Cultural Displacement within Borders: Examining Expatriate Themes in Pyre

Abstract

Perumal Murugan’s Pyre is a searing critique of caste-based social exclusion and the cost of defying cultural expectations within one’s homeland. Although traditionally analyzed as a novel of caste and identity, Pyre invites a reading through the lens of expatriate studies, where Saroja, the protagonist, embodies the “expatriate” experience within her own country. Saroja’s journey into a hostile and foreign village after her intercaste marriage can be likened to the alienation and cultural displacement encountered by expatriates. This study critically examines how Murugan uses Saroja’s outsider status to expose the invisible, yet powerful, borders within her homeland, highlighting how these borders shape identity and social belonging. Through Saroja’s condition, Murugan exposes the complex geography of social exclusion that structures rural Tamil society. The village functions as a microcosmic nation-state with its own citizenship requirements, cultural protocols, and exclusionary mechanisms. Saroja’s experience of double displacement—as both a caste transgressor and an assertive woman—illuminates how gender intensifies internal expatriation. Her psychological journey through cultural shock, attempted adaptation, and eventual breakdown parallels documented expatriate experiences, while her unique position as someone cut off from both original and adoptive communities reveals the particular trauma of internal displacement. This reading demonstrates how local systems of exclusion connect to broader patterns of human displacement and belonging. By applying expatriate studies to Pyre, we gain insight into how social borders operate within communities and how the expatriate experience—with its themes of cultural displacement, identity crisis, and social marginalization—transcends geographical boundaries. The novel emerges as a universal exploration of belonging and unbelonging, speaking to all those who find themselves expatriated within their own homelands.