Recycling History and Assembling Counter-Histories of the Shamsi Community in M.G. Vassanji's The Gunny Sack and The Book of Secrets

History pursued and interpreted through anecdotes is counter-history. Fictional narratives juxtaposed with historical facts succeed in delivering embedded and hitherto concealed records. This is indeed one of the recent postmodern and new historical techniques assimilated for creating the archives of counter-historical narratives from individual and collective memories. The fictional instances limned in Vassanji's works synchronise well enough with the factual events to describe the backdrop and contextual information for imaginary domains.

Vassanji's narration embarks on parallel tracks unravelling imaginary tales and historical episodes simultaneously. A historical interpretation of M.G. Vassanji's works is prone to divulge dominant ideologies pervading contemporary to the literary creation and the metamorphosing cultural identity of a particular ‘imagined community’ referred to as ‘Shamsi’, which is more or less modelled on the Khoja Ismaili community. Social and cultural practices mould the author's receptiveness and the product of his imagination.

The novels, The Gunny Sack and The Book of Secrets, encapsulate large-scale events corresponding to diasporisation of the Shamsi community. This paper, titled, ‘Recycling History and Assembling Counter-Histories of the Shamsi Community in M.G. Vassanji's The Gunny Sack and The Book of Secret,’ substantiates that Vassanji's imaginary community accommodated in real historical terrains and living through large events unfolds layers of a submerged past.