The search for ethnic identity in selected Novels of Bharati Mukherjee, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Monica Ali

Abstract

The dramatic improvement in communication and signification increases in trade and migration has created a global village where people from various nations have come closer to each other. Economists describe this trend as ‘globalization’. The intense interaction among people has not only promoted new bonds of unity and friendship but also revived old fears and jealousies. It has at the same time reduced differences among people and reinforced divisions within societies. As an anthropologist rightly points out, “ the central problem of today’s global interaction is the tension between cultural homogenization and cultural heterogenization” (Appadurai, 30)