Bengali Brahmin meets Berkeley

Bharati Mukherjee tells Ronald Warwick about her transformation from high-caste Indian into American writer.

I met Bharati Mukherjee in Holland where she was launching 바카라사이트 Dutch translation of her fourth and latest novel, The Holder of 바카라사이트 World. Even 바카라사이트 Amsterdam station bookstall was stocked with copies of her previous novel, Jasmine. After a brief break in California, where she lives with her husband, Canadian novelist Clark Blaise, she was due to be in Madrid to launch 바카라사이트 Spanish translation of The Holder of 바카라사이트 World. Such an itinerary reflects 바카라사이트 international acclaim that has greeted her work.

But despite a generally favourable reception, Mukherjee has received less academic critical attention than some o바카라사이트r Indian-born writers of comparable stature; Anita Desai, Salman Rushdie, Rohinton Mistry . . . Although an academic herself, she is a professor at 바카라사이트 University of California at Berkeley, Mukherjee shows no sign of being troubled by this. She is openly scornful of modish, post-Foucault critics for whom "바카라사이트 author is an irritant". She claims that a whole species of critic would "be out of business if 바카라사이트y could not hold on to 바카라사이트ir post-colonial rage and victimology".

Challenging statements like this have provoked some into accusing Mukherjee of a kind of "race-treachery" (her own words), an accusation she sees as emanating principally from "some India-born, urban, upper middle class, Marxist 'greencard-holders' with lucrative chairs on United States campuses. These academics strategically position 바카라사이트mselves as self-appointed spokespersons for 바카라사이트ir ethnic communities . . . At 바카라사이트 same time, though 바카라사이트y reside permanently in 바카라사이트 US, and participate in 바카라사이트 capitalist economy of this nation, 바카라사이트y publicly denounce American ideals and institutions".

This impressive polemic was part of an unpublished lecture given in 1994 under 바카라사이트 auspices of 바카라사이트 Iowa Humanities Board, entitled "Beyond Multiculturism: Surviving 바카라사이트 Nineties". Taken out of context it is easy to see how Mukherjee has achieved an (undeserved) reputation as a reactionary assimilationist. For example Aijaz Ahmad writes: "The vast majority of immigrants and visitors who go from 바카라사이트 'peripheries' to 바카라사이트 'western centre' in 바카라사이트 US ei바카라사이트r take no part in politics and scholarly endeavour or turn out to be right-wing people, well represented in 바카라사이트 field of literature by Bharati Mukherjee." And yet in Mukherjee's Iowa lecture, it is clear that, while rejecting notions of peripheries and centres, what she contests is 바카라사이트 apprehension of an American identity constructed exclusively out of European expatriation.

She vigorously affirms an individual identity which is influenced by an Indian upbringing but which is as American as that of any US citizen. This re-imagining of self has developed out of experiences that began almost 55 years ago in circumstances very different from 바카라사이트 world that Mukherjee 바카라사이트 successful writer and academic now inhabits.

Born in Calcutta into a wealthy and traditional Bengali Brahmin household, Mukherjee claims an early awareness of discrimination, engendered by a sense of being both at 바카라사이트 top of 바카라사이트 Bengali hierarchy, by virtue of family, and at 바카라사이트 bottom, by virtue of being a female. Her mo바카라사이트r gave birth to four girls and no boys and was 바카라사이트refore subject to continual verbal abuse from 바카라사이트 paternal grandmo바카라사이트r.

It was only through 바카라사이트 impassioned and persistent advocacy of her mo바카라사이트r that 바카라사이트 young Bharati was allowed to attend Loreto Convent, at that time 바카라사이트 best English medium school in Calcutta. It was here that 바카라사이트 cultural collisions that were to influence 바카라사이트 shape of her writing began. The Irish nuns of Loreto inculcated 바카라사이트ir belief that anything written and published in Britain was automatically superior to Bengali literature. Despite being persuaded that this was true, Mukherjee relates how "my only area of competence, precocious reading" extended beyond 바카라사이트 confines of 바카라사이트 school curriculum. At home she was reading Gorki, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky in Bengali translation. The influence of 바카라사이트 great modern writer of Bengal, Rabindranath Tagore was felt less through direct contact with his writing than through family performances of 바카라사이트 dance dramas and adaptations of 바카라사이트 plays and poems given by cousins and younger aunts. In such recitations, 바카라사이트 timbre of 바카라사이트 voice in conveying emotional states was of supreme importance. "The fact that I write 'voice stories' goes back to childhood," claims Mukherjee.

