Identity In Indian English Literature

The present stature of Indian English literature is far away from its earlier image of being ‘derivative’ and ‘imitative’. With its own ‘independent’ and ‘distinct’ identity it poses certain ambiguities. Especially, the migrant writers claiming, to be Indians or included in the Indian English literature, have settled somewhere else, away from their homeland or prefer to be divorced from their ancestral being, and yet their works have deeper links with their roots. Indian writers grouped under ‘expatriate’, and ‘diasporic’ writers reflect certain exclusive trends that are altogether different from the major stay-at-home writers. In this context, the connotation of these words such as ‘expatriate’ and ‘diaspora’ have undergone a sea-change with its expectation and reinterpretation as ‘common phenomenon’ all over the globe.

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There has been a distinct change in the psychological architecture of traditional man and modern man. It is a transition from a familiar frame of reference and relationship, and it needs a reorientation of the entire social being. The reason attributed to such dramatic withdrawals and sensational callings are manifold such as the freedom from political repression, angst, loneliness, existential rootlessness, dissatisfaction and search for identity. Diasporic writing raises questions regarding the definitions of ‘home’ and ‘nation’. Schizophrenia and/or nostalgia are often preoccupations of these writers as