A Study of Alienation in the Novels of Bapsi Sidhwa and Rohinton Mistry

Abstract

Bapsi Sidhwa and Rohinton Mistry are diasporic award winning Pakistani and Indian novelists respectively. Both of the writers have migrated to foreign countries; Bapsi Sidhwa to America and Rohinton Mistry to Canada. Bapsi Sidhwa was born in Karachi in 1939 which was then in undivided India while Rohinton Mistry was born in Bombay on July 3, 1952 after Independence of India. Both the writers mentioned here, are Parsis and their community made India its home some centuries ago after the Arab invasion on Persia (Iran). According to Jagdish Batra, “Their exodus to India started after a century or so. The documentary evidence speaks of a stream of migrants from 785 to 1021 A.D. However, trade and cultural relations between India and Persian Empire existed since, at least, the third century A.D. According to Kissa-I Sanjan written in Persian by Dastur Sanjana, the migrating Parsis were received by the king of a coastal region in Gujarat- Jadhav Rana, who gave them permission to settle down on certain conditions.” (Rohinton Mistry: Identities, Values and Other Sociological Concerns 34) They can be said to lead a life of up rootedness from their original roots. But the migration of Bapsi Sidhwa and Rohinton Mistry to foreign lands is tantamount to their ‘doubly displaced’ status. As the Parsis were forced into exile by the Islamic conquest of Persia, both-Bapsi Sidhwa and Rohinton Mistry’s are in Diaspora even in India as their ancestors were also included the lot of the exiled Parsis. It is for this reason that their writings are replete with the experience of double displacement. The present paper intends to find out the phenomenon of this feeling of search for their lost home and also tries to find out to which extent these elements of alienation and marginality are present in their novels with special reference to The Bride, An American Brat and The Crow Eaters of Bapsi Sidhwa and A Fine Balance,, Family Matters and Such a Long Journey of Rohinton Mistry.