Unit 20

Indian Diasporic Writing

Contents
20.1 Introduction
20.2 Diasporic Communities-Circumstances and Reasons for their
Formation
20.3 Diasporic Communities-Cultural ldentity Versus Cultural Assimilation
20.4 lndian Diasporic Communities - History and Evolution
20.5 Diasporic Writing as a Marker of Cultural ldentity
20.6 lndian Diasporic Writing
20.7 lndian Diasporic Novel i n Canada - a Case Study
20.8 Conclusion
20.9 Further Reading
Learning Objectives
After going through this unit, you will be able to understand:
The meaning and usage of the term diaspora literature;
a The characteristics of diaspora literature attd related terms;
The circumstances for the formation of diasporic communities;
lndian diasporic community in Canada;
The diasporic writing as cultural identity marker; and
lndian Diasporic Novel writing in Canada.

20.1 lntroduction
By now it is well known that diaspora is a term that was applied originally
to denote groups of people of Jewish origin who were ousted from and
scattered beyond the bounds of their homeland. It thus came to be associated
with relocation through force. However, after going through various
mutations, it now stands for relocation of groups of people or members of
communities from one nation to another'and not necessarily through the
application of force. The other three more common terms that are used to
denote a similar situation are 'expatriate', 'immigration' and 'exile'. I t
may be of interest to mention here that some scholars have begun to use
a term 'internal diaspora' to denote similar relocation within the geographical
bounds of a nation. However, the concept of diaspora is still associated with
transnational relocation. In this unit we will discuss the imagery of the
lndian diaspora i n literalure.

20.2 Diasporic Communities-Circumstances and

Reasons for their Formation
While Jews were allegedly forced to relocate or were subjected to a 'push',
modern sociologists consider either 'pull' or 'push' factors or both to be
responsible for the creation of diasporic situations, that is to say,
circumstames under which people relocate themselves. These 'pull' factors
are generally economic i n nature that is prospects of better paid jobs or
more lucrative businesses, etc., lure people to relocate themselves. However, Indian Dias~odcWriting
groups of people and chunks of communities also move from one national
location to another because of better living conditions including better
socio-cultural life or more tolerant political systems. Cdnada, for instance,
has been considered one such destination for people from outside. The
'push' factors include adverse economic circumstances, that is, lack of
appropriate job opportunities or absence of favourable conditions for carrying
out business activities. 'Push' factors also included hostile or unstable
socio-political conditions i n general or for specific groups of people or
members of particular communities that may also mean violation of their
human rights or even threats to their persons and property. Groups of
peopCe in significant numbers from African and Asian countries ruled by
dictators and military juntas have moved or have been forced to move to
either Europe or North America for such reasons.

Reference to the Jewish community's dispersal also shows the antiquity of

the phenomenon of diaspora, that is, people travelling away from home
and settling among people with widely different cultural profiles. In our
own parts, the existence of the ancient Silk Route i s one such evidence. In
fact, Buddhism traveled from India to the Far East and South East Asia
because of diasporic situations However, the biggest diasporic situation in
modern times-perhaps of all times-as also the most shameful situation
was created when very large sections of population from different parts of
Africa were removed forcibly to develop the Americas for their European
colonial masters.

20.3 Diasporic Communities-Cultural ldentity

Versus Cultural Assimilation
ldentity formation, we know, is a very complex phenomenon. Some identity
markers are given biologically, that i s these are racial and ethnic in character:
pigmentation, colour of eyes, texture of hair and shapes of noses. Thus fair
skins, blue eyes, curly hair and small flat noses are connected with various
races and ethnic groups. Running into individual members of ethinic groups
through the operation of complex genetic processes, these are the most
stable of identity markers and consequentl~mostdifficult to shed or change
individually or communally, especially in diasporic situations. Also, these
come to be stereotyped negatively. For instance, women with natural blonde
hair have been associated with dumbness-most unfairly, of course. However,
the most unjustified stereotyping with tragic consequences has been the
case of associating dark pigmentation with 'natural' inferiority of mind and
human values.

