3 Review(s)

The book is a study of several aspects of immigrant consciousness and diasporic sensibilities. The scholarly papers of the eminent authors reveal the thematic concerns of distinguished, world-renowned Indian diasporic novelists and poets who have probed and researched extensively, not just on the issues concerning diaspora, but also investigated and attempted to understand the human mind and human psychology. The rootedness to their motherland is what is an underlying feature among diasporic writers. Ramanujan the earliest of diasporic writers—who accepts multiculturalism and explores the merits and values of globalization through his poetry—has been studied. V.S. Naipaul is discussed expansively and comprehensively in various essays which have dealt with diasporic identity pertaining to the sense of displacement, agony of exile, the plight of indentured Indian labourers in foreign lands as well as the reasons behind his own revulsive notions of India, and the finding that his multicultural exposure elevates him, transcending boundaries of religion, nationality and races. The Indian writers settled abroad, like Vikram Seth, Jhumpa Lahiri, Bharati Mukherjee, and Kiran Desai have been taken up for study. The scholarly critics have also given their interpretation of the term ‘diaspora’ and their impressions about the gamut of diasporic writings. The empathy depicted through Agha Shahid Ali’s poetry on the Kashmir issue for both India and Pakistan as well as the notion that the internal displacement from one province to another is also diasporic in nature delineated in Alka Sarogi’s novel Kalikatha: Via Bypass have added variety to the study on diasporic writing. The book will be informative and purposeful for students, researchers and readers interested in Indian diasporic literature.