“You see, you cannot draw lines and compartments, and refuse to budge beyond them. Sometimes you have to use your failures as stepping-stones to success. You have to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair.”
Rohinton Mistry’s 1995 novel “A Fine Balance” owes its title to the idea of balancing hope and despair even in the darkest of times. However, the word “fine” is an understatement – “precarious” is a better word to describe that balance amidst the death and destruction of Mistry’s world.
The book is set during the Emergency in India. For those unfamiliar with Indian history, the Emergency was a period between 1975 and 1977 during which the prime minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency throughout the country to crack down on political opposition and avoid the consequences of the Supreme Court convicting her of electoral fraud. This was a terrifying time in India. Political opponents were jailed and tortured, the poor were subjected to forced sterilizations, and millions were displaced by slum demolitions in the name of “city beautification.”
Mistry’s novel shows the impacts of the Emergency on the lives of ordinary people living in an already cruel world.
The story centers around four characters from different backgrounds who end up living together during the Emergency and developing a powerful friendship: a widow struggling to make rent while still haunted by the loss of her husband years ago; a college student coping with the disappearance of his best friend, an activist who incurred the government’s wrath; and two Dalits fleeing caste violence in their village only to then meet the trials of poverty in the big city.
The book tackles Emergency-era India by taking us beyond the realm of summaries and data tables and into the tents where men underwent forced sterilizations and into the slums that were destroyed by Sanjay Gandhi’s insanity. We see people’s lives, already dire, thrown overnight into even greater turmoil by forces beyond their control. History is shown as an unstoppable beast, destroying everything in its wake and leaving ordinary people to maintain the fine balance between hope and despair, even as the whole world is pitted against them. The book makes the Emergency – resplendent in its injustice, its horrors, and its violence– come to life, doing justice to the story of one of the darkest times in India.
The book goes beyond the evils created by Indira Gandhi. Much of the suffering in the novel isn’t related to the Emergency but rather to the status quo prior to that added bit of hellfire. The squalid conditions of the poor shown in this book existed prior to the Emergency and still exist today. The injustice suffered by Dalits is similarly constant throughout Indian history. Government corruption, at every level, is a constant not just in Indian history but through all modern history. “A Fine Balance” depicts life not only during the Emergency but through all of post-Independence history, portraying problems that have hounded us from 1947 to today.
In addition to the horrifying illustration of Emergency-era India, Mistry’s novel beautifully captures the complexity of human relationships. Mistry shows a father and son tragically drifting apart, each one’s life being destroyed by their inability to reconcile, and a Parsi girl fighting her brother for independence and control of her life after the death of their father. The novel shows how people form friendships in the strangest ways, united only by their shared struggle and by the simplest acts of kindness, and how seemingly unbreakable friendships are broken with the passage of time and the cruelty of the world. The relationships shown in this book are realistic and offer a powerful lesson about how, even in the terror of Indira Gandhi’s Emergency, the connections between us can help maintain the fine balance between hope and despair
Despite the serious topics tackled by this book, Mistry intersperses all this doom and gloom with humor. He takes delight in highlighting the most ridiculous parts of Indian politics and society. There is an entire chapter dedicated to satirizing Indian political rallies. Mistry describes buses rounding people up in a slum and taking them to attend a political rally with the promise of tea and snacks. What follows is a complete circus: ministers demonstrating exaggerated subservience to their higher-ups, attendees hilariously uninterested in the speeches, and grandiose stunts failing in the most ridiculous ways imaginable. An eighty-foot cutout of Indira Gandhi fell on top of the crowd, with security personnel comically struggling to keep it upright and attendees scattering every direction, eliciting the following response from three impassive onlookers
“Nobody wants to be caught in the Prime Minister’s embrace,” said Rajaram.
“But she tries to get on top of everyone,” said Om.
“Shameless boy,” said his uncle.
Mistry takes the insanity of the world and turns it into irresistible comedy.
The book is often reminiscent of “Lazarillo de Tormes” or “The Master and Margarita” in its ridiculous yet macabre comedy. One feels sick for laughing at certain scenes but can not help it, overcome by the absurdity. A funeral procession of beggars – limping and crawling according to their respective disabilities – is accompanied by a police escort, often being left behind by pallbearers unused to the slow pace. The occasion of the funeral is tragic, but the image so absurd that it triggers laughter. In another scene, while squatting over train tracks, a slum dweller philosophizes on the art of open-air defecation, earning him the title “Goo Guru” among his students who are new to the lifestyle. The absence of toilets and the filthiness of the slum is terrible, but Mistry uses humor to maintain the fine balance even in these unpleasant moments. He inserts his unique brand of morguehouse humor everywhere, making us reluctantly smile even as the story gets darker and darker.
The book’s prose is beautiful, making every part of the world come to life. Mistry gives us a sweeping portrait of Emergency-era India, forcing us to see the victims as real people like you or I. The suffering and the terror of the Emergency come to life, leaving a haunting impact on even the bravest reader. Despite the immense pain suffered by characters, Mistry’s novel, true to its name, does show how we can maintain a fine balance, how joy can come out of even the worst places. The novel demonstrates how friendship, a good sense of humor, and well-made chapatis can help people balance hope against despair, even as the world is unimaginably dark and cruel.