Threading the Intricacies of Home in Basudhara Roy’s
‘Stitching a Home’
https://doi.org /10.5281/zen od o.14973721
Author(s): Eram Siddiqui & Shubham Kumar Pati
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14973721
PDF: Download Full Text
Volume 16 | Issue 1 | Feb 2025
Pages: 75-91
AboutUs: https://www.the-criterion.com/about/
Archive: https://www.the-criterion.com/archive/
ContactUs: https://www.the-criterion.com/contact/
EditorialBoard: https://www.the-criterion.com/editorial-board/
Submission: https://www.the-criterion.com/submission/
FAQ: https://www.the-criterion.com/fa/
ISSN 2278‐9529
Galaxy: International Multidisciplinary Research Journal
www.galaxyimrj.com
The Criterion: An International Journal in English Vol. 16, Issue-I, February 2025 ISSN: 0976-8165
www.the-criterion.com
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10448030
Threading the Intricacies of Home in Basudhara Roy’s ‘Stitching a Home’
Eram Siddiqui
Research Scholar,
Department of English,
Aligarh Muslim University,
Aligarh, UP.
&
Shubham Kumar Pati
Research Scholar,
Department of Education,
University of Delhi.
Article History: Submitted‐28/12/2024, Revised‐15/01/2025, Accepted‐10/02/2025, Published‐28/02/2025.
Abstract:
The concept of ‘home’ has been described from diverse perspectives in Indian English
writings compared to other academic domains. The portrayal of ‘home’ has been illustrated in
various disciplines in the proportions of ‘places, spaces, feelings, practices, and/or an active
state of the state of being in the world’. Besides from the postmodern viewpoint, sociology
defines the concept of ‘home’ as ‘complex’, ‘multi-dimensional’, and ‘multi-layered’, and not
necessarily constructed for any specific purposes. L. Fox describes ‘five important dimensions’
for ‘home’ as a financial investment, physical structure, territory, identity, and social and
cultural unit, but on the other hand, Hohmann defines ‘home’ as a location for constituting
privacy, identity and space. Basudhara Roy, in her collection ‘Stitching a Home’, attempts to
scrutinise the construction process of a home behaviorally. Beyond the postmodern approach,
the poet sees ‘home’ as one based on elements of binary opposition along with complexities,
and through the parallel use of paradox and metaphors, the poems evoke the ‘dualities of home’;
both ‘subjective and objective’, ‘permanent and lost’, ‘concrete and abstract’, ‘signified and
075
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14973721
Threading the Intricacies of Home in Basudhara Roy’s ‘Stitching a Home’
www.the-criterion.com
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10448030
aporia’, ‘companionship and isolation’ and ‘homelessness and belonging’. The sociological
study of autobiographical elements used in the poems may reflect the concept of ‘home
adjustment’, but in comparison to the prevalent theories, it would be appropriate to look at the
notion of ‘home’ in Basudhara Roy’s poems as of an ‘essentially contested concept’ (ECC) view
propounded by Walter Gallie. However, Roy’s poems do not establish any constant or concrete
ideology towards the concept of ‘home’, but to construct an identity, the poems carefully
elucidate the distinctions between the relationships in the home and the home’s relationship
with the world and how the ‘objects’ in-home play significant roles in the creation of ‘home’.
This paper attempts to locate the approaches of constructing multi-layered relationships,
emotions, feelings, and behaviours as portrayed in selected poems of Basudhara Roy’s
‘Stitching a Home’. What does it mean to be at home in today’s world where spaces and cultures
are in a profound conflux – desired and forced? Through this study, the authors aim to locate
the concept of home(s), in context to individuals’ perspective as well as collective.
Keywords: Home, Relationships, Postmodern, ECC, Autobiographical Elements,
Longing, Homelessness, Belonging, Isolation.
Introduction:
The meaning of Home can be different for individuals, and such multiple perceptions raise
from the person’s own contexts such as experience, surroundings, beliefs and understanding.
