Indianness or Indo-Caribbeanness?
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Rajiv claims he is learning Hindi to connect with his culture and Indianness as embodied by his grandmother, but even this is a compromise. "Hindi was the closest thing to Aji's Bhojpuri, which she called Hindustani, that I could find taught in study abroad programs" (Mohabir 34). His main interest and objective seems to be to preserve his Aji's songs and "live in the world of Aji's music," many of which are work songs related to the duties of labor his indentured ancestors had to perform in the Caribbean and the melancholy of their forced migration (Mohabir 26). Thus the very nature of his pursuit of language learning lies not in Indianness but in Indo-Caribbeanness. Though certainly offensive, Rajiv's professor's comment that he's "not a real Indian" after learning his family hasn't been in India for generations and does not speak Hindi is not entirely untrue. The identity and culture that Rajiv so passionately seeks to align with is not of the mainland that his professor seems to lay claim to. Though they share the Bhojpuri language, the respective historical contexts attached to the Bhojpuri his professor is familiar with versus the one Rajiv and his grandmother are familiar with have clearly shaped their selfhoods and lived experiences in distinct ways. With the spectacular hindsight of submitting this discussion post late, I now know Rajiv eventually departed from this pursuit of a somewhat nationalist Indian identity, instead exploring a more diasporic one.
to explore further: every derivation of language synonymous with another layer of melancholia