[Author’s Name]
[Institution’s Name]
Essay on Multiculturalism
Religion and one's constant negotiations with it may become the source of a continuing dialogue with one's former home, or in the transnational logic of today's highly mobile diaspora, religion may become home. Here again, the texts are in danger of being read and taught at a superficial level, without a thorough understanding of the religious symbolism or grassroots belief systems that are deployed as part of the narrative fabric. The work of Hanifa Deen, an Australian of Pakistani origin, indicates for instance how Islam in Australia is itself heterogeneous, and takes on various forms at various points in time, responding to regional, national and international events.
In addition, to adapt Vijay Mishra's notion of old and new diasporas to the Australian context, the time at which particular communities immigrated determines the extent of their assimilation or adaptation to the new land. In addition Vijay Mishra's (2005; 182) assertion that contemporary diasporas define themselves not so much through an imaginary homeland but international networks of business, family and property ownership needs to be kept in mind when reading about characters who travel, like their authors, between countries with ease.
These are sociological and cultural factors that need to be explored, even if South Asian fiction is read not in terms of truth value but as aesthetic production - since for white Australians, as well as South Asian readers from communities different from the ones being written about, the novel is perceived and even marketed as a glimpse into a culturally and often temporally different world.......
