Communal Identities in Rohinton Mistry’s Bombay Novel

The article examines Rohinton Mistry’s Such a Long Journey as a defining example of the Bombay novel. This genre of literature, I argue, depicts Bombay as a powerful force that defines individual residents just as much as it is defined by them. The genre demands a reading strategy that highlights the artifice and agency necessary to create the composites of personal and public (i.e., historical and political) narratives that comprise the city’s postcolonial identities. Mistry, like many Bombay novelists, presents the city as a nuanced site produced through the interactions between memory, personal and public histories, and power relationships. His use of literary realism emphasizes the limitations of individual agency and presents Bombay as a decaying, unwelcoming place defined by pessimistic nostalgia. Thus, Mistry’s depiction of Bombay exemplifies the tenuous nature of individual narrative agency over personal and urban identity as well as both the alienating and the restorative consequences of communal politics.