Social Reforms Can’t Be Chalked Out Keeping Literature Away

Western literature with emphasis on social reforms in the 18th and 19th centuries addressed pressing issues like poverty, harsh working conditions and child labor. Authors used various creative modes to expose societal crises and advocate for change, influencing public opinions and policies. Literature on social reforms often included explicit or implicit calls for action, urging readers to support efforts to address social problems and improve the lives of the poor and working class. Literary creations about social and political issues played a role in the development of modern ideas about the role of the state in eradicating poverty and erasing discrimination. The study of 19th century European fiction offers valuable insights and lessons for understanding the role of literature and culture in reshaping social structure and economic patterns.

Literature has served a purpose that goes far beyond offering itself as an enjoyable pastime for centuries. It has become a powerful vehicle for social change and a corridor for our collective grievances to be vented out.

History and social reconstruction have been intertwined with literary works since time immemorial. During the Victorian era, Charles Dickens illustrated the impact of historic upheavals on the ordinary masses of England in his novels such as A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations. Status of women in Victorian England was depicted with moving compassion by Emily Bronte, Charlotte Bronte and Jane Austen in phenomenal books like Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre and Emma. Literature tracks women’s fight for equality. Early novels gave female protagonists space to challenge limits, reflecting real struggles. Social issues have been highlighted in Victor Hugo’s novels too underlining the malpractices prevailing among the priests of France who held lofty ranks in theological institutions during 19th century, in churches to be more precise. Some vital aspects of Russian society of 19th century are found in the monumental works of fiction by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Leo Tolstoy. Both these Russian authors touched upon some anomalies and lack of social justice that existed in Russia during their time in their fictional classics Crime and Punishment and Anna Karenina.

In recent years, one exclusive scholarly domain known as subaltern studies refers to the inclusion of the plight of downtrodden masses in literary, artistic and intellectual discourses. Subalternism is widely regarded as a literary theory through which the portrayal of the tormented and suppressed people of different societies is examined for better understanding of class variation, social injustice and lack of equity under the established social norms around us with special references to literature.

Literature with socioeconomic underpinnings has close interrelations with postcolonial thoughts and views because social perils like slavery, racism, discrimination and denial of humanitarian values were largely enforced on subjugated tribes and clans by the colonial powers. Books by Arundhati Roy, Amitav Ghosh, J M Coetzee, Aphra Behn, Gayatri Spivak, Harriet Beecher Stowe and some more authors from east and west are written from such perspectives which can be evaluated from subaltern angles. Fictional and non-fictional works with subaltern edges spotlight on the trials and tribulations of indigenous tribes, slaves, minorities and cornered women. The woes of victims under the jackboot of inhuman rulers and misanthropic socioeconomic and political phenomena are described by authors in their books which are judged in terms of subalternism by readers, critics and academic experts.

Arundhati Roy’s fictional masterpiece The God of Small Things movingly illustrates the disgrace and ignominy people belonging to lower castes have to go through in some parts of India. In the non-fictional works by Arundhati Roy as well we come across the sufferings undergone by tribal clans, women, ethnic minorities and political dissidents. In this context we can refer to Arundhati Roy’s masterfully written books such as Listening to Grasshoppers, The Shape of the Beast, Capitalism: A Ghost Story, The Algebra of Infinite Justice and some more strikingly penned works. On the other hand, Arundhati Roy exercised her authorial dexterity for unveiling the agonies confronted by transgender people in her 2017 book The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. The title of this book is quite paradoxical and insinuating because Arundhati Roy touched upon an exasperatingly unhappy world through the characters she sketched in this fictional magnum opus. Arundhati Roy’s books which appeared in following years like Azadi and Mother Mary Comes to Me are often found encompassing a broad spectrum of dimensions like economic disparities, international geopolitics, insurgency, religious conflicts, longstanding wars and some more blazing hazards which connect the fictional people in her books with the ongoing circumstances hitting humanity hard in South Asia as well as in other parts of the globe too.

Nobel laureate South African novelist JM Coetzee’s fictional work Life & Times of Michael K is another monumental instance of literature. In this novel Michael K is characterized as an extremely poor fellow with a cleft lip who encounters tough barriers due to his poverty and physical malformation while trying to carry his dead mother’s ashes to her birthplace. Michael K’s helpless condition and the repeated sufferings levied on him by the people around him who are more powerful makes the novel an ideal literary work to be appraised with humanistic visions.

Any literary disquisition about economic and political discrepancies would remain unaccomplished if references are not made to Gayatri Spivak, one of the most esteemed Indian authors and scholars of the present time. Gayatri Spivak’s outstanding books Can the Subaltern Speak and Selected Subaltern Studies have made penetrative endeavors to unfold the deprivations faced by poverty-stricken men and women in the postcolonial era. She has also translated Mahashweta Devi’s acclaimed book Imaginary Maps. Imaginary Maps is an inquisitive book about the perils suffered by some South Asian tribal clans who are on the verge of extinction according to the author. 

Harriet Beecher Stowe, an American author of 19th century, narrated the pathetic lives of Afro-American slaves in her most prominent book Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The ruthless maltreatment by the white people towards the black slaves during the days of slavery in America is piercingly represented by Harriet Beecher Stowe in this unforgettable book. Reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin is essential to realize the way slavery and the American Civil War cast far-reaching shadows on American fiction in the centuries that followed.

The Grapes of Wrath by Nobel Prize winner American author John Steinbeck showed 1930s poverty, stirring sympathy for workers.

Aphra Behn’s book Oroonoko is another heartbreaking story about the inhuman torture black slaves had to endure under the colonial regime during the previous centuries. Similarly, Amitav Ghosh’s books The Hungry Tide, Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke and some more superb literary creations by this renowned author shed light on the impoverished and stigmatized predicaments destitute people are subjected to by tyrannical repressors.

In official terms slavery no longer exists in the world but we have not been able to liberate mankind from economic hardships and social infringements. For this reason literary exercises on social realignments and rectification never run out of context because people in many parts of the world still fall victims to poverty, psycho-physical abuse, human rights violations, socio-economic injustice, exploitations, genocide and other adversities every now and then. The world around us in the current times is inflicted with war, communal violence, imperial onslaught and geopolitical turbulence. Under these circumstances, writers dealing with reformist perceptions are actually speaking on behalf of billions of people struggling to make ends meet. Authors often underscore social aberrations to trigger amendments. Novels and essays point out unfair systems, urging readers to look at established norms from a renovated angle of vision. A 2025 Journal of Literary Studies found 60% of influential books tackle inequality or power. Social analysis launched from a literary tarmac drives ruling authorities to spearhead actions for a better world.

Litterateurs must keep in mind the ethical impact of their stories while writing. A 2025 Media Ethics journal said 48% of readers question novels that stereotype groups. Social elaborations delivered through literature need to be carefully and consciously prepared.

A book hyping one side of a fight might skew views. Writers aim for balance to keep trust. Literature and societal transformation stay strong when stories respect reality conferring a lesson for students.

Ultimately, literature has consistently acted as a catalyst for social change--whether challenging oppressive regimes, advocating for human rights or promoting gender-oriented justice and racial equality, books have had the power to trigger movements and upheavals.  Well-written stories have the ability to educate people and mobilize them behind a common cause.

 
Ananda Rahman is a
freelancer and a columnist.