Some other identity markers are gifts of the environment to members of

particular communities. Innuits, for instance, unlike their other fellow
Canadians, can reportedly divide the pehenomenon of snowing into at least
six distinct categories primarily because snow is what they have all around
them-all the time. Members of the Marwari community, originating in the
desert of Rajasthan where adverse environmental conditions and lack of
means of transportation made them more than optimal users of limited
resources are known the world over-and they form diasporic communities
i n many parts of the world-for their penchant for building huge business
empires out of very small beginnings.

It was these environmentally bestowed identity markers that, for instance,

made the Canadian Government to encourage Hungarian farming community
lndiaandlndian Diaspora: to migrate to the mid-west when they were developing the Prairies into
Images and Perceptions their granaries. Again, while developing the rail-road projects and the
lumber industry on the Pacific coast in the west, the Canadian government
encouraged migration from Punjab whose people were not only strongly
built but were also known from their physical prowess to work hard under
adverse conditions.

Most numerous-and most significant, perhaps-are the identity markers

that are cultural i n character. These involve language and religious beliefs,
customs and rituals, forms of address and modes of inter-personal behaviour,
dress codes and food habits, form and content of education, songs and
stories, symbols and icons, myths and legends, practices for preserving
history and tradition and many similar phenomena. Add to these, modes of
production, economic, political and societal organization, professional and
philosophical preferences and we have the complete cultural identity map
of communities and individuals. However, this category of identity markers
i s relatively unstable and it is the members from this category that come
under various degrees and kinds of pressure for change i n changing situations.
As societies change and evolve, cultural tokens also change. However, such
changes take place at different paces among various sections of a society
and when such difference i s perceptible i n a significant way we also term
it as 'generation gapJ.

This fluidity i n cultural situation i s more significantly pronounced in diasporic

situations where not just two phases of evolution of the same culture but
two different cultures-if not more-are i n contestation. The cultural space
that emerges out of such a contest i s a hybrid space wherein new patterns
of socio-cultural behaviour emerge that are, at different times, pastiche,
marginally assimilated or significantly integrated, to name only a few. We
shall speak about this space in more details i n a later section of this Unit.

20.4 lndian Diasporic Communities-History and

Evolution
Many lndian myths and legends warn people against crossing the seas to
travel abroad. Going beyond the 'Kala Pani'-black waters-was considered
sinful for the soul. And yet, Indians have been traveling and settling abroad
i n groups for long. However, i n modern'times, most of such settling abroad
happened during the nineteenth century when the British colonial
administration sent groups of Indians to work i n other British colonies as
indentured labour. This is how lndian diasporas came to be formed, for
instance, in Mauritius, East Africa, South Africa, Malaysia and Sri Lanka i n
the lndian Ocean region, Fiji in the Pacific Ocean region and Trinidad,
Guyana, Jamaica and Surinam in the Caribbean Sea region.

For various reasons ranging from economic to political, the British colonial
administration did not want to employ local population either on the
plantations or on development projects. lndian labour was one of the
alternatives that the British employed. This could be construed as the 'pull'
factor. Also, the British colonial rule i n India had created what R.K.Jain
calls, 'severe economic and social disturbances'. This was the 'push' factor.
Thus, development of the economies of the colonies created employment
opportunities abroad for groups of people belonging to either a community
or a region. This i s how people from Panjab, Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Western
Bihar, Gujrat, Sindh and Tamil Nadu came to form diasporic communities in
some of the countries named above.
 Such emigration, however, was organized i n various ways. Two main types Indian Diasporic Writing
are distinctly visible. One was the indentured labour system under which
Emigration Agents, subagents and recruiters at different levels identified
workers who under an agreement volunteered to work for a particular
employer for, initially, a period of five years after which he could, i f he so
desired, switch to another employment. It was only after ten years of work
i n that particular colony that the person was eligible for partial return
passage expenses. Those who went to East Africa, South Africa, Mauritius,
Trinidad, Guyana and Surinam were recruited under this system. Most of
such people did not choose to return after the completion of their indenture
contract and settled down i n those colonies, finding alternate employment
on their own initiative or setting up small business enterprises.

