201: Reimagining the Epic: Subalternity and the Politics of Voice in T. P. Kailasam’s The Curse or Karna and Modern Retellings of the Mahabharata

 

Reimagining the Epic: Subalternity and the Politics of Voice in T. P. Kailasam’s The Curse or Karna and Modern Retellings of the Mahabharata

Assignment of Paper 201: Indian English Literature – Pre-Independence

Academic Details

• Name: Krupali Belam

• Roll No : 13

• Enrollment No : 5108240007

• Semester: 3

• Batch: 2024–26

• Email: krupalibelam1204@gmail.com

Assignment Details

• Paper Name: Indian English Literature – Pre-Independence

• Paper No.: 201

• Paper Code: 22401

• Topic: Reimagining the Epic: Subalternity and the Politics of Voice in T. P. Kailasam’s The Curse or Karna and Modern Retellings of the Mahabharata

• Submitted To: Smt. Sujata Binoy Gardi, Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

• Submission Date: 7 November 2025 

Abstract

This paper explores the re-imagination of the Mahabharata through the figure of Karna a character who embodies the paradox of virtue and marginalization in T. P. Kailasam’s play The Curse or Karna (1929) and in contemporary retellings such as Kavita Kane’s Karna’s Wife: The Outcast’s Queen and Anand Neelakantan’s Rise of Kali. Drawing upon Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s seminal question, “Can the Subaltern Speak?”, and Ranajit Guha’s Subaltern Studies, the paper analyzes how mythic retellings become spaces of counter-discourse, giving agency to silenced voices. The study applies Subaltern Theory and Myth Criticism (Peter Struck, Roland Barthes) to examine how authors reinterpret traditional hierarchies of caste, gender, and heroism. Kailasam’s play is positioned as an early articulation of subaltern consciousness in Indian English drama, while modern retellings democratize the epic through feminist and Dalit perspectives. Through comparative analysis, the paper argues that Karna’s evolving representations signify the transformation of myth into a voice of ethical resistance a means through which the excluded reclaims the power to narrate.

Keywords

Subalternity | Myth Rewriting | Postcolonial Drama | Kailasam | Karna | Feminism | Caste | Indian English Literature

Research Question

How do T. P. Kailasam’s The Curse or Karna and modern retellings of the Mahabharata reinterpret the myth from subaltern perspectives, transforming Karna’s silence into a form of political and ethical resistance?

Hypothesis

Kailasam and later writers such as Kane and Neelakantan reimagine Karna not as a passive victim of fate but as a symbol of subaltern resilience, exposing caste and gender hierarchies embedded in classical mythology. By giving speech to marginalized characters, these retellings reconstruct the Mahabharata as a discourse of ethical rebellion and social emancipation.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Theoretical Framework: Subalternity and Myth

 2.1 Subaltern Theory and the Problem of           Representation

 2.2 Re-reading Myth: Symbolism and Cultural   Memory

3. Kailasam’s The Curse or Karna: The Subaltern as Tragic Hero

 3.1 Caste and the Politics of Birth

 3.2 Ethical Voice and Humanist Theatre

4. Modern Retellings: Feminist and Dalit Revisions

 4.1 Kavita Kane’s Karna’s Wife and the Gendered Subaltern

 4.2 Anand Neelakantan’s Rise of Kali and the Dalit Voice

5. Voice, Silence, and the Politics of Representation

6. Contemporary Resonance: Myth, Cinema, and the Subaltern Today

7. Conclusion

Works Cited

1. Introduction

The Mahabharata has been described by A. K. Ramanujan as a “collective archive of Indian consciousness” a story that India tells itself repeatedly to understand moral ambiguity, social order, and cosmic justice. Yet, within this monumental text lies a silence   the silence of those denied the right to define their own virtue. Among these figures, Karna stands as the most haunting: a hero of great skill and integrity, yet condemned by the accident of birth to a life of humiliation and moral solitude.

