Jimminy Crickets

I was reading over chapter 13 and I was stumbling through the allegorical intent of Rajam, so I decided to muse on this for a minute.
The chapter starts off with the affirmation of Rajam’s forgiveness of Swaminathan’s political sins. Rajam, the symbol of colonial power, is offended that his friend and subordinate had decided to take grievance against state and policy, or rather the school and the headmaster, into his own hands. Rajam’s father was a political servant, “and hence his family was anti-political”, so this act must have in some way been perceived as a disrespect to Rajam, for he, himself and his family has profited much off the colonial arrangement of India. Rajam’s family may not be the exact representation of British political authority but he certainly stands as a medium for it’s interaction with the Indian people. Swaminathan representing the average middle class citizen stands inbetween the influence of a presence like Rajam, the affluent and entitled, and Mani the strong and labor oriented individual. Rajam quips at Swami’s expense in regard to his new educational surroundings, comparing and remarking on his shift to the Board High School, with that of his previous stint at Albert’s Mission. In an interesting exchange Swaminathan, I believe, attempts to establish some sort of commonality between Rajam and a new friend Akbar in reference to their shared affluence, but tip toes around an issue of faith since Akbar is a muslim (or reffered to in the somewhat antiquated term of Mohammedan – I assert a “orientalist”/ or subtley chauvenist inspiration for this). But instead of Rajam finding a commonality with Swaminathan on the basis of faith, Rajam dismisses Swaminathans religious point.
“He is a very fine Mohammedan, calls Mohammed of Gazni and Aurangazeb rascals”
‘What makes you think they were that?’
“Didn’t they destroy our temples and torture the Hindus?...”
“We Brahmins deserve that and more’, said Rajam. ‘In our house my father does not care for New-Moon days and there are no annual Ceremonies for the dead.”
It seems to Rajam, or perhaps through metaphor to the colonial power structure, that Civics and Law are the determining factors for their idealized notion of commonality. It was political dissidence that separated Swaminathan and Rajam, but it seems that Rajam is stating that if it were religion or ethnicity perhaps that separation would not have occurred based solely on that. Religion, heritage, these things are useful when they denote power, but otherwise they are of little concern to Rajam’s family.
It seems interesting that immediately following this Rajam brings up the idea of starting a cricket team. The names and acronyms lend to a depiction of political parties and affiliations. Swaminathan says that he doesn’t think the can play cricket. Cricket a largely upper class game, is now being made available to Swaminathan. Political parties are instituted by powerful aristocratic families to give lay citizens and middle class practitioners a feeling of political involvement. The political party opens up the ‘playing field’ to the historically lower class, or at least relatively lower class individuals. I think it is poignant that Swaminathan has dreams of over taking the Board school team, or the St. Albert’s school team. Every political party wants to challenge the order of things, but as Rajam points out, the party or team has to register itself and pay taxes to the government in order to be allowed an existence. One has to pay the dues to the system in order to have a chance to change the system. This is what Rajam hands down to Swaminathan, as the aristocrats handed down to the colonized citizenry.