The God of Small Things का स्रोत देखें

{{short description|Debut novel of Indian writer Arundhati Roy}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2013}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{long plot|date=November 2014}}
{{refimprove|date=October 2020}}
{{original research|date=July 2010}}
}}
{{Infobox book <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name         = The God of Small Things
| title_orig   =
| translator   =
| image        = File:Thegodofsmallthings.jpg
| caption      = First edition
| author       = [[Arundhati Roy]]
| cover_artist = [http://www.granta.com/Contributors/Sanjeev-Saith Sanjeev Saith]
| country      = [[India]]
| language     = English
| genre        = 
| publisher    = IndiaInk, India
| release_date = 15/03/
1997
| media_type   = Print (hardback & paperback)
| isbn         = 0-06-097749-3
| oclc         = 37864514
| preceded_by  =
| followed_by  = [[The Ministry of Utmost Happiness]] (2017)
}}
[[File:Arundhati Roy W.jpg|upright|thumb|[[Arundhati Roy]]]]
'''''The God of Small Things''''' is a family drama novel written by Indian writer [[Arundhati Roy]]. Roy's [[debut novel]], it is a story about the childhood experiences of [[fraternal twins]] whose lives are destroyed by the "Love Laws" prevalent in 1960s [[Kerala]], [[India]]. The novel explores how small, seemingly insignificant things shape people's behavior and their lives. The novel also explores the lingering effects of [[casteism]] in India. It won the [[Booker Prize]] in 1997.

''The God of Small Things'' was Roy's first book and only novel until the 2017 publication of ''[[The Ministry of Utmost Happiness]]'' twenty years later. She began writing the manuscript for ''The God of Small Things'' in 1992 and finished four years later, in 1996. It was published the following year. The potential of the story was first recognized by [[Pankaj Mishra]], an editor with [[HarperCollins]], who sent it to three British publishers. Roy received £500,000 in advance and rights to the book were sold in 21 countries.

==Plot==
{{long plot|section|date=April 2010}}

The story is set in [[Aymanam|Ayemenem]], now part of [[Kottayam district]] in Kerala, India. The novel has a [[nonlinear narrative|disjointed narrative]]; the temporal setting shifts back and forth between 1969, when [[fraternal twin]]s Rahel, a girl, and Esthappen, a boy, are seven years old, and 1993, when the twins are reunited.

Ammu Ipe is desperate to escape her ill-tempered father, known as Pappachi, and her bitter, long-suffering mother, known as Mammachi. She leaves Ayemenem, and to avoid returning, she marries a man only known by the name of Baba in [[Kolkata|Calcutta]]. She later discovers that he is an alcoholic, and he physically abuses her and tries to [[prostitution|pimp]] her to his boss. Ammu gives birth to Estha and Rahel, leaves her husband, and returns to Ayemenem to live with her parents and brother, Chacko. Chacko has returned to India from [[England]] after his divorce from an English woman, Margaret, and the subsequent death of Pappachi.

The multi-generational, [[Saint Thomas Christians|Syrian Christian]] family home in Ayemenem also includes Pappachi's sister, Navomi Ipe, known as Baby Kochamma. As a young girl, Baby Kochamma fell in love with Father Mulligan, a young Irish priest who had come to Ayemenem. To get closer to him, Baby Kochamma converted to [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholicism]] and joined a convent against her father's wishes. After a few months in the convent, she realized that her vows brought her no closer to the man she loved. Her father eventually rescued her from the convent and sent her to [[America]] for education. Because of her [[unrequited love]] for Father Mulligan, Baby Kochamma remained unmarried for the rest of her life, becoming deeply bitter over time. Throughout the book, she delights in the misfortune of others and constantly manipulates events to bring calamity.

{{Rquote|right| "It didn't matter that the story had begun, because [[Kathakali]] discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don't deceive you with thrills and [[plot twist|trick endings]]."|''The God of Small Things''}}

The death of Margaret's second husband Joe in a car accident prompts Chacko to invite her and their daughter, Sophie to spend [[Christmas]] in Ayemenem. 
On the road to the airport to pick up Margaret and Sophie, the family visits a theater.
On the way to the theater, they encounter a group of [[Communism in Kerala|Communist protesters]] who surround the car and humiliate Baby Kochamma.. Rahel thinks she sees Velutha, a servant who works for the family's pickle factory among the protesters. Later at the theater, Estha is sexually molested by the "Orangedrink Lemondrink Man", a vendor working the snack counter. Estha's traumatic experience factors into the tragic events at the heart of the narrative.

