Author(s): Akhila Raj

Abstract: India is considered a heterogeneous society having multiple cultures. This philosophical system is represented by what is called ‘unity in diversity’. In a multicultural society people of different cultures, races, ethnicities, nationalities live together. Several Indians migrated to totally different countries all over the world either as a part of colonization or for their work. Diasporic literature is the result of this migration. Cultural Pluralism, diversity or multiculturalism is apparent in diasporic literature especially in the works many Indian diasporic writers. Diasporic or migrant writers, particularly the Indian diaspora in the US and other parts of the world, have a noticeable impact on the contemporary literature. Some of the diasporic writers’ works are largely set in India, America and parts of the world. Being immigrants, they are caught between various cultures. In their novels, we can trace the challenges of living in a multicultural world, and also the issues faced by the Indian communities there. There are some Diasporic writers who have established themselves in the literary world such as V S Naipaul, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Bharathi Mukherjee, Anita Desai, Amitav Ghosh, Salman Rushdie, Jhumpa Lahiri, Shashi Tharoor, Meena Alexander, Kiran Desai etc. have attracted the readers through their uniqueness in themes, and the most important characteristics of these writers is the blending of various cultures. Whenever these writers accentuate the life of the characters in their novels, they use Indian culture or we can see the element of Indianness. This paper focuses on how multiculturalism influences the Diasporic writers like Bharathi Mukherjee and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.

Keywords: Cultural Pluralism, Diaspora, Diversity, Indianness, Multiculturalism.

Article Info: Received: 04 Apr 2021; Received in revised form: 07 May 2021; Accepted: 30 May 2021; Available online: 14 Jun 2021

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.63.45