The Word 'Diaspora' Has Been Taken from Greek Meaning 'To Disperse'

Indo-anglian Diaspora Writers

Arti Gupta Ph.D. Scholar Jharkhand Rai University Ranchi India Abstract In today‟s world Short Stories are widely accepted among the readers as they are read in one sitting .Besides entertaining, they are the simplest way of communicating the way of life. Indo-Anglian short stories are exceptionally rich and varied in content. The writers of the genre through their literary contributions have greatly enriched the English Literature. Revolution caused by printing, population explosion, literacy and the development of modern mass media of communication added to its scope. Owing to such developments this fiction has taken a U-turn in the recent years. New attitudes have been struck, new areas of experience have been exposed. A greater awareness of values in the context of increased westernisation and urbanisation in republic India and freedom from sentiment seem to distinguish the new writing. There, emerged hence the diaspora writers of Indian origin. Today people all over the world are being nourished by the writres of the Indian Diaspora and contempraneity namely- V.S.Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Chetan Bhagat, Jhumpa Lahiri etc.

Diaspora is a journey towards seif-realization, self-recognition, self-knowledge and self- definition. The diasporic literature has helped in providing a link between India and the rest of the world.that enhanced tremendous seif-confidence with a combative spirit, by spreading values, virtues and universal peace. Perhaps, this helps in understanding various cultures, breaking the barriers between different countries, The word „diaspora‟ has been taken from Greek meaning „to disperse‟. It may be defined as the voluntary or forcible movement of people from their homelands into new regions. However, the diaspora writers are those writers whose parents migrated to foreign lands and took nationality there. According to Stephen Gill, the renowned diaspora writer of Indian origin in Canada, the term diaspora includes,

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“the elements of alienation, loss forced migration, memories of the past and a dream to return to the land of birth. It may include also the unwilling acceptance of the host country.”(1) Conceptualising the history of mankind, the diaspora emerged in several nations as ethnic groups dispersed to other countries; like Jews left ancient Palestine, others hail from Africa and Armenia. The India diaspora started mainly after the British made her a part of the Empire. Indians were forcibly moved as indentured labour to Fiji, Mauritius, Guyana, Trinidad, Malaysia and other parts of the empire. A key characteristic of the diaspora is that- a strong sense of connection to a homeland is maintained through cultural practices and ways of life. Eventually, the migrant diasporas and their descendents experience displacement, fragmentation, marginalization, alienation, loss of identity and discontinuity in the cultural discourse of the subject countries. Moreover, a common characteristic of nostalgia about the native country is a powerful element of India diaspora literature, V.S. Naipaul- a versatile Indian diaspora writer from Trinidad and Tobago is a Nobel Prize Laureate and a Booker Prize winner. „The Mystic Masseur‟ won the Mail on Sunday and was adapted as a film with a screenplay by Caryl Phillips in 2001, „Miguel Street‟ a collection of short stories, won a Somertset Maugham Award. His acclaimed novel „A House for Mr. Biswas‟ is based on his father‟s life in Trinidad. His first novel set in England, „Mr. Stone and the Knights Companion‟ won the Hawthorne Prize. Employing a variety of litereary idioms in his works he describes the bitter legacy of colonialism and rootlessness on personal & social levels.All the „Miguel Street‟ stories humoursly reveal Naipaul‟s sympathy with those struggling to fit into a world made miserable by ignorance and cultural depravity; marvellously intensified with dramatic use of Caribbean dialect that masterfully brings the characters to life.The stories of „A Flag on the Island‟ take place in Trinidad and pessimistically deal with clash of values. The collection „In a Free State‟ treats the lives of immigrants as they try to assimilate to new environments, Critics praise his charming prose style and delicate humour of the stories. It is no exaggeration to say that he has shifted the public opinion towards the understanding of victimhood and nostalgia as no other writer has done before him. And, it is this belief that has made Naipaul the universal writer and humanist that he is. Salman Rushdie, one of the most articulate diaspora writer of global fame, after Raja Rao have spoken about his aesthetics at such diverse length. He observes that his predecessors have colonised and re-fashioned English in a way that had de-colonised the English language they had inherited from the British, and so does he. Entering the scene of Indian English