Rahel's assertion that she saw Velutha in the Communist mob causes Baby Kochamma to associate Velutha with her humiliation at the protesters' hands, and she begins to harbor enmity toward him.  Rahel and Estha form an unlikely bond with Velutha and come to love him. Ammu soon gets attracted to Velutha mainly because of her children's love towards him, and eventually, they begin a short-lived romantic affair. Velutha is a [[Dalit]], the lowest caste, meaning his romance with Ammu is forbidden, and culminates in tragedy for the family.

When her relationship with Velutha is exposed by Velutha's father Vellya Paapen, Ammu is locked in her room and Velutha is banished. In a fit of rage, Ammu blames the twins for her misfortune and calls them "millstones around her neck". Distraught, Estha and Rahel decide to escape. Their cousin, Sophie also joins them. During the night, as they try to reach an abandoned house across the river, their boat capsizes and Sophie drowns. When Margaret and Chacko return from a trip, they see Sophie's corpse laid out on the sofa.

Baby Kochamma goes to the police and accuses Velutha of being responsible for Sophie's death. A group of policemen hunt Velutha down, savagely beat him for crossing caste lines, and arrest him on the brink of death. The twins, huddling in the abandoned house, witness the horrific scene. Later, when they reveal the truth to the chief of police Thomas Mathew, he is alarmed. He knows that Velutha is a Communist, and is afraid that if word gets out that the arrest and beating were wrongful, it will cause unrest among the local Communists. Mathew threatens to hold Baby Kochamma responsible for falsely accusing Velutha. To save herself, Baby Kochamma tricks Estha and Rahel into believing that the two of them would be implicated as having murdered Sophie out of jealousy and would surely be [[imprisonment|incarcerated]] with Ammu. She thus convinces them to lie to the inspector that Velutha had abducted them and had murdered Sophie. Velutha dies of his injuries overnight.

After Sophie's funeral, Ammu goes to the police to tell the truth about her relationship with Velutha. Afraid of being exposed, Baby Kochamma convinces Chacko that Ammu and the twins were responsible for his daughter's death. Chacko kicks Ammu out of the house and forces her to send Estha to live with his father. Estha never sees Ammu again. Ammu dies alone a few years later at the age of 31.

After a turbulent childhood and adolescence in India, Rahel gets married and goes to America. There, she divorces before returning to Ayemenem after years of working dead-end jobs. Estha and Rahel, now 31, are reunited for the first time since they were children. They had been haunted by their guilt and their grief-ridden pasts. Toward the end of the novel, Estha and Rahel engage in [[incest|incestuous sex]], and it's said that "what they shared that night was not happiness, but hideous grief." The novel comes to an end with a nostalgic recounting of Ammu and Velutha's [[Affair|love affair]].

==Characters==

'''Estha'''

Estha, which is short for Esthappen Yako, is Rahel's twin brother. He is a serious, intelligent, and somewhat nervous child who wears "beige and pointy shoes" and has an "Elvis puff". His experience of the circumstances surrounding Sophie's visit is somewhat more traumatic than Rahel's, beginning when he is sexually abused by a man at a theater. The narrator emphasizes that Estha's "Two Thoughts" in the pickle factory, stemming from this experience—that "Anything can happen to Anyone" and that "It's best to be prepared"—are critical in leading to his cousin's death.

Estha is the twin chosen by Baby Kochamma, because he is more "practical" and "responsible", to go into Velutha's cell at the end of the book and condemn him as his and Rahel's abductor. This trauma, in addition to the trauma of being shipped (or "Returned") to [[Kolkata|Calcutta]] to live with his father, contributes to Estha's becoming mute at some point in his childhood. He never goes to college and acquires a number of habits, such as wandering on very long walks and obsessively cleaning his clothes. He is so close to his sister that the narrator describes them as one person, despite having been separated for most of their lives. He is repeatedly referred to as "Silent".

'''Rahel'''

Rahel is the partial narrator of the story, and is Estha's younger sister by 18 minutes. As a girl of seven, her hair sits "on top of her head like a fountain" in a "Love-in-Tokyo" band, and she often wears red-tinted plastic sunglasses with yellow rims. An intelligent and straightforward person who has never felt socially comfortable, she is impulsive and wild, and it is implied that everyone but Velutha treats her as somehow lesser than her brother. In later life, she becomes something of a drifter; several times, the narrator refers to her "Emptiness". After the tragedy that forms the core of the story, she remains with her mother, later training as an architectural draftsman and engaging in a failed relationship with an American, elements of which parallel the author's own life story.

