Diasporic Sensibility of V. S. Naipaul

The present study is grounded upon V. S. Naipaul’s depiction of the different conditions of diaspora that influence identity formation and negotiation in the back drop of the postcolonial societies of India, England and Africa. Naipaul’s urge to articulate fluid, multiple and unstable identities are critically examined so as to ascertain whether he envisages the concept of a confident diaspora or otherwise. Further, it would be profitable to examine how his search for identity, roots and home in various communities/places makes him a layered\fractured exile, because identity is not fixed, but created.

As a postcolonial writer, V. S. Naipaul examines the motifs of loss of identity, cultural conflict, psychological crises, alienation, and rootlessness of diasporas in his works. At the same time, while depicting a particular society, he not only examines his search for selfhood and nation, but also insists on the need of tradition, myth and history as the external starting points for the ‘self’ to become real. He also feels the necessity of defining a personal identity in one’s own life and therefore creates determined characters in his fiction to expose their loss of identity in various ways.