Diaspora literature, Diaspora term, diaspora features, diasporic writers

Diaspora literature, Diaspora term, Diasporic writers

"Diaspora Literature"

Introduction:

The term Diaspora comes from the words “die” meaning “away” and Sieirein meaning “scatter” or “sow”. Connotatively, Diaspora has been defined variedly. Initially applied to refer to the dispersal of Jews outside Israel, the term Diaspora as per the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 

“The movement of people from any nation or group away from their own country”

A distinction is often made between the two, i.e., Diaspora with ‘D’ in the upper class and Diaspora with ‘d’ in the lower case; the former stands for dislocation of Jews and the latter stands for cross-cultural displacement in a very general sense. The Diaspora is also sometimes used to connote the evolution of human civilization all over the world. The origination of the primitive human and subsequent dispersal to establish human societies in different parts of the world signifies Diaspora and diasporic condition.

Definition: Diaspora;

“A Diaspora is a social construct founded consciousness, memory, mythology, history, meaningful narratives, group identity, and longings, dreams allegorical and virtual elements, all of which play an important role in establishing a Diaspora reality. At a moment of time the sense of connection to homeland must be strong enough to resist forgetting, assimilating or distancing.”

Above definition pinpoints the six feature of Diaspora viz

1) History of dispersal

2) Myths and memories of the homeland remembered or kept alive

3) Alienation in the host country 

4) Desire for eventual return 

5) Ongoing support of homeland and lastly

6) A collective identity defined by the above relationship.

Distinction between exile and Diaspora:

We could also draw a distinction between exile and Diaspora. Exile emphasizes of the forced nature of the migration and the freshness of the experience of leaving the homeland; exile is not neutral and exiled peoples usually possess a single-minded desire to return to their homeland. Time is also a factor, exile literature may be written during the Babylonian exile of the sixth century B.C.E, when the experience and memory of it was still vivid.

In contrast, living “in Diaspora” may assume a certain accommodation to living away from the homeland-and a sense that it is possible to survive and even thrive in the adopted country. Diaspora implies a more neutral or even a more positive view than exile does. Diasporic literature may be mindful of the ancestral native land, but the nostalgia for it has lessened, if not disappeared. And diasporic literature is, moreover, engaged by the possibilities of the new location.

 Finally, it may be written well after the Babylonian exile by Jews who chose not to return. Diasporic living stops short of assimilation because the community still maintains its distinctive identity and its status as a minority people.

Development of Diaspora:

In Ancient Greece the term Diaspora hence meant "scattering" and was inter alia used to refer to citizens of a dominant city-state who immigrated to a conquered land with the purpose of colonization, to assimilate the territory into the empire. An example of a Diaspora from classical antiquity is the century-long exile of the Messenians under Spartan rule and the Alginates as described by Thucydides in his "history of the Peloponnesian wars."

Its use began to develop from this original sense when the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek; the first mention of a Diaspora created as a result of exile is found in the Septuagint,

1)Deuternomy   28:25 phrase ἔσῃἐνδιασπορᾷ ἐν πάσαις ταῖς βασιλείαις τῆςγῆς, esē en Diaspora en pasaistaisbasileiaistēsgēs, translated to mean "thou shalt be a dispersion in all kingdoms of the earth"

2)Psalms 146(147).2, phrase οἰκοδομῶνἸερουσαλὴμ ὁ Kύριος καὶ τὰςδιασπορὰς τοῦἸσραὴλ ἐπισυνάξει, oikodomōnIerousalēm ho Kyrioskaitas diasporas touIsraēlepisynaxē, translated to mean "The Lord doth build up Jerusalem: he gathered together the outcasts of Israel".

So after the Bible's translation into Greek, the word diaspora would then have been used to refer to the Northern Kingdom exiled between 740–722 BC from Israel by the Assyrians, as well as Jews, Benjaminites, and Levites exiled from the Southern Kingdom in 587 BC by the Babylonians, and from Roman Judea in 70 AD by the Roman Empire. It subsequently came to be used to refer to the historical movements and settlement patterns of the dispersed indigenous population of Israel. In English when capitalized and without modifiers, the term refers specifically to the Jewish Diaspora; when uncapitalized the word Diaspora may be used to refer to refugee or immigrant populations of other origins or ethnicities living "away from an established or ancestral homeland". The wider application of Diaspora evolved from the Assyrian two-way mass deportation policy of conquered populations to deny future territorial claims on their part.

