Narrating the Margins: Power, Identity, and Belonging in the Works of Kiran Desai

Kiran Desai occupies a prominent position in contemporary Indian English literature due to her nuanced depictions of marginalized lives shaped by historical, migratory, class-based, and global inequalities. This article analyzes Desai’s narration of marginality through three central arguments. First, it examines how power relations influence individual identity. Second, it considers the impact of social and historical forces on identity formation. Third, it analyzes the contested nature of belonging in Desai’s major works, particularly Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard and The Inheritance of Loss. Employing postcolonial theory, diaspora studies, and socio-cultural criticism, this study contends that Desai destabilizes the binaries of center and margin. She demonstrates how globalization, colonial legacies, and internal hierarchies displace individuals within both local and transnational contexts. Through irony, fragmented narratives, and detailed characterization, Desai amplifies marginalized voices and critiques the systems that render them invisible. Ultimately, this article concludes that Desai’s fiction not only narrates marginal lives but also redefines belonging as precarious, contested, and frequently illusory in the modern world.