Imaginary Homelands
Imaginary Homelands is a collection of essays written by Salman Rushdie covering a wide variety of topics. In addition to the title essay, the collection also includes "'Commonwealth Literature' Does Not Exist".Salman Rushdie’s “Imaginary Homelands” is an essay that propounds an antiessentialist view of place.
Introduction
Salman Rushdie is most controversial writer among Indian writing in English. His book published under the title “imaginary Homeland” Is the collection of the essay written during 1981 to 1992. All essays are based on the experience of Salman Rusdie’s and his contemporary time scenario. This book nicely collected the controversial issues of the decade. In these days Indira Gandhi was ruling. In this session one of the novelist whose name Rusdie did not reveal, began his contribution by reciting a Sanskrit Shloka, and then, instead of translating the verse he declared. “Every educated Indian will understand what I have just said”. This was unacceptable as,in the room were Indian writers and scholars from conceivable backgrounds such as Christian, Parasi, Muslim and Sikh. None of them rose in Sanskrit tradition and they were reasonably educated. The questions that surrounded his mind were -what were we being told? -we aren’t Indian’? The second day, an eminent Indian academic delivered a paper on Indian culture that utterly ignored all minority communities and characterized Muslim culture as imperialist and inauthentic.This made him write a book that searched for his ‘existence'. The conference was for him a bitter experience which pricked him like a thorn. The book ‘Imaginary Homelands’ is divided into six sections. They are. 1) Midnight’s children. 2) Politics of India and Pakistan. 3) Indo-Anglian literature. 4) Movie and Television. 5) Experience of migrants, -Indian migrants to Britain. 6) Thatcher/ flout election –question of Palestine
List of published works
The New Empire within Britain from Imaginary Homelands.