'''Ammu'''

Ammu is Rahel's and Estha's mother. She married their father (referred to as Baba) only to get away from her family. He was an alcoholic, and she divorced him when he started to be violent toward her and her children. She went back to Ayemenem, where people avoided her on the days when the radio played "her music" and she got a wild look in her eyes. When the twins are seven, she has an affair with Velutha. This relationship is one of the cataclysmic events in the novel. She is a strict mother, and her children worry about losing her love.

'''Velutha'''

Velutha is a Paravan, an [[Untouchability|Untouchable]], who is exceptionally smart and works as a carpenter at the Ipe family's pickle factory. His name means white in [[Malayalam]], because he is so dark. He returns to Ayemenem to help his father, Vellya Paapen, take care of his brother, who was paralyzed in an accident. He is an active member of the local [[Socialism in India|Communist]] movement. Velutha is extremely kind to the twins, and has an affair with Ammu for which he is brutally punished.

'''Chacko'''

Chacko is Estha's and Rahel's maternal uncle. He is four years elder to Ammu.<ref>{{cite book|last=Roy|first=Arundhati|title=The God of Small Things|publisher=IndiaInk|year=1997|isbn=8186939024|location=New Delhi|page=37}}</ref> He meets Margaret in his final year at Oxford and marries her afterward. They have a daughter, Sophie, whose death in Ayemenem is central to the story.

'''Baby Kochamma'''

Baby Kochamma is the twins' maternal great aunt. She maintains an attitude of superiority because of her education as a garden designer in the United States and her burning, unrequited love for an Irish Catholic priest, her relationship with whom is the only meaningful event in her life. Her own emptiness and failure spark bitter spite for her niece's children, further driven by her prudish code of conventional values. Her spite ultimately condemns the twins, the lovers, and herself to a lifetime of misery.

==Themes==

===Indian history and politics===
Indian history and politics shape the plot and meaning of ''The God of Small Things'' in a variety of ways. Some of Roy's commentary is on the surface, with jokes and snippets of wisdom about political realities in India. However, the novel also examines the historical roots of these realities and develops profound insights into the ways in which human desperation and desire emerge from the confines of a firmly entrenched caste society.

During the time in India, caste was a major issue and still is in almost all parts of India.

===Caste relations and cultural tensions===
In addition to her commentary on Indian history and politics, Roy evaluates the Indian post-colonial complex, or the cultural attitudes of many Indians toward their former British rulers. After Ammu calls her father a "[shit]-wiper" in Hindi for his blind devotion to the British, Chacko explains to the twins that they come from a family of [[Anglophile|Anglophiles]], or lovers of British culture, "trapped outside their own history and unable to retrace their steps". He goes on to say that they despise themselves because of this.

A related inferiority complex is evident in the interactions between Untouchables and Touchables in Ayemenem. Vellya Paapen is an example of an Untouchable so grateful to the Touchable caste that he is willing to kill his son, Velutha, when he discovers that Velutha has broken the most important rule of caste segregation—that there be no inter-caste sexual relations. In part, this reflects how many Untouchables have internalized caste segregation. Nearly all of the relationships in the novel are somehow colored by cultural and caste tension, including the twins' relationship with Sophie, Chacko's relationship with Margaret, Pappachi's relationship with his family, and Ammu's relationship with Velutha. Characters such as Baby Kochamma and Pappachi are the most rigid and vicious in their attempts to uphold that social code, while Ammu and Velutha are the most unconventional and daring in unraveling it. Roy implies that this is why they are punished so severely for their transgression.

===Forbidden love===

One interpretation of Roy's theme of forbidden love is that love is such a powerful and uncontrollable force that it cannot be contained by any conventional social code. Another is that conventional society somehow seeks to destroy real love, which is why love in the novel is consistently connected to loss, death, and sadness. Also, because all romantic love in the novel relates closely to politics and history, it is possible that Roy is stressing the connection of personal desire to larger themes of history and social circumstances. Love would therefore be an emotion that can be explained only in terms of two peoples' cultural backgrounds and political identities.

