Some Thoughts on the Puzzle of Identity

“Dishonourably Postnational”? The Politics of Migrancy and Cosmopolitanism in Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance

“…They are reacting to the pressures and concerns of an environment that is not Indian, and are fashioning identities of choice not of history. 35 Avinash's murder complicates this apparent privileging of the national subject over the migrant. Resisting the uncharacteristically simplistic opposition Sahgal constructs between what Robbins terms the "thin, abstract" cosmopolitan position and a "red-blooded, politically engaged nationalism", 36 Mistry suggests that the national subject's political commitment may itself be compromised by its very location within the nation.…”