Therefore, even if we limit ‘home’ to any definition from the viewpoint of social science, each
individual still sees ‘home’ from their panoramic lens. For some individuals, it may be a place,
a structure made of cement, bricks, and sand, while for others, it may be a structure made of
inter-relationships, between people and generations, objects and spaces; for some, Home can
be a room, a city, a nation, a person; or it could be a physical or virtual space of bonds and
076
The Criterion: An International Journal in English Vol. 16, Issue-I, February 2025 ISSN: 0976-8165
www.the-criterion.com
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10448030
behaviours. According to Lockford (2016) “to feel at home is an experience often proffered as
desirable because it connotes comfort and familiarity, and as such it is often taken for granted
as positive.” But why and how any emotion or speculation towards home emerges for anyone
– is a significant question. More importantly, it is essential to consider how a writer assembles
the concept of Home in literary works and what components and methodologies are necessary
for this process of literary construction. We cannot say that the concept of ‘home’ as defined by
social science is more empirical and closer in meaning than that presented in the nucleus of
literary works. Roy’s text ‘Stitching a Home’ outlines the images, sentiments, attitudes, objects,
paradoxes, and philosophies that constitute a Home. In the (selected) poems of the author, this
treatment (of Home) acts like a vehicle, which sometimes redirects from the structure of one
room to a city like Banaras and sometimes also makes a psychological expedition from
depression to recuperation and exhilaration. In this research paper, an attempt is made to find
answers to the following questions in the selected poems penned by Basudhara Roy;
1. In Basudhara Roy’s poems, how do the relationships within the home, and the
relationship between the home and the world have been approximated through multiple
mediums and multi-layered tools?
2. How do Roy’s poems constitute the structure of ‘home’ by underlining the relationships
of human life in contemporary times?
3. How does Roy explore the impact of ‘home’ on one’s identity in her poems?
4. Has Basudhara Roy integrally reflected ‘home’ in her poems, or does it fit Walter
Gallie’s theory of ECC in the absence of any uniform or abiding theme in the context
of home?
5. To what extent does Roy effectively distinguish between the abstract and concrete
elements that shape the foundation and evolution of ‘Home’?
077
Threading the Intricacies of Home in Basudhara Roy’s ‘Stitching a Home’
www.the-criterion.com
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10448030
6. Do Roy’s poems align with classical social science definitions of ‘Home,’ or do they
challenge traditional perspectives and introduce new interpretations?
According to Mallet (2004), “Home is variously described in the literature as conflated with or
related to house, family, haven, self, gender, and journeying. Many authors also consider
notions of being-at-home, creating or making home and the ideal home.” The author has
incorporated many dimensions in her poems to form the vision of ‘Home’;
The City as Home
Roy dedicates the first two poems of her book to Banaras.
Returning to an old city, long left behind,
is like coming back to children who have
grown through time and unfurled
[…]
Or is it like returning in love to a beloved
long estranged, whose face, though changed,
bears yet un-erased marks of a longing
(Banaras I, lines 1-9)
Through these lines, Roy recounts her own experiences while personifying the city of Banaras.
The consistency of ‘return’ makes the poet’s consciousness discern nostalgia. In expansion, it
seeks to positively integrate behavioural transformations by emphasizing the human experience
of detachment. In the third stanza, the poet paints the interaction between her and the city as
the relationship between two pure souls, a kind of relationship in which the shadow of ‘un-
erased marks of a longing’ revives the faded memories in the consciousness, despite the
078
The Criterion: An International Journal in English Vol. 16, Issue-I, February 2025 ISSN: 0976-8165
www.the-criterion.com
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10448030
physical changes that people undergo in the course of their lives, The poet endeavours to
rekindle her relationship with the city through memories.
Returning to your old city is an awakening
to loss unaccounted for, a restoration to forms
best known amidst hazes,
surrender to the tender stillness in the
heart of chaos, where, though hopes
come undone, odes to pasts may still be sung.
(Banaras I, lines 16-21)
The poet sees the concept of ‘return’ as a possibility for adaptation, nostalgia and remembrance.
After ‘returning’ from an establishment, as in the case of the poet’s personal experience (your
old city), it is a standard action for the location to ‘do it again as before’ or retrieve the memories
hidden somewhere deep in the consciousness… In Banaras – I, the Roy gently dusts off old
memories, revealing that relationships can be mended and deep remembrance has the power to
revive the past, even as people, places, and circumstances change. Then, she suggests, ‘home’
can be rejuvenated as before.
In the poem ‘Banaras II’ the poet extends her reasons for visits not only to the city but also to
the past;
I sift the city for anagrams of my past,
for words I left behind
for lovers to find, inhabit, alter
(Banaras II, lines 1-3)
079
Threading the Intricacies of Home in Basudhara Roy’s ‘Stitching a Home’
www.the-criterion.com
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10448030
While recollecting memories, the poet tries to establish an association between her feelings of
the past and the present. In this way, home—or the act of returning—becomes a bridge between
the past and present, preserving history while forging connections that extend into the future.