===Social discrimination===
The story is set in the caste society of India, at a time when members of the Untouchable Paravan or Paryan caste were not permitted to touch members of higher castes or enter their houses. The Untouchables were considered polluted beings. They had the lowliest jobs and lived in subhuman conditions. In India, the caste system was considered a way to organize society. Roy's book shows how terribly cruel such a system can be.

Along with the caste system, readers see an economic class struggle. The Ipes are considered upper class. They are factory owners, the dominating class. Mammachi and Baby Kochamma would not deign to mix with those of a lower class.

However, Roy shows other types of less evident discrimination. For example, there is religious discrimination. It is unacceptable for a Syrian Christian to marry a [[Hindus|Hindu]] and vice versa, and Hindus can only marry a Hindu from the same caste. In more than one passage of the book, the reader feels Rahel's and Estha's discomfort at being half Hindu. Baby Kochamma constantly makes disparaging comments about Hindus. On the other hand, there is discomfort even between Christian denominations as is shown by Pappachi's negative reaction when Baby Kochamma converts to Catholicism.

Chacko suffers more veiled racial discrimination, as it seems his daughter also does. His English wife's parents were shocked and disapproving that their daughter would marry an Indian, no matter how well educated. Sophie, at one point, mentions to her cousins that they are all "wog", while she is "half-wog".

The Ipes are very class-conscious and feel a need to maintain their status. Discrimination is a way of protecting their privileged position in society.

===Betrayal===

Betrayal is a constant element in this story. Love, ideals, and confidence are all forsaken, consciously and unconsciously, innocently and maliciously, and these deceptions affect all of the characters deeply.

Baby Kochamma is capable of lying and double-crossing anyone whom she sees as a threat to her social standing. This is a consequence of her loss of respectability after becoming a Roman Catholic [[nun]] to be close to Father Mulligan, despite her father's disapproval. Her fear is reminiscent of that of Comrade Pillai, who betrays both Velutha and Chacko to further his own interests and that of his political party.

The greatest tragedy is that of Velutha, the only truly non-corrupt adult in the story, who becomes the repeated victim of everyone's deception—from Comrade Pillai's to Baby Kochamma's, to his own father's and, most heartbreakingly, that of Estha, who at seven years old is manipulated into accusing Velutha of crimes that he did not commit.

===[[Misogyny]] and women in India===

Another important aspect of social discrimination that Roy deals with is misogyny, mainly through the character of Ammu. She often draws attention to the different opportunities on offer for women and men in India and the fact that, since Ammu has been married and divorced, she sees her life as effectively over. This is one of the main factors that influences her to start her love affair with Velutha. We also see her treatment by a police officer, who taps her breasts with his baton as 'though he was choosing mangoes from a basket,' commenting on objectification of women.

==Style==

===Non-sequential narrative===
''The God of Small Things'' is not written in a sequential narrative style in which events unfold chronologically. Instead, the novel is a patchwork of flashbacks and lengthy sidetracks that weave together to tell the story of the Ipe family. The main events of the novel are traced back through the complex history of their causes, and memories are revealed as they relate to one another thematically and as they might appear in Rahel's mind. Although the narrative voice is omniscient, it is loosely grounded in Rahel's perspective, and all of the episodes of the novel progress toward the key moments in Rahel's life.

===Point of view===
The book is narrated in the [[Narration|third person]]. However, during a great part of the narrative, the reader sees everything through Rahel's eyes. This gives the reader special insight into the happenings and characters. Throughout the book, there are various moments that intersect. In one moment, everything is seen through a child's eyes, with a child's feelings and rationales. Later, the same facts, objects, and people are seen in a completely different light.

===Setting===
The story is set in the village of [[Ayemenem]] in the [[Kottayam district]] of [[Kerala]], India. The main part of the plot takes place in 1969, a time of changes in ideology and influence.

India is a very complex society with various cultural and religious habits and beliefs. Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Christians, and Muslims share the same space. Society is divided not only by the very strict caste system but also by class consciousness. Many languages are spoken in India, but the higher classes make a point of speaking English, sending their sons to study in England and adopting certain English habits. Kerala itself, where the story is set, has a complex social setup, with Hindus, Muslims, and Christians displaying different lifestyles and traditions. It also has the largest Christian population in India, predominantly Saint Thomas Christians or Syrian Christians. In the Kottayam district, Christians are a majority.

Roy has described the book as "an inextricable mix of experience and imagination".

