Language, Individual & Society, Volume 11, 2017

Abstract: The paper draws upon the study of socioeconomic reality as linked with discursively manipulative strategies in Mohsin Hamid’s How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, and in that it determines the context to which power works behind the discourse of the ruling classes, investigates how the socially established identities (such as constituted by caste and race) serve the vested interests of the ruling classes, and, finally, traces how the lower classes’ reaction to the monopoly of the ruling classes leads to the materialistic evolution of the former. The study scrutinizes this notion in Mohsin Hamid’s How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia. It reviews the available literature, and determines the scope for the research on the subject on the basis of the vacuum needed to be filled by applying the methodological theory of Dialectical Materialism and the concept of Discourse and Manipulation. A qualitative content analysis, the study uses Van Dijk’s approach of Discourse and Manipulation as a model as well. The analysis of this fictional work also highlights how individuals with exceptional calibre from the lower strata of society, as constituted on the basis of caste and race, react to the supremacy of the few powerful, and through consistent struggles, transcend beyond the class boundaries. The study adds a new dimension to the relevant field in that it not only focuses the tussle between the social classes on the basis of socioeconomic disparity, but also traces out the emergence of the individuals from the socioeconomically victimized groups. Besides, it studies this social reality, as based on class distinction, from the perspective of discourse as well.