ABSTRACT
The chapter discusses Rohinton Mistry’s two novels, Such a Long Journey and A Fine Balance, as explorations of the political scandals of the Indira Gandhi government in the 1970s, the first one of the Nagarwala money scandal and the latter of the Emergency with a special focus on history from below. The chapter suggests that as the Nagarwala case has remained an unresolved mystery, with the official explanation clearing Indira Gandhi of involvement, Such a Long Journey constructs an alternative version of the events, based on the newspaper reports and rumours of the time, and thus maintains a cultural counter-memory of the case. The chapter also argues that the central theme of A Fine Balance is the helplessness of ordinary (poor) people against government tyranny and intimidation during the Emergency. The city beautification and family planning programmes are inscribed most memorably by showing them from the perspective of the poor personally subjected to them. It is argued in this chapter that the novel challenges the official rhetoric of the Emergency about benefitting the poor and the ordinary citizens and creates a counter-memory against it.
