Protest and the Quest of Identity inIndo-Canadian Diasporic drama of the 1980s

OASIS An Annual Peer Reviewed Refereed International

Journal of English Language and Literature

Editors \f| Dr. Karan Singh il Dr. Amod Rai

Travels Depicting Human Nature in.. 102 - his very name is suggestive of his plain, commonsense, his sturdy sense of humour. This prince charming of Ruma, with *the generous', curling brown-blond hair' and 'a whittled marathoner's body' (24), that she had fallen in love witli, had also proved himself an idea! American son-in-law for Ruma's mother, who had strongly opposed the marriage. Now she is no more alive to visit Ruma and Adam's new house along with Ruma's father.

Works Cited Lahiri, Jhumpa. Unaccustomed Earth. Random House India Pvt. Ltd:

New Delhi, 2008. Sahu, Rohit Kumar. Jhumpa Lahih: Art as Cultural Cleavage. (A thesis

submitted to Pt.Ravishankar Shukla University,Raipur for a Doctoral Degree in 2009)

Protest and the Quest of Identity in Indo-Canadian Diasporic Drama

of the 1980s Dn Siddhartha Singh

The term diaspora is derived from the Greek word 'speirein' (to sow) and 'dia' (over). In its actualization, however, diaspora is associated primarily with the historical exodus of the Jewish people from the Biblical Israel following the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 EC and their forced removal to Babylon; and their existence outside Palestine. In Jewish reference, the term acquired a more sinister and brutal meaning, it signified a collective trauma, banishment^ and assumed a predominantly negative meaning used to capture the various misfortunes that afflicted this group. (Robin Cohen, 2008: 2)

Diaspora now fmds application and acceptance as a reference to massive movement and worldwide dispersal of many other people. Robin Cohen explains Diaspora as communities of people living together in one country who acknowledge that 'the old country' - a notion often buried deep in language, religion, custom or folklore always has some claim on their loyalty and emotions. (!bid» 6) The emphasis on collection and community here is very important, as is the sense of living in one country but looking across time and space to another. Diasporic community is demonstrated by an acceptance of an inescapable link with their past migration history and a sense of co-ethnicity with others of similar backgrounds. Avtar Brah states that distinct communities are created out of the 'confluence of narratives of different journeys from the *o!d country' to the new which create the sense of a shared history.' (Brah, 1996:183) Therefore, beneath inherent hybridity, they are implicated in the construction of a common *We' or composite communities. However, while hybridity was negatively connoted within colonial discourse, postcolonial studies reclaimed the term and understood it in a markedly different way.

Protest and the Quest of Identit>' in Indo.. 104 In general, hybridity is a heterogeneous concept. In its syncretistic

sense, hybridity foregrounds a mixing of diverse cultural influences to a more or less homogeneous new whole. Recent arguments have stressed the dynamics of hybridity as process and thus as infinitely creative as well as potentially frightening. Within such a view, hybridity connotes not so much fusion of cultures that the opportunities for an individual to draw on the best of a multitude of worlds and thus to escape conceptual rcsiriction. In Diasporic condhions, hybridity acts as aesthetics of resistance to the ideological domination by writing back from the margins. Stuart Hall astutely points out:

Diaspora does not refer us to those scattered tribes whose identity can only be secured in relation to some sacred homeland to which they must at all costs return, even if it means pushing other people into sea. This is the old, the imperializing, the hegemonising, form of'ethnicity'. [. . . ] The diaspora experience as 1 intend it here is defined, not by essence or purity, but by the recognition of a necessary heterogeneity and diversity, by a conception of 'identity' which lives with and through, not despite, difference; by hybridity. Diaspora identities are those which are constantly producing and reproducing themselves anew, through transformation and difference. (1996: 119-120)

Hybridity undermines the monolithic character of colonial discourse and turns it into a form of heteroglossia. Hybridity can become a source of resistance because in its ambivalence it precludes to draw clear-cut positions between colonizer and colonized. Homi Bhahba opines that "The incalculable colonized subject - half acquiescent, half oppositional, always trustworthy - produces unresolved problem of cultural difference for the very address of colonial authority" (1994: 33). Indian diaspora not only "produces unresolved problem of cultural difference", in their writings but also enjoys hybridity to foreground a resistance to colonialism as well as seeks to solve the problems. The solution they find is in a common "We". What gives a common identity to all members of Indian Diaspora is their Indian origin, the consciousness of their cultural heritage and their deep attachment to India. However the reasons for migration of Indians under colonial rule and post colonial migration are different. Post-colonial migration began as a matter of free choice. It was either for better education chosen by prosperous Indian families or for economic betterment. This paper shall focus firstly to the issues directly linked to

J05 Dr. Siddhartha Singh

the Indian migration to Canada, and secondly « ^ " ^ of protest or resistance in the early Indo-Canadian Diaspo"^ drama.

