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Motiba's Tattoos: A Granddaughter's Journey Into Her Indian Family's Past Hardcover – September 5, 2000

by Mira Kamdar (Author)

7 customer reviews

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In an extension of her academic work on economic and political transition in India, Kamdar (World Policy Institute, New York U.) traces the Indian diaspora through this fascinating memoir of her tattooed grandmother's world and her own bicultural upbringing in the US West and Bombay. Includes family photos, maps, recipes, a glossary of Gujarati and Hindi terms, and endnotes. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Tracing her family's odyssey from her grandmother's 1908 birth in rural India through her own 1960s childhood in the boomtowns of the American West Coast, Mira Kamdar paints a poignant but anti-nostalgic portrait. It's true, she notes, that Motiba (Hindi for "Grandmother") spoke, moved, and lived with a calm assurance that came from her roots in an ancient culture inaccessible to her cosmopolitan, mixed-ethnicity descendants. But she had also been pulled out of school at age 12, as was customary to preserve a girl's virtue, and was fiercely proud that her granddaughters had access to the education forbidden to her. Kamdar, whose prose is as subtle as her perceptions, captures the timeless appeal of village life when describing a visit to her grandmother's birthplace, but she also vividly evokes the vibrant sophistication of Rangoon, where her family made its fortune, as well as the colonial and racial tensions that forced most Indians out of Burma after World War II. Her father came to study in America and stayed to marry the red-haired daughter of Danish American farmers. Motiba's far-flung descendants remain close, even if they now keep in touch by e-mail as much as through the lengthy visits traditional among Indian relatives. In a moving final passage, Kamdar deems this new global community consistent with her grandmother's Jain belief that "we are all sojourners... adopting endless, myriad identities." --Wendy Smith

From Library Journal

In this story of her grandmother's life, Kamdar (senior fellow, World Policy Inst., New School) brilliantly captures the experiences of the Indian diaspora in the 20th century. Motiba, Kamdar's paternal grandmother, was born in a village in Kathiawar, in western India, in 1908. During the Twenties and Thirties, Motiba's family sought their fortune in Burma. The bombing of Rangoon by the Japanese during World War II and later General Ne Win's nationalist policies forced the family, along with the rest of the Indian community, to flee to India. In the Sixties, Motiba's son emigrated to the United States as a student and eventually married a Danish American. This account of Motiba's odyssey through the 20th century is effectively blended with the wider context of world events, Motiba's Jain religion and culture, Asian Indian immigration to the United States, and the author's own experience of growing up in two cultures. Highly recommended for both public and academic libraries.DRavi Shenoy, Naperville P.L., IL
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product details

Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: PublicAffairs; 1 edition (September 6, 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9781891620584
ISBN-13: 978-1891620584
ASIN: 1891620584
Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.2 x 8.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 7 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,511,190 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #16050 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Ethnic & National
- #24344 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Specific Groups > Women
- #67905 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Memoirs

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tribal arts dealer

Well-writen, accessible history

December 19, 2012

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I read this book because a friend, with whom I am going to India soon, said it was essentially her story. The setting is Gujurat, Burma, and California, places I am going, have been interested in for a long time, or am from (respectively), so the broad outlines of this story of diaspora were already familiar. (Except, that is, for the long Indian settlement in Burma; how could I not know about that? I wondered.)

The details of this book, of this story, fascinated me; I took pages of notes on the way of life, the customs, the geography. At this point in my pre-trip preparation, having read or perused dozens of books, this one offerred me the closest, most personal look into a life I could imagine knowing myself. Except for the family dynamics: I think most Indians have a huge family support system that most, or many, Americans do not. I came away from this particular book with a deep respect for that. This is a very good, enlightening story, high recommended.

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June 7, 2013

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

a reflection of history and culture, loved reading it. would suggest it to anyone, especially those with a special interest in gujarati culture

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"Part beauty mark, part brand, a legacy of tribal values."

August 3, 2003

Format: Hardcover

In this poignant and sometimes melancholy account of the passing of an era, Mira Kamdar tells the story of her beloved grandmother Motiba, a woman from the agrarian and pastoral culture of old Gujarat, showing how the changes in Motiba's life and family during the past seventy years are also emblematic of dramatic changes in Indian culture as a whole. Herself the daughter of Motiba's son Prabhakar (Pete) and Lois Christensen, the Danish-American cowgirl he married while a student in the United States in the 1960's, Kamdar is especially sensitive to nuances of culture, and she brings her Indian family to life within the context of the country's history--her grandparents' marriage, her grandfather's adoption of the values of Mahatma Gandhi, the emigration of the family to Burma to manage their businesses there in the 1930's, the bombing of Rangoon by the Japanese during World War II, the return to Bombay, and eventually, the emigration of several of Motiba's children to the United States.
As she describes her own life, the author shifts her focus to that of the American immigrant experience. The tales of Indian history which infused her life as a child visiting in India eventually give way completely to tales of her life in the United States, as she moves with her parents and siblings throughout the west following her father's job changes. The significance of the death of Gandhi on her grandmother's life yields its place to the effects of the death of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King on her parents' and her own life. Her father's desire to have his family "fit in" becomes more important to him than teaching them the language and culture in which he grew up.
Rich, warm, humorous, and earnest, Motiba's Tattoos recreates the universal story of an immigrant family's metamorphosis from one whose primary allegiance is to another culture to one in which opportunities to assimilate are recognized and embraced. In the process of becoming American, uniquely personal values may evolve and be treasured, while retention of the old traditions must become a conscious effort. What was an integral part of their family life, historically, evolves into pleasant memories and echoes of the old way of life as new generations appear--the final result of the Indian diaspora, which began in the mid-20th century and which continues, unabated, to the present day. Mary Whipple

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Preserving and Redefining Culture + a Good Story!!

February 12, 2001

Format: Hardcover

Mira Kamdar writes about her Motiba because she was the last bastion of their family left in India. As long as Motiba was alive and living in India, India was "home". Now that she is gone, the Kamdars are forced to re-center their emotional homeland. This book was the authors attempt to maintain knowledge about her family history while simultaneouly redefining the meaning of being South Asian in the U.S.
This story is a good one for the larger South Asian immigrant community and for other ethnic groups that have immigrated in the U.S. in the last 20-30 years. Since Ms. Kamdar's father came here in the late 1940's, he was a very early Indian emigrant, but now a majority of the family is in the U.S. This will also happen to other immigrant families and it requires a redefinition by all generations of what their culture is. The positive light that Ms. Kamdar sheds on the emerging South Asian-American youth "movement" and on the younger members of her own family is refreshing given the negative image common in the South Asian-American community about Westernizing influences - that has given us the term ABCDs and such.
The difference between the current movement of people and ideas and previous emigrations of Indians abroad is well demonstrated by the Kamdar family. The Kamdars lived in Burma for a long time, but their spiritual and cultural center was always Gujarat. America has become a place which influences global culture and integrates the culture and ideas of its immigrants.

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