02. Migrating
What is ‘migration’? Articles or essays often start off with a definition of the terms mentioned in their topic, and this definition is usually copied from a dictionary and then further explained. With the term ‘migration’, however, I want to do it differently and go back to its etymological roots. The term derives from the Latin verb migrare, which means to “change one’s residence or position; pass into a new condition; move, shift” (The Pocket Oxford Latin Dictionary). This is not a simple going from one place to another, though, instead there are more attributes that turn a movement into a migration.
The moving has to take place between two distinct spaces that are different to each other in terms of culture, language or race of the residents. Additionally, the space that is left behind was the home of the migrants and they plan to find a new space to call home at the place where they are going to. A migration also has to be set out to be permanent, which means that a return is not intended. Another criterion is a border or boundary that separates the two spaces and that has to be crossed during the migration. The boundary is usually artificial, like the border between two nations, but can also be natural, like an ocean, a river or a mountain range that can not be crossed easily, or just a very long distance between the origin and the destination.
Considering these aspects we can spot several actual migrations in The God of Small Things, in contrast to a more figurative meaning of migration, which will be discussed later on. First, there is Ammu, who moves to Assam, where her husband lives, and who later has to return to Ayemenem with her two children when she leaves her husband again. After Sophie Mol’s death and her relationship with Velutha is exposed, her brother Chacko expels her from Ayemenem and she lives in different places in south-west India, although I would rather call this an aimless journey than a migration per se, because there is no specific destination.
At the same time, Ammu’s son Estha is separated from his mother and his twin sister and is sent to Calcutta to live with his father. Only 23 years later he is “re-Returned” (Roy 1997, 9) to his childhood home Ayemenem, where he meets Rahel again. What is special about his journey is that it does not happen of his own accord, but instead other persons decide where he has to go: he is returned to his father by Baby Kochamma’s decision, 23 years later he is returned to Ayemenem by his father. Rahel, on the other hand, acts more independently. She decides for herself when she marries her American husband and moves to Boston, or when she returns to Ayemenem to see her brother again.
Chacko is the only one of the central characters who seems to become a successful migrant by Indian standards. He moves to England, a country that is highly adored among anglophile Indians, and founds a family with an Englishwoman. But just like Ammu’s, his marriage fails and he returns to India. After his daughter dies he emigrates once again, this time to Canada.
Although the journeys of these characters are very different to each other, they all centre around Ayemenem and everyone returns to Ayemenem at some point in their lives. The meaning of this place will be examined more closely in the next chapter.