Introduction

Abstract

The literary and linguistic identities of the literatures of the Indian Diaspora, their significance and presence in the global contemporary literary world, form the very core of this book. Diasporic literature available in Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam, Odia, Punjabi, Marathi, Hindi, and Nepali are traced, studied, and set against the influence of Indian diaspora writing in English, to welcome a broader readership, that is long overdue and probably has not been attempted to date. The writers manifest a fresh category of diasporic literature, revealing their methods of adaptation and acquisition of cultural competence, and the impact of bi-cultural situations on their lives, languages, and identities. The introduction argues that these writers attempt to balance their regional identity with their national/Indian one. It further attempts to identify notions of displacement and diaspora in diverse literatures and cultural practices of distinct communities (with different languages) as seen in literatures written in Indian languages. Therefore, in assessing this contemporary and dynamic collection, applying the framework of the global diasporic methodology in totality is avoided; the questions of complexity that literatures of the Indian diaspora raise, demand a far more nuanced appraisal/approach.