Alienation, Unhomeliness and Desire for Belonging in K.S. Maniam’s The Return (original) (raw)
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CULTURAL IDENTITY IN K. S. MANIAM'S RATNAMUNI
JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION, 2015
In his fiction, the Malaysian-Indian author, K. S. Maniam depicts the identity and culture of Malaysian-Indian. This is shaped with a collection of materials that are vital to keep the trace of ancestral identification marks, of retaining the status of being Indian, even though the land they live in is not India. In the new land the Indian community invests its new narrative of existence with a power structure to support the Diasporic Indian " self ". In Maniam's reconstruction of the Indian immigrant experience in Malaysia, there are the difficulties that the community faced when trying to recreate this world. Maniam depicts the rites of the complicated cultural issues in a Diasporic Indian community. In his reconstruction of the Indian immigrant experience of Malaya, One can see these previously peripheral characters as the agents of the Diasporic identity that the present day Malaysian-Indian has inherited. The passage of such identity formation, however, is demonstrated to be filled with the many snares of both colonial and postcolonial experiences. The present study examines Maniam's short story, Ratnamuni, from a Diaspora perspective. This study shows the way in which Maniam symbolically depicts the culture of a nation in Diaspora. INTRODUCTION The history of Malaysia, its development from colonialism to post-colonialism, and its movement towards multiculturalism are all important in appreciating not only the nation at a particular period of time of its development, but also the psyche of its individuals and its authors. Obviously, this reconstruction can never be wholly and inclusively a smooth and balanced affair, especially where the issues of gender, culture, race and identity are considered. Yet, the key element is that the power of narrativity in the hands of postcolonial writers allows for the reinsertion of the subaltern into written history. By looking back at history, one can find that Malaysian literature develops in its own root that Malay language has been used as a medium in writing. Malay writers, particularly, have talked about issues on patriotisms and nation building. However, the emergence of Malaysian writers from other races began and rose together with the development and modernization in Malaysia. Malaysia literature in English has developed over fifty years which is after the country independence. Concerning the Malaysian writers that come from different races, their literary works are also varied and touch the important multicultural issues ranging from broad questions of identity such as sense of home/homelessness, gender, language, multiculturalism and Diasporic perspective.
Themes of recognition and reification in KS Maniam's Novels
In the novels of the Malaysian Indian K. S. Maniam, the contestation of recognition and reification forms the central tension in the protagonists' identity development as members of a minority community in the multi-ethnic landscape of Malaya/Malaysia. Each central character's conflict lies in his/her ability/disability to balance accepting ethno-cultural recognition on the one hand and contesting the reification that the Indian ethnic group subjects him/her to on the other (subsequently championing what Michael Sandel coins an "unencumbered" sense of self – a self that is "free and independent" from "the sanctions of custom and tradition"). This paper discusses Maniam's three novels, The return, In a far country and Between Lives, to ascertain the extent to which recognition and reification are important themes in the award-winning novelist's corpus. Using the conceptualisation of recognition, reification and the unencumbered self, the paper investigates how Maniam's three Indian Malaysian protagonists, Ravi, Rajan and Sumitra, like most members of minority communities who are faced with the challenges of a multi-ethnic social landscape, challenge the ethno-cultural imposition that their own ethnic community subjects them to while realising the significance of culture towards a healthy sense of selves.
Ethnic Crisis and the Problematic of National Belonging in Two Novels from Northeast India
In a multicultural, multi-ethnic nation like India, where a number of smaller nationalities are still going through the painful process of nationality formation, the rather simplistic notion of a pan-Indian national identity that encompasses the smaller nationalities or sub-nationalities and assimilates them has come to be seriously questioned. A critique of such a notion of identity often concerns the novels written in various regional languages of the country as well as in recent English fiction from the northeast. Based on the reading of two novels, The Bharandas (2000) by the Assamese writer Umakanta Sarma and the English novel The Point of Return (2002) by Siddhartha Deb, dealing with the complex issues of ethnic crisis and national belonging, this paper makes an attempt to show how such novels endeavor to re-imagine or re-narrate the nation, foregrounding the imperatives of a multiple simultaneity in a plural and multicultural society. In narrating the nation and the issue of national identity or belonging, Umakanta Sarma's novel The Bharandas (original Assamese Bharanda Pakhir Jak, 1992; English version 2000) interrogates from the margin the nationalist narrative with its unitary impulse, critiquing the homogenising voice of the nation-state and the hegemony of the national and sub-national elites. Siddhartha Deb's English novel The Point of Return is a nuanced study of the historical context of the fractured relationship between tribals and non-tribals, the reconfigurations of post-colonial spaces in India's Northeast, and the resultant violence, uprootedness, alienation, and the continued memory of injustice and loss. The novel depicts the unhomely condition of the Bengali immigrants displaced by the Partition and ethnic violence Arindam Sarma
AGENCY THROUGH HINDU SPIRITUALITY IN K.S. MANIAM’S THE RETURN
JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION, 2016
Hinduism plays an integral role in the Malaysian Indian identity construction. Its philosophical and spiritual tenets provide a crucial epistemic understanding of selfhood and existence to the Malaysian Indians for them to live a meaningful and flourishing life. Nonetheless, there is a perceived lack of discussion on the transformative role of Hinduism to the Malaysian Indians. The existing body of research predominantly views Hinduism as an outward representation of the Malaysian Indian identity through its religious festivals, rituals, and ceremonies. Hinduism is deemed to either exacerbate their sense of alienation and marginalization in Malaysia or reiterate the community's nostalgic longing for Mother India. In this line of thought, religion is said to lack the capacity to grant agency to the Malaysian Indians. This article explores how these views are challenged by K.S. Maniam, a Malaysian Indian author who explores the transformative capacity of Hindu philosophy and spirituality to the Indian community in his literary works. Using Maniam's first novel, The Return (1982), this article explores the transformative role of spirituality in bestowing the Malaysian Indians an alternative form of agency. Maniam's narrative strategies reflect the Indian philosophy, Advaita Vedanta which stresses on the concept of " oneness " and the obliteration of the self-other and subject-object duality. Indian philosophy of space, time, reality and selfhood are woven into and embodied by one of the novel's main characters, Periathai. Periathai attains the highest form of Hindu identity, Atman or True Self through spiritual knowledge, rituals, and self-reflexivity. This article suggests adherence to Hinduism provides the Malaysian Indians the agency to transcend the corporeal and physical realms, deconstruct the normative view of Hinduism as an ethnocentric religious nostalgia for India, and challenge the idea that religion further aggravates the Malaysian Indian sense of marginalization and displacement.
