Introduction

The Indian English novel after a long journey has now reached a youthful stage and is no

longer a fragile extension of English fiction. The current trends in the world stream and

fiction claim that the Indian novel in English stands in a challenging position. The writers

enjoy a privileged place, as novelists of the first rank in the comity of nations. The leading

stars of Indian English novel like Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan, Raja Rao, Arun Joshi,

Anita Desai, Kamala Markandaya, Nayantara Sahgal, Ruth Pravar Jhabvala, Shobha De,

Bhabani Bhattacharya, Vikram Seth, and many others have paved the way for the coming

generations.

The creative world of these great masters of Indian English novel, reveal that their

novel constitutes a cosmopolitan group representing various religions, communities,

professions and views. Their novels represent every shade of India’s diverse culture and

society. They interpret every segment and strata of human society be it the luxurious life of

the upper class, middle class or the problems of labour class, women and the farmers. The

novel is an aesthetic representation of the feelings and emotions and their conflict that

subjugate the true manifestation of human conscience and always try to preserve its inherent

nature. The age old conflict between the East and the West also finds a powerful expression

in the writings of these great writers. There are innumerable such moments in life which one

has to jot down on a piece of paper. Protagonist’s Amla’s thoughts, in the novel ‘Cry the

Peacock’ written by Anita Desai has no equivalent.

 The East-West encounter and the conflict between the old and the new have turned

inwards to more private, individual and personal or existential concerns. We find that the

protagonists whether in B. Rajan’s ‘The Dark Dancer’, or in Attia Hossain’s ‘Sunlight on A

Broken Column’ suffer from the quest of self identity, and despair and, despondency which

is caused by the feelings of rootlessness and the solution of existential problems.

The 21st century contemporary Indian English literary scene is being ruled by a string

of new generation of writers of the West, also known as “Expatriate”, exhibiting their

diaspora sensibility are incredible writers like Vikram Chandra, Chitra Banerjee

Divakaruni, Bharti Mukherjee, Jhumpa Lahiri, Amit Chowdhury, Amitav Ghosh, Rohinton

Mistry, Kiran Desai, Kiran Nagarkar, C.R. Krishnan. Woman writers of Indian diaspora

offer multidimensional perspectives in the life of diaspora by encompassing themes like

exile, nostalgia, rootlessness, alienation, racial and gender discrimination,

marginalization, assimilation, identity and cultural hybridization. Some of the

contemporary woman writers use the literary space to highlight women’s issues and

their existential dilemmas through gendered lenses.

The women novelists of India and Indian Diaspora have given new dimensions to

the literary world. Their writings are not only original and versatile but also native with the

flavor of the soil of Indian heritage. The women novelists like Kamala Markandaya, Shashi

Deshpande, Anita Desai, Arundhati Roy, Gita Hariharan, Bharati Mukherjee, Manju

Kapur, Jhumpa Lahiri and many others have been able to held their heads high in the

women’s world of rejection, acceptance, dejection and sacrificing oneself in the familial
bonds and domestic problems. The image of woman and her struggle for an identity of her

own also emerges in the Indian English novels. Such a struggle needs support structures

outside the family to enable the woman to survive. Nayantara Sahgal uses this theme as the

nucleus of Rich Like Us (1986). Other novels, such as Rama Mehta’s Inside the Haveli

(1977), look more towards issues of traditional Indian culture, particularly the debate on

female education. Another example of the western educated female protagonist’s quest for

her cultural roots is Gita Hariharan’s The Thousand Faces of Night (1992) In field of

regional fiction, four women writers, Arundhati Roy, Anita Nair, Kamala Das and Susan

Vishwanathan have put the southern state of Kerala on the fictional map, while the culture

of other regions have been represented by other women writers. Emergence of Indian

Writing in English was a challenge to Americans and Westerners. There is another

point to be remembered, says K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar in his Introduction to Indian

Writing in English:

English is the veritable Suez Canal for intellectual intercourse

between the West and the East – between England and India

especially; and the traffic is by no means altogether one-sided.

Not only Indian thought from Vedic to modern times has found its

way to the West, but eminent Indian thinkers of yesterday and

today – from Rammohun Roy and Keshub Chunder Sen to

Vivekananda, Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, Gandhi, and Radhakrishnan

– have made themselves heard in the West, by their mastery of the

English language (15).

 Shashi Deshpande – The winner of prestigious Sahitya Academy Award for the

novel “That Long Silence” gave the Indian Literary horizon a serious writer with

tremendous potential. Shashi Deshpande through her novels has given the woman of today,

the inevitable position in the society which was long desired. Though her novels are woven

around the male dominated society and traditions; yet we find that her female characters

show great strength and are conscious of their dilemma as victims of we inequality. In most

of her novels we can watch the female protagonists emerge from the bondage of family

relationship and male dominance to free and self assertive heroines. She says, “A woman

who writes of women’s experiences often brings in some aspects of those experiences that

have angered her, aroused her feelings.” (Shashi Deshpande, “The Dilemma of a Woman

Writer”, The Literary Criterion, Vol. 20, No. 4, 1985, 33)

Anita Desai, a well known and prolific writer who has presented the social

conditions but lays greater emphasis on the exploration of the inner self, because it is the

inner-self that decides the character of a person. In her novels she deals with the inner

female psyche. Her novels explore the various difficulties the woman face in their marital

relationships. Her woman characters are very intelligent, learned and sensitive. They try to

find solace in their marital life but fail to do so because of their sensitiveness and suffering

from depression. Anita Desai, in her psychological novels, presents the image of a suffering

woman preoccupied with her inner world, her sulking frustration and the storm within. Her

later novels after she moved to the USA, reveal the characteristics of the diasporic fiction,

that is concerned with the fate of immigrants, and a growing distance from India, which is

viewed from outside.

On the other hand, we “perceive the struggles of the protagonists as heroic attempts that

finally bring glory to the individual and add dignity to the spirit of the freedom.”1 (Dhawan

R.K., “Introduction: Indian Women Novelsits, Ibid., pp 12-13, Prestige Books, New Delhi,

1991)

Kamala Markandaya is an outstanding woman novelist in Indian English Literature

who has depicted the cultural clash between the western and oriental modes of life in her

novels. We find that all her novels have the East-West encounter as the major backdrop in

her novels. She very skillfully explores the impact of change in terms of human psychology.

Her famous novel, ‘A Silence of Desire’ revolves round the conflict between faith and

reason, superstition and science, religion and materialism, and Eastern backwardness and

Western progress. Kamala Markandaya is known for her authentic portrayal of Indian social

mileu and the woman’s position in the Indian society.

Another eminent woman writer Bharati Mukherjee is at her best depicting the

cultural clash between the East and the West. She has indeed become a celebrity for

her distinctive approach to expatriate hood as a metaphysical experience of exile. The

Book, the first of its kind on the novelist, makes a comprehensive attempt at

evaluating various aspects of Mukherjee’s fiction and her contribution to the study of

immigrant writing and modern fiction.

The Indian-born writers carry along with them the huge emotional baggage

of strong memories of their native land and experiences of their formative years

in India, whereas those born abroad experience the culture of their parents and

predecessors. Both the generations experience the cultural complexities of their

 situations and are often subjected to the struggle and trauma of negotiating

cultures in order to find their equilibrium. The consequent process of conflict and

adjustment also plays a pivotal role in defining their relationship with each other.

One of the most eminent writer of Indian writing in English, is Nilanjana Sudeshna

Lahiri or popularly known as Jhumpa Lahiri. The recipient of the coveted Pulitzer Prize

winner for her first short story book, “Interpreter of Maladies” has made a bang on the Indo

– American scenario. Jhumpa, a sweet and melodious nickname given by her parents was

also a quick and easy name for her teachers at school. Jhumpa Lahiri was born to Amar and

Tapati Lahiri in London on July 11, 1967. Belonging to a traditional Bengali family, she has

in her writings a flair for Indian culture and society. When Jhumpa was just two years old,

her father a librarian by profession went on to relocate himself for want of a better future to

University of Rhode Island, America and her mother started to work as a school teacher.