 The term became more widely assimilated into English by the mid-1950s, with long-term expatriates in significant numbers from other particular countries or regions also being referred to as a Diaspora. An academic field, Diaspora studies, has become established relating to this sense of the word.

Characteristics of Diaspora:

1. They, or their ancestors, have been dispersed from a specific original “center” to one or more peripheral, or foreign, regions.

2. They retain a collective memory, vision, or myth about their original homeland-its physical location, history, and achievements and, often enough, sufferings.

3. They believe that they are not, and perhaps cannot be, fully accepted by their host society and therefore feel partly alienated and insulted from it.

4. They regard their ancestral homeland as their true, ideal home and as the place to which they or their descendants would (or should) eventually return-when conditions are appropriate.

5. They believe that they should, collectively, be committed to the maintenance or restoration of their original homeland and to its safety and prosperity.

6. They continue to relate, personally or vicariously, to that homeland in one way or another, and their ethno communal consciousness and solidarity are importantly defined in terms of the existence of such a relationship. The absence of such a relationship makes it difficult to speak of transnationalism.

7. They share a common notion of “peoplehood” not only with the homeland but with ethnic kin in other countries.

8. They are willing to survive as a minority by maintaining and transmitting a cultural and/or religious heritage derived from their ancestral home.

9. In structuring their communities and adapting to their host lands, Diasporas become themselves independent centers of cultural creation continue to contain certain ethno symbols, customs and communal institution.

10. Their cultural, religious, economic, and/or political relationship with the homeland are reflected in a significant way in their communal institution.

There are many other landmarks created by the diasporic literature.

- It has helped to understand and form potentials and core competencies.Access made available to educational, social, professional opportunities and political empowerment.

- It has made possible the removal of all kinds of limitations and barriers- traditional, cultural, linguistic etc.

- It ignites and synergies common and shared values in addition to coalition building among the social and political diaspora.

- In addition to strengthening, it also enhances ties and bonds with others countries. To mention a few are the neighboring countries including Pakistan, China, Bangladesh and other Asian Countries.

- Diasporic literature also helps countries to bring about a strategic partnership based on prosperity, security and commitment to freedom and peace.

General features of Diaspora writing:

The diasporic writer differs not only in the theme but they also differ based on the generation/ ages. The first generation of the diasporic writers’ writing may be different from the second and third generations. Most of the first generation diasporic writers locate their works in their home country as well as in the settled country. They do this because; they are familiar with the “culture and geographical location of their countries of origin”.

Through their writing, they inform about their earlier life patterns. Most of the second generation Diaspora, on the other hand, accept the land in which they are born as their homeland. They are not happy about the way their parents’ live. It leads to several kinds of misunderstanding between both generations.

Webner feels that the central theme if these writers is “The sexual politics of the family, represented by the struggler of a younger…against arranged marriages imposed by authoritarian, coercive, gerontocratic elders”.

The study of Diaspora helps to select some of the diasporic themes found in diasporic narrative such as:

• Dislocation
• Nostalgia
• Discrimination
• Survival
• Cultural change 
• Gender in equality

Moves in Diaspora:

There are two main moves in Diaspora:

• Temporal move
• Spatial move

The temporal move is looking back at the past (analepsis) and looking forward at the future. (prolepsis)

The spatial move involves two things: de-territorialization (the loss of territory. It is both geographical and cultural) and a re-teritorialization (restructuring of a place or territory that has experienced de-territorialization.

Types of Diaspora:

There are mainly four kinds of Diaspora:

1. Victim Diaspora
2. Trading Diaspora
3. Imperial Diaspora
4. Labor Diaspora

Victim Diaspora (Refugee): 

A class of people who have been banished from their place of origin and sent to another land. Usually a result of a traumatic event like conquest, persecution, enslavement, genocide or exile. Victim Diaspora is also called ‘catastrophic’ Diaspora.

EX: Africans in the North Atlantic Slave Trade

Trading Diaspora (business/professional):

 A community, often members of an extended family, that goes abroad to conduct trade in a host society. The 'family firm'. They receive permission from the government learn local language and customs, but do not assimilate.

