LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 25:9 September 2025
ISSN 1930-2940

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Displacement and Identity in Upamanyu Chatterjee's The Mammaries of the Welfare Stateand Way to Go: A Contemporary Discourse

Mallavalli. Thambi Rani and
Dr. Shah Al Mamun Sarkar

Abstract

The themes of identity and displacement in Upamanyu Chatterjee's novels Way to Go (2006) and The Mammaries of the Welfare State (2000) are critically examined in this paper, which provides a thorough examination of how these works speak to current issues of postcolonial identity in the context of an increasingly globalizing India. Frequently set in urban, post-independence India, Chatterjee's protagonists represent an existential crisis as they are torn between the demands of neoliberal capitalism, the complexity of modernity, and the remnants of colonialism. In The Mammaries of the Welfare State, Chatterjee criticizes the welfare state and its people's disenchantment with a system that promises care but frequently fosters isolation through satire and dark humour. The protagonist's profound psychological and bodily experience of displacement reflects larger socioeconomic fractures. The protagonist of Way to Go similarly examines questions of identity and alienation as she negotiates the gap between conventional family structures and the quickly changing metropolitan landscape. Chatterjee illustrates how modernity has a destabilizing influence on both individual and collective identities, exposing a generation's struggle to understand their position in a society that is becoming more divided and globalized. This essay contends that Chatterjee's books illustrate how psychological and physical displacement constitute a crucial component of the contemporary Indian experience, thereby engaging with current discourses of postcolonial identity. Through his subtle, sarcastic perspective, Chatterjee examines the conflict between personal preferences, governmental institutions, and broader social factors that influence modern identity.

Keywords:Displacement, Identity, Postcolonialism, Urban Alienation, Globalization, neoliberal capitalism, sarcastic

Introduction

In the context of postcolonial literature, the relationship between identity and displacement has emerged as a crucial lens for examining current global narratives, especially in Upamanyu Chatterjee's writings. The conversation about identity has grown more complex and contradictory as India moves out of the shadows of its colonial past and into the complexity of modernity. Chatterjee explores the existential, cultural, and psychological crises of his characters in The Mammaries of the Welfare State (2000) and Way to Go (2006) as they struggle with the conflict between the demands of neoliberal capitalism and the aspirations of the postcolonial state. These pieces highlight the revolutionary challenges facing modern Indian culture and examine how personal identity is formed and reformed within the framework of urbanization, globalization, and the remnants of coloniality. Global economic systems, national ideologies, colonial histories, and other socioeconomic influences are reflected in identity, which is not just an individual construct in the postcolonial setting. The hybridized nature of postcolonial identities is emphasized by theorist Homi K. Bhabha (1994). This idea is closely related to Chatterjee's writings, since the protagonists' sense of self is frequently trapped in a state of flux between traditional values and the demands of modernization. Chatterjee emphasizes the intricate relationship between an individual's identity and the social, political, and economic factors that contribute to a feeling of displacement while simultaneously criticizing the workings of neoliberal capitalism and the welfare state. Chatterjee parodies the Indian welfare state's unfulfilled promises in The Mammaries of the Welfare State by contrasting its grandiose aspirations of protection and care with the obvious disillusionment and estrangement experienced by common people. Like many of Chatterjee's characters, the protagonist of this book undergoes a profound psychological and physical upheaval. A deep existential questioning of identity results from the feeling that the state, which was formerly seen as the defender of post-independence hope, has betrayed people. According to critic Arundhati Roy (2002), Chatterjee's use of satire and black humour highlights the paradoxes present in the postcolonial state, where the realities of systematic inequality and bureaucratic in reality the female protagonist in Way to Go, who negotiates the conflict between the conventional family structures and the quickly shifting social and cultural dynamics of urban India, similarly examines concerns of alienation and personal identity. As societal changes brought about by global capitalism upend social and familial expectations, Chatterjee paints a picture of a generation torn between the "old" and the "new" in this book. The protagonist's experience is representative of what anthropologist Arjun Appadurai (1996) refers to as "disjuncture's" in modernity, where traditional values and the forces of globalization are at odds more and more, resulting in a sense of fragmentation and rootlessness.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Mallavalli. Thambi Rani
Research Scholar
Department of EOFL
School of Applied Sciences & Humanities
Vignan?s Foundation for Science, Technology and Research
Vadlamudi, A.P, India
mallavallithambiramesh@gmail.com
&
Dr. Shah Al Mamun Sarkar
Assistant Professor of English
Department of EOFL
School of Applied Sciences & Humanities
Vignan?s Foundation for Science, Technology and Research
Vadlamudi, A.P, India
mallavallithambiramesh@gmail.com

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