Stephen Gill's Immigrant :

A Study In Diasporic Consciousness

Nilofar Akhtar

The phenomena of Diaspora and expatriation are by all means an old one. However, its impact in the present times is larger and deeper. It has become a contemporary social trait and also, a literary genre. The growing incidence of the Diaspora has given place to dislocation, disintegration, dispossession and disbelongingness. The experience of expatriation not only gradually disconnects the individual from his roots, simultaneously it polarises his existence, which straddles between nationality and exile.

Here, at the onset it will only be apt to bring into light the historical significance of the Diaspora. All serious study of diaspora traces its history way back with ethnic Jewish model of diaspora. However, the term is widely used now for all the activities of expatriation, which lead to emotional and physical displacement. The modern Indian Diaspora began in the later half of the nineteenth century and counts for the bigwigs like Salman Rushdie and V.S.Naipaul. Stephen Gill is an India born Canadian writer who has successfully portrayed the diasporic consciousness of an immigrant who came to Canada in search for greener pastures and in the process physically and culturally alienates himself from his native place. His disillusionment is complete when he finds no takers of talent and qualifications. His cultural affinity with India makes him an alien in Canada where he makes repeated attempts to transmute and transform his identity.

Diaspora, therefore is an emotional and psychological state of (a) strutting between two geographical and cultural states (b) struggling between regression and progression, dislocation and then, relocation. This continuum of perpetual shift between two states of dislocation and relocation makes one interrogate the sustainability of an individual in such a situation. Diaspora relates to History and culture and this experience of inhabiting two history specific and culture specific spaces yields to subtle tension of dislocation and alienation. The strategy that accounts for such cultural shock of a migrant as that he tries to construct multiple identity and develops a hybrid vision, which eventually becomes an ongoing process for adaptation.

In an essay published in the 80's, Salman Rushdie has brought out the agony and the ecstasy of being an expatriate:

Exiles or immigrants or expatriates are haunted by some sense of loss, some urge to reclaim, to look back, even at the risk of being mutated into pillars of salt. ¹

He shares his own diasporic experience, thus:

But if we do look back, we must also do so, in the profound knowledge - which gives rise to profound uncertainties - that our physical alienation from India almost inevitably means that we will not be capable of reclaiming precisely the thing that was lost; that we will, in short, create fictions not actual cities or villages, but invisible ones, imaginary homelands, Indias of the mind. ²

Stephen Gill has depicted, in his novel, this hybridity of the 'immigrant' who is strutting across two spaces - geographical and cultural. He is looking forward towards the country of his settlement for acceptance and involvement and simultaneously, yearning for his 'imaginary homeland'. With a backward glance, he moves on. Reghu Nath, the immigrant lives in Canada out of an option but never rules out the prospects of return. He opts for a migrant status in Canada and chooses to be an immigrant. However he could not break away clean from his own culture and carries the 'cultural baggage' with him.

His past experience as an Indian and his present status as a Canadian bring him close to socioeconomic and political contradictions. He understands the strategy of cultural sharing vis a vis survival in a new environment. As a highly qualified Indian, he finds himself unable to get a good job in Canada and feeds on local welfare schemes.

Reghu grew more and more restless and worried with the passage of time. The more he considered the future and his security, the more nervous he became. He hated the idea of being a parasite on society by living on welfare. The way it was handled was humiliating and disdainful. Even the man at the welfare office behaved as if he were doling out money to robbers under sheer compulsion. There seemed no mutual respect and understanding between the recipients and the office staff. ³

Reghu Nath becomes a victim of such socio-economic and political contradictions which give rise to (a) either marginalisation of cultures or, (b) cross cultural communication (which is a milder expression of submission). An immigrant is constantly in pulls and pressures and suffers a marginalized existence as he carries with himself, the 'cultural baggage' of his ' homeland’, which exists only in the figment of his imagination.

What I am attempting to formulate in this essay are the Diaspora sensibilities of an Indian student in Canada, where he tries to build strategies of cultural identification. Gill, like other writers of the Diaspora, has narrated these experiences in a wide range of his literary narratives. It might be interesting to note that around thirty of notable writers of India are either settled in U.K., U.S.A., Canada and so on or keep shifting base between India and abroad. Stephen Gill reflects upon the issues of expatriation in a way which is different from other practioners of diasporic writings. In the case of Reghu Nath, who moves away from India to Canada, in the process accentuates both a sense of loss and cultural and geographical alienation. He tries to deracinate himself but fails. His appearance, language, accent, knowledge, every aspect of his personality betrays him in Canada.

Reghu knew that he spoke English with an accent. Whenever he thought of it, he felt ashamed, considering the time he had spent on his studying in India to be partly wasted. His teachers all Indians, never bothered to correct his pronunciation. Perhaps they had the same problem... His command of a wide vocabulary did not help him; on the contrary, it impeded his conversation as he paused to determine which word was the appropriate one to use. ⁴

As an immigrant, Reghu is caught between identity crisis and cross-cultural communication and as a consequence develops a double vision, a hybrid glance to combat such a marginalized existence. Salman Rushdie, in his essay 'Imaginary Homelands' has reflected on this issue, thus :

Our identity is at once plural and partial. Sometimes we feel we straddle two cultures; at other times, that we fall between two stools ... But however ambiguous and shifting this ground may be it is not an infertile territory for a writer to occupy. If literature is in part the business of finding new angles at which to enter reality, then once again our distance, our long geographical perspective, may provide us with such angles. ⁵

Thus, an immigrant 'falls between two stools' and perceives actions, events and experience in a relative light. This openness of perception and double vision comes as a by-product of diaspora and helps an expatriate to make the recognition that the world is an open platform where different interpretation of one action / event / experience may be possible. Gill sees the predicament of Reghu from political angle, too and apprehends Canadians' policy of exclusion as a desperate bid to tarnish the image of Canada. At the other end, Gill also makes Reghu see all the discrepancies which are prevalent in his own country hampering its progress, thereby. His long sojourn away from home brings into him a perpetual physical and emotional dislocation, which signifies his diasporic consciousness. His long physical absence from India makes him see through things. He understands that there are advantages of being positioned at a distance from ones own country. For one, he could now see that reality is a relative term and it is coloured by our personal likings and aversions.