. i - t hp world to the People of Indian origin came from different routs ot tne " . j multicultural society of Canada and they encompassed a inuitip^^^ ethnicities, cultures and traditions. Therefore the ^yP^^'^*^^,,}! the Indo-Canadian indicates a conglomeration of differences- ^^^^^^ clamour of so many ethnic demarcations the iffln ig " ^ j g on their own individual identity within the mainstream ^ ^ ^ \ i^^^. existing society of Canada. The multiplicity of c!* ' '" " ^ the Canadian is linked by a common history of British Colonization^ ^ ^ ^ indentured labour system. The vwitings of these diasporic ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ mainly on their experiences in Canada and their search for ^^^^^

Indian diaspora in Canada was routed through ^ ree di"® ^ j ^ of migrations: The first important wave of migration* "^*^^*^H^ades of prospect of better economic friture, takes place in early gndeol the 19* century. The second significant migration is of the desc ^^^^ of the Indian indentured labourers in the African colomes w forced to leave their homes in Africa. Indenture was, *a con ^^^^ which the emigrant agreed to work for a given emp y '' Lly at the emigrant was free to reindenture or to work elsewhere in co ^ the end of ten years, he was entitled to a subsidized return passag K. Jain, 1993: 4). - ^ j

The decades of sixties and seventies were the fi"®s of econ setback and political unrest of the entire African continent. The mdig Africans had a very hostile attitude towards Indians whose i ^ ! " like a ^colonial sandwich', with the European at the top and jj^jjans the bottom. Amid increasing resentment of the Africa^f many " fled to England, Europe and North America to avoid racial and po i discriminations. Thirdly like the early Indians, the third ^ ^ j ' ^ j immigrants comes looking for economic opportunities *he deve P countries which were better than in their own home country-

At the end of the 19th century, the Asian Indians saw in Cana >f opportunities for accomplishing their dreams, so rhe nuin

Indians entering in Canada increased rapidly from I905 to 1907. of the Asian Indians entered Canada through the wester" part 0 country mainly through Vancouver. The vast majority „ i„h

from Punj""'

Protest Bnd the Quest of Identity in Indo.. 106 According to Kavita Sharma, most of the Indians who went to Canada were Sikhs from Punjab: 'The process started with Indian passing through Canada in 1897 to attend Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee Celebration.' (1977: 3) Again in 1902 some Indian mainly from the crown colonies of Hongkong, Singapore and Rangoon went to join the coronation of Edward VII. By then Canada was perceived to be a land of opportunity and the process once started continued despite various attempts to stop this immigration like the order-in-council m 1908, which gave immigration officials the authority to bar anyone who would be a potential immigrant to Canada and did not come on a 'continuous Voyage' from their native country. An important incident of 'Komgata Maru' was very painfiil for Indian immigrants but after this incident it became easier for Indians to arrive in Canada. Uma Parameswaram has described this incident as:

The Komgata Maru was a Japanese ship that was chartered by one Gurdit Singh who enlisted 376 passengers and had also negotiated with a Hong Kong merchant who would purchase the Canadian number which the ship would carry on its return voyage. The Komgata Maru reached Vancouver harbour on May 23,1914. For two months, the ship and its passengers were quarantined off the coast while the government under Governor General Lord Grey and Prime Minister Wilfried Laurier figured out how best they could get rid of the "Brown Peril", and then the ship was sent back'. Only a few of the passengers, who were returning immigrants and could not be refused entry, were admitted. (1996: 8)

But all these racist attempts had short term impact and the ongoing journey of Indians to Canada continued and still going on.

