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21 A Historical Study of the Origin and Evolution of Indian Fiction in English

Ananya Bhattacharjee

The origin and development of Indian Writing in English took place during the consolidation of British rule in India. Various opinions are found regarding the first text that was written in Indian English and many critics hold the view that history of Indian English Writing could be traced back to at least the early 19th century. The three most important sources that fostered the beginnings of Indian Writing in English are the educational reforms by British government, the efforts of the missionaries and the response of the upper-class Indians who accepted English literature and language in India with great enthusiasm. The Charter Act of 1813 and the 1835 English Education Act of William Bentinck gave way towards an attempt to change and improve the conditions of the servants of the East India Company. The approval of the Charter Act by the English government made England responsible for educational upliftment of the natives. English became the medium of education in India and English literature was established as a disciplinary subject in the educational institutes in India after the English Education Act was initiated by Thomas Babington Macaulay on Indian education.

The history of Indian literature in English is generally believed to be one and half centuries old. The Travels of Dean Mahomet is regarded as the first book to be written in English by an Indian in 1793. English has become the primary or secondary language as the means of communication for a large number of the people if India in present times. The reason behind such a scenario is due to the fact that the British Empire had set up its colony in India for almost

200 years. This might have been a solid ground for the origin and constant flourishing of Indian English literature. The establishment of the East India Company in India was the most influential factor towards the evolution of English language and literature in India. Dr. A.N. Pathak says,

During 1835 to 1855 English education had widely spread in the country and the number of people showing interest in the discipline went on rapidly increasing. Reading culture was in vogue and it is said that in 1834 some 5, 32,000 English books sold in India, the number of books sold in native Indian languages was quite less than this. The craze for English books was generated mostly among the Indians who were educated in English and demand came more from them than the Englishmen in India. People in urban areas started following Western manners and customs and tried to adapt themselves to the current English trends of life. The introduction of railways in India happened in 1853 and in 1854 the first telegraph line was established and a modern postal system was started. Distance gradually narrowed down and eventually there was a common medium of communication among people. Various modern European scientific techniques came to be used in India. Along with the mechanical advancement, there was a kind of renaissance in modern Indian literature which began with the initiative taken by Raja Ram Mohan Roy who acted as a linking factor between India and England. He was the master of many languages that includes Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic besides Bengali. After travelling around the country and even abroad, Raja Ram Mohan Roy was associated with two British officials called Woodford and Digby when he was working for some business in Calcutta. While he was serving in the districts under these two officials, their relation turned out to be more than being official. With Digby’s help, Ram Mohan Roy gained his mastery over the English language. He finally left the company service and returned to Calcutta in 1814. Ram Mohan Roy then started the Atmiya Sabha and devoted himself completely towards the development Calcutta society by instilling new spirits in the minds of the people there. This period is regarded as an age of awakening in Bengal in the various fields of philosophy, literature, economics, science and politics. The relation between the western influence under colonialism, the advent of print and standardised high literature and an awakening of the Indian thought has been shown in many narratives of modern India. For long Bengal has been regarded by historians as the forerunner of modernity in the subcontinent. Two prominent features of the Renaissance in Calcutta were: the formation of associations, societies and organizations; and emergence of innumerable newspapers and magazines. Another important aspect of the Bengal Renaissance movement was the formation of reform movements in both religious and socio-cultural fields. Western ideals and principles influenced this Renaissance movement in Bengal considerably. Thoughts about nationalism and independent ruling derived from the west were disseminated by the educated Bengali elite to all the masses through the various organisations, movements, and magazines.

Invigorated with western education, Bengali intellectuals are supposed to have brought a western style ‘Renaissance’ in contemporary thought and the liberal arts.

