Struggle for Identity in Indra Bahadur Rai's Selected Stories and Novel

Abstract

This dissertation studies the way characters struggle in Indra Bahadur Rai's There's a Carnival Today and selected stories "Chaprasi", "We separated Them" and "Long Night of Storm" from the anthology Long Night of Storm.In order to analyze the identity situation and struggle of the characters, I have drawn the social identity theory-ZagorkaGolubovic's "An Anthropological Conceptualization of Identity" as the primary theory. And the political identity theory of Baljit Singh's "Politics of Identities: Global, South Asian and Indian Perspective"and psychological identity theory of Vivian L. Vignoles' "Identity: Personal and Social" are drawn to assist the social identity theory as these theories have the same assumptions. The common assumptions of all these theories are that the identity is formed with the historical and cultural context, and the inherent quality and nature of both individual and communal identities depend on sameness and differences from others in comparison. In the same way, the characters in There's a Carnival Today and the selected stories ofLong Night of Storm have the common identity "Nepali" as their linguistic background and historical origin are same, that is Nepali. But the difference is that they live in Indian territory and they are compelled to live with imposed identity by the state government and administration, which relegates them to the second class citizen at their own soil. Besides, they are also unable to solve their ideological differences and internal conflict. These are the reasons that they lack both individual and communal identities. In this way, all the characters are in struggle for prosperity, independence and self-respect, which provide them both individual and communal identities, but their struggle is prolonged because of their internal division and intervention of external power.