Diaspora Literature involves an idea of a homeland, a place from where the

displacement occurs and narratives of harsh journeys undertaken on account of

economic compulsions. Basically Diaspora is a minority community living in exile.
The Oxford English Dictionary 1989 Edition (second) traces the etymology of the
word 'Diaspora' back to its Greek root and to its appearance in the Old Testament
(Deut: 28:25) as such it references. God's intentions for the people of Israel to be
dispersed across the world. The Oxford English Dictionary here commences with
the Judic History, mentioning only two types of dispersal: The "Jews living
dispersed among the gentiles after the captivity" and The Jewish Christians
residing outside the Palestine. 35 | Diaspora signifies the location of a fluid
human autonomous space involving a complex set of negotiation and exchange
between the nostalgia and desire for the Homeland and the making of a new
home, adapting to the power, relationships between the minority and majority,
being spokes persons for minority rights and their people back home and
significantly transacting the Contact Zone - a space changed with the possibility of
multiple challenges.

 People migrating to another country in exile home

 Living peacefully immaterially but losing home

 Birth of Diaspora Literature

However, the 1993 Edition of Shorter Oxford's definition of Diaspora can be

found. While still insisting on capitalization of the first letter, 'Diaspora' now also
refers to 'anybody of people living outside their traditional homeland.

In the tradition of indo-Christian the fall of Satan from the heaven and
humankind's separation from the Garden of Eden, metaphorically the separation
from God constitute diasporic situations. Etymologically, 'Diaspora' with its
connotative political weight is drawn from Greek meaning to disperse and
signifies a voluntary or forcible movement of the people from the homeland into
new regions."
Difference Between Diaspora and Migration

Diaspora and migration are two words between which a key difference can be
identified. First let us define these two words. Diaspora refers to a population that
shares a common heritage who is scattered in different parts of the world. On the
other hand, migration refers to people moving to different areas in search of a
settlement. The key difference between Diaspora and migration is that in
Diaspora the people maintain a very strong tie to their homeland, their roots,
and their origin, unlike in migration. Through examples, let us examine the
differences between these two words.

What is Diaspora?

Diaspora refers to a population that shares a common heritage who is scattered in

different parts of the world. A special feature here is that these people try to keep
in touch with their homeland. This can specifically be noticed in the 21st century
where diasporas maintain political ties with their homeland. When speaking of
diasporas, this has existed from the ancient days itself. For example, after the fall
of Constantinople, it is believed that the Greeks fled. Another example for
Diaspora is the Jews who were expelled from Judea.

According to William Safran, a diaspora can be easily identified based on some

characteristics. One of the main characteristics is that the people have a collective
memory of their home. In this sense, such a population considers the homeland
as the true home. Also, the influence of the homeland is such that the
individual’s identity is very much affected by the homeland. Those who belong to
a diaspora can leave the country based on various political, economical and social
factors.

What is Migration?

Migration refers to people moving to different areas in search of a settlement.

This can be due to social, environmental, political, or even economical reasons.
For example, a person can migrate to another country for better employment
opportunities or due to the unstable political condition of the country. This can be
explained further. Today, many people of the third world are migrating to
the West as it offers better living standards for the people.
Migration consists of various categories. One categorization is internal and
international migration. Internal migration is when the individual moves to a
different location of the same country. International migration is when the
individual moves to another country. Another categorization is permanent and
temporary migration. Unlike in temporary migration where the individual would
return to the country one day, permanent migration is where the individual
settles in another country with ho hopes of returning.

What is the difference between Diaspora and Migration?

Definitions of Diaspora and Migration:

Diaspora: Diaspora refers to a population that shares a common heritage who is

scattered in different parts of the world.

Migration: Migration refers to people moving to different areas in search of a

settlement.

Characteristics of Diaspora and Migration:

Roots and Origin:

Diaspora: In the case of Diaspora, the people are very conscious of their roots and
origin.

Migration: In migration, this feature cannot be seen.

Identity:

Diaspora: The homeland plays a key role in identity formation.

Migration: The homeland does not play a key role in identity formation.

Myth:

Diaspora: People maintain a myth of the homeland.

Migration: People do not maintain a myth of the homeland.

