LOST CULTURAL IDENTITIES AND THE DYNAMICS OF CLASS IN POST-COLONIAL INDIA: A STUDY OF KIRAN DESAI’S, ‘THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS’

Abstract

It is an interesting and intriguing pursuit to note how the mechanism of colonization functions and pervades in post-colonial India. Although colonialism does not function in its formal form in the present scenario, it manifested itself in various hues and shades. Earlier, colonization was a system of force through which superior nations controlled the fate of underdeveloped and weaker countries by subduing the rebellion. This was effectively done by ‘educating’ the natives and instilling in them a sense of inferiority, which still lingers in their psyche. Moreover, the process of globalization also went on to contribute to the reinstatement of cultural and linguistic imperialism, in the post-colonial world. This well thought maiming of the colonized psyche and mind led to his admiration of the colonizers. Kiran Desai’s Booker award winning novel ‘The Inheritance of Loss’ brought the author in the global arena of literature and placed India at the literary center stage. Her characters, in the narrative, represent a class of people who feel defeated and humiliated of their native identities and are in pursuit of being accepted by the ‘superior other’. They are living a life of lost identities and are blindly following the west. Through her seemingly feeble characters, in the novel, the author fantastically exfoliates the mechanism of colonial imperialism and foregrounds the futility of believing and aping the colonizers.