Assignment paper no 201 : “Voices at the Margins: Karna as a Subaltern Hero in T. P. Kailasam’s The Curse or Karna”

  Assignment paper no 201 : “Voices at the Margins: Karna as a Subaltern Hero in T. P. Kailasam’s The Curse or Karna”

Personal Information:-

Name:- Bhumi Mahida

Batch:-  M.A. Sem 3 (2024-2026)

Enrollment Number:- 51082240017

E-mail Address:- bhumimahida385@gmail.com

Roll Number:- 2

Assignment Details:-

Topic:- “Voices at the Margins: Karna as a Subaltern Hero in T. P. Kailasam’s The Curse or Karna”

Paper & subject code:-Paper 201: Indian English Literature – Pre-Independence

Submitted to:- Smt. Sujata Binoy Gardi, Department of English, MKBU, Bhavnagar

Date of Submission:- 

Table of Contents :

Abstract
Keywords
Introduction
Theoretical Framework: Subalternity and Voice
Reinterpreting Myth: Peter Struck’s Tools for Reading Myths
Karna’s Marginality: The Curse of Birth and Silence
The Subaltern Hero and the Ethics of Voice
Kailasam’s Dramatic Method: Language and Symbolism
Reading Karna through Spivak: Can He Speak?
Conclusion

Abstract :

This paper explores T. P. Kailasam’s The Curse or Karna (1946) through the lens of subaltern theory, focusing on how the playwright reimagines the mythic figure of Karna as a voice from the margins. Drawing upon Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s seminal essay “Can the Subaltern Speak?” (1988), the study examines how caste, birth, and social hierarchy function as mechanisms of silencing within both the Mahabharata and Kailasam’s modern reinterpretation. While Spivak contends that the subaltern “cannot speak” because their voice is continually mediated by hegemonic discourse, Kailasam’s play dramatizes an attempt to restore that suppressed voice through tragic art. Using Peter Struck’s “Tools for Reading Myths” (2023), the analysis also situates the play within a framework of mythic transformation, showing how Kailasam converts epic mythology into a contemporary critique of social inequality. Karna emerges as a subaltern hero—a moral figure whose greatness lies not in conquest but in endurance, loyalty, and dignity amidst systemic exclusion. By combining subaltern theory with mythic analysis, the paper argues that Kailasam’s work functions as both a reclamation of the silenced hero and a critique of the structures that continue to marginalize voices like his.

Keywords :

Subaltern Theory
The Curse or Karna
Karna (Mahabharata)
Myth and Modernity
Peter Struck
Voice and Silence
Caste and Identity
Tragic Heroism

Introduction :

T. P. Kailasam’s The Curse or Karna (1946) revisits the epic narrative of the Mahabharata through the tragic figure of Karna—a character historically situated at the intersection of caste, birth, and power. Kailasam’s retelling gives prominence to a figure long marginalised by both epic tradition and societal hierarchy. This paper reads Karna as a subaltern hero, drawing on Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s seminal essay “Can the Subaltern Speak?” (1988) to explore how Kailasam engages with questions of voice, representation, and social exclusion. It also employs Peter Struck’s “Tools for Reading Myths” (2023) to analyse how the playwright reconfigures a mythic narrative to foreground a suppressed identity within the Indian cultural imagination.

In doing so, this study asks: Can Karna’s voice in The Curse or Karna truly be heard, or does it remain entrapped within structures of power and myth? How does Kailasam’s dramatic form translate mythic subjugation into human tragedy?

Theoretical Framework: Subalternity and Voice :

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s “Can the Subaltern Speak?” critiques the mechanisms through which colonial and patriarchal power structures silence the “subaltern,” or those existing outside dominant systems of knowledge and representation. For Spivak, the subaltern “cannot speak” not because they lack speech, but because their voice is continuously refracted, overwritten, or appropriated by hegemonic discourses (Spivak 285).

Applying this to The Curse or Karna, Karna’s marginality derives from caste hierarchy—his divine birth is obscured by his social identity as a charioteer’s son. His status prevents him from being recognised as a Kshatriya, thus barring him from equality among the Pandavas and Kauravas. Kailasam’s dramatic treatment of Karna turns this mythic exclusion into a metaphor for social silencing.

Spivak’s question—“Can the subaltern speak?”—becomes central here. Karna’s repeated attempts to define himself through loyalty, merit, and righteousness are continually undermined by his birth, illustrating what Spivak identifies as the epistemic violence of systems that deny legitimacy to subaltern speech. Kailasam’s play can thus be read as a creative act of retrieving that suppressed voice from epic narrative.

Reinterpreting Myth: Peter Struck’s Tools for Reading Myths :

Peter Struck, in “Tools for Reading Myths” (2023), argues that myths operate as “living frameworks for meaning”, constantly reshaped by cultural, historical, and moral concerns. Myth, according to Struck, is not static; each retelling represents a dialogue between past and present. When modern writers engage with myth, they do not merely repeat old stories but reinterpret them to address contemporary anxieties.

Kailasam’s adaptation of the Karna myth exemplifies this process. The playwright reconstructs the myth not as divine spectacle but as human drama, emphasising Karna’s moral conflict and his sense of displacement. By doing so, Kailasam transforms the Mahabharata’s peripheral warrior into a modern tragic protagonist—a man crushed between fate and social injustice.

Struck’s framework allows us to see Kailasam’s play as a mythic revision, one that reclaims the subaltern’s humanity from epic abstraction. Myth becomes a political tool, revealing how hierarchies of birth and speech persist across ages.

Karna’s Marginality: The Curse of Birth and Silence :

In The Curse or Karna, Kailasam humanises the mythic hero through an emphasis on psychological depth and social alienation. Karna’s awareness of his ambiguous identity—born of a god, raised by a charioteer—marks his life as a continuous negotiation with societal exclusion. As S. D. Pawar notes, the play represents Kailasam’s “most sustained dramatic adventure” (Pawar 3), driven by a “tragic consciousness of injustice rooted in caste” (4).

