The twice-displaced: mapping alternative diasporic identities in works by Ananda Devi and Nathacha Appanah

Abstract

In an increasingly globalised world, it would be interesting to study the works of authors who are of South Indian origin, born and bred in Mauritius and then relocated in Europe. This double displacement would normally call into question the notion of identity and belonging, given the complexity of the concept of ‘home’. This essay deals with not only the authors’ own migration, but also their characters’ displacement to Europe/India which mirrors their own. Additionally, it also calls into question the notion of identity and belonging. Nathacha Appanah's character, based in France, in La Noce d'Anna chooses a path that leads her away from her Indian roots. Moreover, Ananda's Les Hommes qui me parlent (2012) betrays a growing concern with identity and belonging in Ferney-Voltaire. This essay examines these two different paths and how the South Indian diaspora in Mauritius deals with their Indianness, faced with double displacement.

Keywords:

• Mauritian diaspora
• double displacement
• diasporic identities

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Ashwiny O. Kistnareddy’s research focuses on women's writing in the Indian Ocean, with particular interest in Mauritian writing. She has published a range of articles in English and French in reputed journals (Palabres (2011), Cahier du Grelcef (2014), Comparative Critical Studies (2013), Dalhousie French Studies (2012)), as well as contributed to volumes on women's writing in French (Ecritures mauriciennes au feminin, Women's writing in Twenty-first century France (2013), Rebelles et Criminelles (2013)). Her monograph on Ananda Devi, Locating Hybridity: Creole, Identities and Body Politics in Ananda Devi’s novels (Peter Lang 2015) has recently been published. Some of the themes that inform her research are: diaspora, exile and identity, hybrid cultures and languages, as well as gendered body politics.

Notes

1. After all I am like those trees with meandering roots [ … ] which are quickly perfectly able to root themselves in another land. (La Noce d'Anna, hereafter NA in the text, 58).

2. I feel the need to be rooted for I have been uprooted all my life. (Radio Interview on Les Hommes qui me parlent (hereafter HP) 2011).

3. Devi's female protagonists are caught in-between two identities: the first one as Indian and the second as Mauritians. While the men also face this identity issue, the psychological repercussions on women seem far more significant because they are under the men's rule in the novels. New values (education, equal status for women at work and in pay) clash against the outdated idea that men are superior and women should live in the shadows. This results in various forms of schizophrenia, multiple personality disorders and doublings in Devi's novels. For more information, see Ashwiny Kistnareddy, ‘Psychological dislocation in the novels of Ananda Devi’ Dalhousie French Studies (2011).

4. Social hierarchy is quite evident in such a society. The descendants of colonial masters enjoy a privileged position as the wealthiest strata of society, while the Indo-Mauritians hold the most political power. The Sino-Mauritians hold commercial leverage although their community is small compared to the Indo-Mauritians. The community which is underprivileged and holds the least political or economic power remains that of the Creoles, or those who are of mixed and African origins. Devi has written Pagli with this prejudice in mind.