Home and Identity for the Bengali in Northeast India: Siddhartha Deb’s The Point of Return

Abstract

Displacement and identity crisis resulting from Partition affected people of undivided India immensely. The loss of ‘home’ and land which led to this crisis became eternal to the postcolonial experience of Bengalis on the eastern side of the border. This search for ‘home’ was the only way to recover their identity. This paper will study the postcolonial Bengali yearning for a ‘home’ and the stability it embodies through Siddhartha Deb’s The Point of Return. It will also look at how Bengalis bore the brunt of Khasi sub-nationalism that added to their identity crisis and strengthened their desire for a ‘home’ of their own.