Her frequent visits as a child to the native land Kolkata with her parents have

made Jhumpa well versed with the Indian Society and culture. Through her characters, she

tells us about the human conditions that have universal resonance in her immigrant identity

that forms the core of her stories. Lahiri has been awarded a MA in English from Boston

University. She has also received a Post Graduate degree in MA in Creative Writing,

MA in Comparative Literature and a PhD in Renaissance Studies. Jhumpa Lahiri

married Alberto Vourvoulias-Bush, a journalist in the year in 2001 who was then the

Deputy Editor of Time Latin America. Lahiri now lives in Brooklyn, New York with

her husband and their two children, Octavia and Noor. She is the vice-president of the
PEN American Centre since 2005. She has been conferred Trans Atlantic Award

from the Henfield Foundation (1993), O Henry Award for the short story Interpreter

of Maladies (1999), PEN Hemingway Award (Best Fiction Debut of the year) for

Interpreter of Maladies (2000), Addison Metcalf Award from the American Academy

of Arts and Letters (2000), Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her debut Interpreter of

Maladies (2000), M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award from the James Beard

Foundation (2000) and Guggenheim Fellowship (2002). Jhumpa Lahiri has been

described as Samuel Richardson’s latest heir. Nigamananda Das in her book on

Jhumpa Lahiri Critical Perspectives comments thus,

Like Carver, she writes about a young couple, who has fallen out

of love and is playing a bitter sweet game amid the detritus of

their life together. Like Hemmingway, she writes about a tour

guide who has more heart than the bourgeois couple who hire

him; he is seduced by the wife’s glamour and then appalled by

her cruelty. Like Isherwood, she writes about an earnest young

man studying his landlady, whose calcified habits at first unnerve

him and then draw out his tenderness. (12)

Martin Baumann in “Diaspora: Genealogies of Semantics and Transcultural

Comparison” comments about diaspora as follows: “the idea of diaspora has been

celebrated as expressing notions of hybridity, heterogeneity, identity, fragmentation

and (re)construction, double consciousness, fractures of memory, ambivalence, roots

and routes, discrepant cosmopolitanism, multi-locationality and so forth” (324).

Lahiri’s fiction is autobiographical and regularly draws upon her own experiences further as

those of her parents, friends, acquaintances, et al within the Bengali communities with

which she is familiar. The diasporic consciousness of the author emerges forcefully through

the several voices of her first-generation characters. Their children and grandchildren fail to

grasp the nostalgia and therefore the deep looking for the homeland experienced by them

because all of them had voluntarily chosen to migrate to the U. S., and yet still live

emotionally within the land of their birth. The struggle to conserve one’s cultural identity

within the process of trying to suit in with popular culture and lifestyle forms the

background for many of the stories of Jhumpa Lahiri. The immigrants acquire newer

identities like transnational, diaspora, expatriates, hyphenated immigrants and then on. of

these terms inherently contain the sense of “otherness” which doesn't allow them to ever

forget their divided and fractured identities, their “in-betweenness” and displacement. The

sense of dislocation manifests in various outward responses like “ghettoisation” that's

seeking one’s own community for neighbourhood, celebrating Indian festivals and other

occasions with greater traditional fervour, imposing the native customs and practices on the

kids or seeking ways to strengthen and reinstate one’s native allegiances more strongly.

There is enhanced nationalism and heightened patriotism toward one’s roots together with

the awakened consciousness of upholding the self-hood.

Jhumpa Lahiri has emerged on the literary horizon as a well known writer of The

Interpreter of Maladies, her debut collection of short stories that she was honoured with the

foremost prestigious Pulitzer Prize she has received within the year 2000. Her visits to

Calcutta motivate her to own a unique outlook of life and inside the Indian immigrants

settled abroad. The stories reflect the impact of Bengali culture on Lahiri. The stories house

the theme of isolation, cultural clashes, estrangement, search identities, loss of religion,

disillusionment and then on. Binod Mishra in his article “Bordering on to the Stranger in
Jhumpa Lahiri’s Hell-Heaven” within the Journal of English Literature and Language

suggests “The Interpreter of Maladies, a set of nine short stories are bound by one thread of

emotion and soaked within the experience of diaspora” (29). Lahiri herself had said in her

personal interview:

I think that I never feel fully a part of the planet i used to be observed in. My parents were

always very resistant in some ways to living in America and missed India, and had a lot of

misgivings about their lives here. It absolutely was hard on behalf of me to think about

myself as fully American. I believed it might be substantially a betrayal of my parents and

what they believed and who they're. My parents feel less foreign now than they did thirty

years ago but they still want outsiders. (Lahiri)

Salman Rushdie, talking about migrants in his Imaginary Homelands states, “The word

translation comes, etymologically, from the Latin for ‘bearing across’. He further states that,

“Having been born across the globe, we are translated more” (17). Eugene Roosen’s in his

book on the method of Ethnogenesis states that “for the youngsters of migrants the journey

to their parents’ homeland is sort of a second migration, or a radical remigration: a second

migration that will take the shape of a psychosocial return to the ethnic group”. (108) We

find that in most of the cases the desire to return stems from the layers of second-generation

experience. Many of the writers are filled with emotional impact and wish to be told more

about case history and background, to feel a way of “belonging”, or to resolve conflicting

identity issues” (113).

For the primary generation, past (home land) and present (adopted land) signify the

imaginary and therefore the real. The “self” keeps developing while negotiating with the

current. in line with Professor Jasbir Jain’s The Diaspora Writes Home: Subcontinental

Narratives, “the condition of isolation and separation, the state of schizophrenia and

frustration provides a background for a way of ‘self’. This ‘self-hood’, presents a significant

hindrance for the primary generation within the process of assimilation, acculturation or

adaptation”(16). The sense of self-preservation and psychological state may be seen within

the second generation but during a different manner and degree. For them there's no

difference between their past and present, and that they have only 1 home – the U.S. The

practices and conventions of their “homeland” come naturally to them, and that they have

lesser problem with the hyphenated identity of yank Indian. Plurality is that the reality of

second generation, and for several of them, the first pursuit is to strike a difficult balance

between their inherited and adopted identities. Most of them come up in an Indian

environment where Indian food, festivals and rituals are practised by their parents. Once

they get exposed to American schooling and peers during their social interactions, they

become excessively attentive to the differences between their own lifestyle, priorities and

preoccupations from that of their peers. The emphasis is on the hyphenated existence led by

Indian diaspora within the so- called greener pastures. These alluring green lands cannot

provide a stable life. The crisis of being a dual citizen restricts them from constructing a

long-lasting self. Silky Khullar Anand in Woman Writers of Indian Diaspora points out,

“For immigrants, the challenges of exile, the loneliness, the constant sense of alienation, the

knowledge of and looking for a lost world, are more explicit and distressing. The question

of identity is often a difficult one, but especially so for people who are culturally displaced,

as immigrants are” (60). Lahiri’s writing is characterized by her simple language. Her

characters, often Indian immigrants within the U. S., navigate between the cultural values of
their birthplace and their adopted home. She examines her characters’ struggles, anxieties,

immigrant psychology and behavior. Her short stories describe the efforts of the Indian

immigrants to stay their children at home with Indian culture and tradition of a joint family.

a number of her short stories scrutinize the fate of the second and third generations who are

increasingly assimilated into American culture and depart from the constraints of their

immigrant parents. Lahiri’s debut story collection, Interpreter of Maladies, was released in

1999. It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award within

the year 2000. Fifteen million copies of this book were sold worldwide. Interpreter of

Maladies was also chosen because the New Yorker’s Best Debut of the Year 1999. The nine

stories are about the lives of Indians and Indian Americans who are caught between the

culture they need inherited and also the “New World”. The stories house the dilemmas of

Indian immigrants with themes like marital difficulties, miscarriages and disconnection

between first- and second-generation US immigrants. The nine short stories in this book are

“A Temporary Matter”, “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine”, “Interpreter of Maladies”, “A

Real Durwan”, “Sexy”, “Mrs. Sen’s”, “The Blessed House”, “The Treatment of Bibi

Haldar” and “The Third and Final Continent”.