Groups of labourers who went to work on the tea and rubber plantations
in Malaysia or Sri Lanka were recruited under a different system that came
to be known as the 'Kangani' system. Under this system, migrants were
recruited by headmen who were known as 'Kangani'. Each Kangani, R.K.Jain
tells us, recruited 'a score or more of men belonging mainly to his own
caste and kin group. Sometimes, many such groups of recruited persons
combined under a leader who was designated 'head Kangani'. It was Kangani
who negotiated the deals, lent money for passage and other expenses to
the recruited labourers and managed them. Since the workers under this
system went to neighbouring Sri Lanka and Malaysia, they continued to be
i n touch with their families by returning home every couple of years. As a
result, most of them could never be absorbed fully ihto the recipient
societies.

Yet another form of group migration was through what may be termed as
'free emigration', also known as 'passenger Indians'. These were generally
skilled labourers or petty entrepreneurs who came to explore the possibilities
thrown open by development of these colonies. A number of Gujarati
'dukawallas' i n Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in East Africa, some groups of
people in South Africa towards the end of Nineteenth century and more
recent migrations since the beginning of the Twentieth century to Canada,
I
United States of America, the United Kingdom and s t i l l more recently
migration to the Middle East came under this form of migration. I t may be
significant to observe here that i n the beginning invariably and i n most
cases even later, the workers were not allowed to either bring their families
with them or send for them later.
I

Again, since most of the migrations under one form or another were never
well-thought out and planned and were necessitated by either socio-economic
I
disintegration back home or were prompted by lure of the lucre, the groups
of people did not try to make the necessary adjustments i n their socio-
i cultural world view. As it is, most of them treated these locations abroad
as purely temporary and time-bound. As a result, their continued practice
of the cultural patterns and values brought by them from the donor society
back home and reluctance to imbibe new ones from the recipient society,
created conflictual situations alienating them further from the host people.
Most diasporic formations of Indians therefore became janusfaced from the
very beginning, stranded as it were on a no-man's land between the two
nation states, two societies.

Identity markers or cultural tokens, particularly those bestowed at birth

and those acquired as culturally are the sites on which battles for new
identity are fought i n diasporic situations. Ethnic identity markers of
immigrants cannot be got rid of and host societies accept them although
India and lndian Diaspora: with a lot of reservations and at times these are derided, ridiculed and
Images and even subjected to hostile behaviour, particularly verbals. The term 'Paki'
i n England for persons of not just Pakistan but of South Asian origin has i t s
roots i n such behaviour. Similarly, the expression 'Calcutta Coolies' for
persons of lndian origin i n British Columbia, Canada at the turn of the last
century was also an example of such hostility towards ethnic identity tokens,
although, interestingly, the immigrants were not from Calcutta. And they
were no coolies either. The host or recipient societies however put pressure
on diasporic communities to shed as many as possible i f not all cultural
tokens of their past identities and acquire as quickly as possible the new
tokens of cultural identity. Thus, there i s pressure on groups of immigrants
as also on individual members to shed their languages, customs and rituals,
religious beliefs, health and hygiene, dress codes, food habits and forms of
inter-personal behaviour. Some of these, the diasporic people give up
voluntarily and easily- i n visible public behaviour at least-in order to show
their willingness to assimilate with the recipient society. For instance,
immigrants are ready to learn not only the language of the hosts but also
their peculiar accent. Indians trying to imitate American accent-what with
a nasal twang-after relocating themselves there or the lndians i n Australia
t v i n g to pronounce their diphthongs appropriately are instances of such
volurltafy attempts at linguistic assimilation. Similarly, lndian immigrant
women give up wearing sarees or Salwar-Kameez, and taking to western
dresses and other forms of formal wear are attempts i n the same direction
of acquiring tokens of their newly acquired identities. Gujrati 'dukawallas'
i n East Africa welcoming their customers with 'Jambo' and 'Karibu Sana'
are only flaunting their newly acquired cultural currency.

However, there are some tokens that the immigrants want to hold on to as
long as possible and are unwilling to shed easily. The Sikhs not willing tt,
give up wearing turbans, or the Hindus not willing to shed their inhibition
of eating beef or the Jews their kosher are examples of such reluctance to
assimilate fully. Again, immigrants from the sub-continent not permitting
their girls to go on dates or to have physical relationships with their boy
friends before marriage are forms of behaviour that they are unwilling to
adopt primarily because these are not part of the socio-cultural code that
they have brought with them from back home.

