Living in Between Being ‘Colonized’ and ‘Postcolnized’:A Postcolonial Analysis of the Inheritance of

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International Journal of English and Literature (IJEL) ISSN (P): 2249–6912; ISSN (E): 2249–8028 Vol. 9, Issue 6, Dec 2019, 9–18 © TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.

LIVING IN BETWEEN BEING ‘COLONIZED’ AND ‘POSTCOLNIZED’: A POSTCOLONIAL ANALYSIS OF THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS JANNATULFARHANA Assistant Professor, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB), Bangladesh ABSTRACT After two hundred years of tyranny, the British has left the subcontinent divided geographically and its people culturally as well as psychologically. This long term’s dominance has created two groups; one who has internalized the British ideology and the other who has rejected everything related to the British. The intense antagonistic attitude to the British has led that group of people to become relatively obstinate in terms of accepting anything (idea or commodity) from the West. These two types of perceptions have been fostered and transmitted from generation to generation among the subcontinent people. Falling between this ambivalent context, the generation who has not been directly under British dominance faces a challenge to construct a static identity. This struggle progressively produces a vacuum feeling-a sense of loss that is transmitted from generation to generation. This paper approaches a postcolonial reading of The

regarding establishing a secure cultural, linguistic and national identity. KEYWORDS: Identity, Colonial Influence, Transmitted, Loss, Generation & Postcolonial

Received: Aug 29, 2019; Accepted: Sep 18, 2019; Published: Oct 23, 2019; Paper Id.: IJELDEC20192

INTRODUCTION

Original Article

Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai to explore how colonial influence challenges the descendants of the colonized ones

History and effect of colonialism has occupied a remarkable place in the history of civilization. More or less almost every country is experienced in dealing with the effect of colonization either as colonizer or as colonized one. India is included in the later group. Due to the long term existence of the colonizers in the sub continent, different types of mind-sets of the descendants towards the West are observed. One group of people is obsessed with westernizing themselves whereas another group possesses a complete antagonistic attitude to the West. Psychological subjugation to the West responsibly establishes a kind of superiority complex among the people. This group of people is still ‘colonized’, culturally and psychologically, after many decades of decolonization. In contrast, because of the history of two hundred years’ oppression, the people who have been nurturing a confronting notion to the British, widely to the West, can be addressed as ‘postcolonized’. These people are still in the confinement established and left by the British colonizers. In The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai portraits such characters who struggle immensely to survive in this ambivalent situation where the challenges are intense to construct an identity. The sense of loss is transmitted from generation after generation that leads to the identity crisis- cultural, linguistic and to some extends national as well. Desai is successful in exposing the dilemma where people are living in between being ‘colonized’ and ‘postcolonized.’ The main purpose of this article is to explain how this kind of predicament is constructed through the extreme positive or negative responses to the British ideology and the inevitable consequences of it.

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