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Chapter One

Introduction

William Henry Hudson in the first chapter of his book titled An Introduction

to the study to Literature defines that, “Literature is a vital record of what men have

seen in life, what they have experienced of it, what they have thought and felt about

those aspects of it which have the most immediate and enduring interest for all of us”

(10).

Indian English Literature is comparatively a new literature and it has a history

of not more than one hundred and fifty years. Indian English Literature is also known

as Indo Anglian Literature or Indian Writing in English. Indian English Literature is

part of Common Wealth Literature and it has secured a sizeable space in world

literature. Indian Literature includes several literatures Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati,

Hindi, Kashmiri, Maithili, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sindhi, Tamil,

Telugu, Sanskrit and Indian Writing in English. Indian Writing in English is greatly

influenced by the British literature and there are Romantics, Victorians, Georgians,

and Modernists. Indian English Literature has contributed much to the World English

Literature, and it has an appeal both to Indians and English men. Indian English is the

product of Indian geography and the grammar and speech habits in different linguistic

areas but still it retains the imperatives of Standard English in England.

The present status of Indian English Literature was achieved after many

decades of writings by several distinguished writers. In the second half of the

nineteenth century, more women started to write in the English language. With the

passage of time, English literature has witnessed several changes in the writing

patterns. Women novelists started to write about female experiences in their writings
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and it affected the cultural and language patterns of Indian literature. In the past,

writings of Indian women authors were undervalued because of patriarchal

assumptions. Thus the writings of male authors got more priority and acceptance in

the society.

The nineteenth century witnessed more and more active participation of

women in India’s reformist movement against the British rule. As part of world

literature, feminist ideologies began to influence the English literature of India. By the

twentieth century, women’s writing became a powerful medium of modernism. They

have moved away from traditional portrayals of enduring, self – sacrificing women

toward conflicted female characters searching for identity, no longer characterized

and defined simply in terms of their victim status. In contrast to earlier novels, from

the 1980s onwards they start to assert themselves and defy marriage and motherhood.

The various themes of Indian English women writers have been using, can

categorize them as follows: feminism themes have been used by authors like

Nayantara Sahgal and Rama Mehta; regional fiction theme has been aptly used by

Kamala Das, Anita Nair and Susan Viswanathan. The spirit of Indian culture and its

traditional values have been portrayed by the novelists like Kamala Markandaya and

Anita Desai. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Suniti Namjoshi and Anuradha Marwah

Roy used magic realism as main theme of their novels. Manju Kapur has dealt with

the lives of women during India’s freedom struggle for independence. Other popular

Indian English women novelists are Bharati Mukherjee, Nergis Dalal, Krishna Sobti,

Dina Mehta, Indira Goswami, Gauri Deshpande, Jhumpa Lahri, Arundhati Roy and

many more.
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Many South Asian novelists including male and female gave vent to human

impulses minutely and appropriate like Salman Rushdie, V.S. Naipaul, Shashi

Tharoor, Vikram Seth,Kamala Markandaya, Amitav Ghosh, Ved Mehta, Jhumpa

Lahiri, Santha Ram Rau, Anita Desai and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni very well

nursed the genre of fiction and issue of Indian diasporas.

After, the Immigration Act of 1965 a steady stream of educated, professionally

competent Indians started migrating to America. During this period large scale

immigration takes place, non resident Indians emerged as an influential and vibrant

community that is wielding ascendancy on the economic, cultural, and literary

spectrum of the countries where they have migrated and from where they have

migrated. This in turn led to scholarly and popular interest in Asian American

literature finding its direct roots in student activism at San Francisco state and the

University of California at Berkeley. Even in other places in the United States in the

late 1960s that led to the creation of interdisciplinary ethnic study programs. As a

result, the body of writing has expanded not only in visibility, but also more

significantly in achievement. Writing was used as a tool to give expression to this

perennial struggle on the part of third world immigrants to assimilate into North

American life style.

The invisible minority of diasporic writers is making its presence felt in the

literary circle and this forced invisibility is being challenged and contested by

contemporary South Asian writers. Although the periphery of the mainstream culture,

the diasporic literature can provide an empowered space that produces subtle

narratives. Literature is the literature that is making its presence felt as the

omnipresent, impossible to ignore spaces in a society or page in a literature. The

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identity of a diasporic writer is not static but dynamic. A refusal to accept the identity

forced by the host country and living in a cocoon as a refuge from cultural dilemmas

has got a vent through the corpus of literature.

‘Diaspora’, a fast emerging term in literature, is derived from the Greek word,

‘diaspeiro’ which literally means a scattering or dispersion of people from their

homeland. In recent years, the term ‘Diaspora’ is applied to a number of ethnic and

racial groups living abroad. The Diasporic Community is varied and complex and

hence all attempts at homogenization are likely to lead to over simplifications. Jasbir

Jain comments:

The Indian Diaspora is one of the most varied with a mobility and

adjustability to West Indies, Africa, Europe or America on account of

social and political reasons. Yet this multiplicity of ‘homes’ does not

bridge the gap between ‘home’ – the culture of origin and ‘world’ – the

culture of adoption (12-13)

Diaspora Literature is a genre of literature who explores the problems,

difficulties and possibilities as a result of the experience of migrant and diasporic life.

It is also known as ‘expatriate writings’ or ‘immigrant writings’. The main theorists of

Diaspora are Edward said, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Homi Bhaba. Diasporic

theory is more preoccupied with the question of centrality, hybridity, ambience,

transculturation of people. Diasporic writing is concerned with what Edward Said

calls “not only of a basic geographical distinction but also a whole sense of interests”

(12). The diasporic writings in English are evidently produced by persons of Indian

origin who are presently living outside their country. The diasporic writers are

scattered throughout the world, and are found in such diverse places as Fiji, Guyana,
 5

Malaysia, Mauritius, East Africa and in Western countries like Britain, America,

Canada and Australia.

Salman Rushdie, on born 19 June 1947 is a British Indian novelist and

essayist. His second novel, Midnight’s Children (1981), won the Booker Prize in

1981. Much of his fiction is set on the Indian subcontinent. Rushdie is very conscious

of as a member of the Indian diaspora. He is said to combine magical realism with

historical fiction; his work is concerned with many connections, disruptions, and

migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations. Rushdie’s first novel, Grimus

(1975), a part-science fiction tale, was generally ignored by the public and literary

critics. Some other works are shame (1983), The Satanic Verses (1988), The Moors

Last Sigh (1995), Fury (2001), Shalimar the Clown (2005) and The Enchantress of

Florence (2008).

Amitav Ghosh is a Bengali Indian author best known for his work in English

fiction. He was born on 11 July 1956. In his novels Amitav remains a wandering

internationalist, disowning the theory of cultural centrality-that, a culture is rooted in a

single place. He is the author of The Circle of Reason (1986), The Shadow Lines

(1988), In an Antique Land (1992), The Glass Palace (2000), and the first two

volumes of The Ibsis Trilogy; Sea of Poppies, and River of Smoke. His novels are

awarded by France’s Prix Medius in 1990, the Sahitya Academy Award, the Ananda

Puraskar and the India Plaza Golden Quill Award.

Anita Mazumdar Desai is an Indian novelist. She received a Sahitya Academy

Award in 1978 for her novel Fire on the Mountain (1977), and the British Guardian

Prize for The Village by the Sea (1982). She produced about a dozen novels mainly

portraying the abnormal and hypersensitive women in untoward situations. Her novels
 6

like Cry, The peacock (1963), Voices in the City (1965), Bye Bye Blackbird (1971),

and Fire on the Mountain (1977) are to be specially marked in this connection. One of

Anita’s frequently used subjects is cross-cultural contact between the East and the

West.

Jhumpa Lahiri is an Indian American author born on 11 July 1967. Lahiri’s

debut short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies (1999), won the 2000 Pulitzer

Prize for fiction. Her first novel is The Namesake (2003). Her book The Lowland

published in 2013 was a nominee for the Man Booker Prize and the National Book

Award for Fiction. Her debt short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies, says about

the sensitive dilemmas in the lives of Indians or Indian immigrants, with themes such

as marital difficulties, miscarriages, and the disconnection between first and second

generation United States immigrants.

Kamala Markandaya was a pseudonym used by Kamala Purnaya Taylor, an

Indian novelist and journalist. A native of Mysore, India, Markandaya was a graduate

of Madras University, and published several short stories in Indian newspapers. After

India declared its independence, Markandaya moved to Britain. She still labeled

herself an Indian expatriate along afterwards known for writing about culture clash

between Indian urban and rural societies. Markandaya’s first published novel, Nector

in a Sieve, was a best seller and cited as an American Library Association Notable

Book in 1955. Other novels include Some Inner Fury (1955), A Silence of Desire

(1960), Possession (1963), The Golden Honey Comb (1977), and Pleasure City

(1982). Markandaya died 16 May 2004. Like most writers of the Indian diaspora,

Markandaya is preoccupied with the conflict between East and West, or that between

tradition and modernity.