A situation, therefore, emerges in almost all diasporas- particularly i n those

with more pronounced cultural distance- wherein a serious contestation
takes place on the sites of cultural identity and assimilation. And this
situation of riding two cultures simultaneously leads to schism and bi-
polarity of behaviour on the part of not only individuals but also groups and
communities i n the host society that i n i t s extreme form, at times, causes
societal instability and disorders.

Diasporic writing, we shall elaborate i n another section below, draws i t s

sustenance from this situation of cultural contestation and the process of
assimilation.

20.5 Diasporic Writing as a Marker of Cultural

Identity
The diasporic cultural space that we spoke about in an earlier section i s thc
cultural space that immigrants occupy almost perpetually since assimilatior
i s an ongoing process and no full assimilation ever takes place. Again, a!
statedxabove, it i s a space where a contestation i s constantly taking place-
a contestation between the donor culture and the recipient culture. Thi:
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 I contest takes place first i n the minds of immigrant individuals and lndfan Dluporlc
communities and later in their actions. While the former, namely, the donor
culture tries to pull the members to their moorings as far as possible and
I
as long as possible, the latter, that is, the recipient culture tries to oust
and replace the former as much as possible and as quickly as possible. As
a result, while trying to make necessary adjustments i n this state of
contestation between the two contending cultures, diasporic communities
or individuals become janus-faced--now looking back, now the gaze fixed
straight ahead. In situations of severe contestation, extreme states of conflict
emerge, turning individuals as well as communities into cultural
schizophrenics, victims of maladjustment, .haunted by, as it were, Hamlet's
dilemma-to be or not to be.

Writing is rooted in a culture. That is, writers are products of a specific

culture, drawing sustenance from it and enriching it i n turn. However, the
world of diasporic writing belongs to the in-between space we spoke about
above, the cultural no-man's land, the site at which cultural armies from
a community's past and present clash by day and by night to vanquish each
other. Since, it i s believed, that creativity lies in states of fluidity, contest,
conflict and instablility, diasporic writers seek this space, locating most @a

their writings here where immigrants are trying to ride two horses
simultaneously who more often than not are also pulling them i s two
different if not opposite directions. The discomfiture and the adventure
that results therefrom i s what diasporic or immigrant writers relish: From
Naipaul to Rushdie, Mistry to Vassanji, immigrant'writers across various
locations and times have woven their tapestries from these two-tone yarns
and textures.

Reflection and Action 20.1

What is cultural assimilation? How does it affect identity markers of
individuals in disaporic situations?

ln this space lies buried a double treasure trove-of myths and Legends, or
orality and the written word, of rites and rituals, of songs and dances, of
faith and belief, of philosophy and pragmatism, of memory and amnesia,
of success and failures, of tears and smiles. In short, the lived experience
--of not one but two communities.

1 20.6 Indian Diasporic Writing

As stated above, most of those who went out to form the first diaspora
were members of the wdirking class or the farming community. Most of
them were illiterate. Thus all the Legends, myths and folk narratives they
carried with them to their new lands were primary oral in nature. And it
i s to this repertoire that they added when they composed songs and poems,
tales and stories, skits and plays while reflecting their new socio-cultural
i
reality and sharing with one another. Some-very few though-could read
and write and these acted as communicators between the members of the
community and their families back home. In the letters they wrote on their
own or their colleagues' behalf in which 'narrated' the details of their new
lives-the living and working conditions, the weather and climatic conditions,
II
I the flora and the fauna, the food and the drink, the dress and the dress
I code, the law and governance, the hosts and hostility, the other 'others'
and the solidarity and a myriad other things. And while narrating all these,
1 the 'writer' took care of the sentiments of the one on whose behalf he was

