An Investigation of Marginalized Masculinity in Girish Karnad's Play Bali: The Sacrifice

This paper investigates the notion of marginalized masculinity in Girish Karnad’s Bali: The Sacrifice (1980), with particular attention to how patriarchal power structures simultaneously privilege and constrain male identity through ritual, desire, and moral anxiety. Drawing upon R.W. Connell’s theory of hegemonic and subordinated masculinities and Judith Butler’s concept of performativity, the study explores how Karnad’s male characters—especially the King and the Mahout—embody the contradictions of masculine power in a ritualized moral universe. The King, though outwardly a figure of political and social authority, is emotionally dependent and morally conflicted, reflecting an internalized emasculation that undermines his hegemonic status. Conversely, the Mahout’s marginal position exposes the intersections of class, desire, and subaltern masculinity. By situating these portrayals within the broader socio-cultural context of Indian patriarchy, the paper demonstrates how Karnad subverts traditional gender hierarchies, revealing the inherent fragility and performative instability of masculine identity. The sacrificial motif serves as a critical framework through which the text dramatizes the tension between moral purity and masculine agency, illustrating how patriarchal systems ultimately destabilize the very identities they seek to uphold. The analysis concludes that Bali: The Sacrifice not only critiques the moral violence embedded in ritualistic orthodoxy but also redefines masculinity as a site of vulnerability and ethical self-interrogation rather than dominance and control.