A Fine Balance Character Analysis

Ishvar

Ishvar is Dukhi and Roopa’s son, Narayan’s older brother, and Omprakash’s uncle. He is a Chamaar who has a mark on his left cheek. Ishvar spends most of his time with Omprakash… read analysis of Ishvar

Omprakash

Omprakash is Ishvar’s nephew and Narayan’s son. He is a Chamaar who is unusually skinny, due to a parasitic worm that he doesn’t learn about until near the end of the novel. Although… read analysis of Omprakash

Maneck

Maneck is Farokh and Aban’s son who rents a room from Dina when he’s a student in college. Compared to Dina’s tailors Ishvar and Omprakash, Maneck is of a higher social class. He… read analysis of Maneck

Dina

Dina is Dr. Shroff and Mrs. Shroff’s daughter and Nusswan’s sister. She eventually marries Rustom, only to live as a widow after his death in a bicycle accident. What Dina wants most… read analysis of Dina

Nusswan

Nusswan is Dina’s brother and Ruby’s husband. He disobeys the wishes of his father, Dr. Shroff, and instead of training to become a medical doctor, he gets involved in the import and… read analysis of Nusswan

Prime Minister

The Prime Minister of India is never referred to by name in the novel, but she is strongly implied to be a lightly fictionalized version of Indira Gandhi, who held office during the same time… read analysis of Prime Minister

Rajaram

Rajaram is a friend of Ishvar and Omprakash whom they meet in the slum of the unnamed city where much of the novel takes place. He is more accustomed to living in poverty than they… read analysis of Rajaram

Beggarmaster

Beggarmaster both protects and extorts money from beggars in the city where most of the novel takes place. He learns that he’s the half-brother of Shankar, one of many beggars who, under Beggarmaster’s orders… read analysis of Beggarmaster

Ibrahim

Ibrahim is the elderly rent collector who works for Dina’s landlord and harasses her throughout the beginning of the novel. But while Ibrahim is very devoted to his job at first, seeing goondas intimidate… read analysis of Ibrahim

Thakur Dharamsi

Thakur Dharamsi is a thakur who oversees voting and later sterilization camps in the village that Ishvar and Narayan are from. He blatantly abuses his power, reflecting how particularly in more rural areas, corruption and… read analysis of Thakur Dharamsi

Vasantrao Valmik

Vasantrao Valmik is a proofreader and lawyer who eventually gets drawn into writing political speeches and slogans. He talks on a train with Maneck, who thinks Mr. Valmik is like a poet, and later… read analysis of Vasantrao Valmik

Rustom

Rustom is Dina’s husband who is killed in a bicycle accident. His death hangs over much of the story, with Dina unable to move beyond the happiness she once had. Rustom’s death also reflects… read analysis of Rustom

Shankar

Shankar is a beggar with no legs or hands who gets around on a wheeled platform called a gaadi. He meets Ishvar and Omprakash at an irrigation work camp, and they are surprised by his… read analysis of Shankar

Narayan

Narayan is Dukhi and Roopa’s son, Ishvar’s brother, and Omprakash’s father. Like the rest of his family, he is a Chamaar. With Ishvar, he goes to the town of Ashraf to… read analysis of Narayan

Avinash

Avinash is a friend of Maneck’s who teaches him how to play chess. He gets involved in college politics and manages to improve food in the dining hall, but he disappears shortly after the… read analysis of Avinash

Farokh

Farokh is Maneck’s father and Aban’s husband. He runs a soda empire, Kohlah’s Cola, that used to be dominant but can’t compete in modern, industrialized India. He gives conflicting signals to Maneck, praising… read analysis of Farokh

Monkey-man

Monkey-man is a resident of the same slum as Ishvar and Omprakash who has an act that involves two monkeys and a dog. At one point, though, he leaves the dog and monkeys unsupervised for… read analysis of Monkey-man

Sergeant Kesar

Sergeant Kesar is a police sergeant who clears out slums as part of “beautification” but who is deeply corrupt and spares the slums of people who bribe him. As he confesses later to Dina… read analysis of Sergeant Kesar

Minor Characters

Ashraf

Ashraf is a Muslim tailor who trains Ishvar and Narayan as apprentices. They come to see him as a father figure, and one day they return the favor by protecting him from a mob during a period of violence against Muslims.

