Volume V Special Issue V November 2025

Name of Author : Aswathy.S.S

Title of the paper : Crossing Oceans of Identity: Cultural Displacement and Belonging in Bharati Mukherjees The Tigers Daughter

Abstract: Crossing oceans of identity in Bharati Mukherjees The Tigers Daughter traces Tara Banerjees journey across geographical and psychological boundaries, revealing the profound complexities of cultural displacement and belonging. From the very beginning, Mukherjee positions Tara as someone living between boundaries. She is neither fully anchored to India nor completely at home in America. Born into Calcuttas elite and educated in the United States, Tara navigates the turbulent waters between her Indian heritage and her Americanized self. Her return to India after seven yearsnow as the wife of an American novelistexposes the shifting tides of identity, where familiar rituals and relationships feel foreign. Mukherjee employs symbols of travel, estrangement, and fractured memory to show how nostalgia collides with transformation. Taras in betweenness underscores the immigrants double vision the capacity to see multiple worlds yet remain anchored in none. The novel portrays belonging not as a destination but as a continual voyagean unfinished crossing over the oceans of identity.

Keywords : Cultural Displacement, Immigrant Identity, Nostalgia, Diaspora and Alienation.

DOI :

Page Number : 40-44