I
I
communicating. May be the person did not want him to alarm his people
back home by telling the truth about the working and service conditions
India and lndian Diaspora: which were pnerally harsh and adverse. May be, he did not also want
linages and Perceptions to talk about extreme climatic conditions that only added to their misery.
May be they did not want to say anything about the discrimination and
injustices meted out to them by their employers and the society at large.
So he asked his 'amanuensis' to make necessary adjustments. Again, may
be he wanted the 'writer' to embellish some of the description, particutarly
those involving his performance, etc. So, the communicatians sent home
were essentially 'f acts'-with something added here and something
subtracted there. But then this i s precisely what literature i s all about-
facts with a few plusses and minuses here and there. Thus, i n this
communication sent to their families by the diasporic persons laid the
seeds of literature. Similarly, in the songs and poems they'composed and
sang, the stories they narrated of their various experiences, they
exaggerated or underplayed 'facts'. This was literature i n i t s nascent
form. These were the beginnings of lndian diasporic writings in its
infancy. This was so in East Africa, this was so in Mauritius, this was so
Fiji, this was so in Trinidad, Guyana and Jamaica and this was so in
Malaysia and Sri Lanka. The precise conditions and circumstances could
vary, the linguistic and cultural expressions could vary but the manner in
which lndian diasporic writings from various locations came to be was
more or less the same.

Later, when subsequent groups of lndian immigrants arrived on these or

other locations, particularly those with professional skills, they built on this
tradition. Since they were literate and many of them highly educated,
they wrote rather than narrating orally. They not only composed but also
published. While some did it along with the pursuit of their professions,
other made this-writing-their profession. In course of time, fairly stable
body of such writings began to cris cross the global literary stage from
various locations and some of these writers began to be noticed, read,
evaluated and awarded. Soon, some of them became househo1.d names:
Salman Rushdie, V.S. Naipaul, Rohinton Mistry, M.G. Vassanji, Bharati
Mukherji, Fa~idaKarodia, Anita Desai, K.S. Maniam and Jhumpa Lahiri
to name some.

lndian diasporicwritings in Canada began much in the same way as they

began elsewhere. To understand i t s origin and evolution, therefore, we
should first get some idea about the lndian immigrant community in
Canada-when and how did it begin, who were i t s founding members,
with what hopes and dreams did they arrive there and how did evolve
to what they are today.
The lndian immigrants began to arrive on the Pacific coast of Canada
towards the beginning of the twentieth century when Canada needed large
scale human inputs for their lc~mberindustry, railroad projects and jungle
clearing operations as a part of their expansion to the west. Having
disallowed-through various laws-the Chinese immigrants who were working
on these projects earlier, the Canadian companies encouraged Indians-
particularly strong, burly Sikhs from Panjab-to migrate and work in parts
of British Columbia. Sensing this as an economic opportunity, lndian
immigrants started arriving, from 1905 onwards, in batches-big and small--
travelling first zfrom Panjab to Calcutta by train, then from Calcutta to Hong
Kong by small ships and finally from Hong Kong to Vancouver by CPR ships.
Most of them found employment in saw mills, road building, woodcutting
and land clearing. By 2006, their number had swelled to over 2000. It i s at
this point that they began to attract the attention of the Local Canadians i n
the same manner in which the Chinese immigrants had begun to attract
attention earlier. The lndian immigrants were now perceived to be taking
 away jobs from the Canadians and they were perceived t o be 'polluting' lndian!Diasporic Writing
their culture and society with their 'filthy' habits and practices. Thus the
sense of alienation that any group of people feel on moving away from
home became manifold more because of harsher climatic conditions and
hostile behaviour of the local people. They were intrigued by the all this
because they considered themselves t o 'loyal royal subjects' and expected
1
t o be treated well i n all British territories. Their sense of intrigue turned
to hostility when the Canadian government, under pressure from the Canadian
people, created laws and regulations that discouraged lndians from migrating
t o Canada for employment. For instance, a condition of personal possession
of two hundred dollars was imposed on each arriving passenger and, more
importantly, the passenger had t o undertake a 'continuous passage' from
the port of embarkation to the port of final destination without any break
en route. This was virtually impossible since there were no direct ships
plying between lndia and Canada.