In T. P. Kailasam’s The Curse or Karna (1929), this ancient silence is broken. Kailasam reclaims the epic from divine determinism, transforming it into a drama of human conscience. Karna’s tragedy ceases to be about destiny; it becomes about society’s refusal to hear those who do not belong. Written during late colonial India, the play mirrors the condition of a nation subjugated by empire and internally divided by caste. As 

Modern retellings such as Kavita Kane’s Karna’s Wife: The Outcast’s Queen (2013) and Anand Neelakantan’s Rise of Kali (2015) extend Kailasam’s humanist project into the postcolonial and feminist age. Through Urvi’s perspective, Kane gives voice to the silenced woman in the epic, while Neelakantan’s narrative reclaims the so-called villains as victims of Brahmanical power. Each author performs what Spivak calls “strategic essentialism”  the act of re-centering the marginalized in order to challenge dominant structures (Spivak).

This paper thus argues that reimagining the epic becomes a political act. From Kailasam’s colonial stage to Neelakantan’s populist novel and Mari Selvaraj’s film Karnan (2021), Karna’s story has evolved into a metaphor for India’s subaltern self. Each version transforms myth into a tool of ethical reparation, enabling the silenced to speak, the excluded to be seen, and the mythic to merge with the modern.

2. Theoretical Framework: Subalternity and Myth

2.1 Subaltern Theory and the Problem of Representation

The term subaltern was first used by Antonio Gramsci to describe groups excluded from hegemonic power structures. In postcolonial discourse, the Subaltern Studies Collective, led by Ranajit Guha, extended this idea to colonial India, emphasizing the recovery of voices suppressed by both imperial and nationalist elites. As Guha writes, the subaltern is defined by “the general attribute of subordination, whether in terms of class, caste, gender, or office”.

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s essay Can the Subaltern Speak? (1988) radicalized this discourse by questioning whether the marginalized can ever truly articulate themselves within dominant epistemologies. Spivak famously concludes, “The subaltern cannot speak,” not because they are voiceless, but because their speech is constantly appropriated by structures of representation (Spivak). This notion of epistemic violence  where knowledge itself silences  becomes crucial in understanding how characters like Karna, though eloquent, are historically unheard.

As Kajal Kapoor notes in her study Karna: The Voice of the Subaltern, “Karna’s silence is not ignorance but protest. His dignity lies in endurance, not submission” (Kapoor 75). Kailasam’s dramatic retelling grants this silence an ethical resonance: Karna becomes the conscience of a civilization that worships virtue but denies equality.

Subaltern theory also illuminates the gendered dimension of mythic marginality. Women like Kunti and Urvi inhabit spaces of emotional and moral invisibility. By rewriting their narratives, modern authors enact what Spivak calls “a persistent translation of silence into speech.” Feminist mythography, therefore, becomes a continuation of Subaltern Studies through literary form.

2.2 Re-reading Myth: Symbolism and Cultural Memory

Myth, as Roland Barthes argued in Mythologies, is “a type of speech chosen by history.” It transforms complex realities into naturalized narratives that reinforce cultural hierarchies. To challenge a myth, therefore, is to deconstruct ideology. Peter Struck similarly observes that myths “survive by being retold; each retelling is an act of interpretation” (Birth of the Symbol).

In India, myths like the Mahabharata function not as static scripture but as cultural memory a dynamic archive through which moral and social values are contested. A. K. Ramanujan reminds us that “there is no single Mahabharata, but many Mahabharatas.” This multiplicity allows writers like Kailasam to humanize the divine and modern novelists to democratize the epic.

In Kailasam’s hands, myth becomes ethical theatre: Karna’s struggle mirrors the colonial subject’s double consciousness  torn between inherited duty and moral freedom. As Dwivedi explains, “Kailasam’s re-visioning of epic myths constitutes a decolonial pedagogy, teaching Indians to see themselves beyond divine hierarchies” (Dwivedi).