In “A Temporary Matter”, Jhumpa Lahiri deals with the disintegrating relationship of an

Indian couple, Shoba and Shukumar. The stillborn child has totally upset them. Shukumar

observes that Shoba is not any more an attentive wife. She is often aloof and self-absorbed.

As in most of Lahiri’s narrations, food plays a big role within the couple’s relationship.

“When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine” is a story of Mr. Pirzada, a professor from Bangladesh,

doing research in the United States. He is a regular visitor to Mr. Pirzada’s family. He has

left his wife and 7 daughters in Bangladesh during 1971 war. Naturally Mr. Pirzada looks

worried and restless. Everyday Lilia, the young daughter of the family, hears her father and

Mr. Pirzada talking, discussing the progress of the globe that they watch on the TV. Lilia is
simply too young to know the stress of the grown-ups, especially of Mr. Pirzada. She

notices her mother joining them. Lilia is left alone to watch her parents compassionate Mr.

Pirzada for his unendurable plight. The story ends with Mr. Pirzada’s returning to

Bangladesh to be along with his wife and 7 daughters. “Interpreter of Maladies” is about

Mr. and Mrs. Das, Indian Americans visiting the country of their heritage, who hire a

middle-aged guide Mr. Kapasi as their driver for the day as they tour India together with

their three children. The story centers upon interpretation and its power. Mr. Kapasi’s work

enables correct diagnosis and treatment by understanding the pains and troubles of patients.

Mrs. Das is bowled over by his perfect understanding and seeks an answer to her constant

mental pain. “A Real Durwan” and “The Treatment of Bibi Haldar” reveal the method of

globalization in India. Globalization has driven women to the verge of poverty. Although

the Indian government officially eliminated the class structure in 1949, it's still an element

of the system in India. “Sexy” tells the story of a young lady, Miranda, and her affair with a

married Indian man named Dev.

In the story “Mrs. Sen’s”, an eleven-year old Eliot stays with Mrs. Sen, a university

professor’s wife, after his school hours. The caretaker Mrs. Sen chops and prepares food as

she tells Eliot stories of her past life in Calcutta. This story is crammed with lists of

ingredients and descriptions of recipes. More emphasis is laid on ingredients, the act of

preparation and also the colourful collection of sarees from Calcutta. The plot revolves

around Mrs. Sen’s tradition of buying fish from an area sea foodstuff. The fish reminds Mrs.

Sen of her home and holds great significance for her. She needs someone to drive her to fish

market. Once she attempts to drive the car on her own which finally ends up in an

automobile accident. Eliot then stops staying with Mrs. Sen. Several stories of Jhumpa

Lahiri depict the contrast between Indian culture and American culture.
“The Blessed House” is a couple of newly man and wife Sanjeev and Twinkle who find the

biblical verses hidden throughout the house. Twinkle wants to display them whereas

Sanjeev is uncomfortable with them and reminds her that they're Hindu, not Christian. “The

Third and Final Continent” portrays a comparatively positive story of the Indian American

experience.

In 2003, Lahiri published The Namesake, her first novel. The story spans over thirty years

within the lifetime of the Ganguli family. This Pulitzer Prize winning novel revolves around

the lifetime of Gogol Ganguli from birth until time of life and his struggle to get who he's,

as a second-generation immigrant. Gogol has undergone a mental conflict thanks to his

unusual name, and later he finds it difficult to stay up the Bengali traditions ahead of his

American friends. When Gogol grows older, he realizes how his parents would have strived

hard to adapt to their adopted country. He finds some physical object between his parents

and therefore the world he lives in. On the entire, The Namesake may be a novel of self-

discovery and a kind of emotional journey.

The book Unaccustomed Earth was released on 1 April 2008. It achieved the rare distinction

on the big apple Times trade book List. The title is borrowed from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s

story The Custom House, to suggest a shift in fortune when immigrants “strike their roots

into unaccustomed Earth”. Set within the U.S. Unaccustomed Earth has eight separate

stories (four stories partly I and three stories partly II) connected by cultural dissonances

affecting characters who are Indians or have Indian parents. the primary story is about

Ruma, a well-educated woman who lives in Seattle along with her workaholic American

husband and child Akash. Bengali custom dictates that her widowed father must come and
accept the daughter, Ruma. while Ruma’s complete assimilation into her non-Indian home

and her worries about her father’s loneliness are major considerations, another story thread

is spun, which quietly reveals her father’s new relationship with an English lady he met

during a vacation in Europe.

The second story, “Hell-Heaven” is narrated by a lass, Usha, whose mother falls head over

heels in love with Pranab, a young lonely Bengali. Usha’s mother hates her silent, joyless

husband and is kind of proud of Pranab who cheers her up along with his youthful

exuberance. At the top of the story, the heart-broken grown-up Usha goesaway from her

mother and is in favour of the teen-age American life. In “A Choice of Accommodations”,

Amit may be a devoted husband and father, married to Megan, five years older than him.

When Amit was an adolescent boy, his parents had decided to send him back to India. They

put Amit in an exceedingly private school in Berkshire. After a few years, Amit recollects

his parents and visualizes his boyhood self. The trilogy begins with “Once during a

Lifetime” with Hema’s first-person narration through her innocent eyes. As she addresses

Kaushik, Hema leads the readers through her past memories of events in their lives. She

recalls Kaushik’s presence in her life from 1974 when she was six and Kaushik was nine

years old.

She recollects how Kaushik’s physical presence within the house begins to fade in course of

your time because the families don't maintain the contact. On the New Year’s day in 1981,

Kaushik’s father calls Hema’s parents to tell that they're returning to Massachusetts since he

possesses a brand new job. He also requests if they'll stick with Hema’s parents until they

get a house. Tthe connection between Hema and Kaushik thickens when both the families

stick together. The snow storm is narrated to indicate the symbolic relationship between the

two families and therefore the way Hema and Kaushik play on the snow. Kaushik leads
Hema into the thick woods and shows her a cluster of tombs and begins to let her know that

his mother is dying of carcinoma.

The second story “Year’s End”, surrounds Kaushik struggling to deal with his father’s

remarriage after his mother’s death. His frustrations in his relationship together with his

stepmother and her daughters expose his sense of loss and identity. Kaushik takes up the

narration and tells his plight to Hema. he's woken up in class one Sunday morning by his

father’s telephone call to inform him of his safe return to Massachusetts from Calcutta with

the new stepmother and two stepsisters. he's told that Chitra, his stepmother, lost her

husband 2 years ago. a faculty teacher by profession, she is thirty five, with two young

daughters of seven and ten. His father is detailing out certain information to his

unarticulated queries. He informs him that his new wife Chitra and her two daughters will

reach America in fortnight. Kaushik recollects how his father has loved his mother

especially after she was diagnosed with cancer. When he returns home to fulfill his family,

he finds the shy young girls who are told by their mother to deal with him Kaushik dada.

Rupa and therefore the younger Piu speak in their broken English and introduce themselves.

Kaushik goes into the kitchen as he wont to neutralise the last days of his mother, trying to

try and do up the work. He goes certain the bottle of Scotch his parents wont to relish. His

father comes in to inform him he has stopped taking Scotch giving the excuse that Chitra is

very old-fashioned. However, he pours the drink for his father. Next morning Kaushik

thinks of visiting Dunkin’s Donuts to select up some coffee since Chitra finds no coffee

within the house. He invites the 2 girls to accompany him for the drive. This very first

interaction between the trios breaks many barriers between them. He involves know that the

women are over protected by their mother as they need never gone out anywhere without

her.
During the course of the conversation, the children speak of their premonitions of adverse

times at college thanks to poor language skills. Kaushik reassures them that the adjustment

problems is overcome in course of your time as he himself faced after returning to the us at

sixteen. At this juncture little Piu is curious to grasp if it's before his mother’s death. The

query makes him consider his own vulnerability in their presence. They express their desire

to work out his mother’s photograph. He makes excuses though there's one in his wallet. the

women and their mother search the house for an image. Once they have returned home, the

ladies report that it had been a fun trip and that they express their liking for Kaushik.

