What post-modern theme can be linked to the politics of the time? How does it challenge the laws of traditional society?

The entire society around the Ipe family is obsessed with caste and class differences. The English are still an oppressive colonial ghost in the form of self-hatred. Everything English is still seen as brighter and higher class than anything produced by India. The whiter one’s skin, the closer one is to cleanliness and good. The children are painfully aware of this at all times, especially when watching The Sound of Music. Chacko repeatedly reminds the children that the family are Anglophiles. They prefer to speak English, and Chacko goes to English to get a high-class education. He marries an Englishwoman, though she is treated as little better than a prostitute by Mammachi. Mammachi is both jealous of her, and also dissatisfied with her working class background. Not to mention the fact that any Englishwoman who would marry a brown-skinned Indian must have something wrong with her. Sophie Mol is seen as a better person, sight unseen, because she is half-English. While Chacko has “married up,” Ammu has “married down” by marrying a Hindu. Syrian Christians tended to see themselves as higher class than Hindus.

The title of the novel appears to refer to the idea of the Big Man versus the Small Man. The Big Man gets the lantern, while the Small Man gets the candlestick. This is the way of the world. The God of Small Things is Velutha, who despite the fact that he is of the lowest-of-the-low Untouchable caste, is the only psychologically healthy character. He treats everyone with respect, and he also respects himself. He expects to be treated as well as anyone else. His sense of self leads to his alienation from his own father, who fears (rightly) that his pride will lead to his downfall.