Modern retellings similarly mobilize myth as counter-discourse. Kane transforms the epic into gendered introspection, while Neelakantan reclaims it as Dalit protest. The epic’s elasticity its capacity to contain contradiction is what allows it to become, in postcolonial India, a text of resistance.

3. Kailasam’s The Curse or Karna: The Subaltern as Tragic Hero

T. P. Kailasam’s The Curse or Karna occupies a significant position in Indian English drama as an early example of modern mythic humanism. Written during the colonial era, it reinterprets the Mahabharata’s moral universe through a lens of ethical introspection. Unlike traditional Sanskrit dramatists who glorified divine will, Kailasam emphasized psychological realism and human conscience, marking a decisive shift from epic idealism to social critique.

As A. N. Dwivedi observes, “Kailasam’s characters are not gods speaking to mortals, but mortals questioning the gods within themselves” (Indian Drama in English). The play’s central character, Karna, becomes a symbolic figure of subaltern suffering  his life defined not by moral failure but by the social injustice of birth. His illegitimacy, rather than his actions, dictates his fate. Kailasam’s dramatic irony lies in the fact that the most virtuous man in the epic is the one society refuses to acknowledge.

3.1 Caste and the Politics of Birth

Kailasam’s Karna embodies what Guha terms the “general attribute of subordination” (Guha). The hero’s exclusion from the Kshatriya hierarchy mirrors the social dynamics of caste-based oppression. In one poignant moment, when Drona rejects him, Karna replies, “A man’s deeds, not his birth, should make him noble.” This defiant moral vision directly challenges the Brahmanical ideology embedded in the epic.

Kajal Kapoor reads this as “Kailasam’s attempt to restore human dignity against inherited privilege” (Kapoor 77). The playwright thus converts the myth into a moral allegory of colonial India, where virtue and merit were subordinated to imperial and caste hierarchies. By elevating Karna’s voice, Kailasam not only critiques religious orthodoxy but also questions the nationalist elite’s neglect of India’s marginalized.

The subaltern tragedy of Karna arises from his awareness of injustice. Unlike Oedipus or Macbeth, who fall through moral error, Karna’s downfall results from systemic exclusion. His silence  dignified yet painful  becomes a metaphor for what Spivak calls the “epistemic violence” of power structures that deny the marginalized the right to speak (Spivak).

3.2 Ethical Voice and Humanist Theatre

Kailasam’s theatre is profoundly humanist. He transforms the divine epic into a moral dialogue between fate and free will. Karna’s loyalty to Duryodhana, despite moral conflict, is not weakness but ethical steadfastness a refusal to abandon friendship for social gain. This moral courage aligns him with what Spivak calls “the subject of ethical responsibility”  one who resists power by affirming humanity (Spivak).

In this sense, The Curse or Karna becomes more than mythic retelling; it is a drama of conscience that anticipates postcolonial self-assertion. Through Karna, the playwright creates India’s first subaltern hero  a voice of ethical protest within the confines of tradition.

4. Modern Retellings: Feminist and Dalit Revisions

4.1 Kavita Kane’s Karna’s Wife and the Gendered Subaltern

Kavita Kane’s Karna’s Wife: The Outcast’s Queen (2013) offers a transformative feminist reading of the Mahabharata. By narrating the story from Urvi’s perspective, Kane not only humanizes Karna but also reclaims the silenced female voice. Urvi, a marginal character in Vyasa’s version, becomes the lens through which readers witness the emotional and moral landscape of the epic.

As Nirja Tomar and Deepika Dhand observe, “Urvi’s articulation redefines the moral core of the epic by shifting empathy from power to vulnerability” (ShodhKosh). Kane uses Urvi’s interior monologue to critique patriarchal norms that sanctify male heroism while erasing female subjectivity. The novel’s narrative intimacy transforms mythic grandeur into psychological realism, similar to Kailasam’s theatrical approach.