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Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an Indian-American author, poet, novelist,

essayist, short story writer, book reviewer and columnist. She was born on 29 July

1956 in Kolkata, India. She was a devout Hindu, who studied in a convent school in

Kolkata. She received her B.A from the University of Kolkata in 1976. At the age of

nineteen she came to United States of America. She received a master’s degree from

Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio and a Ph.D, in the University of California,

Berkeley in 1984. Since 1991, she has been a president of MAITRI, a South Asian

Women’s Service and she started a similar one in San Francisco. So, Divakaruni has a

thorough knowledge about Indian culture, customs and habits as well as the life of

immigrants. Divakaruni’s works are largely set in India and the United States. She

focuses on the experiences of South Asian immigrants. She writes for children as well

as adults and has published novels in multiple genres, including realistic fiction,

historical fiction, magical realism and fantasy.

Divakaruni is a prolific and acclaimed writer and the wealth of her work

includes four poetry collections-Dark Like a River (1987), The reason for

Nasturtiums (1990), Black Candle (1991), and Leaving Yuba City (1997); two short

story collections-Arranged Marriage (1995) and The Unknown Errors of Our Lives

(2001); and six novels-The Mistress of Spices (1997),Sister of my Heart (1997), The

Vine of Desire (2002), Queen of Dreams (2004), The Palace of Illusions (2008) and

One Amazing Thing (2010). Although the greater parts of her novels are written for

adults. For young readers, Divakaruni has completed four novels set in India; these

include Neela: Victory Song (2002) and the fantasy trilogy consisting of The Conch

Bearer (2003), The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming (2005) and Shadow land (2009).

Divakaruni’s work has been published in over fifty magazines, including the Atlantic

Monthly and The New Yorker. Her writing has been included in over fifty anthologies
 8

including the Best American short stories, the O.Henry prize stories and the Pushcart

prize anthology. Her fiction has been translated into twenty nine languages including

Dutch, Hebrew, Indonesian, Bengali and Japanese.

Divakaruni began her writing career as a poet. Her two latest volumes of

poetry are Black Candle and Leaving Yuba City. Divakaruni’s volumes of poetry

uniquely addresses image of India, the Indian American experience and the condition

of children and women in the patriarchal society. She won several awards for her

poems, such as Gerbode Award, a Barbara Deming Memorial Award and an Allen

Ginsberg Award. Diavakaruni’s first collection of stories Arranged Marriage, which

won an American Book Award, a PEN Josephine Miles Award and a Bay Area Book

Reviewers Award, greatly influenced her visibility. The first book of the series, The

Conch Bearer was nominated for the 2003 Bluebonnet Award. It was listed in the

Publishers Weekly Best Books of the year, Booklist Editors Choice, Pacific

Northwest Young Readers Choice Award Master List and the Rebecca Caudill Award

Master List. She has also written a young adult fantasy series called The Brotherhood

of Conch which, unlike many of her adult novels, takes place wholly in India and

draws on the culture and folklore of that region.

Much of Divakaruni’s works deal with the immigrant experience, an important

theme in the mosaic of American society. In Arranged Marriage Divakaruni

encompasses a wide variety of themes including racism, interracial relationships,

economic disparity, abortion and divorce. She was really consumed by these stories

and the need to write them. The Unknown Errors of our Lives is also a collection of

short stories. In this story “Mrs.Dutta writes a Letter” is a pathetic account of the

experiences of an immigrant woman who resists the forces of patriarchy and the
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trauma of immigration simultaneously. Through this story Divakaruni admits the fact

that ‘rootlessness’ is not hidden in the shift of location but in the distortion of the

images of human life. She depicts the story with great sensitivity.

In Sister of My Heart, is a story about family, friendship and the bond between

sisters-one in America, the other in India. They share details of their lives with each

other and help each other solve problems that threaten their marriages. The theme of

identity is very important in this novel. It also mentions about the rich Indian

environment traditions and its cultures in a deep manner. Vine of Desire is a moving

and satisfying sequel to Sister of my Heart, stands on its own as a novel of

extraordinary depth and sensitivity.

Queen of Dreams talks about the trials, tribulations and experiences of the

Indian American community through the lives of a Bengali immigrant family. The

concept of reconciliation is also strongly highlighted by Divakaruni in her best

accomplished novel Queen of Dreams. The Palace of Illusions was a national

bestseller for over a year in India and is a re-telling of the Indian epic The

Mahabharata from Draupadi’s perspective. This novel gives us back to a time that is

half history, half myth and wholly magical.

In One Amazing Thing, a group of strangers of varied backgrounds, trapped

by an earthquake in an Indian visa office, discovers why they have in common as they

struggle to save themselves. Divakaruni writes to unique people her aims are to

destroy myths and stereotypes. She hopes through her writing to dissolve boundaries

between people of different backgrounds, communities and ages.

The Mistress of Spices, her first novel, became one of the top-selling books on

the West Coast in 1997. It has been chosen as one of the ‘Hundred Best Books of the
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Twentieth Century’ by San Francisco Chronicle. This novel has magic realism

element and it presents a heterogeneous picture of the Indian and the American

culture. It depicts the representation of different myths, magic and history related to

spices. India is a country which is complexity fitted with spiritual powers. So that

Divakaruni presents her protagonist, Tilo a prophet possess supernatural power.

Tilo, an immigrant from India, runs a spice shop in Oakland, California. While

she supplies the classic ingredients for curries and kormas, she also helps her

customers to gain a more precious commodity whatever they most desire. For Tilo is

a Mistress of Spices, a priestess of the secret magical powers of spices. Divakaruni

presents the unpleasant immigrant experiences through many characters like Ahuja’s

wife, who is caught in an unhappy marriage; Jagjit, the victim of racist attacks at

school; the noisy bougainvillea girls, rejecting the strict upbringing of their tradition

bound Indian parents; Haroun who drives a taxi and dreams the American dream.

Through those who visit and revisit her shop, she catches glimpses of the life of the

local Indian expatriate community. To each, Tilo dispenses wisdom and appropriate

spice, for the restoration of sight, the cleansing of evil, the pain of rejection. But when

a lonely American comes into the store, Tilo cannot find the correct spice, for he

arouses in her a forbidden desire which if she follows will destroy her magical

powers. Later, she breaks the rules and being punished by the spices.

Tilo, the mistress of spices, has many disguises and names that reveal her

multiple identities. She keeps changing throughout the novel, making clear how

complex is the problem of identity crisis that Indian try to cope, with a foreign land.

The narrator changes her name many time, like Bharati Mukherjee’s, Jyoti-Jasmine-

Jane; from Nayantara to Bhagyavati to Tilottama and finally to Maya. She has to
 11

change her identities many times in order to arrive at a final destination of her

selfhood.

The first chapter Introduction deals with a note on diasporic literature in

general and discusses the place of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni in the diasporic literary

arena in particular. This chapter also provides some notes on Indian literature and its

developments from the past to the present also. It makes a brief survey on

contemporary diasporic writers and their writings along with their major themes. The

concluding part of this chapter states the arguments of the dissertation.

The second chapter Identity Crisis focuses on the plight of the immigrants, in

an alien land search for self recognition and confused about their identity. Tilo

undergoes the process of nostalgic and identity crisis. It also discusses about how the

immigrants experience the traumatic ‘sense of being an outsider’ and how they

struggle to make a sense in an unfamiliar world.

The third chapter entitled Magic Realism throws light on the state of the

immigrants who unable to bear the pangs due to separation, loneliness and a sense of

being an outsider in a foreign land, creates a new world of illusion. The quality of the

spice and their human form combines with magic realism elements into a realistic

atmosphere in order to access a deeper understanding of reality. These magical

elements are explained like normal occurrences that are presented in a straight

forward manner.

The fourth chapter entitled Tradition and Modernity presents the plight of the

Indian immigrants who are often caught between the Eastern origin and the survival

on the Western country. The cultural differences between Indian and American are
 12

juxtaposed. The immigrants navigate between the strict traditions they have inherited

from their homeland with the clash between the tradition and modernity.

The last chapter is Summation, which sums up all the points focused in the

previous chapters. It also brings out the excellence of author. The researcher has

followed the mechanics of writing outlined in the MLA Handbook for writers of

research papers, seventh edition, for documentation and citation.

