Literary Responses to Pluralism and Harmony in India and Canada

Abstract

The forces of heterogeneity are at work everywhere – particularly in the lands of immigration and cultural pluralism where differences have taken on new meaning and value. In India and Canada regional and ethnic constituents become more visible and vocal every day and therefore, the concept of a single unified national culture is rather difficult for realization. For years people have lived and cultivated a schizophrenic mode of existence, speaking one language at home and another in the street or in the class room or elsewhere. Indian and Canadian societies have been relatively ‘provincial’ in outlook. Before Independence, India was an amalgamation of different states with the greater portion under the British and a few still under individual rulers and some areas shared by the French and the Portuguese. But for the fact that India was geographically a well-demarcated country, it was never a practically/ ideally unified single nation. When freedom was sought there were many pleas for independent Pakistan, Dravidastan, and Ambedkar demanded a separate land for the long suppressed Harijans.