Transnationalism and the Migrant Minds: The Journey of M.G Vassanji’s Diasporic Consciousness
Transnationalism and the Migrant Minds: The Journey of M.G Vassanji’s Diasporic Consciousness

Summary/Abstract: M.G Vassanji, himself an Indian diaspora, has depicted in his works the paradoxical situation of the immigrants laying emphasis on the sociopolitical concerns that have had an impact on the migrant minds . The national boundaries for the migrants become some times less real and more arbitrary because as they move from one space to another and from there to the next, they keep positioning some thing of the cultural ethos of that particular country in themselves. They are in search of stability, tormented by the marginalization and the growing feeling of rejection at each adopted homeland. This paper shall deal with the journey of the diasporic consciousness of M.G.Vassanji through a study of his works in chronological order. A reading of The Gunny Sack(1989),No New Land(1990), Uhuru Street (1990),The Book of Secrets,(1993), Amrika (2000),The In Between World of Vikram Lall (2003), The Assassin’s Song (2007),The Place Within, Rediscovering India (2008) reveals a continuously evolving meaning of India –the land of his origin. This article shall focus on the changing paradigm of Vassanji from the outer to the inner world of the diaspora and also the relevance of India to Vassanji in the course of his writings. Political contexts play a significant role on Vassanji’s story telling and artistic imagination. His works trace the history of the Indians who arrive in East Africa and each successive novel narrates their journey from one land to another through the changing times and political conditions. The early works are a search for stability, for identity but as he proceeds he moves ahead of the earlier trauma and non-adaptability in the adopted homeland thus delineating his changing diasporic consciousness.

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