" 51identity was not straightforward. And I grew up realising that there were a lot of people who feltthreatened, or in some way they found me problematic. And I found my own identityproblematic. What's my own relationship to India? What's my relationship to the UK??VThe aim of the paper is to discuss the writings of South Asian writers settled in Britain. Althoughthe writers explore various issues in their writings their primary objective is the quest foridentity. Being a South Asian in Britain implies the negotiation of many cultural and politicalcomplexities. Important texts such as Avtar Brah‘s Cartographies of Diaspora: ContestingIdentites and Judith Brown‘s The Global SouthAsians: Introducing the Modern Diaspora form asignificant background to the paper. As an East African Asian woman Brah understands thedynamics of multiple identities. In her extensive study on the South Asians in Britain, Brahexplores the various socio-poltical problems faced by a migrant. She examines the conditionsunder which a large number of immigrants wererecruited by Britain. These immigrants weremainly unskilled labourers who took up the jobs left by white working-class. In the easly phaseof the migration that is the 1950s and 1960s the immigrants were mainly men. With variouspolicy measures introduced by the British in the 1970s, a lot of women also migrated from theSouth Asia. Both Judith Brown andAvtar Brah examine that during this phase of the migration,a large number of women migrated to accompany their husbands. As women migrated to Britain,they were exposed to paid work outside the domain of their homes. Employment not onlyprovided them with independence but it also helped them to supplement the income of their52husbands. As Monica Ali explores in her novel Brick Lane, a significant section of Bangladeshiwomen are involved in the textiles industry.Avtar Brah suggests that =homing desire‘ is distinct from a desire for the =homeland‘. The desirefor the homeland is a mythic construction whereas =homing desire‘ relates to the complexities‘ ofdaily life. Racism and religion are two important issues discussed in Hanif Kureishi‘s The BlackAlbum. The children of South Asians have no memory of their homeland. Their home is Britain.However, their culture and their religion is also an important part of their identity. Kureishidiscusses the problems faced by British Asian youth when they face excessive hatred in theirown =homes‘. The process of =homing in‘ in Kureishi is painful and difficult. Hatred and racialdiscrimination are important part of daily life for an Asian living in Britain. However, not all societies are accommodating to immigrants. As the novel by Hari Kunzrudemonstrates, the West continues to recruit people from the Third World countries to work fortheir post-industrial societies. As Kunzru demontrates even in the contemporary world of twenty- first century, flow of people across borders is prohibited. The people and the policies of the hostnation are not always accommodating to the immigrants. Transmission portrays that ArjunMehta has little rights as an immigrant. In a futile attempt to realise his American dream, his lifetakes a fatal turn. His efforts to prove his worth as an efficient worker is thwarted by hisemployers. Distressed and despaired Arjun Mehta is compelled to unleash a cyber terror in theform of ?leela virus?. Apart from his critique of the cyberworld as well as the rising capitalism ofthe world, Transmission remains a work about human failure. Kunzru also critiques the ways inwhich the Indian middle class is obsessed with the American dream. Kunzru‘s attempt to explorediasporic identities apart from those present in Britain suggests that as a writer he seeks to53address immigration and displacement in the larger context.. Unlike the desire for the homelandwhich is more of a fantasy or a myth the process of =homing in‘ is a difficult and painful process.Arjun Mehta takes a wrong step towards his =homing in‘ process. As the paper attempt todemonstrate the process of =homing in‘ is a difficult process. I would like to end my paper with aquote from Hanif Kureishi‘s The BlackAlbum which expresses what diaspora think about theirown situation: ?It takes several generations to become accustomed to a place. We think we‘re settleddown, but we‘re like brides who‘ve just crossed the threshold. We have to watchourselves, otherwise we will wake up one day to find we have made a calamitousmarriage? (Kureishi 45). 54Works CitedAli, Monica. Brick Lane. 2003. London: Doubleday; Black Swan, 2004.Behel, Suchitra. ?Race to Identity?. The Hindu. 29 May 2002. 11 July2009.<http://www.hinduonnet.com/mag/2002/05/26/stories/2002052600250500.htm>.Brah, Avtar. Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting Identities. London; New York: Routledge,1996.Braziel, Jana Evans, and Anita Mannur, eds. Theorizing Diaspora: A Reader. Oxford: Blackwell,2003Brown, Judith M. Global South Asians: Introducing the Modern Diaspora. New Delhi:CambridgeUniversity Press, 2007.Buchanan, Bradley. Hanif Kureishi. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. 31Ellam, Julie ?Monica Ali?. Contemporary Writers. 2007. 11 July 2009<http://www.contemporarywriters.com/>.Hussain, Ahmede. ?Revolution Calling?. Star Weekend Magazine. Vol.7. Issue.8. 22 Feb2008.11July 2009.<http://www.thedailystar.net/magazine/2008/02/04/interview.m>.Hussain, Yasmin. Writing Diaspora: South Asian Women, Cultrure and Ethnicity. Hampshire:Ashgate, 2005. 2Jaggi, Maya. ?A Buddy From Suburbia?.guardian.co.u.k. 1 March 1995. 11 July 2009.<http://www.guardian.co.uk/book/1995/mar/01/fiction.reviews>.Kureishi, Hanif. The Black Album. London; Boston: Faber and Faber, 1995.Kunzru, Hari.Transmission. London: Hamish Hamilton, 2004.Lewis, John. ?Kureishi Puts The Black Album On Stage?. The Times.June 27, 2009.July11,2009<http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/theatre/article6583 407.ece>.MacCrum, Robert. ?I got out of the suburbs but did they got out of me?.The Oberver andguardian.co.uk. 25 Feb 2001. 11 July2009.<http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2001/feb/25/fiction.hanifkureishi>.55Nasta, Susheila. Home Truths: Fictions of the South Asian Diaspora in Britain. New York:Palgrave, 2002.Prono, Luca. ?Hari Kunzru?. Contemporary Writers. 2006. 12 May 2009<http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth03B5O073112634971>.Raj, Swaraj. ?Problematics of Theorizing Diaspora and Situating Diaspora Literature?.Contemporary Diasporic Literatures: Writing History, Culture, Self. Ed. Singh, Manjit Inder.Delhi: Pencraft International, 2007. 49-59.Rushdie, Salman. Imaginary Homelands: Essays And Criticism 1981-1991. London: GrantaBooks. 1991. 9-21.Shwney, Harish. ?Hanif Kureishi with Hirsh Sawhney?. The Brooklyn Rail: Critical Perspectiveson Art, Politics and Culture. Jul-Aug 2006. July 112009<http://brooklynrail.org/2006/07/books/hanif-kureishi-with-hirsh-sawhney>.Surin, Jacqueline Ann. ?Of Fear And Alienation?. Sun2Surf: Malasiyan Source for News AndLifestyle. 11 July 2009. <http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=14614>.Trenemen, Ann. ?Revelations; I Thought I‘ll Be A Writer?.The Independent.15 April 1997. 11July 2009.<http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/revelations-i-thought-ill-be-a-writer- 1267264.html>.Werbner, Pnina. ?Essentialising Essentialism, Essentialising Silence: Ambivalence AndMultiplicity In The Constructions Of Racism And Ethnicity?. Debating Cultural Hybridity- Multicultural Identities and the Politics of Anti-Racism. Ed. Pnina Werbner and Tariq Modood.London; New York: Zed Books, 1997. 227-254. "