The Motivation of the immigrants who came to Canada during the first decade of this centur>' and those came after the Second World War were drastically different. Coming from different routes, their condition of being dislocated poses different challenges to cope with complex ambivalent affiliations of class, race, gender, sexuality, nation, language and culture. While the situation for the early migrants was different since they had to face racial discrimination more acutely and yet they had the memory of'homeland' which provided a sense of identity. But the second generation of these migrants, physically not being dislocated, does not have the same feeling and memory of the homeland and yet they are vulnerable to racial discrimination causing identity crisis. The more complex problem was faced by the descendent of the Indo-African

107 Dr. Siddhartha Singh Indentured labourers whose plight forced them to enter into Canada to find a new land where they had to face racial as well as geographical discrimination. These twice migrated people, consequently twice removed from their roots, are caught in a more ambivalent situation. Their diasporic sensibility and the inherited unease embody multiplicities bestowed by history. The third kind of migration which began as a matter of free choice, either for better education or for economic betterment has not inherited such unease or identity crisis.

The experiences of these immigrants had always been there in the tradition that they adopted in literature. When the immigrants of the Indian first begun as indentured labour they used the oral tradition for the expression of their feelings and writings. This phase of the oral tradition of literature continued till the influx of immi^ation shifted from indentured labourers to the expatriate groups consisting of scholars, professional and other educated. Once writings of these new immigrants gradually furnished, they started contributing to all genres of contemporary Canadian literature.

II Literature of the Indian diaspora occupies a significant position between the countries and cultures. The multicultural variety writers of the Indo-Canadian literature have tried to express themselves in all major literary genres, drama, poetiy and prose. These writers deal with themes of minority alienation in the Canadian society; marginalization, and otherness. The quest for identity and the question of existence has been a common voice in the writings of these immigrants. The feelings, emotions sentiments which diasporic writers project in their writings lend Canadian literature a different shade and vividness. It is expressed through a consciousness of otherness which eventually leads to protest. Giving their writings an ambience and sensation of identity in its presentation this literature reveals the marginal position of their writers and the cultural encounters, which resulted due to that position. The peculiar experience of inhabiting two geographies and cultural spaces involves and simultaneously results in the form of writing which reflects tension between dislocation and relocation, dispossession and integrity, heritage and hybridity, and exile and involvement. To be an expatriate writer is fraught with many challenges as one has to constantly remain conscious of one's marginal existence. C. Vijayshree explains the ways in which the expatriate consciousness is revealed:

Protest and the Quest of Identity in Indo.. 108 To be an expatriate is to be conscious of being one, and this consciousness manifests itself in a variety of ways: a sense of loss and dispossession, a feeling of remaining straddled between two cultures, and anxiety to belong-either to one's native culture milieu or the new environment, an assertion of one's nativity or immigrant status (alter-nativity); an attempt to turn one's liminality into strength, an agenda of multiculturalism, an active ' interrogation of all notions of belonging, an insistent celebration of unbelonging; and an ultimate urgency to prove oneself. (1996:3)

Thus the dominant theme of expatriate consciousness happens to be the peripheral existence in the host culture and the resultant alienation. The issue of identity seems to haunt the expatriate writers and their writing becomes a medium of protest against cultural marginalization. They then aim for self definition through his writings and tries to build a new identity. Writers of Indian diaspora have sought to record the manner in which they have adapted to the new environment and how they have experienced both identification with and alienation from their old and new homelands. The chequered history and experiences of migration find a suitable medium of expression in their writings. Thus the quest of roots and the protest against marginalization are inseparable themes which find a very powerful expression with these writers who are highly educated and are able to fiise the literary traditions of both East and the West.

In drama, the Indo Canadians began a new phase by developing a nascence of popular theatre. There are two important theatre groups founded by Indo-Canadians in Montreal. One is Teesri Duniya founded by Rahul Verma and his companion in 1981; the other is Montreal Serai founded by Rana Bose in 1985. These theatre groups have the same goal to identify injustices, to raise a voice of protest and to educate people and the government about their rights and responsibilities. Current issues acting as a local voice of conscience or protest have always inspired these dramatists. Inspired by the theatrical tradition of Badal Sircar, Mrinal Sen, and Uttapal Dutta of Bengal, and other modem figures like Dario Fo, Fugard, and August Boal, these groups serve the purpose to act a local voice of conscience or protest. In an interview in February, 1989, regarding the immigrants of East Indian Community, Rana Bose said:

109 Dr. Siddhartha Singh . . . at the end of it all, the finger points to the immigrants . . The complaint used to be that these immigrants are illiterate, lazy & are going to take our Jobs away. Now they say these people are too literate, too educated, they work too hardj and they're going to take our jobs away.

