The Dialectics of the Domestic: Examining the Intersection of Traditional Indian Values and Modern Globalized Identities in Amit Chaudhuri’s A New World

Abstract

Amit Chaudhuri’s A New World (2000) serves as a profound meditation on the quietude of domestic life amidst the churning tides of globalization. This paper explores the "dialectics of the domestic"—the ongoing tension between traditional Indian familial structures and the fragmented, globalized identities of the modern diaspora. Set in a sweltering Calcutta summer, the novel follows Jayojit Chatterjee, a divorced academic living in America, as he returns to his parents’ home with his young son, Vikram. Unlike the high-octane drama typical of post-colonial literature, Chaudhuri utilizes a "poetics of the mundane" to highlight the subtle shifts in cultural allegiance and personal identity. Through an analysis of spatiality, food, and the breakdown of the nuclear family, this research examines how Jayojit embodies a "third space" identity—belonging neither to the nostalgia of his parents’ Calcutta nor the clinical efficiency of his life in the West. By expanding the lens to include the socio-economic backdrop of West Bengal’s transition and the psychological ramifications of the "non-event," this study concludes that Chaudhuri’s domesticity is not a site of stagnant tradition, but a fluid, often uncomfortable arena where the global and the local negotiate their existence through silence, ritual, and sensory experience.