The roots of past events and the branching relationships of the present are woven together by
memories, forming a timeless thread that connects a person to both past and present, making
them whole. The poet points out that it is the ‘bittersweet’ and not just the sweet that makes her
revisit and fondly remember the city. This idea finds associations to one’s lost homeland, as a
refugee, seeking familiar grounds, structures, and memorials. Although a lot changes, a lot still
remains, though only in the memories. To depart, to leave, becomes inevitable, in the long run
of life. In the world today, people pack, pick up and move, for opportunities, safe havens, and
some, simply to build other homes. There is always a longing with a separation, but the pain
eventually melts into memories that no longer hurt but are still very close to the heart.
It buttresses hopes of enduring,
of reclaiming meaning from debris of doubt, grief, loss;
(Banaras II, lines 13-14)
Communicating with the poet, the city echoes the contradictions of life and optimistically
describes peace as stable and forbearing. The poet portrays home as a ‘mirage,’ where calm and
tranquility exist at its core, yet are disrupted by life’s challenges, emotions, and relationships.
the city has no weariness to questions,
only no answers to offer. In response, it throws up
the paradox of life, the stillness in its restless core
(Banaras II, lines 19-21)
Nevertheless, peace is mostly about stability and sustained tolerance and the author witnesses
herself as a moving entity parallel to the city; ‘We both must move on, this city and I’; here
080
The Criterion: An International Journal in English Vol. 16, Issue-I, February 2025 ISSN: 0976-8165
www.the-criterion.com
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10448030
‘move on’ is not just a physical journey from one place to another, but to restore those relations
of history in the present which were concealed somewhere due to the span and differences of
time and place between ‘home’ and ‘person’.
The Location of Home: Permanent or Temporary; Concrete or Abstract?
In the poem ‘Address’, the author addresses an important element of a ‘home’. Generally,
‘addresses’ are classified as permanent and temporary. Superficially, the poem ‘Address’ seems
to be a dialogue between two lovers, but here the author designs the cognitive image of a ‘sense
of place’ while exploring the permanence of the poems and relationships;
Next time, friend, wherever you go,
choose to leave an address, so that poems
poured on shores may not be lapped up by the waves.
(Address, Line 8-10)
The poem ‘Address’ reminds one of those who have left their beloved lands and dear ones, and
when they return and the landscape is changed, they want their loved ones to at least have an
address of their whereabouts. So that the feeling of being at home can be fully realised because,
without family and familiar faces, home ceases to be a home or is only partially a home.
Meanwhile, Roy powerfully depicts homelessness and solitude in her poem ‘Home Truths’. In
pursuit of permanence, a home is a place that is and is not. This absence is of the relationships
and feelings of being at home. The disintegrating ‘home’ is depicted by the poet through
invasive images; …it can be burnt, vandalised, robbed (Home Truths, line 8). The sense of
losing ‘home’ resonates in the Banaras poems, where the poet reflects on past experiences and
highlights the city’s transformation. With change, there is always something—tangible or
emotional—that is inevitably lost. That is why the permanence of ‘Home’ may be in the senses
081
Threading the Intricacies of Home in Basudhara Roy’s ‘Stitching a Home’
www.the-criterion.com
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10448030
of the poet, but preserving ‘home’ incorporated into the physical conditions is a complicated
task;
A home is a permanent address.
It is always meant to be lost.
(Home Truths, lines 5-6)
In the context to permanence and impermanence, the poet gives a dualistic reaction. While
nouns are appropriate for the physical structure of the house, the relationships inside the house
are denoted by adjectives only. Like the earthly, concrete and physical things in the Home,
affinities and emotions can also be temporary and changeable. Thus, in the same juncture and
context, the material and virtual entities appear contrasting and identical to each other;
A home is concrete —
name, place, animal, thing.
It is only abstract —
enjambment, fiction, an apostrophe’s wet-dream.
(Home Truths, lines 15-18)
The poet skillfully incorporates images of familiar household games, such as “name, place,
animal, thing,” into her expressions. Interestingly, these games that people play in their homes
are also full of associations with their upbringings, associations as well as disassociations that
are far-fetched, as if foreign lands, from which they fetch images to fulfil their present needs,
oblivious to the possibility of them becoming their homes in the long run of time and life!
082
The Criterion: An International Journal in English Vol. 16, Issue-I, February 2025 ISSN: 0976-8165
www.the-criterion.com
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10448030
Home, as an Aurora of Love and Feelings
The poet draws parallels between the paths to a beloved’s heart and the paths to a home,
suggesting that a home can be a person or emotions—a feeling we experience with them or the
way they make us feel. In either case, the feeling of home vibrates with warmth and security.
