Dr. Deepanita elucidates the reasons for migration. We are introducing a new column, beginning this week, exclusively for Different Truths.

Migration is known and understood as relocation of people, resettlement of lifestyles and movement of creed, community to a separate location. This shift and movement of people, their cultures and occupations play a major role in bringing a new wave of faiths and beliefs. Therefore, it is fascinating to find that landscape, location, space, and a place of one’s own, strongly emphasise the existence of mankind.

In the pages of history, we come across several migrant journeys establishing cultures and transforming the fate of nations. People have migrated in search for shelter, space and identity. It is invariably seen that shifting, travelling, and moving to a new place with different life purposes also carry with it language, customs, rituals, and habits.

Along with cultural transformation, language also is mixed, redefined and restyled in different accents and tones. It has weaved beautifully with old and new styles of communication. One can find a Maharashtrian speaking Hindi in Marathi tone, a Bengali speaking English with a Bangla tone or a person unconsciously adding a Bhojpuri accent, while speaking the international language. We cannot deny that we carry our culture wherever we go.

Many learn the language to get acceptance in a foreign land, while some are born in an environment of multiple languages and cultures. It is this experience of migration which inevitably became a reason for the development of new language, education, diverse opportunities and progressive ideas. People and their lifestyles get new opportunities to learn and accept world cultures.

Hence, it is interesting to note that migration is always in a process to offer us something new. The custom of travelling to different places was not only a history but it is very much a part of our present system of lifestyle. It is constantly establishing unfamiliar and unknown avenues of social, economic, and literary thinking.

Migration is not restricted to social and economic changes; it has been a part of an emotional and intellectual shift too. Although relocation brings a lot of opportunities, it also confronts us with many challenges. The aim for a better life has always been a source of this search for resettlement. But along with all the transformation that we accept, a small part of our soul is left in the place of our origin. Though people migrate, they also do not deny the cultural clash that they undergo.

Remember the times when every Indian use to call the British as ‘firangi’ or ‘Gore’. Besides having physical, cultural and language clashes, Indians as well as the British both understood that acceptance of different cultures do not come through force. It is association, respect, equality and freedom of choice that works to bridge the gap between the locals and the migrants. Though migration is an age old custom for many creeds, communities and tribes, it has left its footprints in the new age cosmopolitan life. This is not just a movement but a state of enjoying the taste of all cultures, languages, and habits.

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Dr. Deepanita Bhanja

Dr. Deepanita Bhanja is an Assistant Professor of English in a College in Pune. She has more than eleven years of teaching experience in the field of literature and communication skills. She takes interest in reading and writing on literary and social issues. Appreciates cinema, music and all kinds of performing arts. Considers that academics or the education system needs a restoration and revamp for the well-being of the nation’s future.

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