A STUDY ON MULTICULTURAL ASPECTS IN THE SELECT WORKS OF ROHINTON MISTRY 1Ms. N. Kavitha, 2Ms. B. Subashini, 3Dr. Venugopal, 1,2,3Assistant Professor (Sl.Gr.), Department of Science and Humanities Sri Ramakrishna Institute of Technology, Coimbatore , Tamil Nadu, (India) ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to bring out the Canadian author Rohinton Mistry‘s views on India and Canada in the Multicultural aspects. This research tries to show how he is heavily influenced with the Indian thoughts and culture. Immigrants from India have been settling in Canada since 1904. Since then, thousands have made Canada their new home, bringing with them their talents and skills, and the hope of contributing to their new country. This research depicts how a Canadian writer, Rohinton Mistry, is heavily influenced by the Indian culture. This research studies Multicultural aspects of the author in his fictions. I ORIGIN OF CANADIAN LITERATURE Canadian Literature in English began in the early 17th century and it had the developed during the 18th century. During 19th century, newly founded newspapers and magazines became more popular for political observations. This medium became common for conservative and reform-minded for literary expression and so on. Novels and Dramas followed historical romance. During this time much attention turned to literacy and political organization. Schools, Universities and libraries were opened. Writers celebrated their new found nationalism. The writers on Philosophy and Science flourished. By the end of the 19th century, new writers emerged to write about Women‘s Sufferings, Prohibition and issues related to social change. II CANADIAN LITERATURE DURING FIRST WORLD WAR After the First World War, the cultural and social attitudes changed. A set of creative generation was lost and another emerged with new thoughts and focus. New magazines affirmed the independence of Canadian thought. Prizes were announced to recognize Canadian literary accomplishment. In fiction of the 1920s, while some popular family chronicles continued to affirm conventional class distinctions, anti-war novels and class critiques began to appear. Young writers like T. S. Eliot and others were emerged and embraced the modernism in Literature. The well known writers of this period were F. R. Scott, for his commitment to social justice and Abraham Klein, for his passionate embrace of his Jewish heritage. Over succeeding decades Dorathy Livesay became the voice of socialist 249 | P a g e feminism and the poet-critic A. J. M. Smith became an influential anthologist, shaping the early teaching of Canadian literature. III LITERARY CHANGES DURING SECOND WORLD WAR In the wake of the Second World War came a mix of propaganda, pacifist rhetoric, parodies of military ineptitude and a new wave of progressivism writers, humanist, anti-clerical, community-minded, and intellectually anarchist. Amidst of these the notable names are Irving Layton, Earle Birney, Gabrielle Roy, P. K. Page and George Woodcock. In 1940s and 1950s, social policies were drafted that would shape a Canadian sense of community for decades to come. New literary periodicals demanded a sharper more colloquial language. Public radio, established in 1932, led to a wave of cross country spoken – word broadcasts- talks, dramas, readings of short stories, children‘s programs especially from 1943 onwards. Novelists such as Hugh Maclennan and Sinclair Ross turned again to local settings. IV POST WORLD WAR ERA Several social developments markedly changed Canadian Society in the years following 1960. The number of Canadian universities was accessible for academic and literary periodical courses in Canadian Literature, and creative writing schools also increased. Margeret Atwood embraced the new nationalism of the 1960s and 1970s. In 21st century fiction, conventional vulgarities became normative speech. As in the United States, significant immigration of Indian citizens to Canada was triggered by new immigration legislation that opened the door to highly skilled immigrants. In 1968, Canada introduced its points system, which assigns value to qualifications rather than a person‘s ethnic or national background. As a result, Indian immigration to Canada boomed. V MULTICULTURAL MOVEMENT Canada is a land of immigrants – ‗a multicultural mosaic.‘ As a corollary to this fact, it has also long been preoccupied with an unending quest for self-identity – for ‗Canadianness.