Colonial Vestiges in The Inheritance of Loss: A Postcolonial Reading

Abstract

Kiran Desai's first novelTheInheritance of Loss(2006), by presenting the people, climate andculture of Kalimpong, mixed with Indians andNepalese, mostly through the elitist and distant metropolitan perspective, and consequently in a darker light than they might have been, draws a totally negative picture of everything of Nepaleseboth in Indian and Nepal. The disgusting exotic images of these people do nothing to counter balance the colonialism but such attempts come to nothing in the finalanalysis. Thepersonal biases and slants of the author, as well as the motive behind attempting the workin the first place greatly influence the tone of the work. As brought up in the western hemisphere, she is unable to maintain a neutral position while treating the issues of a colonized country. The misrepresentation of the country also results from the fact that she wrote the novel primarily for the western readership.