Image Courtesy:

1. “Emigrants Leave Ireland by Henry Doyle 1868” by Henry Edward Doyle –

illustration from Preface to the First Edition of An Illustrated History of Ireland
from AD 400 to 1800, by Mary Frances Cusack, Illustrated by Henry Doyle scanned
into 001.jpg extracted from Gutenberg project’s zip file linked from [1]. First
published in 1868.. [Public Domain] via Commons

2. “During World War I there was a great migration north by southern Negroes –
NARA – 559091” by Jacob Lawrence, 1917-2000, Artist (NARA record: 1981548) –
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. [Public Domain] via Commons

There are three types of diaspora literature

1 Expatriate literature An expatriate,not permonent or expat, is an individual

living and/or working in a country other than their country of
citizenship, often temporarily and for work reasons.They have no
intention to became a citizen of one destination caunty. When such
expatriate writers face class conflict, cultural conflict etc , and when they
express their thoughts inner struggles in their literature its called expertiate
literature

2 Refugee literature Modern refugee literature is about a century old. It

emerged in the early twentieth century as the product of and
response to a new kind of European nation state, what Karl Polanyi
called the "crustacean type of nation" with a "hard shell" and a form
of "sovereignty more jealous and absolute than anything known
before" (202). Refugees, as the anthropologist Liisa Malkki has noted,
exist only because of the specific ways of belonging and not
belonging induced by modern nationhood. And this historical co-
emergence of the nation and the refugee tells us at least one very
important thing: refugee writers have always been special witnesses
to the shifting grounds of political life.

3.Immigrant literature takes various forms and is usually written by immigrants

and secondand/ or third-generation Americans. Often autobiographical in nature,
these narratives reflect the experience of immigration and acculturation and the
associated uneasiness of these processes. The anxiety that immigrant literature
exposes is a combination of determination, success, loneliness, and
abandonment. Repressed desires of attachment to the homeland juxtaposed with
the uncertainties surrounding assimilation assert themselves as underlying
conflicts. Added to these struggles are issues of self-identity that stem from the
intricacies of cultural adaptation.
As immigrants and settlers moved to the interior regions of America, they brought
with them their native languages, cultures, dreams of success, and fears of the
unknown. In their writings, relationships of characters and narrators to the
physical land, the development of self and other, and the acquisition of language
appear as central themes not only in literature written by immigrants and their
children who made the trek but also in works by authors who may be generations
removed from the actual experience but whose collective past embodies
acculturation. The symphony of voices echoing the immigrant experience form a
multiethnic framework for the literature of the Great Plains.

Gunn, Giles. The Interpretation of Otherness: Literature, Religion, and the

American Imagination. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979.

Kolodny, Annette. The Lay of the Land: Metaphor as Experience and History in
American Life and Letters. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1975.

The Rise of Diasporic Muslim Writers in American Literature. Mohja

Kahf, Khaled Hosseini, Asra Nomani & Samima Ali
Dr. Shamenaz Bano, Assistant Professor, Department of English, S. S. Khanna
Girls’ Degree College, Allahabad, India

Abstract

America, being a country of extreme liberalism, individual freedom, choice and

existence as well as modern & lavish way of living is a centre of attraction for the
people of the Third world. And the new rise of globalization and capitalism has
also added to its glory. So, people from the other parts of the world in search of
better ways of living, high standard and for monetary gain often go to settle there.

But everything is not as easy as it appears as more or less they have to face some
problems in a new atmosphere. And the most important issue is adjustment or
assimilation. The fact is that some people find it difficult to adapt themselves to a
new surrounding which is different than the society of their native country. They
experience culture shock as American culture and society are very different from
their traditional one. This is especially a vital issue with the Muslim communities
when they migrate to the United States.

In recent times, there is a rise of diasporic writer who is also enriching the
American literature by sharing their immigrant experiences. Though there are
many such writers I am focusing on Mohja Kafh, Khaled Hosseini, Asra Nomani
and Samima Ali.

Keywords: Diasporic Muslim writers, American Literature, Immigrant

experience, Third world country.

Introduction

The United States of America is considered as the most developed country. A

nation, which belongs to the category of First World countries and is considered
as a Superpower. The language widely spoken in this country is English, so the
literature of this country is basically in English. Many famous writers are
belonging to America like- Arthur Miller, Henry James, James Joyce, Virginia
Woolf, Mark Twain and many others. Now, this link had further expanded with
diasporic writers from different countries who have though not born in America
but made it as their abode defining its multicultural culture.

