Writing in One’s Own Language and the Grounds of Being

Abstract

This essay takes the argument of ‘Memory and Reflection’ further, as it turns from aesthetics to the creative process itself and focuses on the difference between the writing in English and the writing in the mother tongue. Does the immigrant writer’s writing in his/her mother tongue indicate an existential search or is it an act of preservation of self and culture? Is it more authentic than the writing in English in its representation of the realities of their homeland? There is, at some level, also the aspect of their relatedness to the stay-at-home writers, which demands attention. In order to address some of these issues, the work of several writers is taken up for discussion: writers living abroad and writing in English and writers at home writing in English; diaspora writers who write in their mother tongue and the writing in the various languages being written in the homeland. The essay also takes up the writing of another category of people who have migrated from their countries but live in lands which share languages and cultures with the homeland but have different political realities: how do these writers write the homeland and how their memories project themselves? Towards this end, the writings of Intizar Husain who writes in Urdu, a writer of Indian origin living in Pakistan—Farhana Sheikh and Meera Syal, both in England and writing in English, and some Punjabi writers living abroad is explored. While it may not be possible to define the difference in definitive terms, the comparisons open out various significant aspects of the act of writing.