Kane’s portrayal of Urvi also engages Spivak’s question, “Can the subaltern woman speak?” By giving Urvi narrative control, Kane performs what Spivak describes as “strategic essentialism” a reclaiming of voice for representational justice. Urvi becomes the emotional conscience of the epic, her suffering mirroring that of Karna. Through her, Kane foregrounds gendered subalternity as a site of resistance against both patriarchy and mythic fatalism.

4.2 Anand Neelakantan’s Rise of Kali and the Dalit Voice

In Rise of Kali (2015), Anand Neelakantan reconfigures the Mahabharata as a people’s history. His reinterpretation of the Kauravas as ethical rebels and the Pandavas as privileged elites reverses the moral hierarchy of the original epic. “History,” Neelakantan writes, “is always written by the victors; I write for the defeated.”

According to Aayushi Sangharshee and Jatinder Kohli, “Neelakantan’s retelling performs the political work of Subaltern Studies in narrative form” (The Creative Launcher). His depiction of Karna aligns with Ambedkarite thought  merit crushed by caste and moral worth denied by birth. The novel thus transforms myth into a Dalit allegory, where Karna’s humiliation reflects centuries of structural injustice.

Neelakantan democratizes mythic language by replacing Sanskritized idiom with earthy colloquialism, allowing marginalized voices to sound authentic. Like Kailasam’s play, Rise of Kali is not about divine destiny but human struggle for dignity. The narrative thereby restores the ethical dimension of the epic, bridging ancient injustice with modern resistance.

5. Voice, Silence, and the Politics of Representation

The question of who speaks and who is heard  remains central to both Kailasam’s and modern reimaginings. Spivak’s critique that “the subaltern cannot speak” implies that even when marginalized figures attempt to articulate themselves, their speech is often mediated by dominant discourse. Kailasam addresses this by giving Karna monologic introspection, a form of inward speech that bypasses social hierarchy. Kane and Neelakantan externalize this process: Urvi and Karna speak through narrative control.

By aligning mythic silence with social exclusion, these writers transform literature into ethical historiography. As Barthes suggests, myth becomes revolutionary “when it exposes its own artifice” (Mythologies). In confronting the structures that mute certain voices, Kailasam and his successors reclaim myth as a stage where history’s absences finally speak.

6. Contemporary Resonance: Myth, Cinema, and the Subaltern Today

The persistence of Karna’s myth in the 21st century reveals its adaptability to new cultural forms. Mari Selvaraj’s Tamil film Karnan (2021) reimagines Karna as a Dalit hero in a modern agrarian setting. As critics in Rupkatha Journal observe, the film “translates the Mahabharata’s moral allegory into a visual politics of caste resistance.” The film’s imagery  shattered idols, burning buses, and muted drums  symbolizes the subaltern’s awakening.

Such reinterpretations affirm what Arjun Appadurai calls “the production of locality”: mythic forms adapt to express modern injustices (Modernity at Large). The enduring appeal of Karna lies in his moral universality  he embodies every voice that has been wronged yet refuses bitterness.

Modern readers find in Karna not tragedy but dignified rebellion. His silence, once a mark of defeat, becomes a language of moral authority. The myth, continually retold, functions as collective therapy for a nation still confronting caste, gender, and class inequities. As Dwivedi remarks, “Each retelling of Karna is an act of social self-recognition; India sees in him its wounded humanity” (Dwivedi).

7. Conclusion

Rewriting the Mahabharata through subaltern and feminist consciousness transforms India’s most sacred epic into an instrument of moral reparation. From Kailasam’s colonial stage to Kane’s feminist narrative and Neelakantan’s Dalit epic, Karna’s evolution reflects the decolonization of myth. Each version translates silence into speech, myth into ethics, and tragedy into protest.

Kailasam’s The Curse or Karna remains foundational because it initiated this process  transforming divine determinism into human responsibility. Later retellings extend his vision, proving that the epic’s true immortality lies not in its gods but in its capacity for empathy.

In reclaiming Karna, Indian writers and filmmakers reclaim the right to interpret themselves. Myth becomes not a story of fate but a language of freedom.

Word Count:2780

Images : 5 

Works Cited 

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