ABSTRACT
A notable feature of Caribbean writing in English has been the segregation of Asian literature and culture. By 1950, East Indians made up between a third and a half of the population in Trinidad and Guyana, and held both economic and political power within the community. As indentured labourers, Asians settled in separate villages, often in conditions approaching slavery, creating 'little Indias' with their own religious and cultural identity. The first major Asian West Indian writer was Sam Selvon, who, leaving the semi-rural San Fernando to go to school in the city, felt himself 'as Trinidadian as anyone could claim to be, quite at ease with a cosmopolitan attitude. Other Asian Caribbean writers besides Selvon have explored ambivalent relationships to town and country, none more sensitively than Ismith Khan in his short story 'A Day in the Country', describing a town boy's visit to his village relatives.
