RUTH PRAWER JHABVALA'S TUSSLE WITH INDIA IN HEAT AND DUST: THE QUINTESSENCE OF RACIAL CHAUVINISM

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, a celebrated writer, having the experience of a multiple diaspora, developed a love-hate relationship with India during her 25years’ stay in India. In the second phase of her career, her essential European sensibilities overshadowed her initial enchantment for everything Indian which she also confessed time and again. In ‘Heat and Dust’, her personal experiences got reflected in terms of physical and psychological trauma the westerners faced who came to India under political or spiritual obligation. Here, the writer concentrated more on the seamy side of India, its culture and climate portraying, derisively, the endemic poverty, dirt, squalor, backwardness, heat and dust- its tropical hazards. Everything appeared to be coloured with the tinge of a prejudiced perspective- a purely British point of view to strengthen the traditional image of India among the Western readers.