.
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Chapter Two

Identity Crisis

Writing novels about one’s own country on the basis of memory has been a

great challenge for number of exiled or immigrant writers. In the modern era, search

for individual identity plays a predominant role in one’s life. It is inevitable for some

people who are being affected by identity crisis owing to the ambience and

atmosphere they live. The identity crisis pulls them to become a stranger not only

from the outside world but also from their inner self. Identity is a very intriguing

concept in literature. Many modern literary texts revolve around this concept. They

talk about the need of every individual to have a stable identity, and what will happen

if that person loses his sense of identity. In brief:

When that self-identity is threatened by disease, tragedy, personal

crisis, or awareness that our actions are inconsistent with our values,

we may experience anxiety, panic, a sense of loss of self, and a feeling

of being cut adrift from life’s purposes and meaning. ( Rathus 30)

An identity crisis is a period of serious personal questioning where the

individual makes an effort to determine one’s own values and sense of direction. The

question of identity crisis revolves around the self-image of an individual, in terms

gender, community, class, race or nation. When a person is going through a period of

identity crisis, that person begins to create a number of self satisfying illusions,

rationalizes his failures, and creates a new self or is ultimately eliminated from the

face of the earth. Identity is also closely related to the term self. Rathus and Nevid see

the self as “the individual’s center of awareness, a fluid way of organizing perceptions
 14

of the world”. They point out that “the questions of ‘Who am I?’ and ‘What do I stand

for?’ are central to our self identities”. (31)

The Mistress of Spices represents the struggles and inner turmoil faced by a

population which has moved geographically, socially and culturally from their

homeland India. Divakaruni highlights the condition of primarily South Asian

immigrants living in the United States. They are trying to cope with a new existence

in an alien land. Hence this novel can be read and analyzed using the concept of

Diaspora. The question of identity crisis moves around the individual self and its

relatedness to others. The characters seek a positive interaction with a disheartening

world where there seems a gap between desire and reality with the east-west

encounters. There is a radical difference in the way of thinking and perceiving things

between the occident and orient. While western culture revolves round rationality and

the eastern culture is predominantly spiritual in its approach. The word culture is

derived from French word ‘cultura’ which means to cultivate, to till and to grow.

Therefore culture suggests a continuous process of growth through the means of

education, discipline and training. Both the cultures are diametrically opposed to each

other. While western culture is based on the principles of materialism, Indian culture

is based on the principles of spiritualism. This results a moral dilemma faced by the

characters, in The Mistress of Spices about which culture to follow.

The identity crisis in The Mistress of Spices is many and varied, and

Divakaruni provides a rich background for exploration of them. This exploration takes

place on many levels and is evident through exposition, character development,

imagery and figurative language. Much of Divakaruni’s writing centers around the

lives of immigrant women. She admits:

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Women in particular respond to my work because I’m writing about

them, women in love, in difficulties, women in relationships. I want

people to relate to my characters, to feel their joy and pain, because it

will be harder to [be] prejudiced when they meet them in real life.

(Softky 150)

Divakaruni’s novels feature Indian-born women, torn between old and new

world values. These women characters change identities many times to arrive at a

final destination of their selfhood. They evolve different strategies to assert their

individuality and act independently with a sense of freedom and conviction. The

author gives importance to women characters. In the novel, The Mistress of Spices

Divakaruni has represented women as actively upholding and shaping class, cultural

and gender structures within the society, home and marriage. The search for identity

is a major element portrays of her female characters. She deals with the lives of

women both at home and abroad. For them a foreign land has not yet changed their

status much. Some people fight against this drawback and crave their identity and

escape from the drudgery.

The author artistically tells stories about immigrant Indians who are both

modern as well as trapped by cultural transformation, who are struggling to shape out

an identity of their own in an unknown land. She depicts how immigrants struggle

hard to establish their identity crisis through the central character, Tilo, who goes

through four reincarnations in different bodies. Tilo’s parents name her as Nayan Tara

and the pirate chief names her as Bhagyavati. At the end of the novel, she names

herself as Maya.
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Tilo appoints herself as a counsellor to a group of people undergoing the

contradictions of the American immigrant experiences and consoles them by offering

a solution. She believes herself as a competent to rectify problems. Tilo, uses the

mystical energies of spices to help those who enter her shop. To survive in an alien

island Tilo disguises herself as an old woman in the spice shop at Oakland. She is the

only witness of her identity as, “That I am not old, that this seeming-body I took on in

shampati’s fire when I vowed to become a Mistress is not mine. I claim its creases

and gnarls no more than water claims the ripples that wrinkle it” (5). Her interest in

women began after she left India, and she revaluated the treatment of women there.

Divakaruni demonstrates the suppressed identity of women through the

character of Ahuja’s wife. The first character Ahuja’s wife comes into Tilo’s store.

She is young and beautiful immigrant woman. Her name is Lalitha. Tilo wants to call

her by her name but Lalitha prefers to be called Ahuja’s wife. Her story is the same

story of many of the women in India. She doesnot want to get married. It is only

before three days to the wedding, she has seen her husband. He is totally different

from the photo shown to her, which has taken years back. He has come from America

but the wedding has been arranged to an old man. She agrees to marry him for the

sake of her parents. Her husband was extremely possessive and harasses her

physically and watches her always. Lalitha is an apt example of the oriental culture,

where a woman hides her own identity. She pacifies the male dominance of the

husband, by referring to her husband’s wife. Lalitha knows sewing but she has been

denied of her desire. She longs for a child but she doesnot conceive, “child-longing,

deepest desire, deeper than for wealth or lover or even death” (16). Ahuja’s wife is a

victim of cultural apathy and male domination. She tries to record her inner crisis:
 17

All day at home is so lonely, the silence like quick sand sucking at her

wrists and ankles. Tears she cannot stop, disobedient tears like spilled

pomegranate seeds, and Ahuja shouting when he returns home to her

swollen eyes. The words shattering like dishes swept from the dinner

table. (15)

Lalitha submits and sacrifices her individuality to prevent her family from

getting a bad name. A family name stands as such a powerful mark of regulation and

status in Indian culture. Women like Lalitha are willing to suffer silently and she tries

to adjust with that inherited tradition and adapt a new one in the alien land. They are

called with different names in different countries. Mostly Indian wives are concerned

to have an identity of their own and strive hard to come out of the patriarchy shadows

of their husbands.

The Mistress of Spices lives in a world where opposing cultural forces isolates

her feel and search for self identity. Tilo retrospects her days with numerous identities

ranging from Bhagyavati, Nayantara, Tilo, a girl, a daughter, sister and guide to

parents. The narrator’s identity evolves and undertakes a new name with a new set of

beliefs, morals and views. Through the process of “Purification” (40) under the Old

One’s supervision she moves to take a new identity as “restorer of health and hope”

(42).

All powers associated with earlier names, illustrating the developmental

conclusion of the narrator’s identity. The narrator’s various names represent elements

of changes along the path of the narrator’s discovery of her true self in an alien land.

Raven names Tilo for her final identity “How about Maya?’ Maya. I try the sound,

like its shape. The way it flows, cool and wide, over my tongue” (316).
 18

Through Tilo’s character, it becomes evident that the mistress ability to name

a spices and to call upon it, grants her control over its powers and its very existence.

When the mistress awakens it through variety of names, the spices undergoes a

transformation. The Mistress calls it by its true name to gain control over the spices. It

suggests her power and identity is under the control of spices. As the spice comes to

life through the mistress, “bending the spices’ will to mine” (127). It reveals its ability

to speak in the narrators mind and understand her requests. Tilo names herself and

tries to establish an identity in the alien land:

First Mother, my name will be Tilo. ‘Yes,’ I said, and though I too was

afraid, I forced my voice not to reveal it. ‘Tilo short for Tilottama.’

And now she writes my new name on my forehead. My Mistress name,

finally and forever, after so many changes in who I am. My true-name

that I am never to tell to any but the sisterhood. (41-43)

Divakaruni presents Tilo as inextricably mixed in the workings of the

diaspora. The notion of home becomes displaced, transformed into an intangible

condition that is not based on a single location but rather as movement among many

places. When Tilo arrives on the island she and the other young girls like her are

given new identities. She experiences a crisis from her real identity to another one.

But she overcomes the crisis and becomes a new person in new world.

Tilo has left island but she knows that she will someday return to it, which is

standing in between worlds. But, she feels the comfort of belongingness in the present

location. Tilo’s emotions appeals to the extreme version of the diasporic experience of

space, where she was separated not by miles but by universe where home does not

exists except in the space of idealizing memory. The strict prohibition of mirrors
 19

reveals her inability to perceive herself through her own ideas. She formulates her

identity upon vision of others, based upon the differing perceptions of her as seen by

friends, patrons and lovers. She sees the damaging effects of racism on the lower-

class customers of her store. Tilo first confronts conflicting perceptions of herself

through her experiences with race and class, both of which are inextricably linked

together in the formation of identity.

Tilo first encounters the brutality of racism and the way in which South Asians

are treated in America. The young men Mohan who has lived with his wife Veena in

the United States for over a decade. In the same category as all immigrants, they

belong to a minor community amongst many. Tilo experiences Mohan’s pain and

Veena’s suffering as if it were her own, crying out after her vision of the beating “My

limbs ache as after a long illness, my sari is damp with shiver-sweat, and in my heart I

cannot tell where your pain ends and mine begins. For your story of all those I have

learned to love in this country, and to fear for” (172).

Haroun is a great example of how the sense of separation is compounded

during an immigrant’s first years. Haroun represented as multiple identities at once

the Indian boat driver, the American cab driver, the clean man, the religious man, the

hard working man, the helpless man, the victim. By providing Haroun’s past and

showing him as representative of the immigrant experience, Divakaruni skillfully

illuminates painful, fractured identity in the character.