However, it is only slowly and steadily that a house becomes a home after many struggles that
require patience, love and hard work.
Only the island of your heart remains unmapped
and my love loses its way to you
on undulating shingles of hesitation.
(Address, lines 4-6)
Can a sense of belonging be fostered, even after everything is lost? Sometimes, even when
people, loved ones, natives, and friends are absent from home, the landscape and the structure
still preserve the aroma that gives some solace to the heart that it comes seeking.
Shaping Relationships, Inside and Outside the Home
Roy weaves threads between relationships with depth and subtlety in her poems. In the
postmodern period of relationships, the poet has carefully inserted remembrances in the poems.
At a glance, the metaphors and images used for associations can take the anthology to the 80s
and 90s, where cautiousness and sensibility are essential in relationships in a joint household.
In the poem ‘To Home a House’, the poet expresses the processes of relationships that make a
house a home. One treats one’s Home with adoration and respect even when the concrete walls
do not respond to communication with one who is in the solitude of the house;
It takes time to home a house,
have its walls love you enough
to not talk back, not give away
083
Threading the Intricacies of Home in Basudhara Roy’s ‘Stitching a Home’
www.the-criterion.com
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10448030
(To Home a House, lines 1-3)
Nevertheless, these same ‘walls’ modify their relationship in the poem ‘Keeping In’; Home,
walled in, loses concavity (line 4). In ‘To Home a House’, through the comparative shading of
‘Children’ and ‘Grand Father’, an attempt has been made to establish coordination and stability
between the age distinction and behaviour modification in human life. The echoes of
differences can be seen in the ‘cackle of children’ and ‘the cough of grandfathers calling for
tea’. In the post-modern epoch, where alienated behaviour is found in relationships, the poet
expects consideration and respect from an optimistic perspective of the behaviour in the present
time;
summon your past selves
shed, shred, lost—to today’s banquet
of being to be honored
with respect, gratitude, regard
(To Home a House, lines 43-46)
In her poem ‘Pocket’, the image of ordinary commodities used in the house emerges; Staples,
clips, buttons, a watch, currency notes, pencil shavings, a leaf, an unfinished letter, some
candies, a book. The poet compares herself to these entities, believing they shape her memories
and relationships by adding form, color, texture, and depth; Their nature hardly matters, they
save each matter to me. (Lines 13–14). The poet conveys the effect of feelings and thoughts
leading to loneliness and solitude through the following lines.;
Putting in rejoicing,
complaint, guilt, memory,
sorrow, laughter—
all together, unsorted, a
084
The Criterion: An International Journal in English Vol. 16, Issue-I, February 2025 ISSN: 0976-8165
www.the-criterion.com
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10448030
mosaic of myself, a mess.
Is that why you left?
(Pocket, lines 19–24)
There are always questions in the poems, left resounding with partings, like the echoes of
footfalls walking away.
The poet uses the concept of ‘carpe diem’ to show the appearance of life by ascertaining the
similarity between existence and relations; Realize life begins with belonging, and ends there
too. Home is no home with its recipes and culinaries, reminds the poet in her poem ‘Dum
Pukht’. A home in the Indian culture and context ceases to be itself if devoid of the homely
meals cooked with hard work, patience and love. (Dum Pukht, line 12)
The book ‘Stitching a Home’ often uses dialogue manners in verses to depict family and worldly
ties inside the ‘home’. With the use of dramatic monologue, it is easy to speculate the speaker’s
personality. The poem ‘Dum Pukht’ psychologically describes the strategy of shaping
relationships through communication through this dialogue style;
Like you, I answer, except I don’t rush them at all.
In a generous pan, I like them to talk to each other
(Dum Pukht, lines 4-5)
In her poems, Basudhara Roy compares the formation and deterioration of relationships within
the home, giving central importance to scenes of dialogue exchange in these relationships.
Relationships, sweet and sour, stable and unstable, made and broken are depicted. It is an
optimistic approach to restoring vandalised relationships from a truly fragmented lifestyle.
085
Threading the Intricacies of Home in Basudhara Roy’s ‘Stitching a Home’
www.the-criterion.com
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10448030
Home, Belongingness and Identity
Roy demonstrates the theme of belongingness and identity in her verses with a sense of
sanguinity, sorrow and pain. The opening lines of the poem ‘Keeping In’ find the speaker
scouring for a suitable place on the planet to demarcate her identity;
The world shutters up. I follow suit.
