LOSS AND REDEMPTION EXPERIENCED BY JAMUBHAI PATEL IN KIRAN DESAI’S THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS: A POST-COLONIAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

Kiran Desai as a diasporic Indian novelist has convincingly presented the experiences of life in England or America in her acclaimed Man Booker Prize winning novel The Inheritance of Loss. Immigrants from India, Pakistan or other such third world countries face issues of identity. They become witness to clash of the Eastern and the Western cultures. They show mixed reactions to the happenings over there. Some people show their deep concern about the threat which their native culture and identity face during their lives over there. Some other individuals like Jemubhai Patel in the said novel create a shell around themselves in which they hide their true feelings. The latter want to do mimicry of the White race in their appearance through dress, language, and lifestyle. Because of their non-acceptance by the West as their part, they confine themselves to their very self and remain victim to inferiority complex. After completing education or training abroad and assuming important and influential positions as government officials, their previously experienced inferiority complex turns into superiority complex when they go back to their respective native lands. They imitate the English people and deal their own people with strong hatred by treating them as ignorant and ill-cultured. Their relations are no exception in this regard. They are also in the row of all others who are to be ruled and subjugated. Jemubhai too loses relations like parents, wife, daughter, and granddaughter. For him his pet dog Mutt becomes the recipient of his love, care and attention. It is only through the loss of Mutt his journey of redemption begins. Only then, by the end of the novel, does he realize the significance of human relations. But this realization has been a torture process for him. It costs him mental calm and composure. Keywords: Loss, Redemption, Mimicry, Identity, Diaspora, Relationship.