Bharati Mukherjee's The Holder Of The World

The works of Bharati Mukherjee has transcended from purely Indian to the global and transnational by her handling of themes. Her writings interpret the impact of developments in one part of the world to all other parts. Her fictional works have provided more significant expression to cross-cultural encounter from a varied perspective. Bharati Mukherjee, an Indian-born American novelist has grabbed critical attention around the globe in a relative short period of twenty-five years. She has widely been acknowledged as a ‘voice’ of expatriate- immigrant sensibility.Hannah, the protagonist of the novel The Holder of the World, turns into orphan as a result of her father’s death and mother’s flee with her Nipmuc lover. Then, she grows up as an adopted daughter of Robert and Susannah Fitch at Massachusetts, Salem in a conservative puritan environment. She unravels her passion and proficiency in needle work and she always has a distressing memory of her mother. She remembers the sweet voice of her mother who sings psalm but she likes to forget her mother’s elopement with her lover leaving her

Yet, Hannah’s key concern in the alien world seems to wipe out the layers of flamboyance and social grace and reside beneath it in a pursuit for a meaningful life. In fact, as soon as she arrives at the shores of Coromandel Coast, she senses an instinct of belonging and desires that she does not “aspire to return to England upon the completion of Gabriel’s tour”. (Bharati Mukherjee 104) However, when she realizes Gabriel’s betrayal she wants to go to London. During her journey, she manages to survive a disaster with the help of Bhagmati, her friend cum servant maid. Then, they happen to be the guest of Raja Jadav Singh, the king of Devgad. Hannah is in love with Raja Jadav Singh and gladly becomes his Bibi, dispensing all morality and all anticipations of an ordinary