Only to realize there’s no one place
where I fully belong.
(Keeping Inn, lines 1–3)
Floundering for social identity, the speaker’s saga represents the conditions of emigrated
refugees who have to face social and political artfulness to evolve as ‘fully belong’. The speaker,
like a refugee, seeks a ‘home’ in a disorganized society for ‘self-categorization’ i.e., the speaker’s
self is not reflexive, nor does it qualify itself for belongingness with any social group or class
(Stets and Burke). The formation of social identity involves two key processes: self-
categorization and social comparison. Through these strategies, individuals shape their identity
by aligning themselves with a particular group. Turner et al. pointed out that most theories of
social identity refer to intergroup relations, “how people come to see themselves as members
of one group/category (the in-group) in comparison with another (the out-group), and the
consequences of this categorization, such as ethnocentris.” In the opening lines of her poem
‘Stitching a Home’, Roy addresses how relationships and objects living away from ‘home’ can
commune to ‘home’. At the centre of these poems are humans and human behaviour, which use
their distinct abilities to construct social identity. That is, it is necessary to have a ‘home’ for
inanimate things to belong to the living;
Things that strayed so far alone
have no idea how to belong?
086
The Criterion: An International Journal in English Vol. 16, Issue-I, February 2025 ISSN: 0976-8165
www.the-criterion.com
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10448030
(Stitching a Home, lines 2-3)
In the process of identity formation, before self-categorization, it is necessary to have a
cognition of self-recognition. Roy considers family links to be important for self-identification;
not a place, not even a hope or a dream.
It is the union of time and mind,
of inhabiting the present with what you are.
(Stitching a Home, lines 13–15)
Roy’s poems directly address the angst of ‘social adjustment’ of refugees; When a person
considers a city his home before being a refugee, he regards himself as part of a social class to
build his social identity with stipulated socio-cultural practices. Mijić explains the difference
between identity and belonging, saying that “Floya Anthias, who has undertaken important
research on both terms, argues that identity and belonging ‘live together but involve a different
emphasis’: ‘Identity involves individual and collective narratives of self and other. Belonging,
on the other hand, is more about experiences of being part of the social fabric.” That is, in order
to feel a sense of belonging, it becomes necessary that the refugees should adjust themselves
to any social group as soon as attainable, even if they have to compromise with the cultural and
social relations and customs of their ‘home’. To determine identity, the refugee socially
categorises himself by compromising with the identity of others. Roy reflects in the poem ‘Dum
Pukht’, on the process of refugees realizing their belonging by accepting differences;
to know, though different, they are all
in this together, to find love in dissolution
and realize life begins with belonging, and ends there too.
(Dum Pukht, lines 10–12)
087
Threading the Intricacies of Home in Basudhara Roy’s ‘Stitching a Home’
www.the-criterion.com
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10448030
According to the poet, ‘belonging’ is a permanent consistency which continues till eternity.
However, through the phrase ‘in this together’, the poet contemplates the process of integration
as an important element for identity formation and a sense of belongingness for the refugee
where it means “the fundamental dialectical process within which social reality is constructed
through the human agency” (Mijic).
This beginning of one (kind of) life signals the end of another kind. One cannot go on living
with the monuments of the past. Even though change is tough and painful, it is inevitable in
order to continue to survive.
Walter Gallie’s theory of ECC and Basudhara Roy’s ‘Home’
Jed Meers explores the reasons why the concept of home cannot have a fixed or static
definition. Meers has concluded that despite all the empirical evidence and academic, logical
debates, the connotation of ‘home’ cannot be found durable in the social science approach.
Explaining ‘essential contestability,’ Meers describes it as a method and process that reveals
how various scholars have attempted to define the concept of ‘home’ in the most acceptable and
conceivable manner. Gallie in the explanation, classifies concepts like ‘social justice’, and
‘security’ as “essentially contested” because “there is no one use of any of them (definition and
interpretation) which can be set up as its generally accepted and therefore correct or standard
use” (Gallie). However, researchers share a unanimous perspective on the notion of ‘home’ in
Basudhara Roy’s poems. It is not that the poet herself is trying to establish the concept of ‘home’,
or the characters of the poems or the poet are not agreeing to any one idea of ‘home’ due to
some ‘identity crisis’. In fact, Basudhara Roy shapes ‘home’ in her poems as possibilities, rather
than attempting to construct it with various mutually dialectical features. That is why, for the
poet, ‘Home’ is a space that continues to explore the possibilities between ‘virtual’ and ‘concrete,’
‘permanent’ and ‘temporary,’ ‘optimistic’ and ‘pessimistic,’ and so on.
