Images of South Asian migrants in literature: Differing perspectives

Abstract

Abstract This article explores the world of contemporary fiction to discuss Anglo (white) and South Asian British writers’ differing perceptions of the people of South Asia origin living in Britain. The South Asian Briton is mostly invisible in the fiction of the Anglo‐British writers. When he (and it is always a male) does make an appearance he is presented either as a lovable overgrown child or as being respectfully silent. Ironically, lurking behind these images is the fear of miscegenation. All images reveal the persistence of the British imperial attitudes towards the once colonised South Asian. By contrast, the fictional world of the South Asian Britons gives a voice to the South Asians’ sense of alienation in what is presented as a society where racism is on the increase, and where the people of South Asian origin, despite being born and bred in England, are subjected to indignities and live in fear of racially motivated violence. The fiction of the Anglo and South Asian British writers presents tw...