Sasthi Brata, the enfant terrible of Indian letters, shot to fame with the publication of his extraordinary autobiography My God Died Young. His unequivocal denunciation of Brahminic Hinduism, his detestation of Indian cultural tradition, and his violent revulsion to anything Indian, which were to become a regular feature of his literary works, are the highlights of his attempts at self-portrayal and earned him the dubious distinction of being called “a latter-day Nirad Chaudhuri.” To rid himself of the ensnaring and “degrading” effects of “Indian-ness” he escaped from his native country and sought asylum in the West, for he admired the “free, liberal and non-intrusive” nature of society and life there. It may safely be argued that all his literary creations are a result of his conflicts with both the Western and Eastern worlds. By underscoring the various themes and concerns in his books, such as Man-Woman relationship, the East-West encounter—the colonial subject’s dilemma of belonging or not belonging, a search for home and identity, the dynamics of multiculturalism in the West, commentaries on Indian social and cultural life and many other matters which have now become sites of vigorous literary and critical investigation, especially with the emergence of concepts like diaspora and post-colonialism and with a paradigm shift in our understanding of sexuality, our paper aims to provide a holistic assessment of his (splintered) self and to account for what it might mean to be torn between two cultures. Sasthi Brata makes for an interesting reading because of the rich ground he covers in his writings and an analysis of his works is particularly relevant because of the simple reason that he belongs to the first generation of non-resident Indian English writers.

“I think the reason I have been written off is because I haven’t published anything recently...and...I am no longer fashionable because what I said and what I wrote about have now become [the] norm. A rebellion becomes an establishment and what I said has now become the accepted norm. So nobody wants to hear of me because it’s all accepted,” remarked Sasthi Brata when asked why he has altogether disappeared from the literary radar despite the tremendous relevance of his works in contemporary times.1 Even at the risk of inviting the displeasure of some members of the audience, we find it absolutely essential to state that it will perhaps be prudent to bear in mind the fact that literary fashions always come and go, and today Diasporic Writing and the theme of Multiculturalism are fashionable topics of analysis and discussion—very much like ‘New Criticism’ which was once a popular mode of literary criticism in the North American academia or like Cyberculture study which promises to be a hot field in the near future, if it already is not so. Besides, a canon of authors appears to have already come into existence in Diasporic writings by Indians. It looks as if critics and scholars can hardly ever look beyond that well-established block of writers which include V S Naipaul, his brother Shiva Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Bharati Mukherjee, Chitra Banerjee Divyakaruni and Jhumpa Lahiri. One may grant that their narratives are, in more senses than one, exclusively about Diasporic communities and their experiences, but such a selective attention is difficult to justify and does a great disservice to the potential and vibrancy of the body of writing in question. After all, Diaspora and Multiculturalism are about difference and polyphony in a given society.

Sasthi Brata makes for an interesting reading because of the rich ground he covers in his writings: his writings encompass issues, such as Man-Woman relationship, the East-West encounter—the colonial subject’s dilemma of belonging or not belonging, a search for home and identity, the dynamics of multiculturalism in the West, commentaries on Indian social and cultural life and many other matters which have now become sites of vigorous literary and critical investigation, especially with the emergence of concepts like Diaspora, post-colonialism, multiculturalism and with a paradigm shift in our understanding of sexuality.

English Studies Journal, Indian English Short Fiction, Bhasha Literatures, Autonomous Forms, Indian Short Story, Indian Language, Montage Patterns, Women Writers, Social Milieu, Postmodernist Movements, Global Communities, Joint Family System, Indian Women Writers.