When the Komagata Maru incident happened i n May 1914, when a ship with
that name, carrying over 300 passengers fulfilling all conditions including
I
that of 'continuous passage' was not allowed to dock and the passengers
were not allowed to disembark-they were not allowed even food and
water- despite the fact that there were women and children on board-the
I
loyalty of the lndian immigrants 'slipped away with the slipping away of the
ship from Canadian waters'. The immigrants realized that their maltreatment
would end only i f lndia were free. So, they began to support the National
Freedom Struggle through the Ghadr Movement that was already very active
across the border i n the United States of America. They collected funds,
organized meetings and above all brought out a number of publications t o
I support the movement. The Free Hindustan started coming out i n 1908
from Vancouver, edited by Tarak Nath. In 1909, The Hindustan Association
was formed. In 1910, Swadesh Sewak began t o published in Gurumukhi.ln
1911, the publication of The Aryan started. Movements were launched
against the banning of lndian immigration and for allowing the families of
1
the immigrants t o be allowed t o join them. This only aggravated the racial
hostility against Indians who were dubbed as 'polygamous Hindus' and
'Calcutta Coolies'. The Komagata Maru incident ended i n a tragedy with the
death of a child passenger, the others returning, the killing of Inspector
Hopkins by Mewa Singh who was subsequently captured and hanged. As the
first World War loomed large over the horizon, the Canadian government
came down heavily on the supporters of the Ghadr Movement who were
now scattered t o various parts of North America. However, the struggle by
the lndian immigrants continued after the first World War and right through
the second World War. Particular focus was on the restoration of the franchise
t o vote that had been taken away from them i n 1907. I t was restored only
i n 1948 when Prime Minister Nehru intervened after lndia had become free.

Reflection and Action 20.2

In what way i s diasporic writing an identity marker for a community?

After the war, many regulations that were considered discriminatory were
repealed i n deference t o the UN Charter. Also, Canada needed huge inputs
of human resources for its economic development that was put so succinctly
by John Diefenbaker, the then Prime Minister i n 1957-'Populate or Perish'.
So under various criteria of 'employbility', 'dependent relatives', etc.,
more lndian immigrants were allowed. Thus the number of lndian diasporic
people i n Canada rose from 6,774 i n 1961 to 68,000 i n 1971 and 1,18,000
i n 1976. Also, during this time people of lndian origin came t o Canada not
only from India directly but also from East and South Africa, the Caribbean 97
lndia and lndian Diaspora: Islands, Fiji i n the Pacific and from South and East Asia. Thus i n the 1991
Images and Perceptions census i n Canada, as many as 500,000 persons traced their origins to India.
A large number of these were independent professional whose profiles were
very different from those founding fathers of the lndian diaspora i n Canada,
most of whom were illiterate and who came to work as unskilled labourers.
It i s around these latter group of lndian immigrants that the seeds of lndian
Canadian writing were sown. Here below, we study briefly the development
of lndian diasporic novel i n Canada as a case study.

20.7 lndian Diasporic Novel in Canada-a Case

Study
As stated above, lndian immigration to Canada took place over a long
period of time beginning with the first decade of twentieth century and
these groups of immigrants came from various strata of the lndian society.
While early immigrants were uneducated, those who migrated between
1947 and 1970 and even later were not only well educated, they were also
professional. Again, While many of them migrated directly from lndia directly
to Canada, many others came from East and South Africa where they or
their families had settled earher migrating from different parts of India.
Similarly, others came via the Caribbean Islands-Trinidad, Jamaica or Guyana
where their parqnts or grandparents had been taken as indentured labour
for developing the British colonies.
All these factors made the assimilation of lndian immigrant community into
the Canadian mainstream a very complex affair. And i f this were not enough,
many of these victims had been victims of political vendetta elsewhere-
the Kenyans, the Tanzanians, the Ugandans, the Trinidadians the Jamaicans
and the Guyanese, for instance-and hence their motivations for irr~migration
were quite different from others most of whom came i n search of better
economic prospects. Again, most of those named above as the victims of
political upheavals had been displaced twice-once having migrated of their
own volition and a second time having been forced out. As such, their
mindsets and approach towards assimilation were quite different from those
who had not been subjected to political prejudice as yet.
And then there was the question of their cultural baggage that have been
described by M.G. Vassanji with that most appropriate metaphor-the gunny
sack. Each group of migrants brought in his gunny sack a whole set of
cultural artifacts that ranged from religious and community beliefs, customs
and rituals, myths and legends, songs and dances, fables and folk tales,
intra-family and inter-personal behaviour, food and dress codes. But above
all these, the most unique feature of caste hierarchies.
All these complexities with their concomitant tensions-psychological,
physical, financial-of adjustment and assimilation i n an alien cultural
environment that had racial discrimination writ large all over it, i s captured
very significantly by writers of the lndian diaspora in their poems and
plays-and more importantly because of the discursive nature of the genre-
i n their stories and novels. Moyez Vassanji, Rohinton Mistry, Reshard Gul,
Cyril Dabydeen, Farida Karodiya, Lakshmi Gill, Uma Parameswaran, and
many more have all focused on-directly or indirectly-the new culture of
adoption by the immigrants together with their fear of losing the cultural
identity that they had brought with them. Thus they all were-in their
stories and novels-writing through their race. Thus, they invoked in their
writings, their ethnicity, the myths and legends, customs and rituals, <he
interpersonal behaviour and idiosyncrasies of the country of their origin
together with that of the nation of their first immigration.
With this kind of focus of their writings these first generation writers of the lndian Diasporic Writing
Indian-Canadian diaspora were exposing themselves to the charge of
exclusionist ghettoisation and letting their work be pushed to the margins.
However, through this, they were also redressing the imbalance of Canadian
writing being primarily European and white i n its content, form and
worldview. By bringing in their own cultural identity, they were in a way
questioning the underlying philosophy behind the official policy of
multiculturalism which was i n itself an attempt to compartmentalize the
society. Thus it may not be outrageous to observe that lndian immigrant
writing in Canada was, irrespective of the content and form, a political
activity in the same way as women, aborigines, gays and lesbians around
the globe and in our own case by Dalits and tribals have been making
political statements by their very acts of writing.

