The Body Compromised: The Machine of InterPlanta as Moloch in Manjula Padmanabhan’s Harvest

This paper will examine the juxtaposition of the Body and the Machine in the play Harvest by Manjula Padmanabhan and how capitalism and imperialism can ironically only sustain their existences through the exploitation of the economically disadvantaged. It will also note how the male characters in the play willingly surrender their privacy, freedoms and even their own body parts to obtain material wealth or sensual pleasure, while the female protagonist Jaya resists the lure of false and fleeting technological satisfaction and retains her right to direct her own physical destiny. This paper will further posit that the organ-trafficking organization of InterPlanta and its evolving manifestations in the play are reminiscent of the ancient fiery and frightening deity known as Moloch, to whom the Canaanites sacrificed their own children. The power of this image and the emotions it provokes have traversed the centuries and found their way into the collective consciousness of the religious, political, literary, and film worlds through works such as John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667), Gustave Flaubert’s Salammbo (1862), the 1927 film Metropolis by Fritz Lange, and the 1955 poem Howl by Allen Ginsberg. Manjula Padmanabhan’s work of speculative fiction evokes how technology, in a variety of ever-changing guises, insinuates itself into the deepest of family and personal structures. It further echoes how once the intruder is among them, those involved give themselves over willingly to be consumed by it, unless they manage to open their eyes and see the apparition for what it truly is.