People from other parts of the world migrate to America on a large scale due to
various reasons. They have various dreams and aspirations but not every time,
their dreams are fulfilled or it takes half of their lifetime. Living in an alien land is
not so easy and they had to face minor or major problems; the most important is
assimilation in a culture which is different than theirs. Now many people, for
expressing their feelings, experiences and problems have taken the help of
Literature. Since literature is the only medium of the expression of a person's
experiences, diasporic literature has been abundant in the past few years, who
want to share their views and experiences with other people of the world. As Paul
Brians speak:

Indeed, “postcolonial” writers often move to England or North America (because

they have been exiled, or because they find a the more receptive audience there,
or simply in search of a more comfortable mode of living) and even sometimes—
like Soyinka --call upon the governments of these “neo-colonialist” nations to the
aid of freedom movements seeking to overthrow native tyrants. (2: Brians)
These writers are unable to detach their minds from the land from where they
belong. There is nostalgia in these writers that colours their works. There is also a
concern for a homeland which they have left behind.

“The diasporic authors engage in the cultural transmission that is equitably

exchanged in the manner of translating a map of reality for multiple readerships.
Moreover, they are equipped with bundles of memories and articulate an
amalgam of global and national strands that embody the real and imagined
experience." In this way diasporic literature is a major part of contemporary
literature because of the global understanding it imparts to the readers.
Sometimes it also helps in depicting the genuine problems of any country. It is
'imagined experience' but the fundamental of this image is rooted in reality.

Some terms that are usually associated with diaspora are like exile, alienation,
nostalgia, despair, dislocation, abandonment and disintegration. But at the same
time, it is also true what Aizaz Ahmad opines. He says, “Diasporic writings are to
some extent about the business of finding new Angles to enter reality; the
distance, geographical and cultural enables new structures of feeling. The
hybridity is subversive. It resists cultural authoritarianism and challenges official
truths." (126) In the contemporary scenario, Diaspora has become an effective
tool of postmodernism using which the big voice of Master Narratives could be
challenged. Those living on the margin, who feel exiled and alienated from their
roots and find no place of their own, can effectively discharge their voice.

Muslims also constitutes a major part of the American population. And they have
also developed literature known as Muslim American Literature, which is denied
by many people.

But Mohja Kahf, one of the famous poet and author of America argues that there
is writing known as Muslim American Literature (MAL). She elaborates her point
by saying that: It begins with the Muslims of the Black Arts Movement (1965-
75) The Autobiography of Malcolm X is one of its iconic texts; it includes American
Sufi writing, secular ethnic novels, writing by immigrant and second-generation
Muslims and religious American Muslim literature. Many of the works I would put
into this category can and do also get read in other categories, such as African
American, Arab American, and South Asian literature, “Third World” women’s
writing, diasporic Muslim literature in English, and so forth. (163)
She believes that the place of these works in other categories cannot be denied
and when u read them you will gain something together as part of an American
Muslim cultural landscape. She compares Muslim American Literature with the
Jewish American Literature by the 1930s but says that it is in a formative stage.

Mohja Kahf is a Syrian born Arab-American poet and author and currently
working as an Associate Professor of comparative literature in King Fahad Centre
for the Middle East and Islamic Studies at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
She has earned a PhD in comparative literature from Rutgers University, USA. She
is the author of Western Representations of the Muslim Woman: From Termagant
to Odalisque (1999), E-mails from Scheherazade (poetry, 2003), and The Girl in the
Tangerine Scarf (novel, 2006).

Her book, Western Representations of the Muslim Woman: From Termagant to

Odalisque is highly praised by scholars all around the world. As Farzaneh Milani,
Professor of University of Virginia says:

An insightful and provocative book. With an impressive knowledge of European

literature from the medieval period to the mod-nineteenth a century and in
command of literary and feminist criticisms as well as Islamic history, Mohja Kahf
unearths and revives conveniently forgotten images of Muslim women. This
fascinating genealogy___ relegated to oblivion, pushed in the footnotes, forced
into invisibility___ reveals the evolving images of Muslim women in the West.

Not only Mohja Kahf but many other Muslim Writers from across the world made
America their new dwelling place like- Khaled Hosseini, Asra Nomani, Samina Ali
to name few. These names are of great significance as they have gain name and
fame around the world.

