Mooristan and Palimpstine: Jews, Moors, and Christians in Amitav Ghosh and Salman Rushdie

This essay considers the significant presence of Jewish thematics in contemporary Indian writing in English, arguing that some of the best known contemporary Indian writers have often turned to the figure of Jews to explore the postcolonial condition. Tracing a map of the Indian-Jewish literary encounter, the essay examines in particular Amitav Ghosh's In an Antique Land (1992) and Salman Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh (1995). These two texts present Jewish characters as exemplary negotiators of cultures who complicate the conceptual, historical, geographical and even ethnic/racial frameworks in which Jews have been traditionally portrayed in Western literatures. In conclusion, it argues that the "Jewish poetics" of Ghosh and Rushdie may complicate and enrich a notion of Jewish literature based exclusively on the ethnic and religious identity of its authors.