Literature and Diaspora

Dr.Itishri Sarangi
Assistant Professor(11)
KIIT University
Bhubaneswar

ABSTRACT

Quest for identity, nostalgia for the roots, sense of guilt have always been
there in the psyche of the writers. The diasporic writers often turn to their
homeland for various reasons like perpetual search for his/her roots or to
immortalize its history or to re-energize ones aching and longing soul or to
relive old memories etc. Their writings also initiate the emergence of a
new cultural synthesis having its own unique identity that could reflect both
not only the homeland but also the host land. The psychology of the writers
of the Indian Diaspora is predominantly saturated with the elements of
nostalgia as they seek to discover themselves in the ambience of new cultures.
They write in the backdrop of the cultural traits of their land of origin and at
the same time endeavor to fit themselves into the cultural space of the host
land. And such literature acts as a bridge across various cultures, paving way
for better understanding between different cultural regions, countries and also
renders an impetus for globalization.
Key words: motherland, migration, nostalgia, identity, diaspora

The psychology of the writers of the Indian Diaspora is predominantly saturated with
the elements of nostalgia as they seek to discover themselves in the ambience of new
cultures. They write in the backdrop of the cultural traits of their land of origin and at the
same time endeavor to fit themselves into the cultural space of the host land. And such
literature acts as a bridge across various cultures, paving way for better understanding
between different cultural regions, countries and also renders an impetus for globalization.
This movement tends to swing between locations and dislocations of different cultures
wherein individuals often relive their memories. These writers crown themselves on the
throne of the boundary of two countries creating various cultural theories.

The term ‘Diaspora’ is as such ambiguous and these diasporic writers are a sort of
representatives of a refugee and an ambassador wherein they sincerely attempt to do justice to
both. As a refugee, they seek security and protection and as an ambassador advocate for their
native culture and help enhance its comprehensibility. The insecurity of homelessness and the
protagonist’s desire to establish a self identity and be something on his/her own on the basis
of inherent talent is predominant in the writings of such creativity. “Migration always implies
change: the change involves the risk of losing one’s identity. Whilst the migration recognize
him/herself in his/her new image, the people around him/her do no accept his/her otherness.
Therefore, s/he is compelled to face everyday life through a continuous oscillation between
reality and dream” (Dwivedi 2)

Naipaul’s were Hindu Brahmins, back in India their ancestors were strict vegetarians
but their life style was transformed in the new found society. Chicken, fish etc found an easy
way to V. S. Naipaul’s menu. In the wardrobes of the females, skirts were replaced by sarees,
also the Indian languages vanished and V.S. Naipaul and his sibling could speak only english.
V.S. Naipaul’s novel A House for Mr. Biswas is the story of Mohan Biswas, an Indo-
Trinidadian whose sole aim in life is focused on owing a house of his own. The undercurrent
of the story reflects the aspirations of Naipaul’s father from a post-colonial perspective. The
Tulsi family symbolizes the Hindu immigrant’s way of life specifically in Trinidad’s
traditional society and in the Afro-Asian world as a whole. V. S. Naipaul’s characters, like
Mohan Biswas in A House for Mr. Biswas or Ganesh Ramsumair in The Mystic Masseur are
individuals who are generations away from their original homeland India, but their heritage
gives them a consciousness of their past. Naipaul’s characters are governed by nostalgia and
memories of the past associated with the land of migration. For them their homeland India is
more than a geographical portrayal of an imagination. Their predicament can be explained in
Rushdie’s words: “the past is a country from which we have all emigrated, that its loss is part
of our common humanity” (12)

Migration in Indian context is governed by various historical, political, economic

reasons including higher education, better earnings prospects and marriage. However, in the
storm of cultural and moral adversities the Indian community is acknowledged for a greater
sense of adjustments, adaptability, mobility and accessibility at the same time conscious
about saving the grace of their country which is clearly noticeable in Jhumpa Lahiri’s first
novel The Namesake (2003). It describes the struggles and hardships of a Bengali couple,
Ashok and Ashima who have migrated to the US and find themselves in a strange and
entirely different cultural and ideological ambience. Ashima gives birth to a child after going
through intense language and cultural barriers. The couple is not allowed to take their baby
home before giving a legal name to their son, in the process their attempts to adhere to their
Bengali cultural system of naming their child is lost. The circumstances force Ashok to
suggest the name Gogol which he proposes in honor of the famous Russian author to be the
baby’s nick which is eventually recorded in the birth certificate by the authorities that
becomes a cause for embarrassment for Gogol when he grows up since, despite of his
resentment and hatred for his name it becomes his identity and he has no other option but to
live with it. His father’s attempts to explain the significance of his name fail to convince the
adolescent mind. Gogol’s psych symbolizes the thinking process of most of the youth of
immigrant parentage, who are usually craze for the American traits of freedom and liberty
that tend to interpret the flamboyant aspects of the foreign culture to suit their intentions and
desires. He loves to identify himself as an American than a Bengali and indulges in smoking
cigarettes marijuana and sex which is obviously condemned by his parents leading to distance
and indifference between the two. The intricacies of emotional and cultural nuances caught
between diverse cultures with distinct socio-religious differences like Gogol’s interest to
marry an American girl Maxine is not approved by his mother resulting to a break up
followed by the materializing of her persuasions to marry a Bengali girl Moushami of her
choice has been handled by Jhumpa very convincingly. Finally with the marriage of
Mousami with her American boy friend Ben, Gogol is totally left alone. In the process of
retrospection he realizes and recalls his father’s words of the reason for choosing his name
which he repents for his immature reactions and gladly accepts his name and picks up the
collection of stories of the Russian author which his father has gifted on his birthday.