Kaushik is forced to affix the family trip to Boston to indicate town to Chitra and also the

girls. It's a weird trip for him, since they need never gone on any such trips. Kaushik begins

to be more kind towards the ladies as they establish some reasonably an affinity with each

other with their losses in lifetime of a mother and a father. He takes them dead set visit the

museum and therefore the Aquarium. Seeing the 2 girls viewing his mother’s photograph in

an exceedingly shoe box makes him fume with anger. during this fury he takes all his things

and drives off within the night and finishes up in a very motel.

Kaushik keeps driving for 4 days with none map and is told that he will hit Canada. Kaushik

reminisces the past when his family lived with Hema’s parents. Though he hated to be with

them, now remembers those days nostalgically. He has not experienced the heat of his home

when his mother was ill, as every corner was strewn with medicine bottles and every one

paraphernalia of her illness. He has never been happy in his home. near the Canadian

border, he finds a striking spot where he brings the shoebox of photographs of his mother.

it's his symbolic burial of his mother’s memory within the unaccustomed earth. Some weeks
before his graduation day, his father informs him of the family shifting to a brand new, more

traditional house within the suburb of Boston. Kaushik has decided to not follow his father

to the new house, instead to travel South America after graduation. Herein Jhumpa Lahiri

brings out powerfully her central motif of Unaccustomed Earth within the diasporic lifetime

of her protagonists.

In the final story “Going Ashore”, Lahiri becomes an omniscient narrator bringing together

Kaushik and Hema in Rome after a few years of separation. She very artfully brings self-

realization in both the protagonists as they get very experienced one another. Hema has

come to Rome as a Latin professor at Wellesley, taking advantage of a colleague’s

apartment within the Ghetto. Neither her parents nor her would- be husband Navin knows

what she is doing in Rome. She merely calls it a visiting lectureship at the institute of

classical studies. Her friend Giovanna has arranged for her research at the American

Academy. However, in October she decides to require an improvised leave of absence to go

to her retired parents in Calcutta and to urge married to Navin in an arranged wed-lock. She

has only three weekend contacts with Navin before their engagement. From Rome she keeps

up-to-date with him by e-mail and thru occasional phone calls, exchanging words purely out

of ritual. Navin could be a professor of physics at Michigan State. They both are physically

drawn to one another, and since they get on well with one another, it eventually culminates

in their life together. within the meantime, in Rome, she continues an affair with a former

lover Julian, a mate with wife and daughters. She expects Julian to divorce his wife and

marry her. Since it doesn’t happen, they need to separate bitterly. Still there's something that

forestalls her from going deeply into any relationship with people. Now as a professor,

having researched on Lucretius, she is soaked in Latin literature which enables her to bring

a dead world to life. The plot thickens as Lahiri introduces Kaushik coming to Rome as a

photojournalist who has wandered for about twenty years, mostly in geographic area. He has
been to war zones of Israel, Guatemala, Mexico, national capital, Africa and Middle East,

eking out a living by taking pictures of corpses. He has little reference to his family except

through occasional e-mails. His father and Chitra have visited him in Rome on their transit

to Calcutta. he's reaching to move to Asia, working for a magazine. Since he owns little,

moving is straightforward . The concept of diaspora as a recurring theme is extremely

vibrantly portrayed by Lahiri. For Kaushik, migrant life began from childhood, His

photojournalism matches his life. he's reminded of his father’s moves on every occasion he

visits refugee camps and watches a family combing through rubble for his or her

possessions. He becomes a person out of nothing, void of emotional and physical

attachment to anyone. His origin doesn’t relate him as a photographer, though in Europe

he's considered an Indian. In Rome Kaushik meets Hema. He takes her to his apartment.

They spend lots of your time together in the dark, in out of the way restaurants, bars and

abandoned squares, sitting together like teenaged couple kissing one another. After

travelling together in Italy for a few time, both Hema and Kaushik choose different routes –

she burst to India and Kaushik to Hong Kong. After the last meal together, Kaushik asks her

to return with him to urban center and refrain from marrying Navin, but she refuses.

Kaushik leaves for Thailand. But he keeps probing for her all the time. He wonders what

went wrong in his try and get connected to her, though she happens to be the sole one in his

life, who knows his past, and also the only person to whom he wants to stay connected to.

The story concludes with Hema seizing narration as if to place an end to the story she

began, recollecting from her childhood memory. She can’t just forget the past. Hema returns

back to her life in Massachusetts thirty years after Kaushik and his parents have left for

India. In February she involves know from an obituary within the ny Times that Kaushik is

not any more. In her stories, Lahiri has been remarkable in shifting the purpose of view

from third-person to first-person narration, rendering them very realistic and moving. Lahiri
has skillfully clustered her final three stories into one group labelled “Hema and Kaushik”,

exploring the histories of the duo belonging to 2 Bengali immigrant families within the u. s..

In “Only Goodness”, a Bengali couple, whose marriage is “neither happy nor unhappy”, is

unable to guard their children from the American culture. “Nobody’s Business” is about the

elusive great thing about Sang, her enjoyment of life, trustworthy nature and therefore the

sense of being disturbed by others. Farouk and Paul loved her without her knowledge. Her

Bengali suitors call her on the phone. She loves painting the rooms. Jhumpa Lahiri has

carved out a distinct segment for herself among the contemporary popular novelists.

together with Ahmed Salman Rushdie and Arundhati Roy, she is looked upon because the

harbinger of the new wave in Indian fiction.

Her first novel The Namesake authentically portrays the diasporic experience of the second-

generation immigrants within the u. s.. within the novel The Namesake, the name of the

protagonist signifies the identity problem that he faces, as he's exposed to twin cultures –

American and Indian. within the case of the immigrants in any society, their identity is

threatened by the culture of the host country. in a very flashback, it's revealed that his name

Gogol is connected to a near-fatal train accident during which Ashoke was involved before

he got married. On his thanks to visit his grandfather in Jamshedpur, Ashoke was reading

his favourite story, famous Russian writer Nikolai Gogol’s Overcoat, which may be a

collection of short stories of Nikolai Gogol. When his train got derailed, Ashoke was almost

taken for dead, but he managed to wave the torn pages of the book meekly. This movement

was noticed and he was rescued. It was like a second span of life for him, and he felt obliged

to Nikolai Gogol. The writer’s name gets etched on Ashoke’s mind as his saviour. In fact

the letter from Ashima’s grandmother is lost in transit between India and the United States.

Ashoke can think only of his favourite Russian writer Nikolas Gogol at that crucial moment

to name his newborn son. As it is compulsory to give the baby a name before leaving the
hospital, Ashoke comes up with “Gogol”, the name of his favourite Russian author. In this

way, the baby is registered as Gogol Ganguli. There are so many passages in the novel that

are devoted to the description of Ashima crying often as she feels lonely and without

support in looking after the child.

Gogol’s name isn't the sole a part of his family’s identity that he objects to. Gogol feels that

his parents’ strict adherence to the traditions of Bengali ways is a humiliation. He also

dislikes that his parents only socialize with other Bengalis and refuse to adapt to the US

traditions. As he grows, he rejects many of the Bengali traditions, resents his family’s

frequent trips to Calcutta, and cuts himself removed from his parents as quickly as he can.

He embraces the culture and family tradition of american citizens. Gogol’s look for his

personality among his parents’ traditional form of living could be a major aspect of this

novel. Gogol is an American, a second-generation immigrant, who has no guidance on how

he should behave in his adopted country. Finally, however, he discovers himself as a person

who is both Indian and American and solves the struggle of his look for an identity.

Racial discrimination is additionally mentioned within the novel. As a child, Gogol has

drawn the image of his mother during which he has put a dot on her forehead to represent

the “bindi” worn by Indian women. He has also drawn an image of his father with glasses

and his sister Sonia. When Mrs. Merton, the American babysitter looks at it, she comments

at it disparagingly. there's also another incident that shows how neighbourhood ruffians,

driven by prejudices of colour and race, discriminate with the migrants. Ashoke, however,

has learnt to cope up with the prejudiced behaviour of the American people. Such actions by

the natives make the immigrant people feel insecure, displaced and alienated.

Similarly, the Indians also experience the positive aspects of yankee life. there's one episode

within which Ashima’s shopping bags are left behind within the train and are retrieved later
when Ashoke rings up the Lost and located Department of the corporate running the trains.

