V. S. Naipaul gave form and language to the girmit ideology and the Indian diaspora its distinctive discourse and a consciousness.
Abstract
V. S. Naipaul gave form and language to the girmit ideology and the Indian diaspora its distinctive discourse and a consciousness. The Caribbean offered Naipaul his first writing material. Trinidadian themes occupy a privileged place, fundamental in Naipaul’s writings. In exploring this theme, I focus on five fictional works, namely The Mystic Masseur (1957), The Suffrage of Elvira (1958), Miguel Street (1959), A House for Mr. Biswas (1961), and The Mimic Men (1967). The purpose is to analyse representations in Naipaul’s writing by situating the respective images of indenture in a larger discursive context.
An analysis of Trinidad as socio-cultural construct is not an easy task because the Trinidadian society as it is, is one, comprising several ethnic groups: Afro-American, East Indian, Creole and Chinese, to name just the most important. This happened because of colonial politics, which cruelly displaced people, complicating their roots and routes.
This dissertation is divided into three parts corresponding to the three main facets of Trinidad as it appears in Naipaul’s writings. Firstly, the lives of the Indo-Trinidadians are an imitation of life in India, their original home. They also adopt the Western ways in their new colonial society; in the process eroding important facets of their culture and unique Indian identity. Secondly, they were subjected to an identity crisis between two home spaces. Thirdly, this thesis discusses the displacement experienced by the indentured labourers and their descendants. These are major concerns in post-colonial literatures, especially in Naipaul’s earlier fictional works.
Naipaul satirizes and mocks the Indo-Trinidadians’ inability to be independent and the imitation of the Hindu religion, all things British, American, and Afro-Trinidadian. The peoples’ need to flee their homes and families to establish themselves in a larger metropolitan society of high-perceived traditions and customs is also evident.
Naipaul in his writings highlights the unaccommodated man’s repeated attempts to find a stable location in a ramshackle and random world, his struggle for selfhood despite experiencing dispossession, displacement and exploitation. He ridicules the sham of independence for former British colonies. The problem of fragmentary identity in the context of post-colonialism and post-modernism is also raised. The concept of family ceremonies in uniting people, the idea of progress being associated with a British education and the colonial stereotype of the East Indians are significant issues discussed by Naipaul.
One could regard this study as a tribute to an island where indentured labourers were sent and that, in spite of its size, is one of the most significant places on the map of the literary world created by V. S. Naipaul, a descendant of the indentured migrants.