Dina Mehta is an Indian writers belonging to the Parsi community. Generally, the Parsi novelists who write in English are differentiated into two categories; expatriate writers and stay-at-home writers and Dina Mehta falls into the category of stay-at-home writers. Other Parsi novelists like Firdaus Kanga, Rohinton Mistry, Farrukh Dhondy and Bapsi Sidhwa are included in the list of expatriate novelists. Life in the Indian sub-continent is reflected in the works of Parsi novelists like Dina Mehta and others. All the work of these novelists reflects the history of India and their community in different ways. It is a matter of pride for these writers to be a part of the Parsi community and therefore the work of these writers reflect their ethnic identity.
From among the Indian writers belonging to the community of Parsis, Dina Mehta is prominent. There are several short stories to her credit along with plays and a novel entitled, And Some Take a Lover. The play Brides Are not for Burning written by Dina Mehta has been immensely popular within the playgoers mainly in a cosmopolitan city that of Mumbai in the Indian state of Maharshtra. The novel, And Some Take a Lover, centers on a proposed inter-caste marriage between a sophisticated Parsi girl by the name of Miss Roshni Wadia and the simple Gandhian boy Sudhir, for whom public duty is of greater importance than any other thing in life.
Political events in India like the Quit India Movement and the Naval Ratings Mutiny constitute the background for all human relationships in the novel of Dina Mehta. Thus, politics is a vital part of the novel, And Some Take a Lover.` Typical Parsi paradoxes, identity crisis, apprehensions and political debates are brought in by Dina Mehta in her first novel, And Some Take a Lover. It is regarding the conflicting loyalties of a Parsi family which is meshed up in the political agitation of the Quit India Movement.
The Parsi writers including Dina Mehta have the clear notion of the fact that the community of the Parsis is disappearing rapidly. They thus, through their work try to preserve their ethnicity. Therefore, creative writing has become a major media for them for the purpose. It is solely due to this reason that a majority of the Parsi writers including Dina Mehta maintain their ethnic identity through their creative writing.
