Negotiating Identities in a Globalized World: A Study of Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss

Abstract

Globalization has reshaped cultural and social realities, compelling individuals to renegotiate their sense of belonging. Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss examines these complexities through characters whose lives are marked by displacement and fractured identity. Biju, an undocumented immigrant in the United States, embodies the vulnerabilities of diaspora existence, while Sai, raised in a Western-influenced Indian household, reflects the tensions of cultural hybridity. The retired judge Jemubhai Patel illustrates the lingering effects of colonialism, revealing how imperial legacies continue to structure postcolonial subjectivities. Set against Kalimpong’s class divide and the Gorkhaland movement, the novel links personal struggles with broader questions of power, inequality, and cultural negotiation.