%0 Journal Article
%T THE IMAGE OF INDIA IN THE NOVELS OF BHARATI MUKHERJEE
%A SUDHIR B. CHAVAN
%J Golden Research Thoughts
%D 2013
%I Laxmi Book Publication
%R 10.9780/22315063
%X In order to understand Bharati Mukherjee's fiction and explore the image of India as reflected in her work, it is essential for us to study the biographical details of her life as they have a great bearing on her vision of life and her native country. She was born on 27th July, 1940 in a high caste Hindu Brahmin family of Calcutta, India. She grew up in an extended family of 40 members, including uncles, aunts, and cousins in the middle class area Rash Behari Avenue of Calcutta. Her father, Sudhir Lal Mukherjee, was a well-known chemist and researcher of repute who had studied in Germany and England. Her mother, Beena Mukherjee was a homemaker. Bharati and her two sisters got encouragement to get postgraduate degrees. Sudhir Mukherjee's ancestral home was in Faridpur and hie wife's native was in Dhaka, the two districts of Bengal. But at the time of the Partition of India in 1947, these two districts of Bengal became part of East Pakistan which later became independent as Bangladesh in 1971. It was due to the Partition their families had to leave their native districts and move to Calcutta. While exploring the image of India in Bharati Mukherjee's novel it becomes clear that has used Indian history in the form of some anecdotes in her novels and stories. She has fictionalized Indian history and it is very important in the context of the postcolonization and globalization. However, we find that she does not have adequate knowledge of proper historical and political events that shaped the Indian history. Therefore, her view of India is totally unconvincing and extremely superficial. Moreover, as she represents the elite society of the metropolitan society of Calcutta, her fictionalization of Indian history also reflects her inability to understand context of social, historical and historical events. She seems to be unaware of the complex postcolonial and neocolonial forces that were at work.
%K Novels
%K historical
%K social
%K postcolonial
%K neocolonial.
%U http://www.aygrt.isrj.net/UploadedData/2335.pdf