088
The Criterion: An International Journal in English Vol. 16, Issue-I, February 2025 ISSN: 0976-8165
www.the-criterion.com
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10448030
Conclusion:
Basudhara Roy has tried to shape and (re)construct ‘home’ through the medium of her poems.
Even if we momentarily consider the ‘house’ as a physical unit, Roy does not confine it to a
mere two-foot space but expands its dimensions to an undefined yet universal scale. In the
journey from the area of two feet to the universal level, Roy makes the most reasonable use of
her autobiographical elements in poems dedicated to Banaras, where the poet’s feelings and
emotions flow like the Ganges for identity and permanence. The poems on Banaras transport
the poet to past generations while striving to reconcile with the conflicts and struggles of
contemporary existence. Paradox and oxymorons are employed to unify the fundamentally
opposing elements of ‘home’ in the poems. Roy’s poems do not desire to specify a definition
for ‘home’ and bind it within the boundaries of rendition, rather her poems are the inclusion of
complexities, disagreements, and contradictions of elements and thoughts to define ‘home’,
therefore Roy ‘home’ might be considered as an ‘essentially contested’ concept’ and the ever-
evolving nature of the concept. Building on Meers’ work, Roy’s depiction of ‘home’ diverges
from conventional definitions established within various branches of social sciences,
distinguishing itself from traditionally accepted conceptualizations. This study highlights that
the notion of ‘home’ in literature can exist within both individual and collective contexts, shaped
by identity, culture, and lived experiences at personal and collective levels.
Works Cited:
Brower, Tracy, PhD. “Missing Your People: Why Belonging Is so Important and How to
Create
It.”
Forbes,
10
Jan.
2021,
www.forbes.com/sites/tracybrower/2021/01/10/missing-your-people-why-belonging-
is-so-important-and-how-to-create-it.
089
Threading the Intricacies of Home in Basudhara Roy’s ‘Stitching a Home’
www.the-criterion.com
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10448030
Gallie, W. B., editor. “Essentially contested concepts, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society.”
Proceedings
of
the
Aristotelian
Society,
1st
ed.,
vol.
56,
1956,
https://doi.org/10.1093/aristotelian/56.1.167.
Heckmann, Christina. Concepts of Home and Belonging in Postcolonial Literature Compared
in the Novels “Small Island” by Andrea Levy and “White Teeth” by Zadie Smith. 2009.
Lahiri, Gopal. “Book Review: Basudhara Roy’s ‘Stitching a Home.’” Cafe Dissensus
Everyday,
8
July
2021,
cafedissensuseveryday.com/2021/07/08/book-review-
basudhara-roys-stitching-a-home.
Lockford, Lesa. “Leaving Home.” International Review of Qualitative Research, SAGE
Publishing, May 2016, https://doi.org/10.1525/irqr.2016.9.1.4.
Mallett, Shelley. “Understanding Home: A Critical Review of the Literature.” The Sociological
Review,
vol.
52,
no.
1,
Wiley-Blackwell,
Feb.
2004,
pp.
62–89.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954x.2004.00442.x.
Mandelbaum, Maurice, and W. B. Gallie. “Philosophy and the Historical Understanding.” The
American Historical Review, vol. 70, no. 1, Oxford UP, Oct. 1964, p. 95.
https://doi.org/10.2307/1842102.
Meers, Jed. “‘Home’ as an essentially contested concept and why this matters.” Housing
Studies, vol. 38, no. 04, 2021, pp. 597–614. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2021.1893281.
Mijić, Ana. “(Re-)Construction of Identity and Belonging After Forced Migration: A
Sociology of Knowledge Approach.” Journal of Refugee Studies, vol. 35, no. 3, Oxford
UP, Jan. 2022, pp. 1107–25. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/feac020.
Roy, Basudhara. Stitching a Home. 1st ed., Red River, 2021.
090
The Criterion: An International Journal in English Vol. 16, Issue-I, February 2025 ISSN: 0976-8165
www.the-criterion.com
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10448030
Stets, Jan E., and Peter Burke. “Identity Theory and Social Identity Theory.” Social Psychology
Quarterly,
vol.
63,
no.
3,
SAGE
Publishing,
Sept.
2000,
p.
224.
https://doi.org/10.2307/2695870.
091
Eram Siddiqui & Shubham Kumar Pati