Hybrid Consciousness in Anita Desai's The Village by the Sea

Abstract

Anita Desai in The Village by the Sea carves out a picture of the post-colonial period in India that conveys information about the fact how colonizers got their mission accomplished, that is to sow the seeds of capitalism and expand their market by bringing about a drastic change in the economic system in India. Bombay represents the implication of the entire colonial project which victimizes people of the rural India like Hari and compels them to lose their native identity in the post-colonial context. Hari is depicted to represent the people in postcolonial era who suffer identity crisis due to his double consciousness. He is culturally hybridized and now is in the ambivalent position in the sense that he can neither feel to be a complete villager nor has he tottaly adopted the urban life. Consequently he is in in-between situation and his plight is problematic and confusing.