Colonialism In Kiran Desai's 'The Inheritance Of Loss'

The Inheritance of Loss deals with current issues like globalization ,multiculturalism immigration, westernization, post colonialism, terroristic violence, racial discrimination, alienation, exile and others. The major theme running throughout is one closely related to colonialism and the effects of post colonialism- the loss of identity and the way it travels through generations as a sense of loss. The novel also deals with a number of present day issues like economic inequality, poverty, fundamentalism and terrorist violence and so on. The majority of characters in the novel are, in one way or the other, displaced. They cling on to a questionable or mistaken identity- an identity undefined, unsearched for. A literary masterpiece, unputdownable and unquestionable in its flair for description, character scrutiny and mastery of human emotion.

Globalisation is one of the issues which has been dealt with seriously in the novel. Globalization is the convergent point of various cultures, emergence of brotherhood, integration, assisimilation et al. But globalization has its demerits also. The people seem to threaten each other, moral values are eroded, societal pressures crop up and eventhough people begin to understand and respect each other, they are thwarted by loss of identity. Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss present such a picture of globalized India. Globalization seems to be both a boon and a bane for the characters in the novel.The characters like Jemubhai Patel, Mr. and Mrs Mistry, Sai, Biju, Nonita and Lolita are the victims of globalization. It seems to be the key cause for both their suffering and progress. As an intelligent writer and careful observer of human behaviour, Kiran Desai fulfills the responsibility o...

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... inner self, of emotional immediacy and wholeness. This fractured state of existence, though experienced by all individuals, is particularly acute in the case of uprooted cosmopolitans, migrants and writers who challenge the bounds of national identities. (Sherry Simon 1996).

Hence , Desai here challenges the dominance of the West and makes a dig at the so-called orderly, civilized centre depicted by the West. In her novel, the portrayal of New York City, the centre of the centre- itself is the seat of disorder- illegal workers filling up the basements, religious people unmindful of their own religious disciplines and so on. Hence this chaotic revelation of the west both in the centre and periphery clearly unsettles the western hegemony and thwarts the reality of the center.