The Upper Class’s Violence and Violations in Megha Majumdar’s A Burning

Abstract

     Class conflicts are mostly based on competing ideologies embraced by different segments of a community. These values may be religious, economic, political, social, etc. in nature. This study explores the class conflicts, the ideologies behind these conflicts and investigates how these ideologies both control the different classes’ behavior and dominate the form the relationships between them take. Using a Marxist approach and the concepts of class/sect conflicts, ideology, economic superstructure domination and hegemony, this study traces Jivan, a poor Muslim girl who lives a miserable life in the Kalabagan slums of Kolkata who is accused of terrorism in the aftermath a train burning; the transgender Lovely, a hijra who is a male but who lives as a female and wants to be an actor; and PT Sir, a physical education teacher. It does so to assess their progression in life as they negotiate the ideologies of contemporary India. The study finds that class conflicts emerge from the different ideologies adopted by the different classes, embodied in their social, political, and religious beliefs. It also reveals the discriminatory system of the upper class in the narrative community and its injustice and corruption. It shows how that discriminatory system, by dominating the mass media, economy, education and politics, eventually pushes the educational institutions and civil organizations to respond positively towards it, which serves its interests.