Clash between Traditional Indian Values and Globalization

The Inheritance of Loss by Indian author Kiran Desai and Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter

of Maladies Kiran Desai (Desai) and Jhumpa Lahiri (Lahiri) are of Indian descent. However, they

have lived much of their lives away from the Indian sub-continent. One might be tempted to

think that their novel and short stories would be dominated by elements of Western culture,

tradition, and thought. Rather, the reverse is true in their novels. Indian tradition, culture, and

thought is prevalent in their literary works. Desai and Lahiri do not impose their opinions or

views on the readers, but they illustrate the differences that occur or can occur between

cultures, and within the same culture without criticizing either the culture of the west or the

culture of the east. Inheritance of Loss (Loss) has several themes present, however, in this

essay, the theme of globalization that Desai critiques will be the essay’s main focus along

with the theme of being caught in-between Indian culture and Western culture in Interpreter

of Maladies (Maladies). Both Desai and Lahiri do not advocate the greatness of the Indian

culture or condemn western culture totally. This paper will argue that though both works

defend traditional values that one is brought up with since birth; to a large extent, both

novels encourage the readers to have “myriad perspectives” or multiple identities when they

are stuck in an awkward situation where one is unable to choose between the culture that one

is brought up with and the new culture that ...

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...world in which we actually live.” (Sen)

However, at the same time, Biju’s experience in the U.S. and Boori Ma’s predicament

portrays the ugly side of globalization; poor people are being constantly exploited by the rich

people for their own material benefits. Thus, as a result of globalization, the rich become

richer and the poor become poorer. How many people will consider the production of a

branded product in a third-world country? Most people will be concerned with the design and

price of the product and not the horrible working conditions in which the workers toil to

produce the branded product. An important thing to note is that people’s material needs must

be met. Thus, at one level, it can be argued that capitalism has done a better job in fulfilling

these material needs than any other system yet invented; but this success has its costs.