New Delhi: Displacement, alienation and nostalgia drew journalist and author Bhaskar Roy to writers such as Kiran Desai, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Viet Thanh Nguyen. The nagging pull of a character’s homeland in fiction has always fascinated him. But it also made him wonder why this was not a theme in more Indian writing in English.
He initially put it down to a hardy Indian expatriate community more immune to cultural dislocation. That was until he began to explore the lives of undocumented Bangladeshi migrants in India. The result was the 2024 novel, Border Crossers, where he delved into the migrant experience.
“I could see that their story was deeply absorbing, a tale of both struggle and belonging,” said Roy during a discussion around his book at India International New Delhi. He was joined by former Ambassador of India to the United States, Meera Shankar, and retired IAS officer Sanjeev Chopra.
Though Border Crossers is set in Noahda—a deliberate subversion of Noida according to Sanjeev Chopra— it showed how reality is not separate from fiction. It served as a springboard for conversations on topics ranging from internal migration to refugee communities in India.
US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the White American anxiety about demographic changes, and India’s own undocumented immigrant population, were all part of the discussion.
Search for ‘home’
Bhaskar Roy’s book delves into the themes of identity, resilience, and socio-political conflict through the lives of a diplomat named Arijit Basu, his fiancée Nandita Kapoor, and an undocumented Bangladeshi migrant, Rita.
The lyrical prose highlights the vulnerability and agency of those living on the fringes. Sanjeev Chopra described the book as “sheer poetry,” a “Dastangoi where the words build up a crescendo.” Chopra also praised how Roy uses language to emphasise cultural and class divisions.
“We don’t associate months with change in seasons, but people from Bangladesh do,” Chopra stressed. These words are more than just markers of time; they carry deep cultural significance while symbolising the chasm between two worlds. For instance, added Chopra, the elite often describe the passage of time in English, in terms of months such as January and February. But poor migrants stick to phagun (spring) and boishakh (harvest season).
The transformation of relationships is another profound element in Roy’s storytelling. A term as simple as “sir” evolves into “saheb,” then “uncle,” and finally “kaku” as power dynamics shift.
It reflects how the identity of the migrant morphs as they navigate through different social strata, said Chopra.
“Language, in Border Crossers, is more than a tool for communication—it is an indicator of the divide between the migrant and the established society,” he added.
Also read: A hunt for dunki agents in Punjab, Haryana is on. FIRs, raids, demand for lost money
The impact of migration
It didn’t take long for the conversation to shift to current events—the real-life implications of migration.
India has long been a recipient of refugees, from Tibet to Bangladesh, and more recently, from Myanmar. But migration within India itself is also significant, said Meera Shankar. Internal movements of labour are critical to the functioning of many industries, especially in regions such as Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
She recalled her visit to Coimbatore for an event, where she observed a significant Bihari workforce. Their presence seemingly impacted local food practices – evident in the typically North Indian fare presented to her at the official lunch.
“I assumed it would be a traditional South Indian vegetarian meal. But to my surprise, I was served dishes like kaali dal, palak paneer, and tandoori roti, introduced by workers from Bihar.”
Moreover, Shankar was told, factories in Coimbatore have separate kitchens for Bihari, Odia, and South Indian labourers. This trend can also be seen in Kerala and Punjab, which rely heavily on migrant workers, she added.
Bhaskar Roy then proceeded to highlight how migrating communities enrich cultures while adapting quickly to the receiving society.
“Some argue that cultures rejecting migrants will face long-term challenges, while others believe balance is key. The solution, though difficult, lies in fostering stability and prosperity in neighboring regions,” Roy said.
Also read: I risked everything for America—confinement, torture: Robin Handa returns to Haryana
‘Focus on human response’
No discussion on borders is ever complete without India-Pakistan, and Bhaskar Roy’s Delhi event was no exception.
An audience member harked back to a 2005 discussion between former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf, where the two leaders expressed a desire to make borders “irrelevant”.
“Is that ideal achievable today?”, he asked the panellists, who chuckled collectively before responding.
While it’s still a distant dream, Shankar argued that focusing on human responses to migration—rather than rigid borders—could help create a more integrated and compassionate world.
“There is no difference between people on both sides of the border,” added Roy. “The human responses to a situation are more important than anything. You, as a human being, respond if you see a fellow human being suffering.”
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)
Illegal immigrants do not enrich cultures. Illegal immigrants are a serious problem.
Illegal immigrants live off government doles in welfare countries. They gobble up a huge part of the benefits meant for citizens of the host nation. Their presence in a locality or town makes crime rates shoot up. Eventually, the locality or the town becomes unliveable due to worsening law and order. This leads to the exodus of the law-abiding citizens from these areas and they become no-go zones even for the local police forces. Examples abound in European nations such as Malmo in Sweden or Birmingham in UK.
Illegal immigrants are a threat to the host nation’s culture and way of life.
No dosage of pontifications from the likes of Jhumpa Lahiri and other such usual suspects of the global Left-liberal cabal is going to convince the common man. The average person is intelligent enough to see through the clutter and decide for himself what is right and what is wrong.
Migrants are an asset for a nation.
Illegal immigrants are a liability for a nation.
Let us be very clear about this.
The time tested Left-liberal tactic of obfuscating the issue by deliberately lumping together issues which are starkly different does not work in today’s age. People are educated enough to see through their specious arguments.
Everyone supports legal migration to a nation. Legal migrants enrich the culture and contribute immensely to the socio-economic progress of the host nation.
Illegal immigration is the issue. No country should have to put up with illegal immigrants. Be it India or Europe or the USA, illegal immigrants are absolutely not welcome.