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VOL. 12, ISSUE 1 (2026)
Echoes of home and absence: Reading diasporic consciousness in Toru Dutt’s “Our Casuarina Tree”
Authors
Mohaiminul Islam
Abstract
This paper examines Toru Dutt’s “Our Casuarina Tree” as articulating an
incipient or affective form of diasporic consciousness, foregrounding themes of
memory, distance, and emotional attachment to homeland. While the poem
ostensibly presents a nostalgic recollection of a childhood landscape, it
simultaneously registers a deeper sense of absence shaped by geographical and
cultural separation. Reading the poem through the framework of diasporic
studies, this paper argues that the Casuarina tree emerges as a symbolic anchor
of belonging that sustains the poet’s fractured identity across spatial
divides. The affective intensity of loss, longing, and remembrance is not
overtly declared but subtly evoked through imagery, silence, and emotional
resonance. These implicit meanings reveal how Dutt negotiates home and exile,
presence and absence, within a colonial and transnational context. The study
suggests that ‘Our Casuarina Tree’ transcends personal elegy to gesture toward
a proto-diasporic sensibility, anticipating later postcolonial engagements with
memory and identity. By situating the poem within the discourse of diaspora,
the paper repositions Toru Dutt as a significant precursor in diasporic
literary expression.
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Pages:81-84
How to cite this article:
Mohaiminul Islam "Echoes of home and absence: Reading diasporic consciousness in Toru Dutt’s “Our Casuarina Tree”". International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Research, Vol 12, Issue 1, 2026, Pages 81-84
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