Land, Nation, Water, Body: Reading Gender in Anosh Irani's Dahanu Road

Abstract

Although Anosh Irani's 2010 novel Dahanu Road is dominated by men, it is the actions of the feminine elements that drive the plot. This paper examines Irani's representations of diasporic identity formation as it relates to land and gender constructions. By constructing a feminized land and water, while maintaining male land ownership, Irani constructs the feminine, as an element and as human body, as the most subordinated yet definitive fragment of the nation. By deconstructing these gendered relationships, we aim to show how Irani utilizes the feminine body as an agent of change to redefine the relationships between male and land, as well as landowners and laborers. It is in the realm of the feminine, land and human body, that the masculine is defined and honed.