“Swimming Against Moral Currents: Gasping for Survival in Manjula Padmanabhan’s Harvest”
No Thumbnail Available
Authors
Eugene Ngezem
Issue Date
Type
Journal Article, Academic Journal
Language
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
Abstract<br>Manjula Padmanabhan’s <i>Harvest </i>(1997) depicts despoiled and despondent characters whose change of fortunes compel them to careen between two conflicting cultures and squash their revered moral etiquettes as their vulnerable bodies are prey on and their lifestyles are distorted with impunity. Although the audience/readers may wriggle on Padmanabhan’s <i>Harvest</i>, circumstances drive her characters to swim against moral currents to survive in a world hanging on a string of economic collapse. Conscious of the dent their choices would put on their morality, these characters still surrender their rights to their own bodies and their pristine values to Ginni, a metaphor for western greed and exploitation. Ginni, via InterPlanta Services, tiptoes into the lives of impoverished Indian characters with promises of alleviating their poverty-stricken conditions, but quickly becomes a dour, barking orders to them with sternness, and leaving them battered and empty. Bruised by active resistance to western encroachment into their lives, Jaya defies the patriarchal system, even as her family members egg on her husband to give away everything for basic western needs.