==Techniques==
Roy uses various techniques to represent the children's viewpoints and their innocence. One technique she employs is the capitalization of certain words and phrases to give them significance. The children also restate things that adults say in a phonetic way, separating and recombining words. This echoes the children's way of looking at the world, distinct from the perspective of the grown-ups who surround them. Roy often uses metaphors that feature elements that are more prominent in the lives of children, such as toothpaste, secrets, or portable pianos. They place significance on words and ideas differently from the adults, thereby creating a new way of viewing the world around them. They pick up on certain feelings and ideas that the adults around them either fail or refuse to recognize, and give new significance to things that the adults ignore for their own purposes. The children use and repeat these phrases throughout the story so that the phrases themselves gain independence and representational meanings. Another way she plays with language is to join words together without punctuation, which we see in the description of the 'Orangedrink Lemondrink man' or 'bluegreyblue eyes'. This subversion of the usual rules of syntax and grammar not only places us in a child's view of the world, but it also draws attention to the role of language in colonialism. By corrupting standard use of English (the colonial language of India) Roy is rebelling against colonial influence still present in India, represented by characters such as Margaret Kochamma and Chacko who always speak correctly.

Roy also employs a disjointed, non-sequential narrative style that echoes the process of memory, especially the resurfacing of a previously suppressed, painful memory. The story of three different generations is told simultaneously going back and forth in time.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lipson Freed |first1=Joanne |title=The Ethics of Identification:: The Global Circulation of Traumatic Narrative in Silko's Ceremony and Roy's The God of Small Things |journal=Comparative Literature Studies |date=2011 |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=219–240 |doi=10.5325/complitstudies.48.2.0219 |jstor=10.5325/complitstudies.48.2.0219}}</ref>

The uncovering of the story of Sophie's death, concurrently with the forward-moving story of Rahel's return to Ayemenem and reunion with Estha, creates a complex narrative that emphasizes the difficulty of the subject of the story and the complexity of the culture from which the story originates. Time is rendered somewhat static as parts of one narrative line are intertwined through repetition and non-sequential discovery. This is also part of the way Roy uses real-life places and people that she has shifted and altered for use in the story. The story's many elements come together to construct a diverse look at one instance of Indian culture and the effect of the caste system on life and love during a time of post-colonialism. As the children try to form their own identities, naming and renaming themselves in the process, Roy places in parallel the effect of the process by intertwining the past and the present.

This process also echoes the progression of the Indian people, like that of all cultures that try to find ways to maintain their traditions in a time of increasing [[globalization]].

== Possible autobiographical elements ==
''The God of Small Things'' is a piece of fiction but some critics have tried to find autobiographical parallels in the novel while at the same warning against drawing any simplistic connections between the novel and the writer's life.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things|url=https://archive.org/details/arundhatiroysgod00tick|url-access=limited|last=Tickell|first=Alex|publisher=Routledge Taylor and Francis Group|year=2007|isbn=978-0-415-35842-2|location=London New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/arundhatiroysgod00tick/page/n29 13]}}</ref> Some of the similarities between Roy's life and that of the characters she creates include her own Syrian Christian and Hindu lineage; the divorce of her parents when she and her brother were very young; her return to the family home in Ayemenem after her mother's divorce; and her education in an architectural school to name a few.<ref name=":0" /> Some critics also attribute the political awareness manifested in The God of Small Things to Roy's early life influences from her mother who was an activist and feminist.<ref name=":0" />

