Is Ethnic Identity Inexpugnable? : Reading Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss

Abstract

Abstract

iran Desai’s novel The Inheritance of Loss is an effort to expose the inner contours of identity. It is set in the background of two immigrants: one leaving his native land and going oceans to New York as an illegal immigrant and the other a comfortably placed upper middle-class judge who has western exposure and education, spent time in England and the immigrates to Kalimpong for a peaceful retired life. When these two characters visualize their identity they do not necessarily dwell upon issues of ethnicity. However Kiran Desai subtly brings into collusion the identity based needs of these two characters, Biju the son of the cook and Judge Jemubhai Patel. Like these two characters Gyan, the mathematics tutor of Judge Patel’s granddaughter is also presented as a typical Gorkha educated boy who has his aspirations that collide with his primordial given. This paper will discuss how these three characters despite all their aspiration are not able to escape their primordial givens but strive hard to rise above that and fit into different worlds of their making.