South Asian American Identity in Literature

Introduction

American writers of Asian Indian origin bring a distinct style and subject matter to the literature of the Americas. Issues emerging in their writings include the struggle to break free of imperialism, cultural assimilation, expatriation, and racial prejudice. In the literature of Asian Indians living in North America, two distinct styles have evolved. One concerns itself with the need to integrate into mainstream American culture; this literature is declarative in tone and has as its locale the broad landscapes of America. Literature of this first type often presents situations that give rise to violent cultural collisions. The second type has as its focus the necessity of maintaining the customs and communities of origin. This literature questions the pull to assimilation, giving rise to an interrogative quality. The two orientations mingle with each other. Asian Indian literature gives voice to the interweave of a life of an Asian in America by often combining the literary canons of the West and East. The Greek poet Homer, the English poet John Milton, and the American poet Walt Whitman are evoked as comfortably as the ancient Sanskrit poems of Kālidāsa.

Categorization

Categorizing Asian American literature into tidy ethnic groups is problematic. The breadth, variety, and complexity of Asian cultures defy easy categorization. India is a country two-thirds the size of the United States. It is divided into twenty-three states and several federal territories. Each state has cultural, social, linguistic, historical, geographical, and culinary characteristics that are unique. It is almost impossible to talk about an Asian Indian experience because such a discussion lends itself to generalities that are not applicable to the entire nation. Similarly, organizing the multicultural nations of Asia into neat compartments for the convenience of Western audiences has given rise to severe criticism from Asian scholars and thinkers. They argue that pigeonholing vastly different people into patterns that are convenient for the West is another way of dominating and controlling other peoples.

For example, those belonging to the South Asian American category include peoples of different religious, linguistic, and ethnic backgrounds from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the Maldive Islands. Individuals of Asian Indian origin living in America are generally referred to as South Asian Americans. The term “Indian Americans” tends to be avoided because it gives rise to confusion with Native Americans, who are referred to as American Indians.

History

Immigration from India to North America began in numbers in the 1880’s. In 1923, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Indians could not become American citizens because they are not Caucasian. In 1924, the Immigration Act was passed, denying entry into the United States to those who were ineligible for citizenship. It was not until 1965, when immigration laws changed, that another wave of immigration occurred. Immigration reform removed the European bias in immigration laws.

South Asians emigrated to North America with hopes of a better life. Lacking strong ties with traditional America, they found themselves being treated as outsiders. Their dark skin made them suspect. Their history was previously marked by the oppressive British colonizers. South Asians in America looked for ways to escape this imperialist history by becoming accepted and appreciated for their differences in the free world. South Asian Americans found themselves the victims of racism in a predominantly white society. To give voice to their fears and anxieties, South Asian American writers have become active participants in writing their own stories, creating different ways of looking at the world in a literature that is rich and complex.

South Asian American Writers

The forging of new identities and the creation of a society that stretches its paradigms to include new Americans are the subjects of various South Asian works. A list of noted twentieth century South Asian writers includes Ved Mehta, Santha Rama Rau, Meena Alexander, Agha Shahid Ali, G. S. Sharat Chandra, Anita Desai, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Zulfikar Ghose, Amitava Ghosh, Gita Mehta, Bharati Mukherjee, Raja Rao, and Sara Suleri.

Mukherjee, one of the most famous of the group, has exhorted immigrant writers to abandon the Third World material they sentimentalize as exiles and to take up, or continue, writing about “the messiness of rebirth as an immigrant.” She has also pointed out that as new patterns of immigration alter the American cultural fabric, the necessity of participation in literature is twofold. Immigrants must speak for themselves, and, in doing so, a new America speaks for itself.

Wanting to be known as an American rather than as a South Asian American writer, Mukherjee calls for a need to assimilate, to view life from within America rather than from its periphery. Her writing uses cinematic techniques, showing the dominant culture surrounding, all-pervasive, immigrant society. She argues that assimilation must occur. In most of Mukherjee’s works, this melding happens in violent, dramatic ways in which a resolution of issues comes with a forced break from the old culture in favor of the new.

Her first novel, The Tiger’s Daughter (1971), captures the experiences of Tara Banerjee Cartwright, an Indian woman from the state of Bengal. Her Indian values collide with those of her American husband. In Wife (1975), her second novel, an Indian woman is trapped in the loneliness of a New York apartment and confused by a world created by television. Bereft of any meaningful interaction with a community (as she enjoyed in her own culture), she kills her husband while he eats a bowl of cereal and waits for him to come back to life as people do in the movies. In Darkness (1985) and The Middleman and Other Stories (1988), Mukherjee focuses on stories of expatriation, many of which stem from the author’s personal experiences. Mukherjee has been the recipient of racial slurs, has been made to feel invisible, and for a while remained unacknowledged for her contributions.

Poet, novelist, and educator Meena Alexander lived in Asia, Africa, and Europe before moving to America. Her work is situated at the confluence of many cultures, a space of maddening ambiguity and irresolution, a place where there are no right or wrong answers. Alexander has said that for years she has been haunted by the sense that the act of writing creates a shelter. For Alexander, writing allows space to that which otherwise would be hidden, covered over, crossed out, or mutilated. Alexander’s novel Nampally Road (1991) and memoir Fault Lines (1992) give voice to her various selves. Her writing describes the split image, the memory that is restored to present a self that sustains itself in all locales, to present a geography that spans many continents. For example, Mira Kanadical, the protagonist of Nampally Road, returns to India after receiving her Western education and attempts to negotiate a safe space for herself, a place where she may belong. This struggle for belonging, coupled with India’s political instability, makes for a protracted search for meaning and identity.

Notable South Asian American writers of the twenty-first century include novelist Mira Jacob (The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing, 2014), poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil (At the Drive-In Volcano, 2007), novelist and journalist Thrity Umrigar (The Space Between Us, 2006), and poet Rajiv Mohabir (The Taxidermist's Cut, 2016), among many others. In addition to continuing to explore South Asian identity in the diaspora, South Asian American writers in the twenty-first century often explore how this identity intersects with others, such as being a woman or a member of the LGBTQ community.

In the hands of South Asian American writers such as Mukherjee, Alexander, and others, internal and external geographies are explored. The South Asian American experiences a complex relationship with the Western world. The literature of South Asian Americans serves to expand the Western canon in literature.

Bibliography

Mohanty, Chandra Talpade, ed. Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991.

Rustomji-Kerns, Roshni, ed. Living in America: Poetry and Fiction by South Asian American Writers. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1995.

Sanga, Jaina C., editor. South Asian Literature in English: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, 2004.

Srikanth, Rajini. The World Next Door: South Asian American Literature and the Idea of America. Temple UP, 2004.