==Reception==
''The God of Small Things'' received stellar reviews in major [[American newspapers]] such as ''[[The New York Times]]'' (a "dazzling first novel",<ref>{{Cite news | last = Kakutani | first = Michiko | title = Melodrama as Structure for Subtlety  | newspaper = [[The New York Times]] | date = 3 June 1997  |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/03/books/melodrama-as-structure-for-subtlety.html   }}</ref> "extraordinary", "at once so morally strenuous and so imaginatively supple"<ref>{{Cite news | last = Truax | first = Alice | title = A Silver Thimble in Her Fist | newspaper = The New York Times | date = 25 May 1997 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/25/reviews/970525.25truaxt.html }}</ref>) and the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' ("a novel of poignancy and considerable sweep"<ref>{{Cite news  | last = Eder  | first = Richard  | title = As the world turns: rev. of ''The God of Small Things''  | newspaper = [[Los Angeles Times]]  | page = 2  | date = 1 June 1997  |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/12168713.html?dids=12168713:12168713&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jun+01%2C+1997&author=RICHARD+EDER&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=As+the+World+Turns%3B+THE+GOD+OF+SMALL+THINGS.++By+Arundhati+Roy+.+Random+House%3A+321+pp.%2C+%2423&pqatl=google  | access-date =18 January 2010}}</ref>), and in Canadian publications such as the ''[[Toronto Star]]'' ("a lush, magical novel"<ref>{{Cite news  | last = Carey  | first = Barbara  | title = A lush, magical novel of India  | newspaper = [[Toronto Star]]  | page = M.21  | date = 7 June 1997}}</ref>). ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' named it one of the best books of the year.<ref>{{Cite magazine  | title = Books: The best of 1997  | magazine = [[Time (magazine)|Time]]  | date = 29 December 1997  |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,987619,00.html  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080306145812/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,987619,00.html  |url-status=dead  |archive-date=6 March 2008  | access-date =18 January 2010}}</ref> Critical response in the United Kingdom was less positive, and the awarding of the Booker Prize caused controversy; [[Carmen Callil]], a 1996 Booker Prize judge, called the novel "execrable", and ''[[The Guardian]]'' described the contest as "profoundly depressing".<ref>{{Cite news  | title = The scene is set for the Booker battle  | work =BBC News  | date = 24 September 1998  |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/179131.stm  | access-date =18 January 2010}}</ref> In India, the book was criticised especially for its unrestrained description of [[sexuality]] by [[E.&nbsp;K. Nayanar]],<ref>{{Cite news  | last = Kutty  | first = N. Madhavan  | title = Comrade of Small Jokes  | newspaper = [[The Indian Express]]  | date = 9 November 1997 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000605215053/http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/19971109/31350653.html |archive-date=5 June 2000  |url=http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/19971109/31350653.html  | access-date =18 January 2010}}</ref> then Chief Minister of Roy's home state Kerala, where she had to answer charges of obscenity.<ref>{{Cite news  | last = Bumiller  | first = Elisabeth  | title = A Novelist Beginning with a Bang  | work  = [[The New York Times]]  | date = 29 July 1997  |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/07/29/books/a-novelist-beginning-with-a-bang.html   | access-date =18 January 2010}}</ref> The book has since been translated into Malayalam by [[Priya A. S.]], under the title ''Kunju Karyangalude Odeythampuran''.<ref name="Estha, Rahel now speak Malayalam">{{Cite news |url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Kochi/estha-rahel-now-speak-malayalam/article1156883.ece |title=Estha, Rahel now speak Malayalam |last=K. P. M. Basheer |date=3 January 2012 |work=The Hindu |access-date=20 July 2015}}</ref> 
<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/world/bbc-toasts-indian-literature/cid/1717452 | title=BBC toasts Indian literature }}</ref> Some critics have pointed out that the reader reviews of this book on bookseller websites are so extremely opposed at times that it is difficult to imagine readers are saying this about the same book.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things|last=Tickell|first=Alex|publisher=Routledge Taylor and Francis Group|year=2007|isbn=978-0203004593|location=UK USA Canada|pages=xiii}}</ref>

In 2014, the novel was ranked in [[The Daily Telegraph|''The Telegraph'']] as one of the 10 all-time greatest Asian novels.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2014-04-22|title=10 best Asian novels of all time|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10630332/10-best-Asian-novels-of-all-time.html|access-date=2020-12-06|website=The Telegraph|language=en-GB}}</ref> On 5 November 2019, the ''[[BBC News]]'' listed ''The God of Small Things'' on its list of the [[BBC list of 100 'most inspiring' novels|100 most influential novels]].<ref name=Bbc2019-11-05/> Emma Lee-Potter of ''[[The Independent]]'' listed it as one of the 12 best Indian novels.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Lee-Potter|first=Emma|date=2020-08-05|title=12 best Indian novels that everyone needs to read|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/books/fiction-books/best-india-books-literature-novels-salman-rushdie-arundhati-roy-a9264211.html|access-date=2020-12-23|website=The Independent|language=en}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
In 2013, ''[[Talkhiyaan]]'', a [[Pakistan]]i television series based on the novel, was aired on [[Express Entertainment]].

