From Moral Defiance to Rebellion: The Emergence of Political Subjectivity under the Panchayat in Dhakal’s Brishav Vadh

Abstract

Political subjectivity is an individual’s awareness of power relations and the capacity to resist repression through active political engagement. It emerges through the rupture of the established dominating authority. Contemporary Nepali literature devotes considerable attention to political subjectivity, depicting how ordinary individuals become politically conscious, challenge authority, and actively participate in shaping political and social processes. This article examines how Narayan Dhakal’s Brishav Vadh (Murder of the Bull) portrays the transformation of an ordinary village schoolboy into a politically conscious rebel under the Panchayat authority. The protagonist’s political awakening and rebellious disposition develop from lived confrontations with the Panchayat’s injustice rather than from his pre-existing consciousness or political affiliations. It addresses the problem of how the Panchayat politicizes Devendra’s moral defiance and how his ultimate resistance affirms his political subjectivity. The article draws on Foucault’s theory of power and resistance to analyze how the Panchayat’s disciplinary interventions prove ineffective in suppressing Devendra’s defiance and how his political subjectivity emerges not from prior ideology but from the sustained encounters with the power structures. It employs a qualitative research design and a critical textual analysis method to interpret the events, characters, and contexts of the primary text. The article’s findings reveal that the Panchayat’s attempts to suppress Devendra’s conduct through both soft and violent disciplinary instruments prove ineffective in securing the desired obedience and control. Rather, they result in an intended consequence—the emergence of his political subjectivity and active political engagement through a collective rebellion. His minor, non-political acts of moral defiance acquire political significance when they are provoked, politicized, and repressed by the Panchayat’s power structures. This article contributes to Nepali literary studies by revealing how literature depicts historical and political processes through which ordinary people experience and respond to the dynamics of power relations.