Theory of Ideological State Apparatuses

society, considered as the transgressor? On what basis does a system in the society transgress the limitation of one’s biology?

C. Theory of Ideological State Apparatuses

The Love Law, the Law that lay down who should be loved, and how, and how much, is frequently mentioned in the novel pg. 17, 84, 111, etc. Arundhati Roy had simplified such a complex system of society into a poetic term with its ironic values. In the novel the Law is a set of fierce regulation that controls the relationship between individuals in the society. When it is transgressed, the punishment may be severe. Velutha, for instance is dead in an abject death under the ruthless hands of the police. Ammu is banished from Ayemenem House, dies alone in a discreditable lodge, and is cremated as an unnamed person since the Syrian Christian Church refuses to gives her a proper funeral. How can such a system be internalized within a society, tearing families, and systematically murdering people in the cruel hands of fellow human beings? Louis Althusser saw this phenomenon from the perspective of reproduction of the labour power. According to Althusser, in order to “...enable the wage earner to present himself again at the factory gate the next day –and every further day God grants him.” Althusser 131, a mere wage and the teaching of skills are not enough. Althusser argues that the reproduction of labour power, thus, does not only include the teaching of the skills, but also the subjection to the ruling ideology or the ‘practice’ of that ideology. State, in order to keep the reproduction of labour force going on, have two kinds of apparatuses: Repressive State Apparatuses RSA, and Ideological State Apparatuses ISA. These apparatuses, both repressively and ideologically, gives false consciousness to the labour force to make sure that the labour force the individuals in the society is there to be exploited by the production system, without noticing that they are being exploited. To put this more scientifically, I shall say that the reproduction of labour power requires not only a reproduction of its skills, but also, at the same time, a reproduction of its submission to the rules of the established order, i.e. a reproduction of submission to the ruling ideology for the workers, and a reproduction of ability to manipulate the ruling ideology correctly for the agents of exploitation and repression, so that they, too, will provide for the domination of the ruling class ‘in words’ 131. According to Althusser, state institutions such as schools, the Church, and the army do not only teach ‘know-how’ to their participants, but also ensure the subjection to the ruling ideology or the mastery of its practice 131. The subjection to the ruling ideology through education, religion, and military institutions enables a subtle interpellation through many layers. These institutions are considered as RSA. As ISA work mostly with ideology, RSA provides help for ISA with repressive power. According to Althusser, RSA are public institutions that are legitimate to work violently in order to make the people follow the rules. Examples of RSA are the Government, the Administration, the Army, the Police, the Courts, the Prison etc 142-143. These institutions, although function mostly by violence, also function with injection of ideology. I shall call Ideological State Apparatuses a certain number of realities which present themselves to the immediate observer in the form of distinct and specialized institutions: The religious ISA the system of the different Churches The educational ISA the system of the different public and private ‘Schools’ The family ISA The legal ISA law functions as repressive and ideological The political ISA the political system, including the different parties The trade-union ISA The communications ISA press, radio and television, etc. The cultural ISA Literature, the Arts, sports, etc 143. Therefore, it can be said that the basic difference between RSA and ISA is that the RSA functions primarily by violence while ISA functions primarily by ideology 145. Althusser believes that ISA function massively and predominantly by ideology, but they also function secondarily by repression, even if ultimately, but symbolic. Althusser believes that there is no such thing as a purely ideological state apparatus, nor purely repressive state apparatus 143. In The God of Small Things, the Love Law is assumed to be the ISA that has interpellated the society to keep their life going the way it is. According to Althusser, Ideology interpellates individuals and turns them into subjects. All ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects... I shall then suggest that ideology ‘acts’ or ‘functions’ in such a way that it ‘recruits’ subjects among the individuals it recruits them all, or ‘transforms’ the individuals into subjects it transforms them all 173-174. Althusser argues that in transforming an individual into a subject of ideology, ideology works in an operation called interpellation or hailing. Below, Althusser explains his arguments by using an example of a police officer who hails a commoner as explained in the following quotation by that very precise operation which i have called interpellation or hailing, and which can be imagined along the lines of the most commonplace everyday police or other hailing: ‘Hey, you there” ... The hailed individual will turn round, he becomes a subject. Why? Because he has recognize that the hail was ‘really’ addressed to him, and that it was really him who was hailed 173-174. Subject formation is important in ideology interpellation. It injects the ideology deep in the individuals and makes them manifest the ideology in their very everyday activity. But to recognize that we are subjects and that we function in the practical rituals of the most elementary everyday life the hand-shake, the act of calling you by your name, the fact of knowing, even if I do not know what it is, that you ‘have’ a name of your own, which means that you are recognized as a unique subject, etc. –this recognition only gives us the ‘consciousness’ i.e. it’s recognition –but in no sense does it give us the scientific knowledge of the mechanism of this recognition 173. Thus, the Love Law interpellates the people in the society and turns them into subjects. They are, then, becomes subject of the caste system, the class and Anglophilia value, the Syrian Christian Church, and the gendered-culture that function to keep the circle of life going on. The ISA make sure that the Paravans do the hard-labor job without complaining, make sure that the children of Touchable Syrian Christian enjoy education at Touchable schools, and make sure that the women cook the food for the household and give sexual pleasure to the men. Any deviation from the ideology forces the repressive side of the apparatuses to punish the deviant. Seen through classic Marxist, the ideology is criticized in the way that it makes man become the slave of his own products by the subsumption of labour under capital Elsjer 181.

D. Theory of Subaltern