In Search of Home: Diasporic Identity and Belonging in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake

Abstract

Diasporic narratives have enriched the oeuvre of post-colonial studies since the late 20^th century, with Indian diasporic writers like Jhumpa Lahiri, Salman Rushdie, and Amitav Ghosh contributing significantly to its growth and discussion.  The “displacement” of the immigrant crossing the borders of the homeland into the culturally different environment of the host nation places them in a state of perpetual motion and flux, as they are neither here nor there, struggling to define the contours of their identity and find a sense of belonging. Homi K Bhabha defines this state as living in the “interstices”, existing between borders, creating fluid identities and cultural hybridity and placing them in constant transit. Avtar Brah in her Cartographies of Diaspora explores how the diasporic individual is dispersed from a centre, a locus, or a ‘home’; a ‘home’ as V.S. Naipaul claims, can be visited but not returned to. In this state of liminality, the diaspora builds imaginary homelands as observed by Salman Rushdie. Their struggle is not only to find physical and financial security in the host land, but also to manoeuvre the plurality in identity, nationality, and everyday existence. These experiences are explored with emotional depth and critical vision in the works of the Indian-American author Jhumpa Lahiri. This paper attempts to trace how the characters in her debut novel The Namesake (2003) navigate the lucid lines of identity, home and belonging.