The Paradox of Speaking for Narrative Authority, Hierarchical Representation, and Self-Reflexivity in Arundhati Roy's Walking with the Comrades

Abstract

Arundhati Roy's Walking with the Comrades (2010) constitutes a pivotal intervention in postcolonial literary journalism, seeking to amplify the voices of India's marginalized Maoist insurgents. By innovatively blending journalism, political commentary, and travel writing, Roy challenges dominant state and media narratives. Yet, this study argues that the very hybridity of her form produces representational paradoxes that inadvertently reproduce the hierarchical structures of colonial discourse she aims to subvert. Drawing on postcolonial theory and critical discourse analysis, with reference to Spivak, Huggan, and Rancière, this research identifies three interrelated dilemmas in Roy's text: first, the construction of a privileged journalistic gaze that positions the author as an authoritative mediator of truth; second, the hierarchical selection of voices within the Maoist movement, which foregrounds educated leaders while marginalizing the agency of ordinary, often female, cadres; and third, the aestheticization of revolutionary struggle through literary travel writing, which risks commodifying resistance for a cosmopolitan readership. While Roy's self-reflexive moments acknowledge the ethical challenges of representing the subaltern, this metacommentary paradoxically reinforces her narrative authority. Ultimately, the study demonstrates that Walking with the Comrades exemplifies the enduring ethical bind of postcolonial representation: the political imperative to speak for the marginalized is continually undercut by the epistemological impossibility of doing so without appropriation. The text thus provides a rich site for theorizing both the limits and possibilities of solidarity literature in a postcolonial context.