Victimisation of Marginalised People: A Study of Imayam’s Beasts of Burden

Abstract

Marginalisation is a destructive behaviour that has persisted in society for a long time. At some point, marginalised people become victims of upper-class society’s persecution. Victimisation is the process of being victimised physically, psychologically, morally, and sexually. This study shows how Imayam’s Beasts of Burden reflects the sorrow, grief, and misery of oppressed people. His protagonist and other characters are shown in this work as being involved in class tensions, class distinction, and social eviction. It also emphasises how upper-class society victimises underprivileged individuals and their physical, emotional, and financial hardship or threats. After independence, marginalised groups in India continued to face caste and class discrimination due to upper-caste capitalist attitudes toward Dalits. The difficulties of the poor, regarded as inferior among Dalits, who are oppressed and exploited by the upper castes and within their society, are the subject of Imayam’s Beasts of Burden. It also depicts how the oppressed are just compliant, surrendering, and enslaved by dominating classes. This work is one of the best depictions of a persecuted impoverished washerwoman family and how they survive to meet their basic requirements. It portrays a vivid picture of the marginalised caste woman Arokkyam and her family’s lives and experiences.