lndian immigrant writing in Canada did not actually make a beginning until
1950 and it was only in the 70s of the last century that it was identifiable
although it was recognized as a part of a portmanteau category-South
Asian Literature in Canada. The Label itself was politically motivated by
lumping together writings by authors belonging to not only half a dozen
nations of South Asia but also by extension of another dozen nations of
Africa and the Caribbean islands wherefrom some of these writers of South
Asian origin had migrated to Canada.

Between 1962 and 1982 as many as 102 writers from this category had
published 196 books. But most of these were one book writers. 1982 was
a watershed year for Canadian writers tracing their origin to India. In that
year, M.G.Vassanji started a journal-Toronto South Asian Review, TSAR in
short-to publish the writings by authors of South Asian origin who were
facing publication discrimination by so-called mainstream journals and
magazines. It is interesting to note here that most of the better known
lndian immigrant writers of Canada, including Vassanji and Mistry were first
published in TSAR. Since then, not only has the number of publications
more than trebled, the quality of writings has improved, forcing better
recognition.

Rohinton Mistry i s perhaps most visible among the lndian immigrant novelists
of Canada. With books like Such a Long Journey, A Fine Balance. Family
Matters and Tales from Ferozsha Baag. Mistry focusses his authorial gaze
primarily on his own community, namely, the Parsis. Mistry has made lndian
socio-political reality the basis of most of his books. His books also bring
out the tragic dilemma of the Parsis, namely a very small community whose
demographic profile i s in a negative growth mode, acting extremely
conservative when it comes to recognizing marriages made outside their
religious confines. This Mistry shows to be in sharp contrast with their
otherwise very modernist outlook.

M.G.Vassanji, i s one of the most publicly acknowledged Canadian writer

who belongs to the lndian immigrant community. With two Giller awards,
he i s amongs the most highly recognized writers of Canada. In fact, almost
all his books-The Gunny Sack, No New Land, Uhuru Street, The Book of
Secrets, AMRiiKA and The In Between World of Vikram Lull-have won one
or another award.

Like Mistry-or any other diasporic writer-Vassanji also focuses on his own
community-lsmailis who are portrayed as Shamsis i n his books- that traces
its origin to Gujarat on the Western Coast of India and a large section of
which migrated to the East Coast of Africa in nineteenth century to form
India and Indian Diaspora: a substantial lndian diasporic community in Kenya, U~andaand Tanzania
Images and from where they moved on to Europe and North America including Canada
i n the latter half of the twentieth century. Vassanji himself came to Canada
from Tanzania via the United States of America in the seventies.

