Fanonian Neo-Colonial Insights in Bhattacharya's One Small Voice: Exploring Economic and Religious Exploitation in Postcolonial India

Abstract

In general, the term "neo-colonialism" refers to the developed world's indirect connection with the developing world. Even after gaining independence, post-colonial studies demonstrate that colonialism and its agents continue to have a significant impact on the lives of the majority of former colonies in many ways. This paper uses Fanon's theory of neocolonialism in the setting of post-colonial India to examine economic and religious exploitation presented in Santanu Bhattacharya's novel One Small Voice. In accordance to Fanon’s perspective it examines how the national bourgeoisie uses deliberate economic and religious hardships as instruments of social and political hegemony, exposing their effects on people's mentalities and social beings within communities. The novel centers on Shubhankar, a young Hindu Brahmin who grew up in the early 1990s and witnessed inter communal violence precipitated by the demolishing of the Babri Mosque. He is profoundly affected by this tragedy and begins to doubt the economic and religious norms of his country. So this paper indicates that there is religious exploitation in the form of dividing communities for political purposes, as well as economic exploitation through resource scarcity, corruption, and structural inequality in post-colonial India.