Khaled Hosseini is another American based English fiction writer. Not only a
novelist but he is also a physician who was born in Afghanistan but has acquired
most of his education in the United States. He completed his residency in internal
medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles in 1996. He practised
medicine until a year and a half after the release of The Kite Runner.

Hosseini was interested in writing so in 2003; he was able to publish his debut
novel, The Kite Runner, which became an international bestseller, selling in more
than 12 million copies worldwide. His second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns,
was released in 2007 and became the bestselling novel in the UK.
The novel, The Kite Runner is very close to Khaled Hosseini and sometimes it
seems to be an autobiographical novel. It is a story set in Pre-Soviet occupied
Afghanistan. He says, “I have very fond memories of my childhood in
Afghanistan.” Hosseini memories of peaceful Pre-Soviet era Afghanistan as well as
his personal experiences with Afghanistan’s Hazara people led to the writing of
his first novel, The Kite Runner. A man named, Hossein Khan, who was a Hazara,
worked for the Hosseini's when they were living in Iran. When Khaled was a kid
and studying in school, he taught Khan to read and write. Although his relation
with Hossein Khan was brief and rather formal, Hosseini's fond memories of this
relationship served as an inspiration for the relationship between Hassan and
Amir in the book.

The Kite Runner shows the life-long guilt consciousness of the protagonist, Amir
and the way by which he can redeem himself from it. So in this way, it is a story of
guilt and redemption. The novel revolves around Amir, who has a guilt
consciousness because in childhood he is not able to save his friend, Hassan from
being molested being a coward. And later on, he was also responsible for droving
Hassan and his father Ali, who is his father's faithful servant, out of the house.
Throughout his life, he is haunted by the guilt consciousness of his childhood
misdeed. Not only this, but there are also other themes are included in the novel
like__ the ethnic tensions between the Pashtuns and Hazaras in Afghanistan and
the immigrant experiences of Amir and his father in the United States.

Throughout the novel, Hosseini has tried to show the ethnic rivalry existing
between the high class and the low class i.e. Pashtuns and Hazaras. The Pashtun
community which considers themselves as the high class is dominant in the
country and they have a hatred for the Hazara community, which is considered by
them as low class. One of the reasons for this hatred is that Pashtuns belong to
the Sunni community and Hazara to Shias, resulting in the age-old clash of Sunnis
and Shias.

So, Hosseini has tried to show the ethnic rivalry existing in Afghanistan between
Pashtuns and Hazara. He has also tried to show the destruction which the Taliban
regime has done there and how the people are sufferings because of it. But there
is no evidence of US-led destruction of Afghanistan in any of his novel for which
he is highly criticized.
Contemporary Afghan literature rests upon a rich heritage of both oral and
written traditions. The two major languages of Afghanistan, Pashto and Dari, with
approximately sixty million speakers altogether (including those outside
Afghanistan), possess a wealth of literature, unfortunately mostly unstudied,
marginalized, and known to few. Hopefully, this issue on Afghan writing will help
to introduce its treasures to a broader public.

Talking about Afghan literature, you are often forced into a discussion on politics.
In a “poeticized community” such as Afghanistan, much of what is written,
especially poetry, is in one way or another related to politics; not necessarily
being political or ideological, but politicized to various degrees. This will be seen
clearly in the texts selected for this issue. Much of the country’s history is
channeled through literature; in both written and oral literature, in the canonical
as well as in the noncanonical, in the past and in the present. When one
considering the nature of poetry and fiction produced over the last three decades
of war and conflict this becomes clear. What is also interesting and can be said to
epitomize Afghan literature of today, is its high degree of responsiveness and
immediacy—in many other literatures a national trauma often demands some
sort of “incubation period” before the topic can be processed; in Afghanistan,
traumas are attacked by the pen simultaneously as they occur.

Afghanistan is going through a humanitarian crisis, and it is about to spiral out of

control. Since US president Joe Biden announced the withdrawal of American
military troops from Afghan soil, the Taliban has been aggressively seizing more
and more strategically important regions. They even claimed to control 85% of
the country.

What does it mean to the common layman of Afghanistan? And how is the future
looking for women and girls? The Taliban is known to have extreme views on the
chastity and dignity of women.
According to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), around 200,000 Afghans have been
internally displaced in 2021 alone. 18 million people are in extreme need of aid
and assistance to survive. Over 10 million people are suffering from acute
malnutrition. Over 50% of the children under the age of five are suffering from
hunger.

