Silence and Brown Womanhood: Diasporic Feminist Weaving and Heterogeneity in The Direction of the Wind

The paper examines Mansi Shah’s novel, The Direction of the Wind, through an interdisciplinary lens, focusing on how Indian diasporic brown women negotiate fragmentation, silencing, and othering. The book resists the universalist feminist readings by revealing the heterogeneity of the diasporic experiences of brown women. By centering the mother-daughter duo, Nita and Sophie, and their transnational dislocation in Paris, Shah presents a quieter but radical mode of resilience- one that is grounded in self-discovery and emotional survivability rather than reactive confrontation. The study draws on Sadie Plant’s concept of ‘weaving’ as a feminist cybermetaphor to frame these women’s acts of rethreading diasporic identities and agency by employing qualitative methodology and textual analysis. The act of ‘weaving’, in this context, is not digital but metaphorical, representing a form of embodied knowledge that bridges fragmented identities and personal histories. Supplemented by theoretical engagement by Spivak and Mohanty, the paper emphasizes the importance of recognizing the complexities, multiplicity, and differences in Indian diasporic brown women’s lives.