Aban

Aban is Maneck’s mother and Farokh’s wife. Like her husband, she wants Maneck to be able to succeed in modern India, but she regrets how Maneck’s work carries him off to college in a big city and later to Dubai.

Zenobia

Zenobia is a friend of Dina’s who cuts hair and who helps to bring about the arrangement where Maneck comes to live with her.

Mrs. Gupta

Mrs. Gupta is the wife of a textile magnate who employs Dina to create dresses for her (with the help of Ishvar and Omprakash). Like many wealthy characters in the novel, she is in favor of the current government, praising Prime Minister’s handling of the Emergency.

Dukhi

Dukhi, a Chamaar in a small village, is Roopa’s husband. He takes the unusual step of rejecting the traditional Chamaar trade of leather-working in order to teach his sons, Ishvar and Narayan, about tailoring. Ultimately, Dukhi and much of his family die at the hand of Thakur Dharamsi.

Nawaz

Nawaz is a friend of Ashraf’s who is much less hospitable than him. He does the bare minimum to help Ishvar and Omprakash adjust to life in a new city, reflecting a general attitude of indifference toward poor people in the city.

The Facilitator

The Facilitator is a mysterious figure who sells black market ration cards and who makes money by rounding up unhoused people to work as free labor on government projects. He embodies the indifferent, profit-first attitude that many characters in the novel have.

Ruby

Ruby is Nusswan’s wife. Although she enjoys having Dina around the house, Dina often feels out of place in Nusswan’s strictly traditional household, which Ruby helps uphold.

Nightwatchman

An unnamed nightwatchman takes a risk to himself by allowing Ishvar and Omprakash to sleep near his post for a small fee. This small kindness provides them with stability, but it ends abruptly when the nightwatchman isn’t there one day, showing how volatile life in the city can be.

Foreman

A foreman oversees work at an irrigation work camp. He helps to enforce harsh conditions on the workers, some of whom are paid and some of whom are unpaid laborers from the slums.

Dr. Shroff

Dr. Shroff is Dina and Nusswan’s father and Mrs. Shroff’s husband. He is selfless, perhaps to the point of recklessness, and dies while traveling for his medical work.

Mrs. Shroff

Mrs. Shroff is Dina and Nusswan’s mother and Dr. Shroff’s wife. After her husband’s death, she seems to become empty and shrink away from society.

Xerxes

Xerxes is Nusswan and Ruby’s first son. Rustom is killed in a bicycle accident on his way to get ice cream for Xerxes and his brother Zarir.

Zarir

Zarir is Nusswan and Ruby’s second son. Rustom is killed in a bicycle accident on his way to get ice cream for Zarir and his brother Xerxes.

Roopa

Roopa is Dukhi’s wife and Ishvar and Narayan’s mother. Like much of her family, she dies in a fire that Thakur Dharamsi starts.

Radha

Radha is Narayan’s wife and Omprakash’s mother who dies in a fire that Thakur Dharamsi starts.

Shanti

Shanti is a girl whom Omprakash sees getting water. Although he thinks of her often, he does not see her in person again.

Leela

Leela is Omprakash’s sister who dies in the fire that Thakur Dharamsi starts.

Rekha

Rekha is Omprakash’s sister who dies in the fire that Thakur Dharamsi starts.

Nosey

Nosey is Shankar’s mother. She is named Nosey because she doesn’t have a nose.

Pandit Lalluram

Pandit Lalluram is a Brahmin who has a reputation as a peacemaker but who annoys Dukhi with his strict belief in the caste system.

Fredoon

Fredoon is a man with whom Dina has a brief relationship after Rustom’s death.

A Fine Balance

Rohinton Mistry

A Fine Balance Characters