Language barriers, elements of adjustment to America can be challenging for

immigrants on multiple levels. The immigrant’s sense of self and personal identity

becomes fractured at a crisis level. Jagjit, another young South Asian patron of Tilo’s

is assaulted at school, taunted by white classmates who scream, “Talk English son of
 20

a bitch. Speak up nigger wetback asshole” (39). Tilo’s patron sobs and tries to

understand why the jeering must occur, because he is not black but rather South

Asian. They are still subject to the prejudices of racism that plague society. Tilo

observes such discrimination; it influences her perception of her race in relation to

greater American society. They are constantly fighting for recognition and respect

from the majority.

Yet, when Tilo observes a different class of South Asians, she sees the other

side of South Asian racial identity. The rich Indians are protected from racism and

disassociate themselves from the black community. They identify almost completely

with the white upper class by opposing to the lower class patrons:

The rich Indians descend from hills that twinkle brighter than stars.

The car stops, the uniformed chauffeur jumps out to hold open the

gold-handled door, and a foot in a gold sandal steps down. Soft and

arched and almost white. The rich Indians rarely speak . . . Inside the

store which they have entered only because friends said, ‘O it’s so

quaint, you must go see at least once’ . . . The rich Indians crane their

necks and lift their chins high because they have to be more always

than other people, taller, handsomer, better dressed. (75-76)

The minority groups described above differs greatly from the patrons who

were terrorized by racism and prejudice. But both groups are of South Asian descent.

It is remarkable that the formation of identity change in according with the class level

and it’s no longer based upon the skincolour. Because class is such a strong indicator

of race, resulting in distinctly different characterization of the South Asian self. Tilo

realizes that the South Asian in America is considered neither white nor black in
 21

American society, but rather a race in-between, depending on one’s particular class.

Tilo’s racial identity can be characterized as entailing a self that is seen as non white

but not black, lower-class but in certain instances upper-class, part of an immigrant

minority and an assimilated elite community. At the moment when money and upper

class status enter into the equation, the South Asians in this text are considered almost

white by themselves.

Tilo has observed, a South Asian living in America in terms of race relations,

and the moment arrives when she herself experiences what it is like to be an

American. When Tilo walks into the street with her American, she makes a striking

transition between states of mind and possesses a consciousness that she is an

American but at the same time it is a foreign land:

Outside at a bus stop crowded with other strands of brown and white

and black she will get into line, will marvel that no one even raises his

eyes, suspicious at her moving through the air of America so awkward-

new. She will finger in pleased wonder the collar of her coat, which is

better even than a cloak of disappearing. And when the bus comes she

will surge at it with the others, her blending so successful that you

standing across the street will no longer know who is who. (131-132)

Tilo embraces the idea that, she can blend with American and be a part of it.

She waits at the bus stop. She relishes the fact that her difference is no longer the

marker of her racial identity. She can stand amongst a group of true Americans and

exist as one herself:

All fizzy laughter and flutter lashes. In miniskirts their legs are long

and tan, cocoa butter smooth. Their lips are dark and pouting. They
 22

toss back their crinkle-cut hair and glance around and laugh again as

though they can’t believe they are actually here, that they are doing

this. (254)

The female patrons view her as a traditional older South Asian woman,

unattractive in her age, sexless in terms of her desires and submissive to the will of

others. Tilo begins to see herself as “a bent woman with skin the colour of old sand,

behind a glass counter that holds mithai, sweets out of their mother’s kitchens” (5).

Tilo describes herself as possessing an old women voice and an old woman body

covered in creases and gnarls and layers of wrinkles like old snakes skin. She is not

seductive and tries to suppress her sexual desire. She is silent in her opinions and

offers advice only when asked. Yet, Tilo’s sense of passion and her ability to seduce

are clearly evident in her relationship with Raven. During their first conversation, Tilo

thinks herself, “There is a lurching inside me, like something stitched up tearing lose

O danger” (69).

As Tilo moves through the maze of American culture, she desires to view her

life through her own eyes rather than the perspectives of others. Tilo’s moment of

self-perception occurs after she questions the prohibition of mirrors for Mistresses.

“Here is a question I never thought to ask on the island: First Mother, why is it not

allowed, what can be wrong with seeing yourself?” (142).When Tilo starts to go

under the process of rethinking about herself, an element of identity crisis evokes in

her mind. She wants to get freedom from the suppressed identity of rules and bonds

made by the Old One. She feels a crisis about her own identity herself. Before she

looks at her reflection Tilo decides to drink a special potion, a concoction whose

power stems from the spice Makaradwaj, and is concerned the “conqueror of time”
 23

(261). This potion transforms Tilo’s body into a youthful one. Her beauty increases as

the layers of age peel away. “Now I am ready. I go to the back where hangs on the

wall, remove the covering from it, I Tilo who have broken too many rules to count”

(279). Tilo’s physical transformation represents she has lost all that was human about

her. She tries to explore a singular true identity in the process of trying to reveal a real

self. Tilo gazes into the mirror but does not see some great truth about identity

revealed to her. Instead, she see “. . . a face that gives away nothing a goddess-face

free of mortal blemish. . . only the eyes are human frail” (279). Tilo is faced with a

reflection that is blank and her desire to see a unified identity free of the “mortal

blemish” is only a hint of life residing in the eyes that stare back at her. The

contradictions that Tilo believes make her frail, in the very foundation of her identity.

In the place of a unified identity Tilo possesses an identity of multiplicity and

ambiguity. She is comprised of many different and contradictory perceptions of the

self, or else she is blank. Tilo realizes that self-perception is a matter of

acknowledging the multiple processes. So that the formation of identity influences

characteristics and consciousness as legitimate identities. She describes the process of

understanding in strange terms. “I move as through deep water, I who have waited all

my life though I see it only now the brief moment blossoming like fireworks in a

midnight sky. My whole body trembles, the desire and fear. . .” (280).

In this novel Divakaruni vividly illustrates many of the complex conflicts that

multiethnic groups experience in America. Her stories are irresistible that leads

characters into maturity. Raven talks of his mother Celestina, who is not a white, but

pretends to be a white as she thinks it gives her self esteem and happiness. She hates

her own community. Raven doesnot like his mother for this reason. He leaves her
 24

alone after he had started earning. “I have repainted the scene in my mind, trying to

see past what happened to what might have” (204). He feels a crisis about his own

identity. But finally, like the mythical bird shampati he resurrects himself from the

ashes of his old identity. He tries to find out his real identity from his past. Raven,

while enquiring his parents his identity says:

I thought of my father as a rock. And my mother like a river falling

onto it from a great height. Or perhaps it was only later I remembered

them as much. The silent power of him, her restless beauty. I was the

sound of water on stone, which sounds like nothing else, which needs

to be related to nothing else. And so I never thought of who my people

were, or where I came from. (157-158)

Divakaruni presents the pitiable condition of the immigrants who try to

establish an identity of their own in an alien land. Almost all characters undergo this

traumatic experience and they change their identities and names with equal ease. In a

multi ethnic community, Tilo undergo the immigrant experience a sense of being an

outsider, for they lose their self identity and strive for a new one to survive in an alien

land. Tilo undergoes the process of nostalgia. It addresses far more important issues

of identity crisis in today’s world like the transformation of old world to new and the

fragmentation of one’s identity.

 25

Chapter Three

Magic Realism

Magic Realism is a literary movement associated with a style of writing or

technique that incorporates magical or supernatural elements into a realistic narrative

without questioning the improbability of the events. This fusion of fact and fantasy is

meant to question the nature of reality as well as attention to the act of creation. This

movement originated in the Mid-Twentieth Century with the publication of two

important novels: Men of Maze by Guatemalan writer Miguel Angel Asturias and The

Kingdom of This World by Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier. The settings in magic

realist works are historically correct and the events that occur may appear improbable,

even unimaginable. Characters change into animals, slaves are aided by the dead, time

reverses and moves backward, while other events occur simultaneously.

The term ‘Magic Realism’ originated during the 1920s in Europe, in the

writings of the German art historian Frantz Roh. He presented magic realism as a

reaction to expressionism and the term is used to describe visual art like paintings that

do not include anything unreal or magical, but realistic and often mundane. Magic

realist painters added dream like and fantastic elements to their art, but their subject

matter always remained within the realm of the possible. Later it spread from

Germany to many other European countries and subsequently to North America.

“Magic Realism” was a term coined in 1949 by the Cuban novelist Alejo

Carpentier to describe the combination of fantasy and reality in Latin American

fiction. In literature, Magic Realism often combines the external factors of human

existence with the internal ones. Magical Realism is often associated with Latin

American literature, particularly with the authors like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and
 26

Isabella Allende. It is a literary trend in postmodernism, in which magical elements

are introduced into a realistic atmosphere with a view to have a deeper understanding

of reality. These magical elements are explained and accepted like normal

occurrences, and are presented in a straight forward and matter of fact manner. It is a

fusion between the psychology of human reality and the science of physical reality. It

incorporates diverse aspects of human existence such as dreams, emotions, thoughts,

cultural mythologies and imagination. Through this amalgamation, Magic Realism

aspires to be more exact in depicting human reality. In fact, Magic Realism can be

considered one of the literary manifestations of the other great tradition. In Brenda

Cooper’s words:

Magical Realism attempts to capture reality by way of a depiction of

life’s many dimensions, seen and unseen, visible and invisible, rational

and mysterious. In the process, such writers walk a political tightrope

between capturing this reality and providing precisely the exotic

escape from reality desired by some of their western readership. (32)

Magic Realism contains an implicit criticism of society, particularly the elite.

