Dissemination Of The Caste Paradigm In The Oppressor’s Psyche Of Perumal Murugan’s Pyre

Abstract

The word ‘Subaltern’ is drawn from the Late Latin ‘subaltern us’. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary denotes that the word Subaltern, as any officer in the British army who is ‘Lower in rank’ than a Captain. Its adjectival form denotes of inferior rank’. But Italian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci for the first time used it outside the non - military sense. In Latin ‘sub’ means ‘under’ and ‘alter’ means other. So literally it denotes to any person or a group of people with inferior status. According to some thinkers, perhaps he used the term as a synonym for proletariat. Literally, he refers to any person or group of inferior rank and station, whether because of race, class, gender, ethnicity or religion. Perumal Murugan’s Pyre resonates with a tone of anger and pity rolled out together. Tamil Nadu prides itself in the Dravidian legacy sweeping the burning caste issues under the carpet. Caste is one such major denominator which has wrecked havoc in the lives of many people.