Natwar Gandhi on Gujarati Diaspora Writing in U.S.A – a few observations

By Harish Trivedi, Dayton, Ohio.

© 2010


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NATION and STATE

A language or culture of a nation survives not because of the folks who moved to another country tried to preserve it. So let's not go in that direction. What we describe as Indian Culture or the various Indian languages have survived some five thousand years of attacks, invasions and occupation by foreign nations... And during that period the Indian culture kept on evolving by assimilating certain cultural traits in to their own lives…The various Indian languages also went through transformative process and went on taking different structure and form. One can easily see the influence of Arabic, Persian, Portuguese, French and English words in our own native languages. The culinary traits of invading forces have influenced the Indian cuisine. People who think that it is a responsibility of NRIs to preserve the language and culture of their home country is a sheer folly, a delusion. Culture and language will keep on evolving, keep on growing, whether one likes it or not.

For example, Jews were a NATION without a State or a COUNTRY prior to the formation of Israel. It was on the basis of this theory of Political Science that Mohammad Ali Jinnah had demanded formation of Pakistan for the Muslims living in India – with the famous or notorious Two Nation theory. This is a fact of history.

‘We form community associations to get together with people who look and talk like us, temples to pray the same gods, and Indian professional associations to exchange stories and check notes. Indian immigrants with literary interest also have formed associations that hold regular literary meetings. They read to each other their works and poets recite at Mushaira. Many publish their works with regularity. Some have become prolific novelists while others have several collections of poetry and travelogues to their credit. They also invite eminent literary figures from India just the way others invite swamis and sadhus.’ Earlier Natwarbhai had described these visitors as migratory birds, then a few paragraphs and pages later he changed his mind and admits that some people do invite these sadhus, writers and quacks.

To be continued....