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STEPHEN GILL ON DIASPORA: An Interview by Prof. Dr. Nilanshu Kumar Agarwal   

 

Multiple award-winning author Stephen Gill was born in Pakistan, grew in India and has settled in Canada after staying in Ethiopia and England for a while. He has authored more than twenty books, including books of fiction, collections of poems and literary criticism. His poetry and prose have appeared in more than five hundred publications. He often receives doctoral dissertations from different universities to examine.. He writes mostly about peace and social concerns. Dr. Agarwal asks the following question:

 

 

Q.What are the psychological problems of Indian diaspora in Canada? Like Ruth in Keats' 'Ode to a Nightingale', Indian diaspora must be "in tears amid the alien corn", as they harbour the memories of Indian past and are not completely acclimatized to new culture. What are your ideas about this traumatic experience of Indian diaspora in Canada?

 

A: The story of Ruth that John Keats mentions is from the Old Testament in the Bible. Ruth married a man from Judea , more or less Israel now, in her homeland Moab where he moved when his country was attacked by a famine. After the death of her husband, Ruth, still childless, moved to Judea with her mother-in-law Noami. The days of famine were over. The story of Ruth has been recorded in the Bible because of her unsurpassed loyalty to her mother-in-law who  was Jewish. Ruth told her mother-in-law , “I want to go where you go and live where you live. I want your people to be my people and your God to be my God.”

 

In Judea, while gleaning the barley harvest,  Ruth  met a man named Boaz, a relative of Noami,  who owned that field. He was captivated by the beauty, modesty and piety of Ruth. They fell in love and in due course of time got married. She bore a son that Noami took care of. That child  was the progenitor of Christ and great grandfather of King David. This happened about three thousand years ago. In that field  Ruth thought of Moab, her homeland. It is notable that it was her devotion to her mother-in law that was the ruling factor in her decision to migrate to Judea.

 

There was another diaspora before Ruth and that was soon after God created the world. That was the first Diaspora in the recorded history of the Bible. In the beginning, God created Adam and Eve and gave them a beautiful place to live, called the Garden of Eden. He allowed them  sovereignty over everything, except over a particular tree. They violated the commandment of God and tasted the forbidden fruit of that tree. As a result, they were forced out of that garden to work hard for their living.

 

Adam and Eve must have repented for violating the law of God. In the second life of hard work, they must have remembered the good old days when life was pleasing amidst trees, flowers and animals without day to day worries about food and shelter.

 

In the story of Ruth, diaspora was due to devotion and loyalty. Ruth must have been caught between her love for her homeland and her love for her mother-in-law. She must have suffered because she was torn between two passions. Ruth as well as Adam and Eve are  diasporans. 

 

Diaspora in Hebrew means exile (Jeremiah: 24:5) that is “expulsion of a national from his country by the government or voluntary removal of a citizen, usually in order to escape punishment.” (The Columbia Encyclopedia). Diaspora has been mentioned in the Old Testament  also as punishment. In Deutteronomy  Xxviii; xxx11, dispersion of the Jews among nations is foretold as punishment for their apostasy. In the book of Deutteronomy (28:25) it is written:  “thou shall be a diaspora in all kingdoms of the earth.” The Jews were exiled from Judea in 586 BCE by Babylonians and Jerusalem in 135 CE by the Roman Empire. They travelled with their own luggage. Their dislocation, homelessness and memories of their homeland were part of the Diasporic sensibility. Sufferings in a new land under a new rule and geographical conditions and inability to go back were the important features of the Diaspora of the Jews.

 

Jews suffered in the 20^th century when the Nazis came to power in Germany and set up concentration camps for their torture. Around seven million Jews were killed. Even after their homeland was formed, their sufferings did not come to an end. It is estimated that around 90, 0000 Jews from Arab countries  dispersed to different parts of the world, mostly to Europe and North America.

 

In all these stories exile was under compulsion.  In the story of Ruth,  it was the compulsion by the devotion that she had for her mother-in law. Later this compulsion became a bond when she married a local man in her adopted land, Judea. This bond  became much stronger when a son was born. Due to these powerful bonds she was not free to go back to the land of her birth. Her inability to go back to her land of birth, Moab, was complicated by the distance. For a woman to cover a journey of two or three days alone with luggage about three thousand years ago was beset with unimaginable hazards. She must have become nostalgic  now and then because she was among foreigners.

 

The present use of the word Diaspora about Canadian writers who were not born in India is loaded with confusions.   Its overuse or loose use conflicts with words like immigrant, refugee, visitor, racial minorities, ethnic groups and so on. Some writers include nearly every one who was  born outside  the country and talks about the country of origin.  If diaspora  is analyzed in the light of its original use that was for the Jews and even the major diasporas of non-Jews,  it becomes necessary to include the elements of alienation, loss, forced migration, memories of the past and a dream to return to the land of birth. It may include also the unwilling acceptance of the host country.

 

Academic studies of diaspora began to be popular in the late twentieth century. Diaspora happened in several nations and ethnic groups throughout the history of   humankind. In addition to the Jewish Diaspora, other major diasporas are from Africa and Armenia.  The Indian Diaspora started mainly after the British made her a part of the empire. Indians were moved as forced labour in the nineteenth century to other parts of the empire, including Fiji, Maritius, Guyana, Trinidad, Serinam, and Malasia. Canada has a sizeable number of immigrants of Indian origin from African and Caribbean nations. Neither they nor their parents were born in India.  In some cases even their grandparents were not born in India. Except their appearance and in some instances their first or last names, they have nothing to do with India.

 

Diasporans maintain continuous contact with their homeland and with other dispersed segments of the same group. There is no such thing on an organized basis in Canada.   Ethnic writers do not have an organization of their own to remain in touch with one another.