The plots in magical realistic novels characteristically employs the reality that take

place in juxtaposed arenas of such opposites as urban and rural, western and

indigenous and so on. Many renowned writers have employed this technique in their

works. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Mistress of Spices ventures into the

unfathomable world of magic and daily experience of the characters. By blending the

unreal world with the normal lives, Divakaruni is able to cross the boundary and

reality. In India, it is natural for the people to believe in one’s mothers or

grandmother’s folklore and stories. There are no heroes or villains, just human beings
 27

like ordinary men, each of them with their own shades and each being what they are,

because of the circumstances in their life.

Divakaruni employs different technique of magical realism to reinvent an

equitable, multicultural and multiracial America. The story of The Mistress of Spices

is cloaked in fantasy and its strong poetic over tunes convinces that this is literature of

fantasy. Divakaruni modifies ancient Indian legends and reinvents the myth of the

bird of shampati, whose name stems from the ‘Ramayana’, who, phoenix like, rises

from the ashes. The legend of shampati, as a dominant theme, holds the story

together. As the novel progresses, the element of fantasy diminishes and the realistic

element becomes prominent.

The protagonist of the novel is Tilo, originally she is called Nayan Tara,

meaning star of the eye. Ironically, contrast to her name, she is not a darling to her

parents. Instead, she is looked at as a burden. Nayan Tara means a flower that grown

by the dust road. Another meaning of the name Nayan Tara is the star-seer.

Symbolically, this indicates the prowess of the child to be able to predict future. As a

child, she is able to foresee future and foretell the occurrence of natural calamities.

Her magical powers and fame spread and bring wealth to her parents. Tilo’s blessing

with her magical power becomes a curse in course of time. She is abducted by the

pirates. After that she becomes the queen of pirates. She is then named as Bhagyavati,

the bringer of luck.

Tilo always tries to transform the situation, however worse it may be to her

own favour. After escaping from the pirates, she lands up in an island which was

destined for her. There, she becomes the mistress of spices under the guidance of the

Old One. She is trained in the ancient art of spices and ordained as a mistress changed
 28

with special powers. Tilo’s transformation continues from the beginning of the novel,

and it continues till the very end.

After the training in the spice island, she is supposed to lead an ascetic life by

helping people with her knowledge of the magical properties of spices in her dusty

little shop in Oakland, California. The location is magically real. Allen describes the

south western region as “magical, a place where mystery and myth are as factual and

everyday as any other aspect of contemporary life in the United States”, a space

“filled with quaint, the curious, and the paranormal” (343-344). It is California that

Tilo finds her new home and a new tale of female multiracial west is spun.

Tilo’s profession is magically real. Allen says, “the southwest, land of

enchantment, where for the most part reality is magical” (355). Tilo believes that

spices hold the secret power to grant us whatever we desire most in life. She talks

about her unique ability to interact with the spices. Tilo says:

I am Mistress of Spices. I can work the others too. Mineral, metal,

earth and sand and stone . . . But the spices are my love. I know their

origins, and what their colours signify, and their smells . . . Their heat

runs in my blood. From amchur to zafran, they bow to my command.

At a whisper they yield up to me their hidden properties, their magic

powers. (3)

Under the guise of an old woman’s body and attire, Tilo is trained to walk

over fire, and control her senses. Tilo has to follow certain rules; she should never

leave the store, she should never use the powers for herself but for others and she

should not make any physical contact with any human being. But she starts to break
 29

the forbidden rules laid for mistresses. Not only she breaks but also she allows herself

to fall in love with a lonely American.

After escaped from the pirates, from the sea serpents, Tilo recognizes about

the existence of an island. Divakaruni draws upon folklores of her childhood

memories in her homeland such as that of the sleeping city under the ocean, speaking

serpents, and uses them as a base of her employment of magic realist technique:

The island has been there forever, said the snakes, ‘the Old One also.

Even we who saw the mountains grow from buds of rock on the ocean

bed, who were there when Samundra Puri, the perfect city, sank in the

aftermath of the great flood, do not know their beginning’. (23)

The old woman in the island who imparts knowledge about spices to Tilo is an

example of magic realism. Spices perform their role many times as supernatural being

to control her. The isolated island is a haven for these women, who call themselves

the “Mistress of Spices”. The women are trained in the art of listening and controlling

the spices, and are then sent forth into the greater world to aid humanity. Tilo is

reminded of her old teacher’s words as regards following austerities to learn magical

art of using spices. She asked her pupil’s about their willingness to give up their

bodies for an unending service. D. B. Gavani commented:

Divakaruni is writing the script of women’s rebellion against the

presence to suppress their desires and their bodies. The order of

Mistresses clearly replicates patriarchal struggles and Tilo must be

made to break free of them. She struggles with her own passions as she

builds emotional relationship with a Native American man, whom she

calls Raven. She transforms herself into a woman, feeling guilty about
 30

her “self indulgence”, but decides to brave the retribution that she

would have to face. (80)

Tilo receives her new name and identity, leaving her childhood in a village in

India. She spends decades learning the delicate art of the spices, but the moment

arrives when she must leave the island and continue the diasporic journey to a new

place in America. Before Tilo is sent to Oakland, the First mother gives her a knife as

a gift, the purpose of which Tilo believes is “knife to cut my moorings from the past,

the future. To keep me always rocking at sea” (51).The island of spice, nurtures Tilo,

educating and preparing her for the next stage of life and also imbuing Tilo with a

sense of singularity of identity. The island itself never changes the daily routines of

the Mistresses remain the same and an ambiance of group unity amongst all females is

fostered.

Tilo is transported to America by means of “shampati’s fire”, a giant bonfire

into which she steps and disappears. The magical fire of shampati symbolizes the

destruction of present physical form, and a reduction to ashes that are then scattered to

the far corners of the globe. By using the fire as a metaphor Divakaruni presents

Tilo’s identity as erratic rather than permanent. The word “shampati” is a reference to

the “bird of myth and memory who dived into conflagration and rose new from ash”

(56) or it can consider an eastern version of the phoenix.

Tilo’s journey to America is a form of rebirth. She emerges from the fire on a

bed of ash and enters into her new life upon the remnants of her past. She has existed

in between two worlds. The past is no longer her home, while America is still too

unfamiliar to describe as such. In America, Tilo interacts with all genders, identifying

with both her male and female customers and friends alike.
 31

This novel combines the ancient Hindu mythology and traditional Ayurvedic

medical wisdom with American socio-cultural wisdom. Divakaruni provides all the

Indian vision of cultural, traditional and moreover magical realism. Her immigrant

experiences spells in her writings and evokes the Americans to see the richness of

India and Indian spices, how they create magic in solving the problems of Indian

Diasporas. The qualities of the spice and their human forms are also indications of

magic realism. The spices submit their magical power to their mistress till she remains

honest with them from her heart. The novelist presents Tilo’s Old teacher’s

voice-“You are not important. No Mistress is. What is important is the store. And the

spices”. (5)

In Mistress of Spice, spices play an important role to solve problems of people

and also as curatives. The spices talking with their mistress verbally or through their

non verbally. In the second chapter of the novel Turmeric, Tilo speaks-“Turmeric the

auspicious spice, placed on the heads of new borns for luck, sprinkled over coconut at

pujas, rubbed into the borders of wedding saris” (13). It reveals that Turmeric is pious

and divine and the same time the magical quality of each spice is closely related to the

life of humans also. Every spice has its own chapter and quality in the novel.

Red chilli is dangerous and cleanser of evil and sesame is nurturer. Asafoetida

is antidote to love and Lotus Root is a spice for long lasting love. Tilo narrates that

Kalo Jire protects and saves one from evil eye and she utters about it that – “will split

one again tonight Kalo Jire seeds for all who have suffered from America” (173).

Divakaruni portrays the spices magical elements with the supernatural beings to make

wondrous and the real extraordinary.

 32

The novelist has retold Indian myths regarding spices to represent history. Red

Chilli is mythically believed to be the child of Fire God. Turmeric is supposed to

came out of the ocean when the Asuras and Devas churned for the precious treasures

of the universe. Fenugreek was sown by Shabari the oldest woman of the world and

Fennel was eaten from sage Vashistha after swallowing the demon Illwal so that he

would not come back to life again. These myths show Divakaruni’s ability to present

the ideas in a perfect and artistic way.

Tilo tries to help a shy Indian boy Jagjit who is insulted and beaten by

American boys in his school. So to cool Jagjit’s depression, Tilo gives him Cinnamon

to get good friends. But Tilo’s magic averts unknowingly due to her mistakes. He falls

into the company of dangerous friends equipped with weapons. Tilo speaks in sorrow

–“A Mistress must crave her own wanting out of her chest, must fill the hollow left

behind with the needs of those she serves” (69).

