clothing, the rhythm of labour, the weight of unspoken grief thereby insisting that these lives matter not because they symbolize suffering, but because they are lived with complexity, humour, and moral agency. In the tradition of subaltern studies, which seeks to recover the voices silenced by official history, Mistry crafts a literary space where the marginalized speak, not through grand declarations, but through the quiet persistence of their being. The novel thus becomes both a historical document and moral reckoning, urging readers to see not just the structures that marginalize, but the irreplaceable individuals who endures within. 

Keywords: A Fine Balance, marginalization, social invisibility, caste, subaltern narratives, Emergency India, inequality

References

1. Mistry, Rohinton, Such a Long Journey. McClelland and Stewart, 1991

2. Mistry, Rohinton, A Fine Balance. McClelland and Stewart, 1995. 

3. Mistry, Rohinton, Tales from Firozsha Baag. Penguin Books, 1987. 

4. Mistry, Rohinton, Family Matters. McClelland and Stewart, 2002. 

5. Dodiya,JaydipsinhK.,editor.
   The Novels of Rohinton Mistry: Critical Studies. Sarup & Sons, 2004

6. Bhautoo-Dewnarain,Nandini.
   Rohinton Mistry: An Introduction. Foundation Books, 2007