This is a country that has been going through a war crisis since 1978. Many
authors have taken it upon themselves to let the world know their stories. Here
are some such writers and their books to help you understand the past as well as
the current situation in Afghanistan.

Nadia Hashimi is an American-born Afghan woman. Her parents came to the USA
in the early 70s. They had intentions of returning to Afghanistan but did not
follow through with the plan after the country fell into turmoil as a result of the
Soviet invasion. She grew up to become the author of three bestselling novels -
‘The Pearl that Broke Its Shell’, ‘When the Moon Is Low’, and ‘A House Without
Windows’.

‘The Pearl that Broke its Shell’ is the story of two women living a century apart
but connected by legacy. One of her main characters is a girl who dresses up as a
boy to earn work and escort her sisters to school.

Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul to a diplomat father. His family sought asylum
in the US when he was 15 and did not return to Afghanistan until he was 38. The
main character in his first novel, ‘The Kite Runner’, goes through a similar timeline
in his life. Hosseini often admitted to feeling survivor's guilt about escaping the
Soviet invasion and subsequent wars.

His debut novel tells the story of two boys in Afghanistan and their friendship.
Following his critical and commercial success, he became a full-time writer. His
next novels 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' and 'And the Mountains Echoed' are also
set in Afghanistan. Family, friendship, and the struggles of living in a war-torn
country are recurring themes in his novels.

Following his success as a writer, he became an advocate for refugees and

established a foundation to support people returning to Afghanistan.

Farzana Marie is most popular for compiling and translating the poetry collection
'Load Poems like Guns'. She served in the US Air Force for over six years and two
of them were in Afghanistan. She later worked as a civilian volunteer in an
orphanage in Kabul for two years. Marie is now a Ph.D. student at the University
of Arizona where she focuses on Persian literature. She has been translating
poems and journals from Persian since working in Kabul. 'Load Poems like Guns' is
written by eight Afghan women poets from Herat, a town known for being the
epicentre of literature and arts in the old days.

Tamim Ansary is another Kabul-born writer who moved to the US in high school.
He is most popular for writing an email as a response to a call to bomb
Afghanistan "into the Stone Age". He warned that the conflict between the
Taliban and the US can lead to a third World War. His book 'West of Kabul, East of
New York' is a memoir that offers a bicultural perspective on contemporary world
conflicts. His novel 'The Widow's Husband' is set in the British invasion of
Afghanistan in the 19th century. He offers both an Afghan and a British
perspective in the novel.

Atiq Rahimi is a Kabul-born writer who sought political asylum in France following
the Soviet invasion. He wrote his first book 'Earth and Ashes' in 2000. It was
written in Dari (a dialect of Persian) and became an instant bestseller in Europe
and South America after it was translated. His other popular work is 'The Patience
Stone' which tells the story of a woman whose husband returned from war and is
paralysed. He also adapted both his books to films. He returned to Afghanistan in
2002 and started working with the nation's largest media group - Moby Group.
Maryam Qudrat Aseel is an Afghan-American woman born in the U.S. to first
generation Afghan immigrants. In Torn Between Two Cultures she weaves her
family’s and her own personal stories into recent American and Afghan politics
and history. Her book describes her upbringing in America as a woman in a
modern Afghan family with traditional values. She explores how those values and
her own desire to be "American" came into conflict and led to an identity crisis
that was only resolved as she rediscovered her religious and cultural roots,
became increasingly active in the Afghan and Muslim communities, and resolved
to bridge the gap between her two cultures. As an Afghan-American woman,
Maryam offers a unique perspective on East and West conflicts, and in this book
and in her life she is working to bring about understanding and resolution. Torn
Between Two Cultures is a paradigm for the larger problem of the growing gap of
understanding between the Islamic world and the West.

My notes
Generally my overview about Diaspora literature is a sense of alienation and and
loss throughout the book the after effects of migration and expatriation.
Generally it’s with the themes of displacement, existential rootlessness, nostalgia
and a quest for identity. Why is diaspora literature important? Diasporic literature
helps in the circulation of information and in solving many problems too. It helps
to re-discover the commonality and inclusiveness of Afganistan. This literature
works as a channel to strength the bonds between the different states of
Afganistan and of Afganistan in relation with the other countries at large.