The memories are with her night and day, reminders and warnings of the past

stream into her thoughts, creating conflict in her present life. Her relationship with her

lover Raven progresses, the possible admonitions of the first mother constantly plague

her present consciousness. “The spices’ silence is like a stone in my heart, like ash on

my tongue. Through it I can hear back to long alone, the old one laughing bitter us as

bile. I know what she would say were she here” (128).

Tilo often magically dreams of the island, and even engages in a silent mental

dialogue with the First Mother across the expanse of space and time. “First mother,

are you at this very moment singing the song of welcome, the song to help my soul

through the layers, bone and steel and forbidding word, that separate the two

worlds”(316).
 33

Tilo’s past does not simply haunt her. But the memories of her past events

inspire her to live in the current sphere. The present does not exist by itself. America

is only a temporary place for her, it is her home only in so far. She experiences an

intense wave of longing for a place to call home. “I run my hand over the door, which

looks so alien in outdoor light, and am struck by the sudden vertigo of homelessness”

(128). Tilo has left the island but knows that she will someday return to it, to that

place. It is the only location in which she feels the comfort of belongingness. The gift

of Tilo is to read into the lives of all those who enter her store. They try to assimilate

their sufferings with their most private thoughts and desires. She has the deepest

vision for the innermost selves of all others. Yet, she is incapable of actually

perceiving herself. Tilo is expressly forbidden to look in a mirror while she lives in

Oakland and fulfills her duties as a Mistress of Spices, “Once a Mistress has taken on

her magic Mistress body, she is never to look on her reflection again” (59).

As South Asians visit her store, she listens to their stories of troubled lives,

tales of arranged marriages, of lonely abused wives, of unhappy immigrants and of

insecure teenagers. She can also hear their thoughts magically:

No one told us it would be so hard here in Amreekah, all day scrubbing

greasy floors, lying under engines that drip black oil, driving the

belching monster trucks that coat our lungs with tar. Standing behind

counters of dim motels where we must smile as we hand keys to

whores. Yes, always smile, even when people say ‘Bastard foreigner

taking over the country stealing our jobs’. (62)

Her romance consists of moments of magic and pangs of reality. When Tilo

falls in love with an American customer named Raven, the spices cannot cure her. She
 34

knows “the Mistresses must never use the spice for their own ends” (71-72). She loses

her powers and became confused.

The magic power of Tilo helps her to become the master of all spices and

owner of spice shop. She speaks to them as characters to solve the problems of people

in the real world with the help of magic. From a fortune teller, pirate queen,

apprentice of spices she gravitates towards a moral being with ordinary human

strengths and weaknesses. She was rebellious and greedy for life with “Life-lust, that

craving to taste all things, sweet as well as bitter, on your tongue” (126). She discards

her supernatural powers which hinder her passage to the bliss of earthly love.

When Raven ventures into the store, Tilo cannot find the correct spice. He

arouses a forbidden desire which if she follows will destroy her magical powers. She

is in a conflicted stage. Tilo has to decide which part of her heritage she will keep and

which part she will choose to abandon. In a mood of dilemma, Tilo says:

And now I can’t read him at all. I go inside him to search and am

wound around in a silk cloud. So all I have for knowledge is the quirk

of his eye brow as though he finds it amusing, all of it, but surely I’m

silly to think he knows what I’m doing . . . American I too am looking.

I thought all my looking was done when I found the spices but then I

saw you and now I no longer know. (69)

In order to depict magical realism Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni created such a

character Tilo. She is warned by her mother never fall in love and she should always

remain chaste and pure. The first mother warns her that not to violate rules while

applying magic on people. If she violates these rules she will loss her power over all

spices. The Old One asks:

 35

But let me ask you one last time. Are you certain you wish to become

Mistresses? It is not too late to choose an easier life. Are you ready to

give up your young bodies, to take on age and ugliness and unending

service? Ready never to step out of the places where you are set down,

store or school or healing house?‘Are you ready never to love any but

the spices again?’ (40)

In the bewitched island, as a neglected girl child, Tilo quickly realizes her

divine peculiarities. She can peephole both into the past and the future. The First

mother, while describing Tilo about the rules to be followed in the process of magical

powers, says:

Tilo have you gone crazy in this why you broke the rule of boundary

and stepped into America. For this . . . No Tilo, not that most

dangerous of forbidden things . . . ‘But when you lean out past what is

allowed and touch what is not, when you step beyond the old rules,

you increase the chance of failing a hundredfold. The old rules which

keep the world in its frail balance, which have been there forever,

before me, before the other Old Ones, before even the Grandmother’.

(130-139)

Divakaruni through her characters unravels the mythic past to set the stage for

the present. She takes her readers on a journey to a magic place between fantasy and

reality. She skillfully combines Indian American experience, magic realism and the

magic of Indian folktales and fairytales in her novel. Each dream explicitly exposes

some inherent drawback in the American society. These dreams reflect the intense
 36

and magical subject matter, mixed with past and present, history and hope, truth and

desire.

The novel closes with Tilo remaining herself Maya, which “can mean many

things. Illusion, spell, enchantment, the power that keeps this imperfect world going

day after day” (317). “Maya” represents the illusionary power of the world. Tilo’s

metamorphosis from one figure to another is an instance magical realism.

India is the land of different spices such as Turmeric, Chilli, season Chandan,

Fenugreek, Asafoetida, Brahmi, Tulsi etc. These spices characters like other human

beings speak to Tilo have magical properties for solving problems. Magical realism is

an aesthetic style or genre of fiction, in which magical elements are presented in a

straight forward manner which allows the real and the fantastic to be accepted in the

same stream of thought.

Magic realism is an awesome technique which was depicted by many

diasporic writers very effectively. Because Magic Realism throws light on the state of

the immigrants who are unable to bear the pangs due to separation, loneliness in a

foreign land create a new world of illusion. They create their own magical world and

with their imagination, dreams and memories. The novel is filled with so many

instances of Magic Realism firstly there are myths about various ancient spices.

Secondly the spices are portrayed as to participate with in the dialogue with Tilo,

thirdly the spices and character change from one form to another .And it behaves like

human beings feeling jealous when Tilo fall in love with American. All these aspects

of Magic Realism are traced and analyzed in this chapter.

 37

Chapter Four

Tradition and Modernity

‘Tradition’ and ‘Modernity’ are widely used as polar opposites in a linear

theory of social change. Tradition refers to the customs, beliefs, and cultural practices

that are past down from one generation to the next generation. It is incorrect to view

traditional societies as static, normatively consistent, or structurally homogeneous. It

is an area of prestige and privilege and encompasses the customary and the habitual. It

can be cruel, ruthless and omnipotent.

Tradition disallows freedom. But in relation to its neighbour, Modernity refers

to the contemporary behaviour or way of doing things. It is fresh, new and modern.

The modern society cannot completely break itself from the old traditions. So that

modernity does not necessarily weaken tradition. Both tradition and modernity form

the bases of ideologies and movements in which the polar opposites are converted

into aspirations, but traditional forms may supply support for, as well as against

change.

The immigrants come from a community having larger proportions of people

adhering to strict and ancient traditions formulated by their ancestors. So they face a

kind of cultural shock when left in a society having large proportions of people with

modern approaches to life. To survive in the alien land, these immigrants struggle to

the new environment by leaving new strategies and adaptation methods.

In most of her short stories Divakaruni marks from the contours of cross-

cultural attitudes. Divakaruni portrays the cultural difference between Indian and

American values. She makes use of the institution of marriage as her site for her cross

cultural discourse. She presents the different attitudes of her characters to the
 38

institution of marriage. She highlights the fact that most of her characters immigrants

come from India where the institution of marriage is given much importance. In

contrary to it, in America the concept of marriage and family is losing its importance

day by day. In her novel, the conjugal lives of her characters are under strain.

Through this novel Divakaruni reflect upon notions of identity, gender, history

and culture. It shall attempt to analyze and argue how Indian women at home and

abroad confront the dilemmas of existence relatively in the same ways. The entire

fictional work of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni will be under critical focus to reflect

upon the tensions and conflicts between Tradition and Modernity. Her novels which

are constantly inviting critical attention that Indian women living abroad respond to

moments of crisis in a manner that is different from that of the women living in India.

They were not able to completely set free from the Indian cultural compulsions.

The Mistress of Spices constantly focus on the plight of the immigrants who

gradually adapt themselves to the life and culture of the alien land to which they have

immigrated. Still they retain the traditional values of their parent’s homeland. Chitra

Banerjee Divakaruni, now settled in the United States who is an Indian resident. So,

in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s fiction portrays women who either live abroad or

happen to be visiting India.

The women characters are distanced from their homeland. They think more

rationally, but they mentally retain some of the traditional beliefs. Leaving India and

its orthodoxy behind seem to be a solution to some of these problems in Chitra’s

fiction. Banerjee’s writings are portraying how modern Indian women are torn

between their historical past and progressive present, between traditional ethos and

modern culture. Divakaruni demonstrates a bolder attitude. She is in a torn between

 39

old and new world values. The author mainly focuses on the diasporic Indian women

caught between two opposing worlds. Divakaruni excels at depicting the cultural

dialectics of immigrant experience, like many other contemporary writers.

