NEGOTIATING DIASPORIC IDENTITY BEYOND ASSIMILATION: BELONGING, MEMORY AND RETURN IN MANSI SHAH'S THE TASTE OF GINGER

Abstract

Diasporic identity is a central concern in contemporary postcolonial and diaspora studies, reflecting the complex ways in which migration reshapes belonging, memory, family relationships, and cultural affiliation. Mansi Shah's The Taste of Ginger (2022) has received limited critical attention despite the growing body of scholarship on South Asian diasporic fiction, particularly through an integrated application of Stuart Hall's concept of cultural identity and Avtar Brah's notion of diaspora space. To address this gap, this article examines how the chosen novel represents diasporic identity as a dynamic and continuously negotiated process instead of a fixed cultural condition. This study employs a qualitative methodology that is based on close textual analysis. This close-reading technique helps explore the experiences of Preeti Desai, a second-generation Indian American, as she negotiates belonging, memory, return, family relationships, and racial difference, thereby investigating how diasporic identity is constructed and transformed.  Furthermore, it is guided by Hall's understanding of cultural identity as an ongoing process of becoming and Brah's conceptualization of diaspora space.  The analysis demonstrates that The Taste of Ginger challenges binary oppositions such as India and America, homeland and hostland, tradition and modernity, and assimilation and cultural preservation through Preeti Desai's experiences. The narrative does not attempt to resolve these tensions by privileging one culture over the other. Rather, it presents belonging and diasporic identity as relational, fluid, and continually reconstructed through memory, family relationships, racial difference, and everyday lived experience. Further, the article argues that The Taste of Ginger reconceptualizes belonging beyond assimilation by demonstrating that lasting belonging emerges not from choosing between India and America but from negotiating the cultural, familial, and emotional ties that connect both. In doing so, it contributes to contemporary scholarship on Indian American diasporic fiction as it demonstrates how the complementary theoretical perspectives of Stuart Hall and Avtar Brah offer a nuanced framework for understanding the complexities of diasporic identity in contemporary South Asian diasporic fiction.