 

An important factor has been brought out by Food and Culture Encyclopaedia that says, “A key characteristic of diaspora is that a strong sense of connection to a homeland is maintained through cultural practices and ways of life. Among these culinary culture has an important part to play in diasporic identifications.”

 

Any immigrant group from any nation who uses neither Indian dresses nor enjoy any Indian food on a routine basis should not be identified as Indian diaspora.  Food habit and language are the  key  constituents of diaspora. Not only that,  the culture of several    immigrants who were not born in India is a mixture of identities. They can hardly understand any Indian language and hardly prepare any Indian food at home. It is the culture that bonds a group and culture includes language and food habits. Religion has never been a unifying force in the history of humankind nor the last  or the first name of a person.

 

Some immigrant writers cry over discrimination in Canada, whereas the fact is that there was no discrimination in the country of their birth that forced them to settle abroad.  They had no problem as forced exiled people have. Their tears in Canada are of a political nature. They enjoy shedding tears  because there are sympathetic ears to listen to them.  Sometimes, it helps to receive awards from governments on the basis of sympathy.

 

Book publishers are in business  to make money. They look for sensational material that is available in India at every corner. They also guide their authors how to sensationalize  particular stories. The authors of such books are not there as prophets or on any mercy or peace mission. They also want to exploit situations. The result is exaggeration in the novels of such fiction writers to make them interesting. Such descriptions should not be confused with memories of their past in India.

 

Diaspora and nostalgic memories are inseparable.  Ruth in Keats “Ode to Nightingale” must have thought  of her land of birth nostalgically.  It was natural for Ruth to be nostalgic about the country where her sister and parents lived and where she passed her childhood and a part of her youth. There was no exoticism or marketing involved. “Exoticism, by definition, is the charm of the unfamiliar.” (Wikipedia) How can these immigrant writers  think of India when they never lived there, except for their occasional literary trips. There is almost nothing  in their writing about India or even about the land of their birth that can be constituted as nostalgic.  Their description of India is to exoticize for marketing purpose. To group them under Indian Dispora is going too far. It is better to call them  immigrants or ethnic  or AfroAsian or AfroIndian writers.

 

Diasporans in history had diaries in which they recorded  the hard life in the lands of their birth. They often talked and wrote against the laws and prejudices in the land of their birth.    Because those factors were responsible for their exile, they attacked them. Being from the majority or financially  and educationally stronger groups in the countries of their birth, these Canadian ethnic groups  did not experience discrimination in their homelands. That is why there is nothing worth noting about discrimination  in the writings of these Canadian immigrant writers. They hardly know India and therefore cannot write, except about the caste system and things like that in general.

 

Discrimination is an important part of Diaspora, because it is largely the  discrimination in the country of birth that forces them to seek refuge abroad. In the country of birth, this discrimination becomes life threatening  or intolerable. In the host country it is not life-threatening and obvious.  If they find discrimination in Canada, they can easily go back.  Several immigrants hold dual citizenships. They come and go to the countries of their birth, not India.

 

Second generation children  should not be included in the category of diaspora. The new generation cannot be nostalgic about the country they only hear, read or see on the tv screens like any other country and any person. If their children are the outcome of mixed marriages between different ethnic groups, they should not be called diasporans. Such children cannot stay in the country of their parents  more than a couple of weeks. Ruth was a diasporan also because of her affectionate memories.  But her son who was born and brought up in Jedea was not a diasporan. He had nothing to be nostalgic about. He may have had soft corner for the country of his mother, and nothing more than that. 

 

The immigrants who go abroad in search of green pastures cannot be Diasporans,  because they are free to go back. Their migration is not a Diaspora, because  skilled and professional immigrants, including medical doctors, engineers, nurses and investors are under no compulsion to leave their country. Most newcomers in the nations of greener pastures bid farewell to their lands of birth because of their loyalty to the god of gold.  Suffering from the mania of petrodollars, they search for an El Dorado of  prosperity for themselves and their children in Europe and North America. They keep sending their dollars back home where they buy land or invest in business. Most of them cannot adjust to the life back home. They come and go whenever they want and eventually settle in Canada, enjoying the best of both worlds. Inability to go back and unwilling acceptance of the new country were also important factors that constituted the original diaspora in the history of humankind. The diaspora of the Jews, Armenians and African slaves have set criterion  that these ethnic newcomers to Canada do not meet.

 

Under a close examination of the definition and origin of Diaspora, most ethnic writers of  Canada are not diasporans, because their knowledge of India  is based on the movies and news items from the media. Their knowledge is not better than the knowledge of several whites who for one reason or the other are interested in India.  Those who were not born in India, not even their parents, should not be called Indian Diasporans, because they are not in touch with India;  they keep their contacts with the country of their birth that may be a Caribbean or an African nation.

 

These economic refugees carry their luggage of colour and habits that are peculiar to the nations where they were born.  They buy lands in the land of their origin, visit them periodically, have their children married there and want the best of both worlds. They  have nothing to do with India, except their appearance, or their first or last name.   Their women do not have any idea of Sarees, and Indian food, except chicken curry and ladoos In some cases, the whites have more knowledge about India than they have.

 

Considering the barometer that is used  here, most immigrant writers of Canada should not  be   classified as diasporans and their literary output as diaspora. Moreover, they are not” in tears amid alien corn”.  Modern India is an awakening giant after a long slumber. Some AfroAsian or AfroIndian writers of Canada want to be associated with India that has a long tradition to welcome everyone. Association is one thing and to be a diaspora or  diasporan another.

 

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Dr.N.K.Agarwal, an Eliot scholar,  is a  Senior Lecturer in English at  F.G.College,Rae Bareli, U.P.,India. He has written research papers that have appeared in prominent journals.