VEDA’S JOURNAL OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE (JOELL)
An International Peer Reviewed (Refereed) Journal
Impact Factor (SJIF) 4.092 http://www.joell.in

Vol.6, Issue 1, 2019

MARWARIS OF KOLKATA IN ALKA SARAOGI’S NOVEL “KALI-KATHA: VIA BYPASS”

Dr. Manjeshawari Vyas

(Assistant Professor (Deptt. of English), Govt .Engineering College Bikaner(Rajasthan))

doi: https://doi.org/10.33329/joell.61.177

ABSTRACT

Calcutta has been a favourite locus also for Marwaris from Rajasthan. The famous bilingual author, Alka Saraogi belongs to this community of Rajasthanis who are contemptuously called ‘Marwaris’ by the local people. Kali-Katha: Via Bypass is about the protagonist, Kishore Babu and four generations of his family, tracing the human stories of hopes and pains behind the emigration of Marwari community from the deserts in Rajasthan in North-Western part of India to Calcutta in the East under the British colonial rule. Against such a wide canvas, with broad-brush strokes, the story touches the changes in the society and the struggle against the British colonial rule through lives of individuals.  Alka Saraogi recounted the history of the Marwari Diaspora – of their ancestry, their tradition and their family structure. She wrote about India’s colonial and postcolonial history. Calcutta was also the stage for the conflict between Hindus and Muslims which led to the division of land between India and Pakistan. The novel is replete with so much information about the periods and personalities.

Keywords:  Marwaris, Generation, Diaspora, Postcolonial.