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novel with his „Midnight’s Children‟, which is a book not about any one region but the whole sub continent. Almost all of Rushdie‟s fiction keeps returning to Bombay in a nostalgic look backwards. Apart from „Midnight’s Children‟, his collection include „Grimus‟, „Shame‟, „The Satanic Verses‟, „Haroun and the Sea of Stories‟, „East, West‟, „The Moor’s Last Sign‟ and „The Ground Beneath Her Feet‟. His second major book „Shame‟ about Pakistan, was much acclaimed critically but was banned in Pakistan. However, the book that got him into deep trouble was „The Satanic Verses‟ his fouth novel, published in 1988. It became his most misinterpreted and misunderstood controversial work. While the book was well received in the U.K. and the U.S.A., it was banned in India and other countries with large Muslim populations. „East, West‟ a collection of short stories is an example of hybrid identity. The first section runs the India based stories, the second section carries the stories located in the West, and the third carries a mixed set and is subtitled “East, West”. The rest of his works search for nostalgic past, typical of expatriate writing which artistically brings forth Rushdie‟s exuberant humour, brilliant wit, imaginative boldness, enormous talent and prodigious powers of story telling. The recent dynamic writer Chetan Bhagat, also known as the youth Icon plays an important role in giving a new trend setter image to Indo- Anglian fiction. The topic he chooses are invariably the ones concerned with the urban middle class family which he depicts vividly in a humorous way. Moreover, the language he uses for his fiction is as simple as that of R.K. Narayan. He is the author of bestselling novels namely – „Five Point Someone‟, „One Night @ the call centre‟, „The 3 Mistakes of My Life‟, „2 States‟, „Revolution 2020‟, „What Young India Wants‟ and his latest novel „Half girlfriend‟, a simple and inspiring love story.In 2008 the New York Times citied Bhagat as “the biggest selling English Language novelist in India’s history.”(2) Jhumpa Lahiri, another diaspora writer has crafted her fiction in a perfect pace. In 1999, she published her first short story collection entitled „Interpreter of Maladies‟ aptly subtitled „Stories from Bengal, Boston & Beyond‟. This outstanding work brought to her a number of awards namely Pultizer Prize in 2000, O. Henry Award, Trans Atlantic Award, and the PEN (Humingway Award} for the best fiction debut of the year. Also, most recently she had added to her title the Frank O‟ Connor International Short Story Award (2008) and the Asian American Literary Award (2009), both for „Unaccustomed Earth‟. „The Namsake‟ published in 2003 is her first novel, while another wide collection of her short stories came in 2008 called „Unaccustomed Earth‟

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Lahiri‟s works are plangent portrayals of the immigrant experience, and attempt to bridge the cultural and social gap between her adopted America and the India of her parents and ancestors. Perhaps, she depicts the slow process of cultural assimilation for second generation immigrants further questioning the nature and concept of home. The growing popularity of her works reveals how much these issues are shaping modern societies, both in West and in Asia.. As Aruti Nayar observes,

“Lahiri negotiates the dilemmas of the cultural spaces lying across the continents with a master’s touch. Though endowed with a distinct universal appeal, her stories do bring out rather successfully the predicaments of Indians who trapeze between and across two traditions, one inherited and left behind and the other encountered but not necessarily assimilated. “(3)

Recently, she was awarded the 2014 National Humanities Medal for widening the public‟s engagement with literature and deepened the nation‟s understanding of the human experience by U.S. President barrack Obama. Amish Tripathi, India‟s New Icon has been awarded „Society Young Achievers Award for Literature‟ and Communicator of the year award 2014. The writer is mainly engulfed with the mythological works. As Sanghi quotes,

“Mythopoeia has taken off in the Indian diaspora because there has been a change in readership from a mature audience to a younger one. This lot has a desperate yearning to reconnect. They want to consume mythology but in a well-packaged and easily digestible way.”(4)

Amish Tripathi‟s first novel series is „The Shiva Trilogy‟ novels. It includes „The Immortals of Meluha‟, „The Secret of the Nagas‟ and „The Oath of Vayuputras‟; which have not only become best sellers but have also been lapped up by both Hollywood and Bollywood for film adaptations, a commendable feast for a debutant writer. Tripathi‟s more recent work is Ram Chandra Series- the first book is entitled as „Scion of Ikshvaku‟. Kiran Desai, the youngest female writer to receive the Booker Prize in 2007 for her work “The Inheritance of Loss” is a highly acclaimed Indian-American author. The book was hailed by critics as a keen, richly descriptive analysis of globalization, terrorism and immigration. Set in India in the mid 1980s the novel has at its centre a Cambridge educated

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Indian judge living out his retirement in Kalimpong, near the Himalayas, with his granddaughter until their lives are disrupted by Nepalese insurgents. Her first book “Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard” drew wide critical praise and received award from British Society of Authors in 1998. Aravind Adiga, a new generation of young literary talent is an Indian-Australian writer. He began his career as a journalist before deciding to focus on writing fiction. Since his first novel “The White Tiger” won the 2008 Man Booker Prize, Adiga published two more highly regarded works- “Between The Assassinations” a collection of short stories and “Last Man in Tower” his second novel. The title “ Between The Assassinations” refers to the seven year period between 1984-when Indira Gandhi was assassinated and 1991- when her son Rajiv Gandhi was also killed. Set in India, the book captures cross-spectrum view of life in a town called Kittur.His works are marked by a linguistic and thematic density that sees him weave complex narratives and multiple narrators into his tales of Indian life. Therefore, the contemporary and diaspora writers are versatile in the thematic preoccupations and more global. Their stories provide abundant evidence of the contracts and diversities not only geographically but also ideologically and generationally. *********

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References: (1) Dr. Kumar Satish, „Standard Literary Essays‟, Tge Short Story in English Literature, Agra, Lakshmi Narayan Agarwal Publications, P-464. (2) Greenless, Donald(26 March 2008), „An Investment Banker finds fame off the Books‟, The New York Times. (3) Dr. Kumar Satish, „Standard Literary Essays‟, Op.cit, P-472. (4) Sanghi Ashwin, „Fiction Genres‟, „The Times of Life‟, The Times of India, 30 June 2003, P-3.