They come back to all the baggage with the contents perfectly in situ. within the course of

your time, Ashoke and Ashima change their food habits only for the sake of Gogol and

Sonia. Thus Americanization process is led by the kids.

Born in England of Indian parents and raised within the U.S., Jhumpa Lahiri has evidently

benefited from all three cultures. Their aroma drifts from the pages of her first collection of

short stories, titled Interpreter of Maladies, where “she has woven their idiosyncrasies into

well-crafted stories with a keen eye for observation and an admirable gift for details”

(World Literature Today 365).

Reading these sublime and well-written tales, Katinka Matson within the Psychology Today

Omni Book of non-public Development says, “I was reminded of Jung’s synchronicity

principle: Jung’s synchronicity principle encompasses the core of his explanation of the

possibility aspect of events. He defined synchronicity as ‘coincidence in time of two or

more casually unrelated events, which have the identical or similar meaning’ ” (259). the

possibility incident of Mr. Kapasi meeting Mr. Das, the accidental demise of Shoba’s baby

and therefore the sudden appearance of Christian paraphernalia in Sanjeev’s house are the

casual, unplanned events of life. Life could be a matter of chance. this can be the appeal of

the stories. They need the wholeness of the life within them. the key web of human situation

lies latent within the beautifully written pages of Interpreter of Maladies – Stories of Bengal,

Boston, and Beyond. Lahiri’s endeavour to interpret the maladies of the mind and therefore

the unique manner during which she makes them realize their own flaws certainly merit the

prize and therefore the prestige she won together with her maiden volume of short fiction.

With a noteworthy insight, she delves deep into the psychological depths of her characters

and divulges the inner world by a desirable simple style.

We encounter more reality than fancy in her fiction. Her interpretation of maladies itself

acts sort of a potent medicine. the primary story “A Temporary Matter” shows that

Shukumar is ready in grips the loss of his child because he did what the doctor said. He

holds his son before he's cremated. Letting out the pent up feelings certainly acts sort of a

catalyst in some ways. The marital discord is thus skilfully shown to be a brief matter even

as the interruption of electrical supply. Lahiri in her own inimitable style convinces the

readers through her characters that there's always something new, something unexpected in

life. Life may be a strange amalgam. Interpreter of Maladies records the emotional voyages

of characters seeking love beyond the barriers of countries, cultures, religions and

generations. Imbued with the immigrant sensibility, these stories speak with universal

eloquence and compassion to everyone who has ever felt like an outsider.

Indian English writing is completely refreshing. India has contributed

essentially to the general world writing. This commitment of India has been essentially

through the Indian writing in English, authors being in the cutting edge in this regard. A

decent number of writers on the contemporary scene have offered articulation to their

imaginative inclination in no other language than English and have carried credit to the

Indian English fiction as an unmistakable power in the realm of fiction. To endeavor

inventive articulation on a public scale in an outsider medium has only from time to time

occurred in mankind's set of experiences, it discusses the productive nature of the Indian

psyche to absorb the recently defying circumstances and the mind boggling problems of

modem world. Amitav Ghosh has embodied in himself the significance and an incredible

author among world scholarly essayists just as logicians and anthropologists. Amitav Ghosh

has a sharp eye and feeling of seeing the person and their social orders. Amitav Ghosh,

raised under control of his dad, Lt. Col, Shailendra Chandra Ghosh, who has had sufficient
experience to become familiar with the Indian socio-political and social occasions. Having

encountered the mobs in India in 1984, he has arisen to decipher the relationship am

Among the contemporary Indian writers Amitav Ghosh stands out prominently and distinctively.

Through his novels he has tried to analyse the various aspects of national and personal identities

especially of the people of India and Southeast Asia. His ambitious novels are known for their

complex narrative strategies and a thick layering of intertextuality that take into their stride the

colonial past of India conjoining it with its postcolonial dialectics. Ghosh’s novels are also unique

for their generic transformations that straddle travel writing, autobiography, memoir, journalese

besides non-linear narratives thus blurring the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction.

Thematically an avowedly postcolonial writer, his craft is basically postmodernist which voices

insecurities, disorientations and fragmentariness of both the individual and society. What is very

striking in his novels is ‘movement’, both in space and time. His narration captures geographies,

traversing continents from Africa to South Asia, and histories ranging from the Victorian to the

postmodern. Girish Karnad in an article in The Indian Express has rightly said that Ghosh uses to

great effect a matrix of multiple points freely interpenetrate. Thus his fiction has a continuously

changing, evolving repertoire, a cultural intermix of the residual, the ‘dominant and the emerging’

in terms of place and time which are predominantly dialogic. Paradoxically, however, there is along

with movement also a sense of ‘stasis’, of being placed, of locatedness alongwith the multiple

dislocations. History, in a very poignant sense, becomes a major trajectory for Ghosh which he

continuously interfaces with the present.

India’s incredible cultural diversity between languages, geographic regions, religious

traditions and social stratifications also shelters above a billion individuals. There are

different themes and principles that contribute to the values, attitudes, beliefs and norms of

the rich and dominant society. Indians have a strong sense of pride in their distinct and

diverse culture.

India is one of the oldest living civilizations in the modern world and so is the

Indian Philosophy. The basic unit of society is family. In old days monogamy was generally

practiced and polygamy was only seen in royal or noble families. There was no social

division during the Rig Vedic period. The later part of the Vedic established the four

division of the society namely the Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas and the Shudras.

Patriarchal system developed and the status of women was insignificant.

 With the advent of passage of time, the Indian caste system became rigid. The

Brahmans occupied the top position in the society. Slowly the practice of untouchability

began. They were being segregated from the society. The position of women also became

miserable.

India contains a rich tradition of ancient tales and stories. The stories not only amuse but

also reflect the culture that prevailed. They also preach moral values and philosophy. The

story could be a writing style, but the fashionable time experiences short stories as a art.

within the epoch, amidst the busy schedule and hectic life, we expect mental peace and

relaxation. Short stories provide relaxation and contentment within the hectic lifetime of

technologies. Many writers have used story as a vehicle of expression. It helps to pass
culture, tradition, values and other important norms from one generation to the subsequent.

Short stories in Indian English have flourished with the efforts of some writers.

Writers of Indian diaspora like Bharati Mukherjee, Salman Rushdie, V.S. Naipaul and

Jhumpa Lahiri have added glory and dignity to short stories.

CH 2. INDIAN SOCIETY AND CULTURE

It is important today to understand multiculturalism in the context of changing character of

nation states which is marked by the absence of any single national identity. While some
view it as a panacea for the growing menace of divisiveness in the world, while others take
it as a challenge for their dominant culture and nationhood. More than any other country,
India needs to grasp its full implications in view of its multicultural and multireligious
character. This paper primarily attempts to place Gandhi in the ongoing multicultural
discourse by analysing his concept of religion and its significance in the present day context
of growing religious divide in India as well as in the world. It argues that Gandhi's concept
of Sarva Dharma Samabhava (equal respect for all religions) goes far beyond the concept
of multiculturalism. In fact, it could very well be taken as a positive and constructive
multicultural approach which offers a way out of the present cultural, religious and ethnic
conflicts and cleavages. This paper also analyses the Gandhian praxis of multiculturalism
during India's struggle for independence.
A growing tendency to identify and segregate people along religious, ethnic and linguistic
lines raises a real threat to the peaceful coexistence of divergent human civilizations.
However, among these challenges, it is the religious divide which adversely affects the
normal and tranquil life of people of many countries. This line of thinking has been given
further momentum by the fundamentalists' attempt to use religious identity to spread the
venom of hatred and conflict among various communities. They even go to the extent of
waging war against many nations which do not go along their way. The attack on WTC on
9/11/2001 and subsequent attacks in different parts of the globe have brought the issue of
religious fundamentalism to the centre stage of international affairs. All attempts to
overcome this precarious situation by the western countries in the leadership of USA with
the avowed purpose of eliminating religious fundamentalism and and its concomitant cross
national terrorism, have failed. In fact, it has further exaceberated the situation leading to
mushrooming of such elements.
A number of thinkers are seriously considered about finding ways and means to tackle this
growing peril confronting mankind. Samuel P. Huntington looks at the whole problem in
terms of clash of civilizations1: those of western and Islamic. He further avers that an idea
like multiculturalism could hardly meet the challenge. In fact he argues that
multiculturalism is essemtially an anti-western, particularly anti-American ideology.
According to him, it denies the existence of a common American culture and it promotes
racial, ethnic and other subnational cultural identities and groupings, a challenge to
American identity2. However, this has been widely contested by a number of scholars who
look at multiculturalism as the only real antidote to religious fundamentalism and cross
national terrorism. Multiculturalism is being looked upon as the only practical option before
humanity for responding to the challenge of diverse cultural, ethnic and religious identities.
It is much more than mere toleration of group diversity. In essence, it stands for treating,
accommodating and recognising all members as equal citizens whether they belong to
minority or majority groups. A brief and succint discussion on multiculturalism is a
necessary prerequisite for its proper evaluation and understanding.

