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Constitutional Order, Anti-State Insurgency, and Family Responsibility in Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland

Authors: Dr. Krushna Chandra Mishra;

Constitutional Order, Anti-State Insurgency, and Family Responsibility in Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland

Abstract

Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland (2013) stages, within the intimate space of a Bengali middle-class household and a Rhode Island apartment, the cultural conflict between a constitutional nationalism concerned with civic order and an anti-state Naxalite insurgency that sought radical transformation through violence. Read as a cultural site rather than as a partisan tract, the novel shows how public choices and clandestine acts return home as ethical burdens distributed across kinship, caregiving, and memory. Anchored in the documented chronology of Naxalbari (1967), the CPI(ML) formation (1969), and subsequent counterinsurgency in 1971–72, the analysis traces Lahiri’s relocation of ideology into domestic time: the killing of an insurgent organiser, Udayan, is not a climax but the beginning of decades of household repair. The reading emphasizes a constitutional frame, care ethics, and the pedagogic responsibilities of family life, rejecting any romanticization of violent, divisive, anti-constitutional action. While acknowledging critical debates about “under-politicization,” the paper demonstrates that Lahiri’s restraint clarifies duty, lawful order, and the costs of misled choices for present and future generations.

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Keywords

Naxalbari; Naxalism; constitutional order; Indian nationalism; diaspora; care ethics; trauma; Lahiri

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selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
0
Average
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