MULTICULTURALISM AND ASPECTS OF GLOBALISATION IN KIRAN DESAI’S INHERITANCE OF LOSS

Abstract

Indian English Literature pertains to the body of work by writers from India, who pen strictly in the English language and whose native or co-native language could be one of the numerous regional and indigenous language of India. English literature in India is also intimately linked with the works of associates of the Indian Diaspora. Among other writers, Kiran Desai is one of the most renowned writers in the Indian English Literature. With Kiran Desai, a literary tradition is reborn. One of the major themes in the novel is multiculturalism. Multiculturalism relates to communities containing multiple cultures. The term is used in two broad ways, either descriptively or normatively. As a descriptive term it usually refers to the simple fact of cultural diversity. It is generally applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, sometimes at the organizational level, eg: school, businesses, cities, or nations. As a normative term, it refers to ideologies or policies that promote this diversity or its institutionalization. In this sense, multiculturalism is a society at ease with the rich tapestry of human life and the desire amongst people to express their own identity in the manner they see as fit. Such ideologies or policies vary widely, including country to country. Another major theme in the novel is globalization, which is a process of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, and other aspects of culture. Advances in transportation and telecommunications infrastructure, including the rise of the telegraph and its posterity the Internet, are majorfactors in globalization, generating further interdependence of economic and cultural activities. The term globalization has been increasing use since the mid-1980s and especially since the mid-1990s. The term globalization is derived from the word globalize, which refers to the emergence of an international network ofsocial and economic systems. This paper attempts to analyze Kiran Desai’s novel The Inheritance of Loss to bring out the various aspects of multicultural clashes and globalization.