Reconstructing Belonging: Home as a Social Construct in the Select Works of Rohinton Mistry

Author: Chanda Kumari Mishra and Prof. Dr. Mamta Rani

Published On: 2025-10-04

DOI: https://doi.org/10.70127/irjedt.vol.8.issue10.38

This paper examines the social construction of “home” in Rohinton Mistry’s three major novels — Such a Long Journey, A Fine Balance, and Family Matters. Arguing that Mistry stages home primarily as a set of social relations, obligations, and moral economies rather than a simple physical shelter, the study shows how family duties, communal rituals, class relations and public events produce and test belonging. Close readings of domestic scenes, community interactions, and public intrusions demonstrate that belonging in Mistry’s fiction is negotiated through social practices and obligations. The paper situates this social reading alongside postcolonial and diasporic theories to show how Mistry’s humanism illuminates the social mechanics of home in contexts of urban precarity and political instability.

Keywords: home, belonging, Rohinton Mistry, community, family, diaspora