HISTORIC RECURRENCE: A CONTEMPORARY PARALLELISM OF ISSUES IN SELECT NOVELS OF AMITAV GHOSH AND ROHINTON MISTRY (Pages 366-373) by Dr. Ch. Swathi in THE ENGLISH RESEARCH EXPRESS / ISSN:2321-1164 (Online); 2347-2642 (Print)

Indian Diaspora has contributed immensely to the world literature and it is apt to undertake a study to comprehend the contemporary relevance of the novels produced by two of the most famous writers of Indian Diaspora – Amitav Ghosh and Rohinton Mistry. The novels chosen for the study are Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines (1988) and The Glass Palace (2000), and Mistry’s Such a Long Journey (1991) and A Fine Balance (1996). The paper, however, is not a comparative study of the two writers. It is a humble attempt at highlighting the issues addressed in the novels, comparing them with the present conditions prevalent everywhere, thus stressing on the contemporaenity of the select novels. The issues highlighted are communal violence, riots, partition, racism, discrimination, hegemony, globalisation and so on. This is a relevant undertaking as it assists one to understand the past and gear up for the future. It is important to understand that various issues addressed by these two writers have contemporary relevance as they deal with issues that go beyond the confines of time or space. As it is rightly said, writers are speakers of the society and their works reflect individual and social life. This notion adds to the charm and provides ample scope for further study on these writers as their works stand as a proof to the recurrence of the issues discussed in the present article. Key Words: Indian Diaspora, Contemporary,, racism, discrimination, communal riots, hegemony, globalization.