Politics of homecoming: Evaluating the altering notions of nation and homeland in Vassanji's A Delhi Obsession

Nations and nationalism are not primeval. These notions are engrained in primordial human sentimentalities that are a culmination of kinship, solidarity, and communal cooperation. These attachments acquired an integral status in societal politics as they extended beyond family to clan and ethnic groups. The desire of a person to be a member of a family ethos and a nation is inherent and innate. These concepts become even more convoluted among migrants and occupy a central locus in the works of the forthright diasporic author M. G. Vassanji. Their longing to understand their nationalism and where they come from is the actual counselor of the protagonist’s identity in the selected text, A Delhi Obsession (2019). The immigrant Muslim lead, Munir, returns to his ‘homeland’ in search of his roots only to find himself trapped amidst the altered socio-political equation of India. The paper attempts to evaluate the distorted notion of the nation from an immigrant’s perspective who fails to establish a connection with his homeland. Since then, the homeland has undergone significant unwelcomed ethno-social changes. The research employs a qualitative approach to study the idea of a mythical return to a changing homeland, focusing on the concept of home by Safran, Brah, and Cohen. The paper captures the struggle of Munir in locating his ancestral roots in a rigid and fanatic society as he simultaneously discovers love for a married Hindu woman, Mohini. As citizens have always been immensely prejudiced towards individuals they visualise as members of their kin culture, ethnicity has been politicised since the beginning of politics.