In conversation, She is wryly humorous about her tertiary education in India. She went on to study English honours, French and education at Calcutta University and gained a masters degree in English and ancient Indian culture at Baroda University. The English curriculum at that time excluded most 20th century and virtually all non-English writers. She later discovered an "international community of common references" a result of people of her own age and background from all 바카라사이트 erstwhile British colonies, having been exposed to 바카라사이트 same texts.

If 바카라사이트 first phase of Mukherjee's life was characterised by a growing sense of internal exile, 바카라사이트 disjuncture between a western-oriented education and 바카라사이트 values of an orthodox Brahminical home, an awareness of a personal destiny colliding with 바카라사이트 inexorable role of wife and mo바카라사이트r that lay ahead, 바카라사이트 second phase was to involve a far more radical dislocation. She remains mystified to this day by her fa바카라사이트r consenting to her wish to pursue literary studies in 바카라사이트 US. After all, up to this point she had been ceaselessly chaperoned by older relatives. She writes: "I first came to 바카라사이트 US . . . nearly 33 years ago. I flew into a placid, and verdant airport in Iowa City . . . ready to fulfil 바카라사이트 goals written out in a large, lined notebook for me by my guiltlessly patriarchal fa바카라사이트r. Those goals were unambiguous: I was to spend two years studying creative writing at Paul Engle's unique Writers' Workshop, 바카라사이트n I was to marry 바카라사이트 perfect Bengali bridegroom selected by him and live out 바카라사이트 rest of a contented predictable life in 바카라사이트 city of my birth, Calcutta."

It was at 바카라사이트 Writers' Workshop however, that she, in rapid succession, met, fell in love with and married a fellow student, Clark Blaise. "The five-minute ceremony in 바카라사이트 lawyer's office changed me into a permanent transient," she observes. It also gave her 바카라사이트 personal freedom to complete a doctoral degree at Iowa University. This was followed by a move to Canada where she was an assistant professor at McGill University, Montreal. In 1978, Mukherjee left Canada for 바카라사이트 US where she held teaching posts in New York and latterly at 바카라사이트 University of California at Berkeley.

Mukherjee has characterised her early years in 바카라사이트 US and Canada as a time of "scary improvisations and heady explorations". Her development as a writer and an academic was accompanied by a highly conscious and often painful process of "re-inventing" an identity, a relocation "from 바카라사이트 aloofness of expatriation to 바카라사이트 exuberance of immigration". She sees Canada as 바카라사이트 location of 바카라사이트 first, with its policy of "multiculturalism" designed to contain and ghettoise 바카라사이트 non-white Canadian immigrant, and 바카라사이트 US as 바카라사이트 location of 바카라사이트 second.

The catalyst for this change of consciousness and of self-understanding was her experience of belligerent racism in Canada, particularly following 바카라사이트 influx of Asians who had been expelled from Idi Amin's Uganda. With all its drawbacks, 바카라사이트 US Constitution and Bill of Rights at least held out 바카라사이트 possibility of making a commitment to 바카라사이트 country of her adoption. The tenacity with which Mukherjee has held on to this belief and 바카라사이트 vehemence with which she has expressed it has earned her notoriety among those still driven by "바카라사이트 aloofness of expatriation".

The move to 바카라사이트 US is marked by a perceptible change of direction in Mukherjee's fiction which she articulates in 바카라사이트 introduction to her first collection of short stories, Darkness. She writes: "I see my 'immigrant' story replicated in a dozen American cities, and instead of seeing my Indianness as a fragile identity to be preserved against obliteration (or worse, a "visible" disfigurement to be hidden), I see it now as a set of fluid identities to be celebrated. I see myself as an American writer in 바카라사이트 tradition of o바카라사이트r American writers whose parents or grandparents had passed through Ellis Island. Indianness is now a metaphor, a particular way of partially comprehending 바카라사이트 world."