This injustice manifests most clearly in Karna’s interactions with the Pandavas. When Draupadi rejects him in the tournament on the grounds of his low birth, his dignity collapses under the weight of social orthodoxy. His identity as a warrior is rendered void by an immutable caste label. Kailasam’s stage directions and dialogue give this humiliation an emotional charge absent in the epic: Karna’s voice, trembling with suppressed anger, becomes the audience’s entry point into the suffering of the marginalised.

Yet this voice is paradoxical. It is both heard and unheard—expressed through language yet negated by social hierarchy. This duality mirrors Spivak’s notion of the subaltern’s speaking silence: a voice articulated within a discourse that refuses to recognise it.

Karna’s tragic loyalty to Duryodhana, often read as moral blindness, becomes instead an act of solidarity among the oppressed. In supporting the only prince who acknowledges him, Karna affirms his human need for recognition. Kailasam’s portrayal thus shifts the moral center of the myth, allowing the subaltern hero to articulate his truth, even within doomed circumstances.

The Subaltern Hero and the Ethics of Voice :

Kailasam’s dramatic technique emphasises moral complexity rather than heroic grandeur. The play’s title itself—The Curse or Karna—encapsulates this tension. The “curse” functions not only as a supernatural motif but also as a metaphor for systemic oppression: the curse of birth, the curse of silence, and the curse of being othered.

Karna’s heroism lies not in victory but in endurance. His acceptance of fate—fighting for Duryodhana despite knowing the injustice of war—echoes the subaltern’s struggle for agency within oppressive structures. He cannot transcend his circumstances, but he can assert dignity within them.

In this way, Kailasam subverts classical definitions of heroism. The epic hero is replaced by a moral subaltern, whose power comes from ethical steadfastness rather than divine favour. The playwright’s humanistic vision thus aligns with Spivak’s call to “rethink representation”—to allow those historically silenced by power to speak through art.

Kailasam’s Dramatic Method: Language and Symbolism :

Kailasam’s language in The Curse or Karna alternates between poetic elevation and colloquial simplicity, creating a hybrid idiom that mirrors Karna’s divided identity. His dialogues—neither wholly Sanskritised nor modern—reflect the in-betweenness of a character trapped between divine and human, high and low, birth and merit.

This linguistic hybridity itself is political: it resists the elite language of epics and speaks instead in the voice of the common man, echoing the subaltern’s reclamation of speech. The play’s structure also resists linearity; it moves between memory, dialogue, and introspection, resembling a modernist tragedy rather than an epic spectacle.

Symbols like the armor and earrings (Kavacha and Kundala)—which Karna surrenders to Indra—represent both his nobility and his vulnerability. By giving them away, he symbolically yields the last traces of divine privilege, embracing his mortal and marginal identity. Kailasam turns this moment into an act of moral heroism, reframing mythic destiny as social defiance.

Reading Karna through Spivak: Can He Speak?

Returning to Spivak’s question—“Can the subaltern speak?”—the play provides a nuanced answer. Yes, Karna speaks, but his speech is unheard by power. His ethical reasoning, his defence of loyalty and honour, and his awareness of injustice constitute an authentic subaltern voice. Yet, by the end, his death ensures that this voice never transforms the social order that silenced him.

This tragic paradox reinforces Spivak’s insight: “The subaltern’s speech does not achieve the status of a full speech act” (Spivak 289). Kailasam’s play, however, performs a secondary act of recovery—artistic representation as resistance. By dramatizing Karna’s voice, Kailasam invites the audience to hear what epic orthodoxy ignored.

Thus, The Curse or Karna becomes an early instance of Indian subaltern drama, one that uses myth not for reverence but for critique. It brings the marginal to the centre, re-inscribing the silenced hero into the moral consciousness of modern India.

Conclusion :

T. P. Kailasam’s The Curse or Karna stands as a powerful intersection of myth and subaltern discourse. Through the tragic voice of Karna, Kailasam critiques the hierarchies that sustain silence and suffering. Spivak’s framework illuminates how Karna’s attempts at self-definition are both expressive and futile—his voice resounds, yet history refuses to listen.

At the same time, Peter Struck’s insights into myth help reveal Kailasam’s innovation: he transforms the mythic narrative into a medium of social protest. Karna’s tragedy, thus, transcends the personal—it becomes emblematic of all those who remain unheard within systems of caste, class, or power.

In reclaiming Karna as a subaltern hero, Kailasam not only rewrites an ancient myth but also challenges the moral fabric of modern Indian society. His play reminds us that art, by amplifying marginal voices, can serve as both a mirror and a corrective to social injustice.

Words : 1695

Images : 04

References:

Department of English MKBU. “Tools for Reading Myths - Peter Struck.” Slideshare, www.slideshare.net/slideshow/tools-for-reading-myths-peter-struck/115562338.

Internet Archive, 1946, archive.org/details/unset0000unse_h8e3/page/52/mode/2up.

Pawar, Samadhan D. “HUMAN VALUES IN THE PLAYS OF T. P. KAILASAM.” Lite. Cog.:AREELLC, vol. I, no. 3, Literary Cognizance, Dec. 2015, literarycognizance.com/images/vol1-issue111/3_DrSamadhanDPawar.pdf.

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. “Can the Subaltern Speak?” Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, University of Illinois Press, 1988.

Subaltern Theories: Ranajit Guha, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Dipesh Chakravarty – Literary Criticism and Theory. ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in/engp10/chapter/subaltern-theories-ranajit-guha-gayatri-chakravorty-spivak-dipesh-chakravarty.