Freak Show in Black Comedy: Moral and Physical Disability in Dharamveer Bharati’s ‘Gulki Banno’ (Gulki the Bride)

Abstract

Dharmveer Bharati’s1 ‘Gulki Banno’2 portrays the life of Gulki, a young woman who is a humpback. Set in Allahabad of the 1970s, it describes Gulki’s struggle for survival and lays bare the manner in which deformity or disability is seen in our society. This article shows the varied ways by which her impaired body is associated with evil and deviance and is the object of children’s pranks and adult’s derision. It engages the reader with the issues of spousal abuse, juvenile delinquency, a disabled’s search for space and, most perceptibly, the selfish motives behind the display of philanthropy. The analysis probes the underlying dimensions of moral and physical disability, underlining how multiple shades of the comic weave through the story to impending tragedy.