Young Brides and Non-Resident Indians: Re-Interpreting the East/West. A Sad Story of ‘Home’ and ‘Back Home’ in Heaven on Earth, by Deepa Mehta
Young Brides and Non-Resident Indians: Re-Interpreting the East/West. A Sad Story of ‘Home’ and ‘Back Home’ in Heaven on Earth, by Deepa Mehta

Summary/Abstract: The essay employs theories mainly from cultural studies, migration and diaspora studies, as well as feminist studies in order to approach the way in which the main female character handles (or not) her status as a new young bride from India to an NRI1 . The analysis will look at her connection to the West, as well as the one to the East, while concomitantly trying to demonstrate whether the changing of places is indeed an immigrant’s main reason of feeling displaced, dislocated, unhappy and alienated. What is it to be ‘translated’ (S. Rushdie) in the case of Indian brides who are sent away to the West to join husbands they barely know? How is their identity changed – if at all changed? Why do migrant women of the ‘Third’ world decide to go back to the East? Eventually, what is the real ‘monster’ to be fought and conquered when one is married, a female and an immigrant?

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