Reghu was driven to thinking about his own country, where he had held a good position before coming to Canada. It would be hard to return to find another job in his country, which was beset with problems of its own. ⁶

An immigrant draws on two distinct cultural modes and is caught between two sets of ideologies - walking across two terrains, dwelling much on either side and in the attempt disrupting long established epistemological notions. Thus, Reghu Nath ruminates over socio political issues of India and Canada.

The thing about India that pained him most was the mockery of democracy. But then this mockery existed in one form or another, in all countries. Reghu scrutinized different corners of the globe to find one spot where the ugly head of mockery had not risen. Soon he realized that every region and nation has been plagued by its peoples narrow mindedness and prejudices, the difference only in degree and kind. With that Reghu's eyes grew heavy. He fell asleep, his thoughts settling on the determination to stay in Canada, the land he would adopt and love by choice, not by accident. ⁷

Reghu's opting for Canada over India is a tell tale sign of diasporic consciousness which is increasing fast, today. Post independence, there has been a rampant growth in the rate of immigration in tandem with growing rate of foreign investment and advancement of information technology yielding much to the new concept of 'global trotting'.

A diasporic writer as the global trotter operates from out side India giving authentic literary representations of their diasporic consciousness. An Indian national emigrates in order to have better job prospects and excellent quality of life. For this purpose, he foregoes his home, society and nationality. He finds lacunas in the so-called legal, social, economic and political set ups of his country with a dire urge to succeed and obtain the much coveted NRI status, he leaves behind his home and chooses exile. The act of immigration has socio political implications as well. Some find Indian tradition and culture suffocating and look forward to a more liberal society where there are less or absolutely no social / sexual mores. But, this new environment also brings them the cultural shock and they are left bewildered and uprooted at the indenture of their new abode. However, very few return to India even after their disenchantment is complete. Thus, the concept of 'home' becomes a nostalgia, a pleasant reminiscence of the past which is ideal but never real. There are still some who retain their native connection and live in the country of their choice without loosing touch with their own culture. Reghu, as an expatriate decides to stay back (like his author who has narrated such diasporic experiences through his writings - poems, travelogue and fiction).

Reghu is conscious of his diasporic existence which means that he suffers from dislocation, dispossession, alienation, hybridity and above all dissatisfaction on 'not belonging to' the new country. "Unbelongingness' in made a virtue, a celebration of his diasporic existence and he accepts it in order to survive in the center margin construct which is constituted on the binary notions of master / slave, imperial / colonial, coloured / white, we / the other.

Then, the issue of identity forms the core of the diasporic consciousness Reghu meets ill treatment and racial slurs at the hands of the Canadian. The moment one becomes an expatriate, he needs to define himself as the new environment compels him to do so. In this attempt of self definition one may either assimilate his identity with his host country thereby severing all ties with his native country, or he may resume his Indianness and see the people around as 'the other', cultural assimilation and cultural alienation are the two extremes within which an expatriate tries to adjust himself to Reghu depicts such confusion of life and living, declining values, loss of compassion and trust and submits to his new environment by adopting the strategy of "excessive belonging". He concludes that human beings were basically alike everywhere.

Men and women all over the world are the same basically. These so called cultures are man made and cause confusion and anarchy. A university bred girl from India can be a worse wife than a Canadian educated girl. ⁸

He uses this strategy of excessive belonging in order to gain ground in a new milieu and interrogates the concept of nation and nationality. For an expatriate, ‘home’ is a recurrent theme as Indians are more attached to its concept. In Reghu’s case, living abroad for long, he suffers a break up with family and loses a sense of protection which it provides. Neither can he go back for he is short of money. Between home and exile, there is a tight rope walking for him which make him revert to the strategy of “excessive belongingness”. With globalization, more and more people are moving from one part of the world to another. They now prefer ‘to gravel’ than to ‘be home’. Like Reghu, people are leaving their secured home for ‘the journey outward’. Disillusioned, they might be but are least willing to go back. Reghu understands such contemporary cosmopolitan trend of dislocation where ‘centrality’ and ‘marginality’ have blurred and overlapped each other. He is against any kind of center be it colonial or national and favours ‘decentering’ much like his narrator. Dismissive towards the concept of culture, nation and nationality, ‘the immigrant’ advocates the formation of new cultural configurations, which may help in the assimilation, and understanding of divergent groups and societies.

References

1. Salman Rushdie, “The Indian Writer in England”, The Eye of the Beholder : Indian writing in English, ed. M. Butcher (London: Common Wealth Institute, 1983), p. 83.

2. Ibid., 83.

3. Stephen Gill, Immigrant (Ontario: Vesta, 1982), p. 79.

4. Ibid., p. 19.

5. Salman Rushdie, “Imaginary Homelands”, London Review of Books, 7 – 20, October, 1982, p. 18.

6. Stephen Gill, Immigrant, p. 33.

7. Ibid., p. 34.

8. Ibid. ,p. 66.

This paper is to be included in Dr. Nilanshu Kumar Agarwal’s forthcoming book Discovering Stephen Gill: A Collection of Papers and Articles.

Nilofar Akhtar is a lecturer in English at Govt. P.G. College in Champawat, Uttarakhand, India