Remembrances, Rejections and Representation in Indo-Caribbean Fictions

Book: Cultural Memory in Translation: Revisiting Cultural Memory Through Interpretative Lens from India by CSMFL Publications

Victoria V. Chang
BA, MA, PhD, The University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, WestIndies.

10.46679/9789349926639ch22
This chapter is a part of: Cultural Memory in Translation: Revisiting Cultural Memory Through Interpretative Lens from India
ISBN (Ebook):978-93-49926-63-9
ISBN (Hardcover Print):978-93-49926-41-7
ISBN (Softcover Print):978-93-49926-75-2

© CSMFL Publications & its authors.
Published: November 10, 2025

Chang, V. V. (2025). Remembrances, Rejections and Representation in Indo-Caribbean Fictions. In A. G. Uppal & D. Barot, Cultural Memory in Translation: Revisiting Cultural Memory Through Interpretative Lens (pp 313-328). CSMFL Publications. https://dx.doi.org/10.46679/9789349926639ch22

Abstract

This paper examines the complex dynamics of remembering and forgetting in Indo-Trinidadian diasporic literature through an analysis of Peggy Mohan’s Jahajin (2008) and Lakshmi Persaud’s Daughters of Empire (2012). Challenging V.S. Naipaul’s assertion that Indo-Caribbean communities suffer from culturalamnesia, this study argues that forgetting functions as an intentional survivalstrategy within traumatic diasporic contexts. Through the lens of George Lipsitz’sconcept of “counter-memory,” the analysis reveals how both novels presentmemory and forgetting as active negotiations rather than passive losses. Jahajinexplores the deliberate abandonment of Bhojpuri language by indentured laborersseeking upward mobility for their descendants, while Daughters of Empireexamines the struggles of “third migrants” who depend on remembering tomaintain cultural identity in London. Both texts demonstrate how Indo-Trinidadian women exercise agency in determining what aspects of their heritageto preserve, discard, or transform, positioning diasporic subjects not as helplessvictims of cultural erosion but as strategic agents who reconstruct the past to servepresent survival needs.

Keywords: Diasporic Memory, Indo-Trinidadian Literature, Counter-Memory, Cultural Forgetting, Indentureship, Bhojpuri Language.

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