Cross-Cultural Conflicts and Pursuit of Identity in Bharati Mukherjee's Jasmine

Abstract

Multiculturalism is an offshoot of developing global culture emanating from incessant flow of people between nations and intercultural interactions. Crossing the borders results in psychological metamorphosis of the immigrants as their ethnic identity shaped by social, religious, historical and political forces over decades is in continual flux. Though different kinds of responses to the situation of cultural multiplicity may be diagnosed, the fact remains that there are no simplistic ways of dealing with or responding to multiculturalism. The immigrants face cultural clash and find difficulties in acculturating. When the immigrants come to ensconce in another country, they are accosted with a new culture, a new statute and a reticent group of people who do not mix so very easily. Everyone does not have the capacity to adjust their feelings and mind. They form a community of diaspora who are always reminded of their roots in an alien land. The impact of diasporic experiences on immigrants’ psyche depends on their level of belonging in an alien land. Bharti Mukherjee’s odyssey from India to Canada to United States gives her a cutting edge over her contemporaries to be established as most revered author of Indian Diaspora abroad. Mukherjee, molded and transformed by the cultures of her countries of origin, movement and settlement, has been earnestly engaged in re-conceptualizing the idea of diaspora as a profitable affair as opposed to the popular belief that render immigration and displacement as a condition of loss. Her novels are bulging with women protagonists of staunch spirit and calibrating credence who win the tussle with cultural conflict and in the process evolve and emerge as winners. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how Mukherjee's heroine “Jasmine” in her novel of the same name evolves with cultural changes, endeavors for self-realization and finally takes control of her destiny.

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