Migration: Language, bereavement and re-birth

This article aims to capture certain emotive consequences of migration, after its geographical and physical occurrence. It deals especially with the selection of the English language, by myself and other writers, to try to integrate the challenge of transposition of references across cultures, that could get lost in translation. The context for the bi-lobial nature of migration here is British colonial history in south India or the Madras Presidency 1857–1916, and ancient or undated myths of oral and literary texts as illustrated in my novel The Sari of Surya Vilas (Naidu 2017). While acknowledging the medicinal and other benefits, I also propose the history of colonial plant hunting, and especially the trade in chocolate and tea, as an appropriate paradigm for the forgotten account of migration.