The band [[Darlingside]] credits the novel as the inspiration for their song "The God of Loss".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/event/music/450545356/first-watch-darlingside-god-of-loss |title=First Watch: Darlingside, 'God of Loss' |last=Boilen |first=Bob |date=29 October 2015 |website=npr.org |access-date=25 April 2017 |quote="The character Velutha is tangled in a web of familial, cultural and romantic loyalties. The lyrics for 'The God of Loss' were inspired by Velutha's attempts to preserve his humanity in the face of those competing forces."}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Caste system in India]]

==References==
{{reflist|refs=
<ref name=Bbc2019-11-05>
{{cite news
| url         = https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-50302788
| title       = 100 'most inspiring' novels revealed by BBC Arts
| work        = [[BBC News]]
| date        = 2019-11-05
| access-date  = 2019-11-10
| quote       = The reveal kickstarts the BBC's year-long celebration of literature.
}}
</ref>
}}
* Ch'ien, Evelyn. "The Politics of Design: Arundhati Roy".  In ''Weird English''.  Harvard University Press, 2004.

==Further reading==
* ''Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things: Critique and Commentary'', by R. S. Sharma, Shashi Bala Talwar. Published by Creative Books, 1998. {{ISBN|81-86318-54-2}}.
* ''Explorations: Arundhati Roy's the God of small things'', by Indira Bhatt, Indira Nityanandam. Published by Creative Books, 1999. {{ISBN|81-86318-56-9}}.
* ''The God of Small Things: A Saga of Lost Dreams'', by K. V. Surendran. Published by Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 2000. {{ISBN|81-7156-887-4}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=L9Fx0g3wyrAC&dq=The+God+of+Small+Things&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=NSFWyMo5Ha&sig=kl78pdD9SJTm_kwrpIwnaw3iAVw&hl=en&ei=RgjaSfCTGsefkQWQpdnECQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1 Excerpts]
* ''Arundhati Roy's The God of small things: a reader's guide'', by Julie Mullaney. Published by Continuum International Publishing Group, 2002. {{ISBN|0-8264-5327-9}}.
* ''Reading Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things'', by Carole Froude-Durix, Jean-Pierre Durix. Published by Editions universitaires de Dijon, 2002. {{ISBN|2-905965-80-0}},.
* ''Arundhati Roy's The god of small things: a critical appraisal'', by Amar Nath Prasad. Published by Sarup & Sons, 2004. {{ISBN|81-7625-522-X}}.
* ''Derozio To Dattani: Essays in Criticism'', by Sanjukta Das. Published by Worldview Publications, 2009. {{ISBN|81-86423-19-2}}
* ''The God of Small Things: A Novel of Social Commitment'', by Amitabh Roy. Published by Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 2005. {{ISBN|81-269-0409-7}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=2LgYuhRK0yIC&pg=PA37&dq=%22Pradip+Krishen%22&as_brr=0#PPP1,M1 Excerpts]
* ''Arundhati Roy's The god of small things'', by Alex Tickell. Published by Routledge, 2007. {{ISBN|0-415-35843-4}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZhpamUVJYNQC&pg=PA34&dq=Khejarli#PPP1,M1 Excerpts]
* [http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/caste.html Caste and The God of Small Things] [[Emory University]].
* [https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/r/roy-god.html The God of Small Things, Chapter One – Paradise Pickles and Preserves] ''[[The New York Times]]''

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
{{external links|date=January 2016}}
* [http://scribblesofsoul.com/god-of-small-things-by-arundhati-roy/ God of Small Things] on [http://scribblesofsoul.com Scribblesofsoul.com]
*[http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/133_wbc_archive_new/page5.shtml Arundhati Roy discusses ''The God of Small Things''] on the BBC ''[[World Book Club]]''
*[http://herzsticht.de/arma/wp/migration-and-return-in-arundhati-roys-the-god-of-small-things/ An article] on the concepts of "migration", "return" and other related post-colonial topics in ''The God of Small Things''.
*[http://www.litreact.com/reactions/god-of-small-things_roy_conejos.html Analysis of ''The God of Small Things'' on Lit React]

{{Man Booker Prize}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:God of Small Things, The}}
[[Category:Fiction set in 1969]]
[[Category:Fiction set in 1993]]
[[Category:1997 novels]]
[[Category:Indian English-language novels]]
[[Category:Booker Prize-winning works]]
[[Category:Incest in fiction]]
[[Category:Novels set in Kerala]]
[[Category:Postcolonial novels]]
[[Category:Culture of Kottayam district]]
[[Category:Novels by Arundhati Roy]]
[[Category:1997 Indian novels]]
[[Category:1997 debut novels]]
[[Category:Nonlinear narrative novels]]
[[Category:Indian novels adapted into television shows]]