Hyphenated Identity

The term "hyphenated identity" was not coined by Ms Lahiri, but features prominently in her article. Ms Lahiri's intelligent novel The Namesake has been made into a film which will come out this year. Her story is part of the special Newsweek feature on India last week. As Mauritians, we are still coming to terms with our own multi-hyphenated identity.

I have lived in the United States for almost 37 years and anticipate growing old in this country. Therefore, with the exception of my first two years in London, "Indian-American" has been a constant way to describe me. Less constant is my relationship to the term. When I was growing up in Rhode Island in the 1970s I felt neither Indian nor American. Like many immigrant offspring I felt intense pressure to be two things, loyal to the old world and fluent in the new, approved of on either side of the hyphen. Looking back, I see that this was generally the case. But my perception as a young girl was that I fell short at both ends, shuttling between two dimensions that had nothing to do with one another."

Newsweek, March 6, 2006