Understanding Multuculturalism
The concept of multiculturalism emerged in the western society in the 1970s especially in
the context of Canadian attempt to tackle the problem of immigrants. It soom became a part
of Canadian official policy and even spread to Australia, USA, UK and some countries of
EU. Subsequently it has become dominant political ideology in the west. There have been
some other important factors contributing to its emergence as a dominant policy of various
governments. The failed attempts at assimilation and homogenisation of various nation
states created a situation conducive to a search for a new policy which could preserve and
promote the diverse identities without adversely affecting the overall unity of the social
fabric. In addition, there was also a new awakening among different groups towards their
primordial consciousness and relative deprivation. What gave a new impetus to this trend
was the predominance of human rights approach in the arena of public policy. Perhaps the
bitter memories of ethnic cleansing during holocaust, collapse of colonialism and
totalitairian regimes also contributed to the development of multiculturalism. It is also
relevant to mention that in a number of western countires ethnic studies were introduced
primarily with a view to underline the significant contributions made by the minority
groups. As a result, there was growing self confidence and consciousness among the
minorities among their distinct identities. All these factors made multiculturalism a
dominant theme of political discourse towards the end of the 20th century.
The term multiculturalism has been used in different contexts with varying connotations.
Will Kymlicka in his work Multicultural Citizenship uses this term in a restricted sense
focussing on ethnic groups and national minorities and not marginal or disadvantaged
groups like gays, the poor, women et al. According to him, “a state is multicultural if its
members either belong to different nations (a multination state) or have emigrated from
different nations (a polyethnic state), and if this fact is an important aspect of personal
identity and political life."3 In this context, Charles Taylor emphasises the necessity of
developing a “politics of recognition” in favour of minority cultures, by the supposed links
between recognition and identity. “The thesis is that our identity is partly shaped by
recognition and its absence, often by the misrecognition of others..non-recognition and
misrecognition can inflict harm, can be a form of oppression, imprisoning someone in a
false, distorted, and reduced mode of being.”4 Amartya Sen, while discussing this term,
makes a subtle distinction between multiculturalism and “plural monoculturalism”.
According to him, genuine multiculturalism is marked by the existence of a diversity of
cultures, which tend to interact and even intermingle among themselves. On the other hand,
existence of various cultural traditions co-existing side by side, without the twain meeting,
could be nothing more than plural monoculturalism.5 Andrew Heywood underscores two
forms of multiculturalism- descriptive and normative. According to him, the former refers to
cultural diversity whereas the latter implies a positive endorsement of such a diversity.6
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes multiculturalism as an umbrella term to
characterise the moral and political claims of a wide range of disadvantaged groups,
including African Americans, women, gays and lesbians, and the disabled. Most of the
theorists of multiculturalism tend to focus their arguments on immigrants who constitute
ethnic and religious minorities (e.g. Latinos in US, Muslims in Western Europe), minority
nations (e.g. Catalans, Basque, Welsh, Quebecois), and indigeneous peoples (e.g. Native
peoples in North America, Maori in New Zealand).7
Bhikhu Parekh, a prominent political theorist and am extensive researcher on
multiculturalism, defines it as follows: “multiculturalism is not about difference or identity
per se but those that are embedded in and sustained by that culture; that is, a body of beliefs
and pracitices in terms of which a group of people understand themselves and the world and
organise their individual and collective life.”8 According to him, it could be virutally taken
as synonym for cultural diversity. It is entirely of a different genre from other kinds of
differences. He underlines three different types of cultural diversity: subcultural diversity,
perspectival diversity and communal diversity. In his view, groups like lesbians, gays and
the like could be put under subcultural diversity as they seek nothing more than to pluralise
the existing dominant culture. Some other groups, like the feminists seek to to reconstitute
the dominant culture in their own perspective. Hence, Parekh puts them under the category
of perspectival diversity. But it is the communal diversity, Parekh emphasises, which
constitutes the core of multiculturalism. He illustrates it by referring to well established
cultural groups like Jews, Gypsies and recent immigrant groups.9 While his views have been
widely accepted as a major contribution towards political discourse, he has been contested
by critics like Joshua Broady. Another line of attack on the concept of multiculturalism has
been that in its attempt to replace the similies of “melting pot” by “flower pot” it creates a
very congenial groung for all kinds of conflict situations. This is so because
multiculturalism goes against the nation state's attempt to cultivate ultimately a disctinctive
national identity.

Multiculturalism in the Indian context

The Indian society has been multi-cultural, multi-religious, multi-racial, multi-ethnic and
multi-linguistic from time immemorial. However, India has also encounted various kinds of
divisiveness. Therefore the biggest challenge before countries like India is to preserve the
pluralistic tradition and to bring the various communities into the mainstream society by
promoting the spirit of multiculturalism. Concerned citizens in India are worried over the
alarming situation of current communal disharmony and there is fear that it might ultimately
result in the disintegration of the nation. It is unfortunate that unscrupulous politicians with
an eye on vote banks are indirectly supporting the force promoting narrow religious
sentiments, and linguistic and regional identity. Building bridges of solidarity among
different religious communities in India is essential to preserve the pluralistic and
multicultural credentials of the country. In the context of such a challenge, the initiative and
concerted effort made by Gandhi may provide a framework for thought and action.

