Diasporic Activism and the Mediations of "Home": South Asian Voices in Canadian Drama

Abstract

Critical analyses of literatures of the Indian diaspora discuss the "home" of origin as a subtext and a site to which diasporas aspire to return even though it remains an unachievable ideal that is refracted through nostalgic retellings of a space that remains at best "imaginary" (Mishra 2007). Alternatively, some critics, as Roger Waldinger and David Fitzgerald point out, view diasporas' relationship with the homeland in terms of "loyalty," obscuring in the process the antagonisms that may arise depending upon one's circumstances, antagonisms that produce "interactions" between homes of residence and those of origin (2012). In South Asian drama in Canada, many of the concerns regarding race, multiculturalism, job discrimination and violence against women and other marginalized groups are propelled by their links to the playwrights' "home" of origin. With attention to selected plays, this paper will analyze how the networks between home and spaces of residence in multicultural Canada come alive on theatre stages through visual motifs, actors, props, and photographic collages, which confront the different trajectories of "home" that resurface in these plays. Through live scenes of imagination that speak to spectators, several plays under discussion in this essay expose how, while providing emotional sustenance for some, the baggage of "home" may also pose challenges in the home of residence. So the questions I raise are: How does home appear? To what end? And what does returning "home" teach us about the inequalities and injustices underlying the current global order? [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]