The Diaspora Writes Home : Subcontinental Narratives

204 Pages·2017·2.576 MB·English

by  Jasbir Jain

Jasbir Jain
The Diaspora
Writes Home
Subcontinental Narratives
The Diaspora Writes Home
Jasbir Jain
The Diaspora Writes Home
Subcontinental Narratives
123
Jasbir Jain
Institute for Research in Interdisciplinary Studies
Jaipur,Rajasthan
India
ISBN978-981-10-4845-6 ISBN978-981-10-4846-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-4846-3
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For
Behn, Swarn Bedi
my eldest sister who gave so generously of
her love to all of us
Preface
Ihavebeenworkingonthesubjectofdiasporaformanyyears.Onecouldgoback
to the 1990s, the decade which witnessed a subtle change from expatriate to
diaspora, and accordingly move from the politics of exile to hyphenated identities
and‘translated’men.Duringthislongperiod,myrelationshipwiththediasporahas
gonethroughseveralphases,inevitablewhenonerealisesthattheinitialresponseis
to a work of literature; it is only later that one looks at the numerous locations,
politics and theories that surround it.
Over the years, one has had to consider the poetics and the aesthetics of the
diaspora, to debate its postcoloniality and to place its work alongside with those
writinginIndia,notonlyinEnglishbutinIndia’smanylanguages.Thequestionof
whatgoestomakeaclassichasalsoarisen.Further,howdowereadit,evaluateit
and judge it? Where does it belong—to ‘us’, whose countries it writes about
whether with love, disapproval or derision, or to ‘them’ who read it as represen-
tative of the home culture and literature? And what about language when the
dominantlanguagesubduesthedialogicityofthenativetongueleadingtoadilution
of cultural references?
The double location—one physical, the other of the mind—and the transcen-
dence of that distance raise many questions which cannot be answered by any
generalisation on account of the multiple differences that crowd diasporic writing.
The present work attempts to answer some of these, the essays herein focus on
questions related to representation and memory. The world ‘write’ has many
connotationsandtheChap.2,‘WritingHome’,dwellsonsomeofthem.Theactof
‘representation’,capturing the‘reality’ of themomentand reflecting it ina literary
artefact, brings in languages. I have no desire to credit either ‘representation’ or
‘reality’ with any fixed meaning. They are constantly evolving into new meanings
and have a tendency to be provocative through their rapid shifts. ‘Writing Home’
consists of memories from a distance and perspectives from the outside. Yet, no
cast-iron division can exist; the boundaries will collapse and merge. Literature
opens out and creates new contexts.
Someoftheseessayswerepresentedearlieratconferencesorpublishedasbook
chapters/journal articles: A version of ‘The New Parochialism’ was presented in a
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viii Preface
seminar at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi and first published in In Diaspora
edited by Makarand Paranjpe (New Delhi: Indialog, 2000), ‘Out of the Colonial
Cocoon?’inSouthAsianReview(Fall2003),‘FilmsoftheIndianDiaspora’inthe
bilingual—FrenchandEnglish—IndianCinemaeditedbyEmmanuelGrimandand
Kirstie Gormley, (Lyon, 2008), ‘Geographical Dislocations’ in Writers of the
IndianDiasporaeditedbyJasbirJain(Jaipur:Rawat,1998)and‘Mid-AirTragedy’
in Bharati Mukherjee edited by Somdatta Mandal (Delhi: Pencraft International,
2010).
Jaipur, India Jasbir Jain
Contents
1 Introduction: Multiple Locations... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 1
2 Writing Home . .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 9
3 The Burden of Culture.. ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 23
4 Geographical Dislocations and the Poetics of Exile. .... ..... .... 33
5 Memory and Reflection in the Writing of the Diaspora. ..... .... 43
6 Writing in One’s Own Language and the Grounds of Being.. .... 51
7 The New Parochialism .. ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 61
8 Out of the Colonial Cocoon? .. .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 71
9 Routes of Passage .. .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 83
10 A Bit of India . .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 91
11 In Search of Nationhood Across Borders .... .... .... ..... .... 105
12 Mid-Air Tragedy... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 115
13 Call of the Homeland ... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 127
14 Failed Hijrat? . .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 139
15 The Diaspora Zeroes in on the Borders.. .... .... .... ..... .... 151
16 The Children of Jahazi Bhai .. .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 161
17 To India with Love. .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 171
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x Contents
18 Cultural Interpretations/Representations in Film of the Indian
Diaspora.. .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 181
19 Overwriting Memory ... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 191
Index .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 203
About the Author
Jasbir Jain is the Honorary Director of the Institute for Research in
Interdisciplinary Studies (IRIS), Jaipur and was Sahitya Akademi Writer-in-
Residence (2009), and Emeritus Fellow (2001–2003) both, at the University of
Rajasthan. Recipient of several prestigious awards and fellowships, she is an
electedLifeMemberofClareHall,Cambridgeandhashadteachingassignmentsin
Europe and the United States. She is the author of Theorising Resistance:
NarrativesinHistoryandPolitics(2012);IndigenousRootsofFeminism:Culture,
SubjectivityandAgency(2011); BeyondPostcolonialism:DreamsandRealitiesof
aNation(2006);GenderedRealities,HumanSpaces(2003);amongseveralothers.
Her current interests are in theory and narratology and in exploring traditions.
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