Alienation and Nativist Consciousness: Reading Dom Moraes through Bhalchandra Nemade s Deshivad

This study examines the issue of alienation in Dom Moraes’s poetry through Bhalchandra Nemade’s concept of Deshivad (Nativism), situating Moraes’s work within the broader context of postcolonial identity and cultural dislocation. Nemade’s Deshivad emphasises the importance of situating writing within indigenous contexts, whereas Moraes (1938–2004) presents a dichotomy; his poetry reflects a profound alienation from his homeland and identity, influenced by colonial memories and the English literary canon. Poems like A Beginning (1957), John Nobody (1965), and Collected Poems 1957–1987 trace an experience of exile that encloses both geographical and cultural dimensions, revealing the psychological toll of composing in the coloniser’s language. Moraes's experience of absence is evident in metropolitan alienation, fragmented identity, and emotional exile as it echoes postcolonial critiques of displacement while concurrently opposing Deshivad's nativist emphasis on rootedness. This paper interprets Moraes's alienation as indicative of historical and cultural marginalisation, situating his work at the convergence of postcolonial exile and nativist critique, positing that his absences are a counterweight to Nemade's advocacy for literary indigenisation. This paper highlights how Moraes's body of work exemplifies the tensions between cosmopolitan detachment and the pursuit of a rooted identity in Indian English poetry.