LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 25:1 January 2025
ISSN 1930-2940

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         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

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Crossing the Borders:
Resonating Memories and Homing in Manju Kapur’s The Immigrant

Dr. Priya T


Courtesy: www.amazon.com

Abstract

Diaspora has been defined as the voluntary or involuntary dispersion of a social or ethnic group. Home signifies a dwelling and the structures of family and friends. There exists a nexus between migration and home. Diaspora connotes a process of estrangement and detachment from home which evokes images of trauma. The diasporic members experience a sense of loss of the homeland and a sense of alienation in the hostland. The dislocation fetches isolation, cultural conflicts and nostalgia for home. Memories are crucial to diasporic identity and bridge the gap between the past and the present. To resist assimilation to the host country, the migrants attempt to revive and recreate their religious, cultural and linguistic practices.

This paper draws from the theories of Stuart Hall, Avtar Brah and Paolo Boccagni and attempts to reestablish a sense of home and grounding for the Indian diaspora in the host country. The Immigrant revolves around the immigrant experiences from the perspective of a woman Nina who shifts to the environs of Canada following her courtship with Ananda, a dentist in Halifax. Ananda gets assimilated to the Canadian culture thanks to his endurance whilst Nina is alienated and torn between the two different cultures. Memories provide sustenance to Nina in the new atmosphere. Owing to her attachment to the homeland, Nina reintegrates her Indian cultural traditions in the Canadian setting. She asserts her belongingness, recreates a sense of home in the foreign soil and reconstructs her Indian cultural identity.

Keywords: Manju Kapur, The Immigrant, Diaspora, alienation, nostalgia, memories, home, reconnections, identity

Introduction

Diaspora has been historically associated with the dispersal and collective exile of the Jews. Robin Cohen labels these refugee groups as victim diaspora. This is followed by the imperial diaspora when the British and the French colonial powers were in pursuit of their colonial empires. During the colonial era, one can trace the labour diaspora when the Indentured Indians crossed the borders of the Indian Ocean in search of economic opportunities. This is categorized as the Kala Pani crossings. Chinese, Japanese and Italians were also part of the labour diaspora or proletarian diaspora. Trade diaspora refers to the displacement of Indians, Chinese, Japanese and Lebanese for trade and business endeavours. Cohen contends that though these migrant groups belong to different diasporas, they exhibit a collective memory of their homeland and a sense of loss and exile in the host country.

Rajesh Rai and Peter Reeves state:

A diaspora exists precisely because it remembers the ‘homeland’. Without this memory..., these migrants and settlers would be simply people in a new setting, into which they merge, bringing little or nothing to the new ‘home’, accepting in various ways and forms the mores and attitudes that already exist in their new country and society ... The people of the diaspora, however, do not merely settle in new countries: they recreate in their socio-economic, political and cultural institutions a version of ... that homeland that they remember. (2006, p.18)

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Dr. Priya T
Assistant Professor & Coordinator
Centre for French
Bharathidasan University
Trichy - 620 024
Tamil Nadu, India
priya.t@bdu.ac.in
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