Inscribing kala pani in Ernest Moutoussamy's A la recherche de l'Inde perdue

Abstract

This essay examines the trope of indianité in Ernest Moutoussamy's collection of poems A la recherché de l'Inde perdue. These poems focus on the Indian crossing of the black waters of the Atlantic popularly known as kala pani, the trauma of exile and displacement, interrogations of identity in the Caribbean islands, as well as the important presence of women who were an integral, albeit minority, constituency in this migrating labor diaspora. Moutoussamy establishes the primacy of the female voice to show how kala pani women negotiated the oceanic crossings from India to Guadeloupe in literature. These poems highlight the ‘jahaji bahin principle’, an ethos of diasporic sisterhood and subjectivity created by the women. I will also show how the intersections between memory, gender, and the oceanic crossing represent exilic tropes that engender a feminized reading of indianité in Moutoussamy's work.