‘ Lately, however, a shift in emphasis is becoming increasingly evident-from ‗nationalistic‘ insistence to a growing acceptance of its ethnic diversity as a great unifying force. The reverberations of this shift are conspicuous in the field of literature. This evolving nationhood has had to go beyond Hugh MacLennan‘s ―Two Solitudes‖ (referring to French and the English), and take connizance of many more and ‗other solitudes, that co-exist in the mosaic. Pandya quotes Hutcheon words in his work ―Voyages of Self Discovery: Some Immigrant Writers in Canada‖ that ―The ethnic diversity of Canada is mirrored in Literature dealing with immigrant experience, which can now be said to have come of age and created a ‗literary space‘ for itself. (Pandya 83). Different cultures represent different systems of meaning and visions of the good life. Since each realizes a limited range of human capacities and emotions and it needs other cultures to help it understand itself better. All it means is 250 | P a g e that no culture is wholly worthless or perfect and has a right to impose itself on others. From a multiculturalists‘ perspective, the society cherishes the diversity and encourages a creative dialogue between its different cultures and their moral visions. Bhikhu Parekh quotes in his work ―What is multiculturalism?‖ From a multiculturalists perspective the good society cherishes the diversity of and encourages a creative dialogue its different cultures and their moral visions. Such a society not only respects its members‘ rights to their culture and increases their rage of choices but also cultivates their powers of self criticism, self-determination, imagination, intellectual and moral sympathy, and contributes to their development and well-being. (Parekh 3) A Socio-political novelist, he is the embodiment of the fundamental dialectic of a multicultural consciousness. Multiculturalism is a ―social-ideal rather than ‗Political ideal.‖ Both politico-economic and cultural influences in the multicultural world are after the erosion of the nation-state concept. Rohinton Mistry‘s text is ethnic in its context in a multicultural context. Only the cultural difference makes ethnicity an issue. The acceptance of differences is multiculturalism. Multiculutalism is like a salad bowl or a patch work of quilt. Culture again cannot be graded but it has relativity. There is no marvel and doubt that Rohinton Mistry is a writer of prolific means who strives hard to reform the society like his predecessor MulkRaj Anand. Mistry is a writer who wants peace to prevail in the society which can be attained only by understanding various problems in the society that can be highlighted by literature. Since Mistry is a powerful, chronicler of contemporary social and political life, he daringly reveals the problems of the society through his works. VI ROHINTON MISTRY AS A WRITER Rohinton Mistry is an Indian born Canadian author who writes in English and is famous for his short stories and novels. This research is all about his contributions and the Indian insights into his writings. His style is a direct reflection of his personality: detached, confident, always in control, suffers with an obvious intelligence and subtle wit. He is an enormously private persona with an absolutely sincere modesty. VII INDIAN IMPACT ON ROHINTON MISTRY This research depicts how a Canadian writer, Rohinton Mistry, is heavily influenced by the Indian culture. Understanding is not to be thought of so much as an action of one‘s subjectivity, but as the placing of one-self within a process of tradition, in which past and present (self and other) are constantly fused. (Hons-Georg Gadamer 258) To the sayings of Hons-Georg Gadamer, even though he is settled in Canada, it is his upbringing in Bombay that reflects in all his writings. In a 1989 interview with Geoff Hancock for Canadian Fiction Magazine, Mistrydescribes his life in three sentences: "I grew up in Bombay. Now I am here. I am a writer" (145). The distinct Bombay culture, particularly the Parsi way of life, portrayal of the sons of the soil and even the politics of India are 251 | P a g e major themes in his novels. All the works of Rohinton Mistry are created with a sense of plurality which is typically Indian. ―Thus [Mistry] creates a vibrant image of a community caught in a cycle of restrictive traditions, economic needs, racial and religious tensions, as well as inner psychological conflicts‖ (Malak 190). It is for this reason that India must not only be written by thoseauthors who never left, but also by her displaced survivors—writers who "create fictions, not actual cities or villages, but invisible ones, imaginary homelands, Indias o f the mind"(Rushdie 10). In his writings he often tries to revise the history of his homeland. In an interview, when asked why India persistently occurs in his work?, he answered that it is very naïve to assume that you go to a new country and you start a new life and its new chapter-it‘s not. Canada is the middle of the book. At some point you have to write the beginning? And the beginning for Mistry has