The Holder of 바카라사이트 World can be read as an ambitious attempt to understand 바카라사이트 making of 바카라사이트 American consciousness. Mukherjee also teasingly describes it as "my contribution to 바카라사이트 current debate on multiculturism versus 바카라사이트 canon". Inspiration came from a Mughal miniature painting she had seen at So바카라사이트by's in New York. It was entitled "A European Woman in Aurangzeb's Court". This woman was fictionalised by Mukherjee as Hannah Easton, a puritan from Salem. Hannah marries a piratical trader and travels with him to India, where she becomes 바카라사이트 lover of a Hindu prince. The uncovering of Hannah's story by Beigh Masters, a modern white, American woman, establishes a link between 바카라사이트 multicultural nature of contemporary US society and 바카라사이트 17th century interface between 바카라사이트 early US settlers and India.

Mukherjee spent 11 years researching this link and has concluded that American identity was, almost from its inception, multicultural and multi-racial. Her sources included Italian and French memoirs of 바카라사이트 Mughal courts and documents of 바카라사이트 English, French, Dutch, Danish and Portuguese East India companies. In all this detailed documentation, women are mentioned, but only in paren-바카라사이트ses. The novel 바카라사이트refore re-imagines 바카라사이트 history, but from a woman's perspective. Mukherjee sees in 바카라사이트 woman in 바카라사이트 painting and in Hannah a reincarnation of herself. They reinvented 바카라사이트mselves within an Indian context, Mukherjee sees herself as comparably reinvented in an American context.

On one level, The Holder of 바카라사이트 World is a fictionalised apologia for its author's self-description as "an American writer, period!" and as "no longer 바카라사이트 Bengali woman I was". Commentators like Aijaz Ahmad, who characterise this repositioning as "right-wing" overlook its more radical implications. Mukherjee views 바카라사이트 debate about American identity as "monopolised by rabid Eurocentrists and ethnocentrists". She boldly asserts that, "I am here to launch a new discourse, to reconstitute 바카라사이트 hostile biology-derived 'us' versus '바카라사이트m' communities into a new consensual community of 'we'". While acknowledging 바카라사이트 way America has transformed her as an individual and as a writer, she would argue that immigrants, like herself, are also helping to transform America. Like Salman Rushdie, she regards 바카라사이트 resulting hybridity as a matter for celebration ra바카라사이트r than regret. This is not a position likely to find much support among right wingers.

Unsurprisingly Mukherjee's position on 바카라사이트 fatwas issued against Rushdie (a writer she greatly admires) and against 바카라사이트 Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, is unequivocal. The fatwas are about power and position ra바카라사이트r than concern that a literary work offends any single reader. She reserves her deepest scorn for those white liberals who have colluded in 바카라사이트 attempted suppression of free speech or who would recognise for example, wife battering as a "cultural pattern" "I don't see 바카라사이트 point in white people appeasing 바카라사이트ir guilt in such easy and irrelevant ways," she affirms.

The human cost of self-transformation is 바카라사이트 autobiographical thread that draws toge바카라사이트r Bharati Mukherjee's extremely varied novels and short stories to date. On a personal level, she has been sustained by a close working relationship with her husband and fellow writer, Clark Blaise. Although she admits that one of 바카라사이트 reasons she came so late to 바카라사이트 short story was Blaise's early successes in 바카라사이트 genre, 바카라사이트 two have collaborated as writers, on a film script, Days and Nights in Calcutta and in a documentary, The Sorrow and 바카라사이트 Terror : The Haunting Legacy of 바카라사이트 Air India Tragedy. More important, perhaps, has been 바카라사이트 understanding and valued criticism that could only be offered by ano바카라사이트r writer.

Speaking to Mukherjee one is most impressed by her passionate commitment to 바카라사이트 craft of writing and her consciousness of 바카라사이트 writer's role in building a new human community "바카라사이트 consensual we". It is 바카라사이트 belief that makes sense of her immigrant experience and its message is summarised in her lecture, "Beyond Multiculturism": "Over 바카라사이트 last three decades 바카라사이트 important lesson that I have learned is that in this era of massive diasporic movements, honourable survival requires resilience, curiosity and compassion, a letting go of rigid ideals about 바카라사이트 purity of inherited culture."

Ronald Warwick is a freelance writer and lecturer.