Gandhi's Concept of Religion

Gandhi was born in an intensely devout Hindu Vaishanava family, closely associated with
the Pranami faith of Shri Pran Nath which stood for amity among different religions. He got
an early grounding in religious tolerance from his family's acaquaintance with different
sects of Hinduism, Jain monks, Muslims and Parsis, inculcating in his young mind seeds of
religious tolerance and multicultural appraoch. The sojourn in England was a turning point
in Gandhi's life as it provided him an opportunity to get acquainted with different religions.
Association with theosophists prompted him to study scriptures of different faiths, which
left with an impression that much was common among them. In the words of Joseph Doke,
the first biographer of Gandhi, “These different influences helped to quicken and mature his
thought, and at any rate, to sweep away the fragments of boyish atheism. God had become a
reality.”10 The religious spirit awakened in him in his London days was further enriched by
discourses with Rajchandra, a profound Jain philospher.11 In South Africa, his syncretic
faith partook many elements from various religious traditions. He made several spiritual
experiments in Ashram living (Phoenix Ashram and Tolstoy farm) and the vow of
Brahmacharya. All this contributed towards his living faith, which remained a driving force
throughout his life.
Gandhi called himself a sanatani Hindu. The ethical and spiritual outlook of Hinduism had
deep imprints in his mind. He explains, “The chief value of Hinduism lies in holding the
actual belief that all life (not only human beings, but all sentient beings) is one, i.e., all life
coming from One universal source, call it Allah, God or Parameshwara.”12 This unity and
oneness of all creation constitute the foundation of Gandhi's relational world view.
Hinduism, for Gandhi, was not exclusive, but a broad and inclusive faith, a tolerant and
open-minded religion, accommodating the best in other religions. He explains the
quintessence of a sanatani Hindu in the following words, “..Inspite of being a staunch
Hindu, I find room in my faith for Christian, Islamic and Zoroastrian teaching..mine is a
broad faith that does not oppose Christians- not even a Plymouth brother- not even the most
fanatical Mussalman. It is a faith based on broadest possible toleration. I refuse to abuse a
man for his fanatical deeds because I try to see them from his pont of view..It is a somewhat
embarrassing position, I know- but to others, not to me!”13 For him, the Varnashrama
dharma was a universal law which has nothing to do with superiority and inferiority. As he
himself put it, “My Varnashrama enables me to dine with anybody who will give me clean
food, be he Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Parasi, whatever he is. My Varnashrama
accommodates Panchama families with whom I dine with greatest pleasure, to dine with
whom is a privilege.”14 Thus his faith in Sanatana Dharma and Varnashram did not come in
the way of his respect for diverse religious traditions and equality of all people irrespective
of caste and creed.
Gandhi's concept of religion was a unique one. Gandhi looked upon religions as pathways to
the same ultimate reality. In his seminal work Hind Swaraj, he says, “Religions are different
roads converging to the same point. What does it matter if we take different roads as long as
we reach the same goal? In reality, there are as many religions as there are individuals.”15 It
is evident that from the very begining of his public life he looked upon religion from a
multicultural perspective. Though he was true to the essential teaching of Hinduism, but for
him there was no religion higher than truth and righteousness. He declares his stand on
religion in Young India, 1920, “It is not the Hindu religion which I certainly prize above all
religions, but the religion which transcends Hinduism which changes one's very nature,
which binds one indissolubly to the truth within and which ever purifies. It is the permanent
element in human nature which counts no cost too great in order to find full expression and
which leaves the soul utterly restless until it has found itself, known its Maker and
appreciated the true correspondence between the Maker and itself.”16 This also reflects his
incessant search for the quintessence of all religions. He retained his eclectic view on
religion throughout his life.
In January, 1935, Dr. S.Radhakrishnan places three questions before Gandhi: 1. What is you
religion? 2. How are you led to it? 3. What is its bearing on social life? The answers to these
constitutes the essence of Gandhi's understanding of religion.
“My religion is Hinduism which, for me, is religion of humanity and includes the best of all
the religions known to me...I am being led to my religion through Truth and Non-violence,
i.e. Love in the broadest sense. I often describe my religion as the religion of Truth, of late,
instead of saying God is Truth, I have been saying Truth is God, in order more fully to
define my religion.. Nowadays nothing so completely describes my God as Truth..Denial of
Truth we have not known. The most ignorant among mankind have some truth in them. We
are all sparks of Truth. The sum total of this spark is indescribable, as yet unkown Truth,
which is God. I am being daily led nearer to it by constant prayer...To be true to such
religion one has to lose oneself in continuous and continuing service of all life. Realisation
of Truth is impossible without a complete merging of oneself in and identification with this
limitless ocean of life. Hence, for me there is no escape from social service; there is no
happiness on earth beyond or apart from it..Social service here must be taken to include
every department of life. In this scheme, there is nothing low, nothing high. For, all is one,
though we seem to be many.”17
It is clear that Gandhi's perception of religion has no trace of dogmatism and
fundamentalism, and is not in any way connected with denominational religion.

Sarva Dharma Samabhava- Beyond multiculturalism

Gandhi's syncretic approach to religion, reflected in his idea of Sarva Dharma Sambhava
(Equal respect for all religions), one of the elevn vows prescribed for every inmate of his
ashrams, goes much beyond secularism and multiculturalism. As pointed out by Mrinal
Miri, in his book Identity and the Moral life, the liberal position on the problem of
secularism is essentially related to tolerance of different religions which virtually amounts
to a kind of indifference. But Gandhi's Sarva Dharma Sambhava is premised on the premise
that the truth underlying all religions is one and the same though the pathways may be
different. Therefore, Miri asserts, Gandhi's vision could lead to a state of international
fellowship of all religions.18
Gandhi's attitude towards religion was not of a patronising toleration, rather it sought to
develop the spirit of a fellowship which helps a Hindu to become a better Hindu, a
Mussalman to become a better Mussalman, and a Christian to become a better Christian. His
respect and veneration for other faiths was the same as that of his own faith. While
accepting the fundamental euqality of all religions, he distinguished between religion and
irreligion. He refused to tolerate irreligion in the name of reverence for other religions.
On several counts, Gandhi's approach to religion goes far beyond religious pluralism and
secularism.
Firstly, by emphasising on the religion of truth he included the secular or even the atheist
and the humanist in the realm of religion. Gandhi was familiar with the fact that atheists
only disbelieve in God and not in the truth. Therefore there is no wonder why an atheist like
Goparaju Ramachandra Rao (Gora) became a close associate of Gandhi. Gora himself
said,”I cannot remove god, if god were truth.”19 On another occaision, Goral further stated,
“Atheists regard truthfulness as a social necessity. Truth binds man to man in association.
WIthout truth there can be no social organisation.”20 Gora knew that Gandhi was not averse
to atheism if it tended to civilse humanity. Thus Gandhi's approach moves from religious
pluralism to positive or constructive multiculturalism.21
Secondly, religion was basic to Gandhi's life, thought and action. All his activities from
spiritual to mundane including politics were governed by the spirit of religion. Gandhi
revolutionised the very notion of religion and politics. He underscored the ethical side of
religion free from all kinds of creedal rites and rituals. Religion, morality and ethics, for
him, are closely interwoven. Similarly, politics was nothing but a major instrument of
service to the people totally free from all games of power politics. Gandhi realised that he
couldn't do even social work without politics. At the same time he was also aware that he
could not pursue politics without a deep religious sensibility. He unequivocally stated, “..my
devotion to Truth has drawn me into the field of politics; and I can say without the slightest
hesitation, and yet in all humility, that those who say that religion has nothing to do with
politics do not know what religion means.”22 Gandhi introduces the values of religion and
deep religious sensitivity into the political realm.
Thirdly, Gandhi was not in favour of a theocratic state patronising a particular religion or
even all religions equally. According to him, the state should look after secular welfare,
health, communications, foreign affairs and so on but not one's religion which is purely a
personal concern.  “If I were a dictator, religon and state would be separate. I swear by my
religion. I will die for it. But it is my personal affair. The state has nothing to do with it.”23 It
is clear that he was contemplating a secular state in free India which would give freedom to
its cotizens to express religious, atheist or any other identity.
Fourthly, Gandhi did not favour any particular religion or the need for conversion of people
belonging to other faiths to a particular religion. He was aware of the danger of one single
religion dominating the country or the world. Gandhi believed that each religion is valuable
and one should find spiritual fulfilment in one's own religious traidition. Gandhi drew the
following conclusions from a reverential study of all religions. “1. all religions are true. 2.
all religions have some error in them. 3. all religions are almost as dear to me as my own
Hinduism, in as much as all human beings should be as dear to one as one's own close
relatives.”24 The religions are conveyed through a human medium and there are
imperfections in them and they are liable to error. Therefore, they should subject themselves
to “a process of evolution and reinterpretation.” He believed that every formula of religion
should be subjected to the acid test of reason and he scrutinised every scripture, incuding
Gita, before acceptance.”Scriptures cannot transcend reason and truth. They are intended to
purify reason and illuminate truth.”25 He also underscored the value of faith which may not
conform to reason. He believed that it is the duty of a person to point out the defects in one's
own religion in order to purify and keep it pure. One should try to enrich one's religion by
drawing out the best from other religions. However Gandhi was not against true conversion
out of one's own inner conviction and he differentiated it from proselytization. “Conversion
is a matter between man and his maker who alone knows His creatures' hearts. Any
conversion without a clean heart is, in my opinion, a denial of God and religion.”26
Fifthly, he believed that true knowledge of religions will break down the narrow barriers
and also help to understand one's own religion better. He encouraged his followers to
undertake the study of scriptures of other religions apart from those of one's own. In the
prayer meetings of the Ashram, Gandhi made it a practice to read a passage from scriptures
from various religions to promote inter-religious understanding. He used to read the New
Testament of the Bible with the students of Gujarat Vidyapith. In the face of public protest
Gandhi wrote in Young India an article titled “Crime of reading Bible”, which said, “I hold
that it is the duty of every cultures man or woman to read sympathetically the scriptures of
the world. If we are to respect others' religions as we would have them respect our own, a
friendly study of the world's religion is a sacred duty.. I regard my study and reverence for
Bible, the Koran and the other scriptures to be wholly consistent with my claim to be a
staunch sanatani Hindu.. My respectful study of other religions has not abated my reverence
for and my faith in the Hindu scriptures. They have broadened my view of life. They have
enabled me to understand more clearly many an obscure passage in the Hindu scriptures.”27
Finally, Gandhi was not advocating the merger of all religions into one. He was trying to
find out the commonalities on various religions and promote mututal tolerance. “The need
of the moment is not one religion but mutual respect and tolerance of the devotees of
differerent religions. We want to reach unity in diversity. Any attempt to root out traidtions,
effects of heredity, climate and other surroundingsis not only bound to fail but is a sacrilege.
The soul of religion is one but it is encased in a multitude of forms. The latter will persiste
to the end of time. Wise men will ignore the outward crest and see the same soul living
under a variety of crusts.28

