இமயததன சலலத பணம பதனததல சமக எதர நலகள / Social Condtradictions in Imayam's novel Sellatha Panam

Society encompasses various ethical institutions. In it, family, education, healthcare, government, prisons and courts play a vital role. The innate nature of them manifests power. In the modern society, law and control are obligatory for the marginalized and vulnerable sections of the society. Love is suppressed to a woman by using the concepts of chastity, honor and family respect. Particularly, caste and economic status fostered attacks on specific groups. Modern Tamil novels show such problems. In Imaiyam's novel, the character Revathi, her parents and her relatives suffer in the hands of the police and healthcare professionals. So, power operates at various levels. The doctors in a hospital and the legal and judicial systems obtain power from education and are based on their knowledge but they enable power to control and dominate the subjugated people. In this manner, power operates in society and creates a vicious relationship among the people. To decode it, Tamil writer Imaiyam's novel 'Sellatha Panam' has been taken as a primary source to demonstrate the function of power in present Tamil novels. In a family, a woman is controlled by male domination. A woman who is ready for marriage is subjected to suppression in the family. Other individuals and institutions impose their authority over them. So, this article portrays how power institutions control the natural ways of women and their life. This novel shows the discourse of family members such as the mother, father, elder brother and sister-in-law and it is suggested always that a woman making autonomous decisions will lead to a danger for her. In the hospital setting of the novel, the nurses, doctors and security guards show an authoritative tone to control the common people. In the same way, the power of the police is unnoticed. The event that makes someone to file a complaint against Ravi demonstrates that power wielded officials can easily use their authority over anyone they want to. By the wrong exercise of power, two dissimilar aspects of selfhood are portrayed in the article.