EX: Jews, Armenians, Chinese, Arabs, Indians

Imperial Diaspora (colonial):

 Migrants who go to another land that has been conquered by their own nation and enjoy higher status on account of their ethnic ties to the ruling power. Do not adapt to customs, locals adapt to their customs.

EX: The Spanish and the Indians, Mexico's caste system

Labor Diaspora (service):

 Indentured servants and labor migrants.

EX: colonial America

Cultural Diaspora (hybrid/postmodern):

 Caribbean and today’s Chinese and Indian

Levels of development in Diaspora:

Tinajero identifies five different levels of diasporas involvement in development, ranked from lowest participation to highest.

• Receiving information:

Members of diasporas passively received information on development related initiatives in their home countries.

• Passive information gathering:

Members of diasporas provide information to interested parties, often governments in their home countries.

• Consultation:

Development actors, including governments, consult members of diasporas to inform policy or practice.

• Collaboration:

Members of diasporas share responsibilities, either by delegating tasks to other actors, or by jointly designing and /or implementing development interventions.

• Self-mobilization:

Members of diasporas retain full ownership and responsibility for development initiatives.

Indian Diaspora:

The Indian Diaspora is a generic term to describe the people who migrated from territories that are currently within the borders of the Republic of India. It also refers to their descendants. The Diaspora is currently estimated to number over twenty million, composed of "NRIs" (Indian citizens not residing in India) and "PIOs" (Persons of Indian Origin who have acquired the citizenship of some other country). The Diaspora covers practically every part of the world. It numbers more than a million each in eleven countries, while as many as twenty-two countries have concentrations of at least a hundred thousand ethnic Indians
.

There are three categories of overseas Indians.

• NRI’s: Indian citizens staying abroad for indefinite period for whatever purpose (Majority in Gulf).

• PIO’s: Overseas Indian who have become citizen of the countries of their settlement.

• SPIO: Stateless Person of Indian Origin has no documents to substantiate their Indian Origin. (Majority in Myanmar and Sri Lanka)

The diasporic writings have also helped in casting a new aura around global India and have also contributed in building a novel image of India abroad. All this helps in strengthening bonds between various countries and they begin to relate through historical, cultural, social, traditional and economic ties.

A famous American travelogue says of India,

“India is the cradle of the human race, the birth place of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend and great grandmother of tradition.”

Indian origin of Diaspora:

The history of migration from India dates back at least two thousand years. The first migration from modern-day India took place at around the time of the reign of Emperor Kanishka (around the 1st century AD). This group of migrators was the Romani people, now known all around the world as “gypsies”, from what today is the Indian state of Rajasthan. They emigrated from India towards the northwest and eventually settled in Eastern Europe.

The incorporation of the British Empire in India can be linked to the existence of modern Indian Diaspora all over the world. Dating back to nineteenth century, Indian indentured labor was taken over to the British colonies in different parts of the world. Places like Fiji, Mauritius, Guyana, Trinidad, Surinam, Malaysia, South Africa, Sri Lanka... leave the foot prints of Indian immigration in a peculiar way. Over two million Indian men fought on behalf of the empire in several series of wars fought abroad, including the Boer War and the two World Wars, and some remained behind to claim the land on which they had fought as their own. In the early part of 20th century many Gujarati traders left for East Africa in large numbers as if it's an emulation of their ancestors.

In the post World War II period, most of the Indian labor and professionals scattered and it was a worldwide phenomenon. The reconstruction of Europe after the war was provided by Indian and other South Asians, particularly in United Kingdom and Netherlands. In the more recent years the physical landscape of much of the Middle East is transformed by unskilled labours from South Asia. Indians have made their presence visibly felt in professions in countries like the United States, Canada and Australia. The most recent development of the Indian Diaspora is the so-called “Gulf Diaspora”. The more recent migration of skilled and highly-skilled labor went to the developed countries like the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand and formed parts of new Indian Diaspora. The lower skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled labor immigrated to the Gulf region.