A famous American travelogue says of India, “India is the cradle of the human race,
the birth place of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend and great
grandmother of tradition.”(Alam blog) Practically speaking, diasporic literature is also
instrumental in creating good will, a cordial relationship and in spreading values, virtues and
universal peace and it serves as a link between India and the rest of the world. Unlike in the
past, today the Indian intellectuals and people all over the world are being enlightened by the
writers of the Indian diaspora like, V.S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Jhumpa Lahiri, Rohinton
Mistry, Bharati Mukherjee, Anita Deasai, M.G.Vassanji etc in rediscovering the diverse
cosmopolitan culture of India which was made possible by adopting the technique of re-
inventing India by depicting ancient legends, traditions, rituals, human values in a different
and distinct form dipped in the fragrance of nostalgia than portrayed by fellow novelists.
These writers have the advantage of looking at their homeland from a distance. The sense of
detached attachment enables them to have a clear perception of their mother land and appear
to discover their Indianness. This sense, help them to define and redefine India in a judicious
way.

In any case, displacement, willingly or unwillingly is in many ways is a cause for

struggle. But interestingly, such writers in their new place of struggle usually excel in their
work, may be the changed situations act as a stimulant to enhance their spiritual and
psychological spirit. These writings in dislocated circumstances are often termed as exile
literatures which include migrant writers and non-resident writers and even writers who roam
about for adventure and inspiration. The Indian diaspora has been formed by spreading and
moving out not by exodus of population at a given point of time. Sudesh Mishra in his essay
From Sugar to Masala divides the Indian diasporas into two categories -the old and the new.
He states: This distinction is between, on the one hand, the semi-voluntary flight of
indentured peasants to non-metropolitan plantation colonies such as Fiji, Trinidad, Mauritius,
South Africa, Malaysia, Surinam, and Guyana, roughly between the years 1830 and 1917;
and the other the late capital or postmodern dispersal of new migrants of all classes to
thriving metropolitan centres such as Australia, the United States, Canada, and Britain.
(Mishra 276) Especially after Indian independence the Indian diasporic community has
acquired a new identity due to the processes of self-fashioning and increasing acceptance by
the West. text written by an Indian residing in India, Kylas Chunder Dutt’s “imaginary
history” A Journal of Forty-Eight Hours of the Year 1945 published in 1835 (ref. Mehrotra
95).

The modern diasporic Indian writers can be classified into two groups, one those
who have spent a part of their life in India and then shifted to foreign lands. The second
group comprises of those who are born and brought up abroad. The former writers experience
literal displacement where as the later group find themselves rootless. However, both the
groups have created characters in their fictions exploring the themes of displacement and
self-fashioning in the back drop of the geo-political and social background of the Indian
subcontinent making it globally acceptable. Usually, the characters of diasporic Indian have
emotional connectivity with their own displaced community; however, some also have
fascination for Western characters which they have handled very convincingly. Like in two
of Vikram Seth’s novels The Golden Gate and An Equal Music have Americans and
Europeans respectively as their subjects. One of the earliest novels that has successfully
depicted diasporic Indian characters is Anita Desai’s Bye-Bye Blackbird. The novel is the
psychological analysis of the suffering of mixed feeling of love and hate of the immigrants
caused due to racial prejudice against the Indians in the UK in general. “Black Birds”
represent the immigrants who have come to forge a new identity in a foreign land to whom
London wants to get rid of by bidding bye-bye. Dev arrives at London to pursue higher
studies and stays with Adit Sen and his English wife Sarah. Due to adverse conditions he
drops the idea of studying and picks up a small job for survival in the unpleasant atmosphere
of racism. Despite of being humiliated in public and private and being called a “Wog” which
he hates still he is determined to stay. However, after coming in touch with the country side
there is transformation in his thinking process and his attitude is changed, he adapts himself
to the existing scenario in England. As regards Adit, he discovers “little India” in England.
Similarly, Bharati Mukherjee in her novel Wife and Jasmine explores the struggle of legal
and illegal immigrant Indians in the US prior to globalization. In the novel The Satanic
Verses, Saman Rushdie transforms Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha through the
technique of magical realism after their fall from the bursting jumbo jet on the English
Channel which symbolizes tailoring of self-style that immigrants do to suit their requirements
in their newly adopted country.

A pertinent point that needs to be taken to cognizance is that in the present day
cosmopolitan world one cannot live in isolation culturally or socially in any foreign country.
Now the concept of Colonial and post-colonial India have become a historian’s concern than
a littérateur’s because Indian-English literature has transcended the barriers and has become
almost part of mainstream English literature. By virtue of meaningful and thought provoking
contributions of Indian writers, like Rushdie and Naipaul a global manifestation has come
into existence and they have grown up to the stature of world citizens. Their concerns are
global like problems of immigrants, refugees, and all other exiles.

REFERENCE

1. Rushdie, Salman. “Imaginary Homelands” from Imaginary Homeland: Essays and

Criticism 1981-1991, London: Granta Books, 1991.

2. Mishra, Sudesh. “From Sugar to Masala”writings by Indian Diaspora from an

Illustrated History of Indian Literature in English, Ed. Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, New
Delhi: Permanent Black Publishers,2003

3. Mehrotra, Arvind Krishna (ed): An Illustrated History of Indian Literature in English.

New Delhi: Permanent Black Publisher, 2003.
4. Dwivedi, O. P. Literature of the Indian Diaspora, PencraftInternational, 2011.

5. Alam, Murshid. Diaspora with reference to the Indian English Literature. Sat,
30/03/2013

(bengalstudents.com/blogs/onlinerose/diaspora-literature-special)