Cultural Alienation in Khushwant Singh’s “Karma”

“Karma” (1989) is a short story by the Indian author Khushwant Singh, which can be considered as a historical window to the colonial era in India. This paper presents a post-colonial reading of the story in relation to the loss of cultural identity, which corresponds partly to the work of Frantz Fanon in The Wretched of the Earth. What makes the story part of the post-colonial literature is because it describes the psychological abandonment of the intellectuals of their native culture, language, family, homeland, and fellow citizens. It also describes the embracement of colonial culture in language, country and the English high-class society. This paper illustrates how the loss of cultural identity leads to a negative impact on individuals and the mistreatment of women in pre-independent India.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC

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