Abstract
Words like “Expatriate” and “Diaspora” need no introduction in postcolonial literary scenario. Indian -iaspora, today, has emerged with the “multiplicity of histories, variety of culture, tradition, and a deep instinct for survival.” Indian Diaspora, though counting more than 20 million members world-wide, survives in between “home of origin” and “world of adoption.” The process of survival of the diasporic individual/ community in between the “home of origin’’ and “world of adoption” is the voyage undertaken in the whole process from “alienation” to final “assimilation.” Bharati Mukherjee as well as Jhumpa Lahiri, an Indian born Canadian/American novelist, has made a deep impression on the literary canvass. Their novels honestly depict the issues of their own cultural location in West Bengal in India. They were displaced (alienation) from their land of origin to USA where they were “simultaneously invisible” as writers and “overexposed” as a racial minority and their final re-location (assimilation) to USA as naturalized citizens. They are the writers of The Tiger’s Daughter, Wife and The Namesake. The dilemma of belongingness in these three novels is a matter of flux and agony, Which explores the problem of nationality location, identity and historical memory in USA. The “cultural diaspora-isation” which Stuart Mall calls it marks the beginning of the desire for the survival in the community of adoption. The paper aims to explore their sense of alienation in USA where life as an immigrant was unbearable, forcing them to make an effort towards the process of economic, social and cultural adjustment. Further, the paper will explore their desire for cultural fusion in the new dwelling, which in fact is Mukherjee’s own inward voyage in The Middleman and other stories. Finally, they visualized “assimilation” as on “end –product” which implies in totality “conforming to a national culture” of “nationalist way of life.”
Key words: Diaspora, alienation, assimilation, isolation, culture.
