Kolkata-born Indian American author Bharati Mukherjee, whose work reflected the Indian culture and the immigrant experience, expired. She was 78. The trustees of the Taraknath Das Foundation called Mukherjee “a wonderfully talented American writer of South Asian descent, teacher, friend and a generous spirit.”
Mukherjee was Professor Emerita in the department of English at the University of California, Berkeley. She has graduated from the University of Kolkata in the year 1959 and had a Master’s from the University of Baroda. Mukherjee had pursued additional graduate degrees in the United States, a Master’s of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa’s Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a doctorate in Comparative Literature from the same school.
GAPIO conference a grand success
In an interview with Amana Meer of Bomb magazine, a quarterly publication edited by artists and writers, in 1989 Mukherjee said: “I totally consider myself an American writer and that has been my big battle, to get to realize that my roots as a writer are no longer, if they ever were, among Indian writers, but that I am writing about the territory about the feelings, of a new kind of pioneer here in America.”
“Most Indian writers prior to this, have still thought of themselves as Indians, and their literary inspiration, has come from India. India has been the source, and home. Whereas I’m saying, those are wonderful roots, but now my roots are here and my emotions are here in North America,” she told Bomb.
Her first novel“The “Tiger’s Daughter” (1972) tells of a sheltered Indian woman jolted by immersion in American culture, then again shocked by her return to a violent Calcutta, while “Wife” (1975) details the descent into madness of an Indian woman trapped in New York City by the fears and passivity resulting from her upbringing.
Mukherjee is best known for her novel, “Jasmine”, which explores the shifting identities of a young Indian woman as she seeks to find her place while growing up in America. Jasmine received widespread acclaim for its exploration of Asian American female identity and specifically, Indian-American female identity.
Murugan K Patham No More, Indian Diaspora Mourns
In an interview with Bomb magazine in 1989, Mukherjee said, “I think of Jasmine, and many of my characters, as being people who are pulling themselves out of the very traditional world in which their fate is predetermined, their destiny resigned to the stars,” she said. “Traditionally, a good person accepts this, but Jasmine says, ‘I’m going to reposition the stars,” she continued.
Mukherjee is also known for her 1977 memoir, “Day and Nights in Calcutta”, which was co-written with her husband.
Mukherjee’s other works are “The Holder of the World” (1993), “Leave It To Me”(1997), Desirable Daughters” (2002), “The Tree Bride” (2004), “Miss New India” (2011); and short stories “Darkness” (1985), “The Middleman and Other Stories” (1988) for which she received the National Book Critics Award, “A Father” and “A Management of Grief”. Mukherjee also published some non-fiction work – “The Sorrow and the Terror: The Haunting Legacy of the Air India Tragedy, that she co-write with Blaise; “political Culture and Leadership in India (1991); and “Regionalism in Indian Perspective (1992).
By Premji
