Cultural Conflicts and Quest for Identity: A Post-Colonial Approach to Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss

Abstract

The present paper aims at analyzing the issues of quest for identity and cultural conflicts in Kiran Desai's "The Inheritance of Loss". Her second novel "The Inheritance of Loss" published in 2006 and won "Man Booker Prize" and "National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award". Cultural conflicts force the immigrants into an identity crisis. Desai also portrays the cultural clash between East and West. The characters in the novel try to tackle the problem of loss of identity. The manners of Judge Jemubhai is very much British. He cannot get himself free from the Gujarati tradition. He has been caught between past and present. He has been educated in Cambridge University. He has faced cultural trauma during his days in England. He has to respect for Indian Culture and underestimates himself for being an Indian. Loss of identity is one of the major problems in the society. Dislocation of culture leads to identity crisis. The outcome of post-colonialism has been dreadful in Kalimpong. The Napalese want independence who have chosen brutality as a tool to obtain peace want independence. Desai recounts the difficulties faced by the people who get influenced by western culture.