American Based Research Journal Vol-6-Issue-1 Jan-2017 ISSN (2304-7151) http://www.abrj.org Page 1 Multiple Cultures and Genesis of Identity in Bharati Mukherjee’s The Holder of the World Author’s Details: (1) Gunjan Gosain Oberoi - Ph.D. Research Scholar Faculty of Media Studies and Humanities - Manav Rachna International University Faridabad, Haryana (India) (2) Dr. Jyoti Sharma-Associate Professor and Research Supervisor Faculty of Media Studies and Humanities Manav Rachna International University - Faridabad, Haryana (India) Abstract: Increasing economic globalization in recent times has lead to unrestricted and unparalleled movement of people and products from one corner of the globe to another, giving rise to metropolitan culture and troubled identities. However, this phenomenon is ages old. Man has been changing cities, countries and citizenships since ancient times either to satisfy his basic needs of food, clothing and shelter or to satisfy higher order needs of discovery, fame and riches. This commingling of people of varied cultures not only enhanced interaction and mutual co-operation between nations, it also lead to people harmonizing between their native culture and that of the new set-up. The people thus caught between push and pull of contrasting cultures, suffering with feelings of alienation, despair and nostalgia in foreign lands came to be known as ‘Diaspora’. Bharati Mukherjee is one such well known novelist belonging to Indian diaspora who made her contemporaries envious in a comparatively short creative span. Her literary opus is manifested with her personal experiences and first hand knowledge of continents of birth and stay. This paper scrutinizes one of Mukherjee’s protagonists Hannah’s endeavors for genesis of identity in a cross-cultural scenario in The Holder of the World. KEY WORDS: diverse, cultures, diaspora, endeavors, identity The process of immigrants trying to imbibe foreign culture, in contrast to their native culture, in an alien land is turbulent and it has, more often than not, resulted in some psychological idiosyncrasies alien to both the cultures. The individuals do not feel fully accepted in any culture and are depicted as “on the border”. Bharati Mukherjee, an Indian diaspora writer, is the loud and very distinct voice in Indian and American literary canon. Since the publication of her first novel, The Tiger's Daughter (1972), she has been keenly engrossed in churning out fiction, analyzing the complexities of her choicest theme of migration experience. Mukherjee has changed citizenships and lived in distinct cultural milieus with disorienting rapidity due to her higher education and marriage with another academician and renowned author of Canadian origin, Clark Blaise. She has most vividly depicted in her novels, the cultural turmoil of South Asian, particularly Indian women upon their arrival in America and their genesis of identity. However, in The Holder of the World, the journey of the narrator protagonist of the main plot, Hannah Easton and the journey of the narrator protagonist of sub plot, Beigh Masters, a distant blood relative of Hannah, born centuries later, has been reversed. The novel illustrates the perturbed psyche of a young woman Hannah, who is a victim of alienation and male dominance. Hannah is able to evolve as a champion in the face of all odds due to sheer strength of her firm will power. The physical, mental and emotional hardships that Hannah undergoes transform her completely into a new and different personality. The plots set in distant time and spaces establish that cross-cultural consciousness has always had a universal relevance. Mukherjee delves deep into the history of the three continents and her protagonists travel from West to East in search of identity which they want to forge, enduring all the cultural shocks in the way. Here we witness a rare and interesting meeting of worlds, the England, America and Mughal India. In a shocking blend of history and imagination, Mukherjee illuminates the making and very nature of the American sensibility in this novel. Beigh, a 32-year-old very modern and sophisticated woman, born in New England in the mid-twentieth century, an „asset hunter‟ by profession who thinks of her job as a means of "uniting people and possessions”(5) gets set