The subcontinental diaspora (including people from Bangladesh and Malaysia) in recent years has managed to generate some of the most acclaimed work in present times yet they find themselves torn- between land, language and identity.
What bothers Paris-based, Bangladeshi writer, Tahmina Anam, author of A Golden Age', is the question that people in her native country raise. "Why didn't I write in Bangla? Or if at all my country mattered to me? I have been asked these questions innumerable times," says Tahmina.
To this Pakistan-born, London-based author of The Wasted Vigil', Nadeem Aslam adds, "I shifted to London when I was 13, and I am constantly being asked the questions regarding my nationality. If you were to ask me, as a writer my nationality is confined to my desk where I sit and write, no place else matters." It's also that they are always asked if their inspiration is any author from the subcontinent. "Can't I read beyond Salman Rushdie?" asks Nadeem.
It's when Tash AW, A Malaysian who now lives in London chips in saying, "Can't people accept the fact that English is a "neutral" language and we can use it as any westerner." He further adds, "People back home should also understand that had I written my book in Malay not many people would have read it and it wouldn't have had an impact like what it had."
Also their credibility and authenticity when they write on topics related to their land and how they position it are questioned. "But we are writers and not advertisers who are bound to paint a rosy picture. If there is something that is not working right we ought to present it in a certain way," opines Abha Dawesar, who lives in New York and has recently published her fourth book Family Values' and has been hailed in the 2005 list of 25 people to watch out for by Time Out magazine.
Their angst is justified as at times they find themselves in no man's land. While questions are raised back home, in the foreign shores people are sceptical about their success. London-based author Nikita Lalwani, whose debut novel The Gifted' was long listed for the man Booker Prize and got the Desmond Elliot Prize says, "People in London literary circuits and at Costa First Novel Awards are sceptical as to why authors from the sub-continent are in the list of debut novel winners. This is kind of surprising." Responding to the cynicism by West, the Impressionist author Hari Kunzuru says, "They should understand that English is not owned by Englishmen."
And that's not the end of it all, Tahmina shares that though her book was regarding a war widow, the publishers showed her a cover in which the lady was wearing a pink sari. When she tried to explain them the reason why she should be wearing white and not pink, all that the publishers told her was, "Now you don't be a widow!"
Despite not so pleasant experiences, the last two years have been a time of literary rising in the subcontinent by not-so popular writers, who have lives nothing sort of a dream despite all they held their fort and kept the flag flying high.