GENDERED VIOLENCE AND SUBALTERNITY: A POSTCOLONIAL ANALYSIS OF RAO’S A DISAPPEARANCE IN FIJI
Keywords:
Epistemic Violence, Gender-Based Violence, Indentured Labor, Postcolonial Theory, Spivak, Subalternity, Systemic AbuseAbstract
Both racism and colonial exploitation have had immense effect on marginalized groups especially in the British colonial policy on indentured laborers. The colonial empire marginalized certain groups of people within the society by institutionalizing prejudice based on race. Indentured laborers were forcefully taken out of India to places like Fiji and they had to endure extreme hardships, exploitation and maltreatment. This work analyses how the British colonial policies had a lasting influence on the Indian indenture system and the manifestations of colonial injustice and epistemic violence in Fiji that could be seen in the novel A Disappearance in Fiji (2023) by Nilima Rao. This study employs the postcolonial theoretical framework of subalternity developed by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak to explore the intersecting forms of oppression based on physical systemic abuse, gendered based oppression and epistemic violence inflicted on the Indentured Indian laborers. Its research methodology is a close textual approach to the novel based on Spivak idea of subalternity. The study aims to contribute in reclaiming of the silenced voices and provides much-needed insight into the long-term colonial legacies in Fiji.
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