Caste, Culture, and the Crisis of Masculinity: Re-evaluating Unoka and Lakha

Abstract

This study undertakes a comparative exploration of the paternal figures in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable, specifically Unoka and Lakha, as cultural symbols deeply embedded in postcolonial and caste-based narratives of masculine identity. Far from being mere failed fathers in the traditional or domestic sense, Unoka and Lakha represent ruptured masculinities—figures shaped, constrained, and ultimately undone by the historical forces of colonial subjugation and caste-based marginalization. Through a critical postcolonial lens, the research interrogates how masculinity, trauma, and authority are negotiated within these literary spaces, exposing the quiet violence that pervades not only political structures but also the most intimate familial relationships.