Praxis of multiculturalism in Gandhian movement

Gandhi did not find it difficult even during his South African days to build up a cross-
cultural religious support base. It is to be noted that busineesmen mainly of the Muslim
community and Tamil indentured labourers constituted the core of his Satyagraha
campaigns. This trend continued in India which saw a further expansion of his inclusive
support base, significantly the Muslim community. Despite some setbacks with the
withdrawal of Non-cooperation and Khilafat movement and communal riots in the country
in 1923-24, Gandhi never lost hope of building up an all inclusive national movement. He
sat on a 21-days fast at Mohammad Ali's house in Delhi in 1924 and followed it up by
persudaing various political groups to set up a committe to formulate a constitution of Ondia
by reconciling the interests of different communities. It was this report which subsequently
came to be known as Nehru Report. Unfortunately for India, the said report could not be
made acceptable to All Parties Conference in Calcutta in 1928. Thus, India missed a great
opportunity of communal harmony for Gandhi had worked incessantly.He picked up the
tread again during the Civil Disobedience movement. Gandhi was dead against the British
policy of dividing the people of India on the basis of religion and the vivisection of the
country. He emphasised on the diverse collective identities of Indians instead of their
religious identities and promoted the spirit of multiculturalism. This point has been
emphasised by scholars of eminence like Amartya Sen in his writings in his writings
especially referring to the stand taken by Gandhi in the Second Round Table Conference in
1931,29 in which British govt used various leaders representing different communities to
question the credential of Congress of Gandhi to speak on their behalf. Gandhi on behalf of
Congress contested the fact of his being described primarily as a spokesman for Hindus, in
particular “caste Hindus”. He also controverted the British assertion that the rest of
communities were being represnted by delegates chosen by the British prime minister. He
asserted the right of the Congress to speak for every section of Indian society in the
conference. In his address, Gandhi said, “I am but a poor humble agent acting on behalf of
the Indian National Congress.. It represents no particular community, no particular class, no
particular interest. It claims to represent all Indian interests and all classes. It is a matter of
greatest pleasure to me to state that ot was first conceived in an English brain: Allan
Octavius Hume we knew as the father of the Congress. It was nursed by two great Parsis,
Pherozeshash Mehta and Dadabhai Naoroji, whom all India delighted to recognize as its
Grand Old Man. From the very commencement the Congress had Mussalmans, Christians,
Anglo-Indians..above all, the Congress represnts, in its essence, the dumb, semi-starved
millions scattered over the length and breadth of the land in its 700,000 villages.”30 This
address was nothing but a reassertion of Gandhi's multicultural approach to Indian politics
and society. Elaborating on the same theme, in the Plenary session of the conference, he
went even further, “..the Congress claimed also by right of service to represent even the
Princes, if they would pardon my putting forth that claim, and the landed gentry, the
educated class..All the other parties at this meetings represent sectional interests. Congress
alone claims to represent the whole of India, all interests. It is no communal organisation; it
is a determined enemy of communalism in any shape and form. Congress knows no
distinction of race, colour or creed; its platform is universal.”31
Gandhi's multicultural approach was reflected during 1937 elections in which every
community was accommodated and also in the formation of several provincial governments.
At the time of the 2nd world war, Gandhi tried to align with Jinnah to present a united
national front before the government but the govt succeeded in creating a wedge in between
prompting Jinnah to side with the govt in opposing the Quit India Movement. But Gandhi
was so persistent in his community inlcusive approach that he entered into a long dialogue
with Jinnah again in September 1944 but to no avail. In the cabinet mission to lead India to
independence without partition, Gandhi was willing initially to support for a proposal for
united India with some kind of autonomy to the provinces provided they were not
compelled to join any grouping. The period from August 1946 to January 1948 marked most
valiant effort on the part of Gandhi to keep India united by accommodating every Indian
community in the new scheme of things. In the process, he went around Noakhali, Calcutta,
Bihar and Delhi and used every instrument from his spiritual armoury to lead India towards
independence by keeping it united. Not only that, in this effort, he even went to the extent of
offering the prime-ministership of India to Jinnah. Unfortunately in the prevailing situation
of communal frenzy, there were no takers for Gandhi's proposal. Ultimately India became
independent but with partition. It is evident from the above survey that Gandhi throughout
his political pilgrimage never flinched from his basic approach of positive multiculturalism.
He even sacrificed his life while pursuing the goal of interreligious harmony.

Concluding Remarks
Gandhi made a major contribution to multicultural discourse both in terms of thought and
action. It hardly matters that Gandhi did not use such terms as multiculturalism . It is also a
fact that the theory and praxis of multiculturalism is facing a lot of critical attack in present
times. The recent violent incidents in Norway and multicultural policies openly questioned
by some of the heads of the governments are illustrative of this trend. Gandhi's
understanding of religion and his multicultural approach has a great significance in the
context of growing communal divide and religious fundamentalism in different paths of the
globe including India. Gandhi's broad vision, his radical interpretations of various concepts
in the sphere of religion can go a long way in promoting harmony among various religious
faiths and communities across the world. It has a great value especially to preserve the
composite culture of many countries.

References
1. Samuel P.Huntington, The Clash of Civilisations and the Remaking of World Order
2. Samuel P.Huntington, Who are we? The challenge to America's National Identity
3. Will Kymlicka, Multicultural Citizenship: A LIberal Theory of Minority Rights
4. Charles Taylor et al., Multiculturalism and the Politics of Recognition
5. Amartya Sen, The Uses and Abuses of Multiculturalism
6. Andrew Heywood, Political Ideologies: An introduction
7. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, entry on multiculturalism
8. Bhikhu Parekh, Rethinking Multiculturalism: Cultural Diversity and Political Theory
9. Ibid.
10. Joseph J. Doke, Gandhi: A patriot in South Africa
11. Rajchandra Mehta: Gandhi sent a set of 27 spiritual questions to Rajachandra from
South Africa in 1894 seeking his guidance. Subsequently, Rajchandra gave his views which
greatly enlightened Gandhi, so much so, that he acknowledged his spiritual guidance and
expressed his indebtedness to him.
12. Harijan, 26-12-1936
13. Young India, 22-12-1927
14. M.K. Gandhi, My Varnashrama Dharma
15. M.K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj
16. Young India, 12-5-1920
17. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan et al, Contemporary Indian Philosophy
18. Mrinal Miri, Identity and Moral Life
19. Gora, An atheist with Gandhi
20. Ibid.
21. Nick Gier, Gandhi: Deep Religious Pluralism, and Multiculturalism
22. M.K. Gandhi, An autobiography or The Story of My Experiments with Truth
23. Harijan, 22-9-1946
24. M.K.Gandhi, All Men are Brothers: Autobiographical Reflections
25. Young India, 19-1-1921
26. Harijan, 6-6-1936
27. Young India, 2-8-1926
28. Ibid., 25-9-1925
29. Amartya Sen: The Uses and Abuses of Multiculturalism
30. The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi Vol 53: 2 July, 1931- 12 October, 1931;
p.361
31. Ibid., Vol.54: 13 October, 1931-8 February, 1931; p.221
Adapted from the original article which appeared in Gandhi Marg, Vol.33, Number 4,
January-March 2012
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