Marginalization and Resistance
in Harishankar Jaladas’s Sons of the Sea
Nurul Islam¹, Dr. Parthasarathi
Mandal²
ABSTRACT
Within the matrix of a class-divided society, the
subalterns are always deprived, exploited and humiliated. People
have always protested against domination and subjugation in some
form or the other. They make an effort to establish equality for the
people and remove social injustice. People resist because of social,
gender, class, race, caste and postcolonial situations. Harishankar
Jaladas, a well-known dalit novelist from Bangladesh, is a
representative of marginal fishing community. His novel Jalputra
which is translated into English as Sons of the Sea (2014) is based
on the marginal fishermen of North Patenga village of Chattogram
district in Bangladesh. As a son of fisherman, he has meticulously
described the survival life struggle of his community from his lived
experience. In the novel, he has depicted the suffering and
exploitation of the fishermen who are being hated, humiliated and
suppressed not only by the upper caste Hindus but also by the
dominant Muslim community. The miscreant money lenders Shukkur and
Sashibhusan exploit the poor fishermen in different ways. The
fishermen are compelled to sell fish to them at their fixed rate.
But Gangapado organizes the fishermen against the exploitation of
the money lenders and invokes a spark of resistance in them.
Considering the class struggle, this novel can be read from Marxist
ideology and subaltern theoretical perspectives. This paper will
explore the exercise of power on the fishermen, their
marginalization and their resistance against the exploiters.
Keywords: Marginalisation, Marxist Ideology, Subaltern, Resistance,
Fishermen, Social Exclusion