In the spice shop, Tilo uses her own homelands tradition and customs

according to the First Mothers instructions in the island, where she had taught spice’s

power to Tilo. In Tilo’s shop, plastic green mango leaves are strung over the door for

luck. Chakravarti says that:

Divakaruni takes up the image of the spices and the woman as

complimentary, and fuses them in the enigmatic and mysterious

character of the mistress of the spices. But here the spices also

represent the heritage of tradition that forms and restrains the mistress.

(47)

Divakaruni proclaims her own home country’s tradition to the characters in

the novel, The Mistress of Spices. In Indian culture, brides smear turmeric acts as a

preserver and it is considered as an auspicious spice which is placed on the heads of

newborns for luck, sprinkled over coconuts at pujas, and rubbed into the borders of

wedding saris. It shows that how much importance the author has given to her

traditional values and customs in a new world.

Ahuja an immigrant doesn’t have faith in his wife Lalitha and hence ill treats

her. He doesn’t consider her as his wife and denies her all pleasures of marital life.

Ahuja does not let his wife to go for a job. He is of the view that income of the man is

quite enough to run a family. If Lalitha does not obey his words, he beats her

severely. Ahuja thinks that it is not an Indian tradition to let a women or wife to go for

a job. He does not want to break the traditional opinions he has inherited from his
 40

homeland. Ahuja refuses to send his wife to work. He develops a false perception

about tradition and modernity and correlates women going to work with modernity

and American culture. On the contrary, Lalitha wants to work as a tailor. She tells

everything about herself to Tilo and seeks a remedy from her. Tilo helps her starting a

tailoring shop and consoles her to continue her family life with her husband, Ahuja.

Indian women apply kumkum powder on their forehead for their husbands

well being and luck. It is a custom followed for more than hundred years. There are

various reasons for Indian women applying kumkum powder on their forehead, one is

admiring the God Almighty, and another is to uphold the Indian tradition. It also

indicates that they are not widows. Indian women believe that their husband’s life is

kept in kumkum powder. According to Indian culture, married women should keep

their chastity throughout their life. To them Indian production is the best tradition in

the world and they want to preserve their good tradition even in an alien land. Thus,

they put on kumkum powder to enhance their cultural power. She, in her traditional

way prays for the betterment of her husband:

Here’s kumkum powder red as the heart of a hibiscus flower to put on

our foreheads for married luck. And look, look, Mysore sandalwood

soap with its calm bright fragrance, the same brand you used to buy me

in India so many years ago when we were newlyweds. (79)

In The Mistress of Spices, Daksha, another immigrant who is a nurse by

profession, plays an important role. As a devoted daughter-in-law, she goes to Tilo’s

spice shop to buy cracked wheat for her widowed mother-in-law. As per Indian

tradition a widow should not eat rice in ekadsi and Indian immigrants anchor their

tradition. Through this kind of activities by following such rituals, practices, beliefs in
 41

the alien land Tilo admires Daksha for her kind behavior towards her mother-in-law.

But on the contrary, Daksha’s mother-in-law treats servants as slaves. Daksha does

not like her mother-in-law’s rude behaviour. Yet, Daksha proves herself to be a good

wife and an ideal daughter-in-law by embracing the Indian way of treating her

husband’s family. Second generation immigrants are mostly unaware of their rich

Indian tradition and heritage and they look modern in their life style, clothing,

mentality, behaviour and culture.

In The Mistress of Spices Divakaruni, once again portrays the conflict between

tradition and modernity by presenting the story of Geeta. Geeta is yet another

character who is reared by her grandfather, always resents her American style of life.

When he goes to Tilo’s shop he relates everything happening in the family. One day

he tells Tilo about Geeta’s answer to her parents, when they asked her opinion about

marriage. She replied that she was averse to arranged marriages. She prefers to choose

her husband by herself and bursts into laughter. She adds that her father cannot expect

her to be seen with a veil over her head in kitchen, sweating all over all the day with a

bunch of keys tied to the end of her sari. To this Ramu said that it is not going to be

like that. She then tells him that she is in love with Juan who is a Chicano. Every day

at home gets upset. She quarrels with her dad and mums and leaves the house without

telling anybody. Geeta’s grandfather asks Tilo to go and speak to Geeta. Here we see

an Indian family in America who still tries to follow and stick their culture. In the

beginning of the novel Geeta’s grandfather says:

May be OK for all these firingi women in this country, but you tell me

yourself didi, if a young girl should work late-late in the office with

other men and come home only after dark and sometimes in their car
 42

too? Chee chee, back in Jamshedpur they would have smeared dung on

our faces for that. And who would ever marry her. (85)

There is a clash of values, especially with the grandfather who tries to instill in

Geeta, his granddaughter. Juan is an outcast because he is not white. In the American

society, children choose their own path of life. Having assimilated into American

culture, she refuses to behave according to the norms of conduct formulated by her

parents and she moves out. The families’ conflict is resolved only when Tilo, like a

medicine woman, steps in and performs her miracle with her spices, and consoles the

grandfather and makes him to pluck out from his heart. Tilo’s grandfather belongs to

an ancient tradition and hence severely refuses the western culture and gives

preference to his Indian culture in the host land. Geeta’s families celebrate Indian

festival like Bengali New Year in American and their by retain their traditional way of

living. Her father, Ramu, is a humble person but her mother, Sheela is known for her

cruel nature. Sheela behaves rudely to her daughter. They do not change their Indian

attitude of life. Only Geeta, the second generation immigrant changes herself

completely too western culture.

There is constant interplay of nostalgia and reality in Divakaruni’s novels. At

a deeper level they show the conflict between tradition modernity. The trials and

tribulations and the struggle to maintain the modern values and carve out an identity

of their own in the new and ostensibly stiffling environment of her protagonist’s

makes them a feminist. The protagonist seeks to synthesize tradition with the modern

values which are the needs of the hour. To an extent reconcile themselves to the

rigidity of traditions but with reservations and carve out their own identity as new

women living within the ambit of tradition.

 43

Particularly in the case of protagonist’s, they neither shatter the ancestral

dignity nor give up essentials of modernity. They keep some of them in suspended

animation and wait for the right time to bring about the change in the role of the

women and are successful in relaxing the rigidity of some customs. They subtly

change their immediate environment and the people concerned. Her success lies not

just in conducting the voyage in the traditional way of life of her heroines but in

harmonizing the two divergent trends. It is very difficult to separate tradition from

modernity for the mere reason that our societies heterogeneous. This is due to India’s

peculiar geographical and cultural diversity, as well as the variety of religious

communities. Tradition and Modernity are seen as conflicting terms in India basically

because of its history which comprises of various civilizations, foreign invasions,

religious attitudes and social practices. India’s disturbed past has left its own impact,

which can still be felt on certain spheres of life, thus intensifying the tussle between

the tradition and modernity.

Jagjit, another Indian immigrant, suffers a lot by his American class-mate.

Being an innocent boy, he does not know how to interact with the people in a

different society. He does not change his dressing style, and dresses in his traditional

Punjabi way. The alien society does not approve and accept his way of dressing. The

American classmates ridicule his way of dressing and speaking Punjabi. Jagjit does

not know English. His mother too dislikes him. She wants her son not to behave like a

fool in an alien society. Among the strange people and atmosphere Jagjit struggles to

foot his originality. He undergoes suffering because of the sudden change from

tradition to modernity. He does not want to change from the traditional way of life he

leads, but he has to adapt himself to the new culture he cannot survive. Tilo explains

the pitiable condition of Jagjit:

 44

Jagjit with his thin, frightened wrists who has trouble in school because

he knows only Punjabi still. Jagjit whom the teacher has put in the last

row next to the doorling boy with milk-blue eyes. Jagjit who has

learned his first English word. Idiot. Idiot. Idiot. I walk to the back

where he stares in confusion at the shelves of papads, the packets

stamped with hieroglyphs of Hindi and English. (38)

In the playground, American classmates push down Jagjit, because he puts on

turban and they dangle the cloth from their finger tips and laugh at his long, uncut

hair. To suit the culture of the alien land, Tilo herself changes her attire. Tilo comes to

American costume of sari but later she changes herself. She lives in Oakland where,

she gradually adopts the western culture. Though she feels bad in wearing American

costumes she is aware of the fact that to survive in America she has to change her way

of dressing. Though these kinds of activities are forbidden by her first mother, Tilo

must not step out of the spice shop. But she steps out to help Geeta. By doing so, she

breaks another ancient spices room, which is also considered as a step towards

modernity. Tilo says, “All I know of American cloths is what I have seen customers

wear. Glimpses of passers-by. I weave them together into a coat grey as the sky

outside. A wisp of a blouse showing the neck. Dark plant legs” (127).

Her novel The Mistress of Spices also deals with the problem of expatriates,

torn between the values of their own society and by those of the west. Tilo, the

protagonist in this novel owns a spice shop in Oakland and through her supernatural

powers heals people of their problems. The conflict arises then this woman falls in

love with non Indian and must make some difficult choices as to whether she should

continue to serve her people or look for her own happiness.

