Identity And Diasporic Consciousness: The Adaptability Of Belonging In Desirable Daughters

Abstract

This research article explores how Bharati Mukherjee uses her protagonist Tara Bhattacharjee to subtly depict diasporic identity and cultural negotiation.  The study looks at how, within a transnational context, Mukherjee investigates the changing ideas of selfhood, displacement, and belonging.  The paper makes the case that Desirable Daughters redefines identity as a flexible, adaptive process shaped by migration, cultural hybridity, and individual agency by following Tara's transition from traditional Indian domesticity to an independent living in America.  In order to examine how Mukherjee reconstructs the diasporic consciousness of South Asian women negotiating between inherited traditions and contemporary individualism, the analysis draws on postcolonial and feminist theoretical viewpoints. The story's intersections of memory, history, and cultural displacement show that belonging is a dynamic negotiation that permits self-redefinition and empowerment rather than a set category.  In the end, the article claims that Mukherjee sees the diasporic situation as a transformative place that promotes resilience, self-discovery, and identity renewal in an increasingly globalized world rather than as fragmentation.