Aspects of Immigration:
Cultural Adaptation with Reference to Indian Diaspora
Writing
Dr. Ch. Rajaniprashanth
ABSTRACT
Immigration is not just a physical displacement
but a cultural, psychological and emotional transformation that
reshapes identity. Indian diaspora writing, by authors who have
migrated out of the subcontinent or belong to communities formed
through earlier waves of indenture and trade, provides a rich
archive for understanding how migrants negotiate cultural
adaptation. In this article, the major elements of immigration as
presented in the writings of V. S. Naipaul, Bharati Mukherjee,
Jhumpa Lahiri, Salman Rushdie, Kiran Desai, Rohinton Mistry and
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni are discussed. Using theoretical lenses
offered by Homi Bhabha, Stuart Hall, Avtar Brah and John Berry, the
study uncovers four interconnected aspects of adaptation: nostalgia
and the weight of memory, identity negotiation and hybridity,
generational conflict, and assimilation versus resistance. It
contends that the cultural adaptation that Indian diaspora writing
represents is not a linear shift from one culture to another but a
layered, often unsettled process in which the migrant exists in
multiple cultural worlds simultaneously.
Keywords: Indian diaspora, immigration, cultural adaptation,
hybridity, identity, nostalgia, postcolonial literature.