 45

Being modern means accepting the world view on the basis of

developing knowledge, and the rational and secular thinking. As a result all the

thinkers from the past have been in the process of bridging the gap between the

tradition and the modern. Every human being is equal at birth and should have the

right to survive own her own terms. Whether or not the changing times and the world

scenario are acceptable to us, women are definitely taking front ranking positions in

every sphere of life. So even if feminism as an ideology is rejected by man where ever

women is being given more space and acceptance in a way practicing its ideals.
 46

Chapter Five

Summation

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is one of the foremost writers of the diasporic

literature. Many of her works deal with the immigrant experiences, especially of

women in general. Her writings have always been close to reality and they present a

true picture of both Indian and American societies. She herself being an expatriate

writer tries to portray incidents in her novels based on her own experiences.

Divakaruni’s protagonists are more adventurous and bold because they are influenced

by the western liberal outlook on life.

Diaspora is a relatively a new development in the postcolonial literature

remains a favourite topic for investigate literary outputs. People who have flown over

the distant territories of the globe, their settled assurances of home and roots being

blown into fragments of uncertain insecurities, have been represented in diverse

writings all over the world. Being a diasporic writer, Divakaruni deals with the issues

of Indian women such as arranged marriage, immigration, domestic violence, racism,

interracial relationship, divorce, independence for the women and identity crisis. Her

writings emerge from her own experiences as well as encounters with South Asian

women through Maritime, a helpline which affords the service of offering counseling

of women suffering from domestic violence, depression and cultural alienation. Her

vivid experience gets reflected in her writing. She successfully presents a balanced

picture of the world of immigrants in America.

As a familiar voice in the literary diaspora, in her writings often focuses on

themes which include women immigration, the South Asian experience, history,

myth, magic, identity crisis and the clash between tradition and modernity.
 47

Divakaruni’s first full length novel The Mistress of Spices has been steadily winning

acclaim to literary circles, although she does not provide a simplistic view of the

American dream. It seems to be an overemphasis on India as the site and source of

women’s oppression. More over the strength of Divakaruni’s fictional style lies in her

lyrical, sensuous and evocative descriptions, which resemble her poetry.

Divakaruni’s novel The Mistress of Spices adopts a more strategy for

portraying diasporic identity. She makes use of fable in order to explore the various

kinds of problems encountered by immigrants. She focuses upon the problems of

immigrants with a magical touch in according with the changing style of tradition and

modernity. She has also characterized the lifeless spices as living characters. The

Indo-American woman writer Divakaruni has given metaphorical representation of

the Indian spices in order to touch upon the knowledge beyond science. Symbolic

spices are shown to have their tangible, perceptible and manifesting relationship with

the protagonist.

Chitra has been able to produce the better meaning of the text and context by

characterizing the spices as non-human beings. She has represented the Indian spices

as idealized and the magical beings belonging to India. The author narrates the human

characters for example Raven, an American; Tilo, Jagjit, as immigrant Indians in

America; many other minor characters belonging to India, but live as immigrants in

America. The spices encompass paradoxically the space of both subject and object,

being and non-being. The spices unify performance of the protagonist Tilo as external

accomplishment of action with internal world of renunciation.

Indian spices on account of their myth and history become the tool to extend

the narrative plot in a dramatic or in a significant way. Each spice is characterized

 48

with a certain mythical impression in curing disease or any other some needs. The

writer describes the characters with illustrative, figurative, metaphorical and

descriptive imagery or situation in the narrative plot. The readers have to understand

themselves the characteristics of the character through characters thoughts and

actions. The writer also represents about the cosmic energy and divine strength to

acquire authority over spices.

The protagonist lives in two cultures, where she is caught between her heritage

and her new found world. The two edges that Tilo finds herself caught up is the harsh

reality of immigrant Indians in America and the mystical heritage of India. In

academic as well as popular reviews of her work, Divakaruni has been praised of her

literary creativity and personal sensitivity in dealing with cross-cultural complexities

of self-identity, family relationships and community values.

The first chapter presents the history of Indian English Literature, the novels

written by different authors, the life history, award and prizes, collection of works by

the contemporary writers like Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh, Anita Mazumdar

Desai, Jhumpa Lahiri and Kamala Markandaya. It also contains the life history of

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. It also gives a brief account of all her novels. At the end

of the first chapter, it gives the critical appreciation of the novel, The Mistress of

Spices.

The second chapter mentions customers of Tilo undergo the sufferings related

to the problem of identity crisis. They were standing in between two worlds. Their

one and only hope is from the healing power of the spices from Tilo. They can’t

behave or think from their own perspective. They were undergone with the bold

chains and strings of the society. Losing of one’s identity in a foreign land is
 49

unbearable. The conflict between the Americans and Indians is also a part of the

identity crisis. Characters like Tilo. Jagjit, Lalitha, Raven, Haroun and Veena find it

difficult to establish their identity in the host land and thus suffer from the acute pain

of alienation, ruthlessness and loss of identity. So it is clear from the second chapter

that, in order to survive, characters change their names and identities often with ease.

In the third chapter, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni analyses about the use of

magic realist technique. She uses her fantastic story as an expression of reality.

Realism is inherent in the novel achieved by the constant interwining of the ordinary

with the extraordinary. This Magic Realism strikes at one’s traditional sense of

naturalistic fiction. The role of magical elements in creating fantastic, spectacular

experiences and memories for the immigrants is depicted. The blending of magical

tone throughout the novel makes an extraordinary blend with the ordinary. This tone

restricts the ability of the reader to question the events of the novel. However, it also

causes the reader to call into question the limits of reality.

The fourth chapter, idea of tradition and modernity dwells the fact that, if the

immigrant is physically far away from his homeland its tradition seem to haunt him as

a spirit. He is further exposed to the new environment of modernity and sophistication

in the host land. In her novels, western values are viewed typically as modern and

materialistic here as, Indian values are traditional and spiritual.

Tilo falling in love with Raven and creating a new world of their own shows

in the end of the novel. It makes a positive outlook in accepting new identity and

paves a space for dialogue between the two cultures. Raven and Tilo are able to

associate with each other mentally and can easily build up their earthly paradise. The

earthquake towards the end of the novel is symbolic. It shows the destruction of the
 50

established order and a crumbling of the segmented cultures of the world. This

interracial relation can be seen as an implement to fight against racism and

discrimination in America.

The clash between adapting the strict traditions inherited from homeland and

the modern society, the immigrants encounter everyday in the host land results a

feeling of outsider and identity crisis. The only relief and the way out are creating an

illusionary magical world through the use of dreams, imagination and magical

powers. Then the inerasable essential elements of tradition along with possible

adaptation are preferable.

Retelling the past becomes an important tool in Divakaruni’s hand, she

interprets the ancient Indian myths and epics. She makes them blend with the story of

immigrant Indians who struggle to fit in a new way of life in an alien culture and at

the same time to keep their memories of the homeland. Reading The Mistress of

Spices is a joy and enlighten one’s mind in a lucid manner depicting the farce and

absurdity of life.
 51

Glossary

amchur - dried mango powder

chee chee - a word used for emphasis when talking about something good

didi - an older sister or female cousin

ekadasi - eleventh day of moon

firingi - a foreigner, especially a Britain or a white person

mithai - sweet

zafran - saffron
 52

Works Cited

Primary Source

Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee. The Mistress of spices. London: Black Swan, 2005.

Print.

Secondary Sources

Allen, Paula Gunn. “Guentos dela Tierra Encantada: Magic and Realism in the South

West Border lands.” Many Wests: Place, Culture, and Regional Identity. Ed.

David M. Wrobel and Michael C. Steiner. Lawrence, KS: UP of Kansas, 1997.

343-345. Print.

Chakravarti, Devasree. “Shifting Identities: Reinvention of the Self in Chitra Banerjee

Divakaruni’s “The Mistress of Spices.” Post Modern Indian English Fiction.

Ed.Abha Shukla Kaushik. New Delhi: Aadi Publications, 2012. 47. Print.

Cooper, Brenda. Magical Realism in West African Fiction. London: Routledge,

1998.32. Print.

Gavani D B. Immigrant Indian Writers. Gadag: Ravi Prakashan, 2011. 80. Print.

Henry, William Hudson. An Introduction to the Study of Literature. London: George

G. Harrap and Co Ltd, 1965. 10. Print.

Jain, Jasbir. Writers of the Indian Diaspora. Jaipur: Rawat Publication, 1998. 12-13.

Print.

Rathus, A. Spencer, and Nevid S. Jeffrey. Adjustment and Growth: The Challenges of

Life. Boston: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980. 30-31. Print.

Said, Edward. Orientalism. London: Routledge, 1978. 12. Print.

 53

Softky, Elizabeth. “A Cross- Cultural Understanding Spiced with the Indian

Diaspora.” English Literature: Voices of Indian Diaspora. Ed. Arvind

M.Nawale. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers, 2009. 150. Print.

Web Sources

Divakaruni, Chitra B. “A Woman’s Places.” An Atlantic Unbound Interview with

Chitra B. Divakaruni. The Atlantic Monthly 281.4 (9 April 1998) :

<http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/98apr/index.htm>.