(ParmeswaranJ996: 103) Tessri Duniya in both its creative work and administration promotes

a multicultural-multiracial vision of Canada. Its creations are outward looking and weave together elements of different cultures. In the early eighties, Teesri Duniya produced plays in Hindi dealing with issues affecting the lives of South Asian immigrants in Quebec (Julus, Ek the Gadha, Bhanumati ka Pitara, Ghar Ghar Ki Kahani, Ahsaas and Darwaze Khol Do). Then, in 1985, Teesri Duniya began producing English-language productions. The most significant early play Job Stealer (1987) was coauthored by Rahul Verma, Helen Vlachos and Ion Lloyd George. This production mainly focuses on the problem and the discrimination in finding a job and the racial discrimination inflicted on the migrants in the name of job stealer. Immigration Game (1988) by Rahul Verma focuses on the politics of migration and the economic exploitation of the migrants. /5<7/<?fe«i7ncic/ew/( 1988), coauthored by Verma and Steve Orlov, Equal Wages (1989), coauthored by Verma and Helen Vlachos, and Land Where the Trees Talk (1989), coauthored by Verma and Jack Langedijk, mark the beginning of a radical new approach engaging with the present realities—an approach that analyzed not only the social conditions in which immigrant communities presently live, but also the social and cultural factors and interactions that affect these diverse communities.

Rahul Verma's plays are a significant part of the protest theatre in Canada. He produces plays with the main motive to focus everybody's attention to all the multicultural society, dealing with the problems common to alt minorities. Ha has had a profound knowledge about the techniques of protest theatre - non-proscenium, rudimentary props, a small cast of characters acting numerous roles, song and drums once used to initiate interest at street comers, and dialogues and actions that aim at political and social injustices. These dramas focus on minority issues, build solidarity among minorities, and promote an incrcaslnji interaction and dialogue across cultures. The characters of Tftssri Duntya's plays belong to different ethnic groups. Verma's plays do not hesitate to speak of controversial issues. All forms of injustices thM iho immigrants and aboriginal face in the Canadian society fxt openly criticized by these plays. The baseless fears of the whiloii Rimlnit the

Protest and the Quest of Identity in Indo.. 110 non-Whites of stealing their jobs, the Canadian policy of muhiculralism and its reality, racial discrimination, women's struggle for equality are some of the main issues that the plays of the Teesri Duniya express. With the play Isolated Incident Rahul Verma won the Quebec Drama Festival Award.

Bose's Serai serve the purpose to act as a local voice of protest. Serai is known for theatrical experimentation, intellectual fervent, political questioning and the creation of a new paradigm for what it means to be human. It is noteworthy that till 1985 Bose worked with Rahul Verma and till 1989 directed most of the productions of Tessri Duniya. Like Verma, Bose's effort is to bring the margin to the center. For example On (he Double (1988) shows how, for Asian immigrant women the reality of their lives in Canada is no different from what it might have been in Baroda, Benaras or Delhi. Some of the notewortfty plays staged by Serai include Baba Jagues Dass and the Turmoil at Cote-des-Neiges Cenetery (staged at Centaur Theatre, known as Montreal's main English language theatre, in October 1987), Some Dogsipresentcd at Theatre Calixe Lavallee, in July 1988), Nobody Gets Laid, The Death ofAbbie Hoffman, and Five or Six Characters in Search of Toronto. In Baba Jagues he brings out South Asian migrants' prejudices and expectation and provides a satirical look at the South Asian view of life in Canada. In On the Double he brings out the fact that how immigrants are often more steeped and entangled in the tradition of mother country. The plays by Bose cover the issues of racial discrimination and prejudices, machination of the agencies of government, women subjugation, and migrants' feeling of alienation in a dislocated worid.