Writers of Indian Diaspora:

Writers of Diaspora Indian English literature can be divided into two categories: first generation immigrants and second generation immigrants. First generation immigrants writers become representatives of immigrants who have lived a considerable period of time in their motherland and now are trying to adopt into new contexts after immigration whereas second generation immigrant whereas second generation immigrant writers represent the descendants of first generation immigrants. Amita Ghosh, Salman Rashdie, Kamala Markandaya, Bharti Mukherjee,  Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Anita Desai, Kiran Desai,Vikram Seth, Meena Alexander, Sunetra Gupta, Arvind Aditya, Vikram Chandra, Neel Mukherjee, Hari Kunzru, Thrity Umrigar, sameena Ali, Kalyan Rai, Raja Rao, Anurag Mathur are some of the prominent writer of diasporic Indian English Literature.

Chitrabenerjee Divakaruni is an Indian American poet. Her works are largely set in the United States as well as in India. Her focus sometimes is on the experience of South Asian migrants. Her female protagonists are memorable and real representations of diasporic Indian women. Tilo in The Mistress of Spices(1997) is a genuine representative of diasporic identity.

Manjula Padmanabhan was born in India and grew up in swede, Pakistan and Trinidad. Marginalization and separation are the themes of her writing. Her semi-autobiographical work ‘Getting There’ depicts the plight of young woman illustrator in Bombay.

Anita RaoBadami is a writer of South Asia who settled in Canada. Her novels handle with intricacies of Indian family life, cultural gap that is encountered by the immigrants who settle in the west. 

Salman Rushdie was born in India and studied at Cambridge in England. His themes are innovative and about migration and spiritual alienation.

Kiran Desai is an Indian author. She grew up in India, the U.K. and the U.S.A. where she has settled down. Her debut novel, ‘Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard’ praised so much for its subtle portrayal of India.

Anita Nair’s, ‘The better man’ and ‘Ladies coupe’

Anita Desai’s, ‘Fire on the Mountain’ and ‘Bye Bye Black Bird’

Kamala Marklandaya’s some novels, Nectar in the Sieve (1954) and A Handful of Rice(1966),portrays the harsh economical  reality in the rural India. Her notable works are Some Inner Furry (1957), A Silence of Desire (1961), Possession (1963) and The Coffer Dams (1969).

NayantaraSahgal’s novels, A Time to be Happy (1958), This Time of Morning (1968), Storm in Chandigarh (1069), A Situation in New Delhi (2008) portrayed a theme of marriage, with major political events in background. Her other works that voice women’s plight are ADayin Shadow(1971), Plans for Departure (1985), Mistaken Identity (2007), LesserBreeds(2003), and Rich Like Us (1983).

Bhartimukhrjee, her earlier works, such as The Tiger's Daughterand parts of Days and Nights in Calcutta, are her attempts to find her identity in her Indian heritage.

The works of Indian diaspora women writers in the twenty-first century furnish the examples of a whole range of attitudes towards the imposition of tradition, some offering an analysis of the family structure and the caste system as the key elements of patriarchal social organization. They also re-interpret mythology by using new symbols and subverting the canonical versions. The works of Indian women writers are very significant in making society.

Indian Diasporic Works:

• Literature of the Indian Diaspora by Vijay Mishra
• Diaspora by Greg Egan
• Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee
• Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry
• Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
• The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
• Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai
• Nomadic Identities: The performance of citizenship by May Joseph
• Global diasporas by Robin Cohen
• New diasporas by Nicholas Van Hear
• ‘post’-9/11 South Asia Diasporic Fiction: Uncanny Terror by Pei-Chen Liao
• The practice of Diaspora by Brent Hayes Edwards
• Diaspora Identities: Exile, Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism in Past and Present by Kristen Heinsohn and Susanne Lachenicht

African Diaspora:

African Diaspora is the term commonly used to describe the mass dispersion of peoples from Africa during the Transatlantic Slave Trades, from the 1500s to the 1800s. This Diaspora took millions of people from Western and Central Africa to different regions throughout the Americas and the Caribbean. During the Atlantic slave trade, 9.4 to 12 million people from West Africa survived transportation to arrive in the Americas as slaves. This population and their descendants were major influences on the culture of British, French, Portuguese, and Spanish New World colonies. Prior to the trans-Atlantic slave trade, millions of Africans had moved and settled as merchants, seamen and slaves in different parts of Europe and Asia. From the 8th through the 19th centuries, an Arab-controlled slave trade dispersed millions of Africans to Asia and the islands of the Indian Ocean.

