Irresistible Modernity
Open Access DepositedDisability in Postcolonial Indian Fiction
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This dissertation explores the intersection of disability, postcolonialism, and global capitalism in contemporary Indian literature. Drawing on the works of Rohinton Mistry, Salman Rushdie, Indra Sinha, Amulya Malladi, and Meera Syal, it examines how disabled and marginalized bodies are represented in postcolonial narratives as sites of both oppression and resistance. The study engages with theories of the parasitic economy (Mitchell and Snyder), subalternity (Spivak and Prakash), and decolonial disability studies (Grech, Bolton, and Kim) to analyze how disability is constructed and mobilized within India’s shifting socio-political and economic landscapes.By focusing on two critical moments in India's modern history—the 1975 Emergency and the 1991 economic liberalization—this dissertation traces how state policies, nationalist discourse, and global capitalism have shaped disability. It argues that postcolonial Indian literature not only critiques ableist and capitalist structures but also reveals the tensions between nationalist modernity and traditional cultural legacies. Through an analysis of the commodification of suffering, the rhetoric of victimhood, and the disabled subaltern’s place in the nation-state, this study interrogates how postcolonial narratives both resist and reproduce dominant ideologies. Ultimately, this dissertation examines whether disability in postcolonial fiction functions solely as a metaphor for broader social critique or if it can also serve as a site of agency and resistance. It considers how postcolonial writers negotiate the contradictions of progress, nationalism, and neoliberalism through representations of disabled embodiment, questioning the extent to which these figures challenge or reinforce hegemonic discourses of modernity and citizenship.
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