Beside these Rana Bose has produced several other plays which enumerate major characteristics regarding the experience of the Asians Indians. He uses contemporary diction, social messages and issues that prick the involvement of Indo-Canadian encounters. He tries to throw up the concepts of Canadian consciousness through his innovative and creative productions. Sadhu Binning is a prominent playwright who has contributed to Vancouver Sath regularfy. H^publishedhis work in Ankur, leading co-operatives publishing house. Ajmer Rode is another playwright, who has written directed and acted in several plays in both English and Punjabi. His one act play One Girl, One Dream published in the Toronto South Asian Review (Spring, 1983). Nilambari Singh Ghai's play Alternative to Marriage (1988) is quite well known and is a well-crafted work. Shiv Chopra is another dramatist whose vesse drama Riata and Gita and In Praise of Women staged several times between

111 Dr. Siddhartha Singh 1982 and 1984 brought him praise. The dance-drama was initiated into Indo-Canadian Literature by P.V. Subramaniam. Instead of effectiveness of drama, this genre did not flourish as much as the other genres amongst the East-Indian Commimity of Canada.

Uma Parmeswaran's Rootless but Green are the Boulevard Trees is the first full length play to have been published in 1979, which is year of setting. In this play the kaleidoscope of relationships and events experienced by the family form and re-form traditional elements such as protagonist-antagonist conflict or climax-denouement movement.

The playwrights of the Indian diaspora in Canada are vocal not only about contemporary issues that are integral to their existence in Canada, but also about the distinct ethnic identity they represent. Their writings big in form may have distinct features of the Indian literary tradition. All the routes of experience are culminated in a passionate faith in the Indian Root which has become their own voice that is raised to express tiieir Canadian experience. The Indi-Canadian diasporic drama of the 1980s sets the trend to convey the messages directly, in a powerful, simple and yet in a satirical voice. It was the pressing need of the time to explore and expose ones identity and culture through a strong medium of protest and the theater of the time has done it successfully.

Works Cited Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge, 1994. Brah, Avtar."Contesting Identities." Cartographies of Diaspora. New

York and London: Routledge, 1996. Cohen, Robin. Global Diaspora: An Introduction. New York: Routledge,

2008. Daniels, Roger. "The Indian Diaspora in the United Status.''Migration:

The Asian Experience. Ed. J.M. Brown, and Rosemary Foot. London: Macmillan, 1994.

Hall, Stuart. "Cultural Identity and Diaspora." Contemporary Postcolonial Theory: A Reader Ed. Padimini Mongia. London: Arnold, 1996.

Jain, R.K. "Introduction: Overseas Emigration in the Nineteenth Century" fndian Communities Abroad: Themes and Literature. New Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 1993.

Protest and the Quest of Identity in Indo... 112 Parameswaram, Uma. "Literature of the Indian Diaspora in Canada:

An Overview in SACLIT." An Introduction t^ South Asian Literature. Madras : East West Books, Madras Pvt. Ltd., 1996.

Sharma, Kavita. The Ongoing Journey: Indian Migration to Canada. New Delhi: Creative Books, 1977.

Vijayshree, C. "The politics of Expatriation: The India Version(s)." Interrogating Postcolonialism: Theory Text and Context. Eds. Harish Trivedi and Meenakshi Mukherjee. Shimla: HAS, 1996.

V.S.Naipaul's South American Expedition: An Encounter with

Racism, Ethnicity, Suppressed Histories, and Civilization in A Turn in the South

P.C Pradhan

I NaipauPs travel to South America was aimed at focusing on the past of the Black people, the system of slavery and the adaptability of the Blacks to survive in a modem civilization. His serious interest in the "slavery question" makes him penetrate deeper into the lives of the people there. The racial issue has been vividly probed into when he analyses the dichotomy between the White and the Black. In order to understand the slavery issue, he visits slave plantations and compares the slavery in South America with that of Trinidad and Tobago. It is interesting to note that Naipaul focuses on a scene of White and Black people living together. While Naipaul was visiting North Caroline, Heft>' Howard's mother notes:

Black people there, black people there. White people there, Black people, black people, White people, black people, white people. All this side black people, all this side white people. White people, white people, black people, white people. (T^SIO)

Naipaul was really hurt to see the Black people's suffering even after 100 years of the abolition of slavery. Comparing the position of the Black people in Trinidad and Tobago, Naipaul notes that the Black people in Trinidad are in majority in a postcolonial situation whereas the powerless South Americans are rather in minority in their own lands. That is why Naipaul notes with agony:

A slave is a slave; a master need not think of humiliating or tormenting him. In the hundred years after the end of