In Black Europe and the African Diaspora, Alexander Weheliye writes a section and clearly explains diaspora this way: "Diaspora offers pathways that retrace levering of difference in the aftermath of colonialism and slavery, as well as the effects of other forms of migration and displacement. Thus, diaspora enables the desedimentation of the nation from the ‘interior’ by taking into account the groups that fail to comply with the reigning definition of the people as a cohesive political subject due to sharing one culture, one race, one language, one religion, and so on, and from the 'exterior' by drawing attention to the movements that cannot be contained by the nation’s administrative and ideological borders".

Currently, migrant Africans can only enter 13 African countries without advanced visas. In pursuing a unified future, the African Union (AU) will allow people to move freely between the 54 countries of the AU under a visa free passport and encourage migrants to return to Africa. Studies of African Diasporas can be divided into two broad categories.

1. There are those that discuss the patterns of dispersal of African peoples around the world and the kinds of diasporic identities these populations developed in their new locations.
2. Some studies are concerned with analyzing the various linkages that the Diasporas have maintained with Africa.

Writer of African Diaspora:

Contemporary African Literature continues to grow in leaps and bounds with every year ushering in a new brilliant voice. Gone are days when Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka were the only names that came to mind when one thought about literature from the continent.

Today’s writers are bold, unique, and captivating in their various styles, broaching topics from queerness to gender identity, and West African mythology to postcolonial migration among other things. These are a new wave of literary voices emerging from diasporans originating from West Africa. In it evocative voices of the authors are Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Taiye Selasi, Teju cole, Chinelo Okparanta, Chika Unigwe, Imbolo Mbue, Chigozie obioma, Tomi Adeyemi, Akwaeke Emezi, Helen Oyeyemi, Yaa Gyasi, and others.

African Diasporic Works:

•  Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, What is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi,
•  A Grain of Wheat by Kenyan, 
• The Joys of Motherhood  by BuchiEmecheta,
•  Long Walk to Freedom  by Nelson Mandela,
•  Blind Spot by Teju Cole, 
• The Guardian by Chinelo Okparanta,
•  Behold The Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue.

European Diaspora:

Alexander the Great's conquest of the Achaemenid Empire marked the beginning of the Hellenistic period, characterized by a new wave of Greek colonization in Asia and Africa, with Greek ruling-classes established in Egypt, southwest Asia and northwest India. The Migration-Period relocations, which included several phases, are just one set of many in history.

The first phase Migration-Period displacement (between CE 300 and 500) included relocation of the Goths, Vandals, Franks, various other Germanic peoples, Alans and numerous Slavic tribes.

The second phase, between CE 500 and 900, saw Slavic, Turkic, and other tribes on the move, resettling in Eastern Europe and gradually leaving it predominantly Slavic, and affecting Anatolia and the Caucasus as the first Turkic tribes, as well as Bulgars, and possibly Magyars arrived.

The last phase of the migrations saw the coming of the Hungarian Magyars.

In 1492 a Spanish-financed expedition headed by Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas, after which European exploration and colonization rapidly expanded. Historian James Axtell estimates that 240,000 people left Europe for the Americas in the 16th century. Emigration continued. In the 19th century alone over 50 million Europeans migrated to North and South America. Other Europeans moved to Siberia, Africa, and Australasia.

American Diaspora:

The American diaspora or overseas Americans refers to the population of United States citizens who relocate, temporarily or permanently, to foreign countries.

There are a wide range of reasons for which Americans might emigrate from the country. While some emigrate for economic reasons, the United States' position as an affluent country and one of many immigrants means that many leave for a chance to experience other parts of the world, to return to their country of origin, for religious reasons, such as missionary work, or to escape policies of the American government. Americans do not easily have access to any foreign country for the purpose of permanent residence (with certain exceptions such as Jews emigrating to Israel), so the American diaspora is relatively small in comparison to the total American population.

With the ongoing problems with the American economy, and increase in economic opportunities for skilled laborers in emerging markets, economic opportunities are increasingly driving migration abroad, both for native-born Americans and naturalized immigrants returning to their home country.

