The Ruler and the Ruled: A Reflective study of July’s People

The commitment to art and society has been a persistent concern with artists around the world. The act of writing is seldom innocent, as it becomes inundated with various ideological discourses some heard and others smothered. Many writers under the oppressive regime of Apartheid have lashed out against it, determined not just to document society but also to hasten its transformation. Nadine Gordimer, a Nobel Laureate became the voice of the ruled under this ideology of racial hierarchy. She was South Africa‟s most celebrated writer who lived her life by a firm moral compass. She explored the most intimate spaces within and between South Africans with acute sensitivity and honesty bringing forth the terrible scars of intolerance, racism, oppression and violence. As she wrote in protest she faced censorship, reinforcing her dual commitment towards ethics of living and aesthetics of writing. The present paper throws light on the semi-allegorical and strained ‘July’s People’, which was banned under apartheid and faced censorship under the post-apartheid regime. Published in 1981, ‘July’s People’ predicts the collapse of the white South Africans and the emergence of a new social political reality that requires them to fashion the contours of their new identity. A concoction of the personal and political realm, it raises the question whether the political freedom of one set of people will mean happy times for all. This paper will examine the motives of human beings, governments and regimes which are always suspect no matter what ideologies they purport to embrace.