Another significant novelist-his numerical contribution however i s confined

to just two books, one a novel and another a collection of short stories-
i s S.S.Dhami who in his novel, Maluka, has very vividly and significantly
portrayed the formation of the lndian diasporic community in British Coumbia
i n the beginning of the twentieth century. Maluka is perhaps the only novel
that focuses in such great details on the travails and triumphs, the failures
and the successes of the early immigrants-those burly Sikhs from Panjab-
who with their tenacity and perseverance overcame stark racial prejudice
and appall.ing working and service conditions.

Cyril Dabydeen came to Canada from Guyana in the Caribbean Islands

where his ancestors had been moved as indentured labour by the British i n
nineteenth century from parts of Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. It i s this
experience of the Indians in Guyana that Dabydeen makes the subject of
his novels and short story collections, which include The Wizard Swami,
Dark Swirl, Jogging in Havana and Elephants Make Good Stepladders.

Reflection and Action 20.3

Write an essay on the lndian diasporic novel in Canada.

Other lndian immigrant novelists include Ashis Gupta, Rewat Deonanadan,

Neil Bisoondath, Arnold Harichand Itwaru, Saros Kawosjee and B. Rajan.

Immigrant women novelists of lndian origin were late arrivers but have
since contributed significantly to the lndian immigrant novel in Canada.
Prominent among those are Anita Rao Badami, Lakshmi Gill, Uma
Parmeswaran, Hiro Boga Ramabai Espinet and Nalini Warrior. Besides them,
those who have focused on short story are Himani Banerji, Arun Prabha
Mukherjee and Surjeet Kalsey.

Despite the myriad variations of religion, caste, language, region, educational

and economic profiles as also the routes taken by members of Canadian
lndian diasporic community, the writings about them by members of their
own immigrant community portray them In the context of problematics of
nation, home, homelessness, home beyond home, self, identity, integration
and assimilation. In this too, the members of various groups show the same
kind of variation as i s visible in their socio-cultural profiles. It i s this
difference in their mindsets and responses that demarcate-at times-one
novelist's worldview from another. Again, while nostalgia, memory, amnesia
and lived experience are the sites on which some of these contestations are
carried out, various writers show varied approaches here too.

20.8 Conclusion
Diasporic experience i s basically about 'home' and 'world' where home
stands for the culture of one's origin and world refers to the culture of
adoption. Sometimes the concept of home i s equated with that of the
nation one is born into and world as the nations one immigrates into or
exiles one into. Because of this sense of 'exile', an alternative term used
for diasporic experience i s 'homelessness', a term that was popularized by
Said but that i s also a favourite of a writer like V.S.Naipaul. Homi Bhabha
would explain this experience in terms of what he calls 'gathering'-
 "gathering of exiles and emigres and refugees, gathering on the edge of Indian Dasporic Writing
'foreign' cultures, gathering at frontiers; gathering i n the ghettoes or
cafes of city centres" as would he put it. Rushdie, on the other hand,
would turn home into 'imaginary homelands' and liken them to broken
mirrors some pieces of which are lost irretrievably. However, the picture
that emerges out of the broken mirror-that is to say, the diasporic
experience-may be different from the one reflected by a mirror that is
whole but it is no less significant. It contiains images of not only the donor
culture but of the host society as well. M.G. Vassanji would find a parallel
for the diasporic experience in a jigsaw puzzle some of whose pieces are
again lost like the pieces of Rushdie's mirror. For Vassanji, the creativity
of a diaspbric writer lies in supplying those missing pieces with the help
of his imagination and the resultant history would be what he calls
'imagined history'. Abdul an Mohammed describes immigrant's experience
I to be that of a 'border intellectual'-either 'specular' or 'syncretic'-the
first refers to an experience wherein an immigrant is not able to adjust
both to 'home' and 'world' simultaneously whereas syncretic refers to an
experience wherein an expatriate is able to reach out to both cultures-
the donor and the recipient-simultaneously.

20.9 Further Reading

Bhabha, Homi, 1994. The Location of Culture, Routledge: London

Jain, R.K and Jasbir (eds.), 1998. Writers of the Indian Diaspora.
Jasbir(ed.). Rawat Pub1ications:Jaipur

Narang, Harish. 2002. "Piya Gaye Rangoon: Inheritance and Ideology in

Diaspora Women's Writing." In Gender and Narrative. Rawat Publications:
Jaipur