Common reasons for living abroad are marriage/partnership, study, employment, and retirement. Since children born in the United States to non-citizens are granted U.S. citizenship, children born to migrant workers, temporary foreign employees on visas, or international students are U.S. citizens, and when they return to their countries of origin, they are also considered to be U.S. citizens living abroad. They are sometimes called "accidental Americans".

Jewish Diaspora:

The Jewish Diaspora had begun long before the Romans had even dreamed of Judaea. When the Assyrians conquered Israel in 722, the Hebrew inhabitants were scattered all over the Middle East; these early victims of the dispersion disappeared utterly from the pages of history. When Nebuchadnezzar deported the Judeans in 597 and 586 BC, he allowed them to remain in a unified community in Babylon. Another group of Judeans fled to Egypt, where they settled in the Nile delta. So from 597 onwards, there were three distinct groups of Hebrews: a group in Babylon and other parts of the Middle East, a group in Judaea, and another group in Egypt. Thus, 597 is considered the beginning date of the Jewish Diaspora.

While Cyrus the Persian allowed the Judeans to return to their homeland in 538 BC, most chose to remain in Babylon. A large number of Jews in Egypt became mercenaries in Upper Egypt on an island called the Elephantine. All of these Jews retained their religion, identity, and social customs; both under the Persians and the Greeks, they were allowed to run their lives under their own laws. Some converted to other religions.

 In 63 BC, Judaea became a protectorate of Rome. In 70 AD, a desperate revolt that ended tragically. In 73 AD, the last of the revolutionaries were holed up in a mountain fort called Masada; the Romans had besieged the fort for two years, and the 1,000 men, women, and children inside were beginning to starve. After 73 AD, Hebrew history would only be the history of the Diaspora as the Jews and their world view spread over Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Irish Diaspora:

A specific 19th-century is the Irish Diaspora, beginning in the mid-19th century and brought about by An GortaMór or "the Great Hunger" of the Irish Famine. An estimated 45% to 85% of Ireland's population emigrated to areas including Britain, the United States of America, Canada, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. The size of the Irish Diaspora is demonstrated by the number of people around the world who claim Irish ancestry; some sources put the figure at 80 to 100 million. some of Irish diasporic writer, John Banville, Anne Enright, David Park, Nuala O’ Connor, Colm Toibin, paula McGrath, Kevin Barry, Joseph O’Connor, and others.

New Diaspora:

A neo/new diaspora is the displacement, migration, and dispersion of individuals away from their homelands by forces such as globalization, neoliberalism, and imperialism. Such forces create economic, social, political, and cultural difficulties for individuals in their homeland that forces them to displace and migrate. (New links between émigrés and their home countries can become a powerful force for economic development.)

New/Neo diasporal or a build upon the standard meaning of diaspora in the sense that it is focused on the cultural, economic, political, and social causes driving it, as well as analyzing the multi-locality and self-consciousness developed by the social group. This concept also analyzes the ties within diaspora communities to their native lands, which are expressed through strong political and cultural participation in their ancestral lands. Other significant qualities of new/neo Diasporas are the thoughts of return to their native land, relationships with other communities in the diaspora, and lack of full assimilation to the host country.

Origin and development:

Then concept of neo/new diaspora is explained by Jaun Flores in his work The Diaspora strikes Back. In his book Flores also references Nicholas Van Hear’s book “New Diasporas” whom identifies the “new” period as the end of the cold War, as of the later 1980s. “Van Hear describes the many unprecedented features of contemporary migration patterns and densities as they issue from revolutionary developments in communications technology and transportation facilities unimagined in earlier historical periods.Recently scholars have begun to distinguish between different kinds of diaspora based on its causes such as globalization, neoliberalism, imperialism, or by the multi-locality among individuals of the diaspora community and their ties to their native lands.

Conclusion:

Diaspora, is therefore, a scattering of the seed in the wind, the fruits of which are a new creation and a fight to survive. Every diasporic movement holds a historical significance, as it carries within itself the kernel of the nations’s history. Diaspora is a journey towards self-realization, self-recognition, self-knowledge and self-definition. There is an element of creativity present in the diasporic writings and this creation stands as a compensation for the many losses suffered.

                                                                                                            - HIMANI MANGUKIYA