2017
The coming of British to Malaya and the opening of rubber plantations, in the late 19th century, paved way for many people from India who were looking for a better life. To many Indians especially the Southerners, coming to Malaya was an escapism from the dire poverty that hit India at that time. Little did they know the struggle that they will have to go through in establishing a new home in a foreign land. This paper will probe into the struggles of these immigrants in Malaya during the pre and post independence years. This study will be based on the novels of two popular Indian writers, K.S. Maniam and M. Kumaaran. Maniam’s, In a far Country (1993) and Kumaaran’s, Semmannum Neela Malargalum (1971) which is written in Tamil, depict on the painful journey encountered by the immigrants and their descendents. They had to wade through displacement, frustration, poverty, rejection and caste system in order to establish a home in the new land. This paper will discuss the journey of thes...
K.S. Maniam, Jhumpa Lahiri, Shirley Lim: A Reflection of Culture and Identity
International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature, 2012
I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the culture of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any"-Mahatma Gandhi. With these sayings by Gandhiji, one will be able to understand why, even in a borderless world where the diffusion of races and culture happens all the time, and many would simply accept without restraint, the cultures and identity of their adopted land, there remain some writers who, despite being part of a new land, are still deeply influenced by their motherland and various aspects of life that are distinctive and peculiar to their motherland. The writers concerned in this paper are K.S Maniam, Shirley Lim and Jhumpa Lahiri. All these writers have nationalities not of their motherland, but somehow, their writings are usually immersed with the thoughts and culture of their motherland. In this study, we will examine the strong influences imbedded in these writers of the culture of their motherland despite being in their new land. We will also portray how some of the characters assimilate in their new land, whereas some still have a sense of belonging towards their motherland.
Reimagining Cultural Identity and Cosmopolitanism: The Literary World of K.S. Maniam
Comparative Literature: East & West, 2024
This paper delves into the reimagining of cultural identity through the corpus of a prominent Malaysian novelist, K.S. Maniam. By exploring Maniam’s novels within the framework of cosmopolitanism, which challenges traditional notions of exclusive and divisive cultural identities, this paper unravels the complex interplay between colonial legacies and contemporary cultural narratives in this Malaysian novelist’s canon. Maniam’s literary contributions as the finding indicates subvert historical constructs of race-based cultural identities in Malaysia, offering a compelling critique of the entrenched divisions perpetuated by colonial cultural projects. In addition, Maniam’s portrayal of characters navigates the complexities of identity beyond the rigid race-based categorizations of Malay, Chinese, and Indian found in many Malaysian works. Maniam’s works, as this paper illustrates, transcend the limitations imposed by colonial-era segregation, urging readers to incorporate a more inclusive and nuanced understanding of identity that draw parallels with the cosmopolitan ethos. We also extend the discussions further by positing that readers globally might explore Maniam’s profound reinterpretations of cultural identity, showcasing the enduring impact of his work in reshaping cultural narratives and advocating a cosmopolitan perspective on identity in our interconnected world.
A Poetics of Going Indian 2011 JÁ Kádár
Prints (1987) present identity as textuality, and narrativize the process of going Native (that is, ethnic identity transformation, or, indigenization) in historiographic metafiction and the post-colonial discourse in general. Ethnic identity transformation Ethnic studies may investigate the subjectivity of ethnicity, the concept of emblematic identity, or the symbolic processes to maintain ethnic boundary, and can apply findings in literary analyses. When reading postcolonial literature, it seems that the literary texts not only reflect these aspects of multiethnic societies, but also provide a more intimate understanding of individuals in passing and other ethno-cultural processes, as well as present some new perspectives that traditionally have been hidden by the colonial discourses. Furthermore, ethnic studies may investigate the culture-learning approach to acculturation, too. On the other hand, the literary texts call attention not only to the given central character's acculturation skills and opportunities, but also to our shared cultural sensibilities. Going Indian stories reveal our understanding of the self and Other, beyond the broader sociocultural context of cultural encounters and (ex)change.