English education influenced Indian social, cultural, religious and literary traditions to a great extent and there was an awakening among the people who transformed their traditional ways and culture. Such awakening, which many call as ‘renaissance’, shaped literature totally in a different light. There was a regeneration of Indian literatures which stepped into a new venture through adapting new literary techniques, forms and genres from the west. The introduction of prose style and its further development in literature influenced Indian writers to adopt modern creative forms of writing such as poetry, novel, drama and short story. Great works have been done in Indian English literature notably in poetry, fiction, philosophy and criticism. However, the Novel as a literary form served best to provide an artistic shared experience of the relationship between society and human beings. The novel as a genre of literature was almost absent in India until the 1900s. When this creative form of art first arrived in the country along with the British, it was quite new to the Indian literature. According to Samaresh C. Sanyal, “During the late Nineteenth century it was absorbed into the Bengal literary tradition, while this century, and has witnessed a continuous output of novels in English. The strength and maturity of much Indian writing in English as recorded in the Indo-Anglian novels are beyond dispute. K.R.S. Iyengar in Indian Writing in English opines, Novels have been, and are being published in a dozen Indian languages, and also in English; and the reciprocal influence between the novels in English and the novel in the regional languages has been rather more intimate and purposive than such influence in the fields of poetry or drama. And this has, of course, been facilitated by the comparative ease with which a novel can be translated from one to another of the many languages current in the country.

Indian English Fiction is believed to have emerged during the early years of the twentieth century. Most of the early practitioners of Indian English Literature were mostly British and this is not quite surprising since India was perhaps not in a condition under British domination to produce excellence in native English language and literature. Although there were many Indian exponents who arrived some time later but the history of Indian English literature belonged solely to the elite British section of the society. The works of George Orwell, Rudyard Kipling and Jim Corbett had offered the preliminary push towards growth of Indian English Writings that was later developed by other British writers. The contribution made by Rabindranath Tagore, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, R.C. Dutt, Raja Rao, Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi among others consolidated the historical maturity of English literature in India. They represented the natives and served as the pre-Independent spokesperson in delineating the vision of life then.

The pre-independence Indian English fiction has been shaped by the contributions made by the pioneers of Bengali literature namely Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, R.C. Dutt and Rabindranath Tagore. The popular novels by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (1838-1894) include Kopalkunda, Durgeshnandini, Krishankanta’s Will, The Two Rings and Rajmohan’s Wife. Most of his novels are based on themes of social life which he delineated with realism. His historical novels representing ideas of patriotism and revolution provided an impetus to many other Indian English novelists. R.C. Dutt (1848-1909) wrote six novels in Bengali; four were historical novels called Banga Bijeta (Conqueror of Bengal), Madhavi Kanan (Bracelet of Flowers), Rajput Jiban Sandhya (Evening of Rajput Life) and Maharashtra Prabhat (Dawn of Maharashtra). The first two novels deal with the conquest of Bengal by the emperor Akbar. The third novel tells the heroic stories of Rana Pratap Singh and the fourth one depicts Shivaji’s leadership and the rise of Maratha rule. All of these four novels were published in 1879. Dutt also wrote two social novels; Samaj (1885) and Sangsar (1893). The first one is based on the theme of widow remarriage and the second one deal with the issue of inter-caste marriage. Most of his novels introduced the theme of social reformation. Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) is a major presence when one thinks of Bengal and its culture; a paramount figure in Indian English literature. A collection of poems, Gitanjali (Song Offerings), secured for him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. He excelled in various genres of art and culture and became renowned as a poet, dramatist, novelist, composer, actor, singer, editor of the Bengali literary journal (Sadhana). He wrote eight novels and four novellas among them Chaturanga, Shesher Kobita, Chare Adhyay and Noukadubi. Some of his famous novels that were rendered into English include The Wreck (1921), Gora (1923) and Home and the World (1919). Many of his works are the inspiration for filmmakers. Some hundred films have been made, out of which more than half in Bengali, are based on Tagore’s works, making him one of the most adapted writers of all time.

The period of the freedom struggle and the influence of Gandhi were responsible for the growth and development of novel in its early stage. S.Jogendra Singh’s Nasrin (1915), The Love of Kusuma (1910) by Balkrishna, Sorabji Cornelia’s Love and Life behind the Purdah and Sun Babies (1910) and Between the Twilight (1908) are some of the famous novels based on the theme of national awakening and political consciousness. The various momentous events of the Gandhian era like the boycott of the Simon Commission, the boycott of foreign goods, the Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre, Civil Disobedience Movement, Dandi March, Quit India Movement and many others forms of Gandhian movement are represented in many of the novels written during this period of the freedom struggle. Many writers of this period were influenced by the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi who voiced against the injustice done towards the under-privileged, the marginalized and the suppressed. According to Amarnath Prasad the works dealing with the theme of either Gandhi or the contemporary freedom struggle are Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable (1935), Raja Rao’s Kanthapura (1938), K.S. Venkatramani’s Kandan the Patriot (1932), D.F. Karaka’s We never Die (1944), Amir Ali’s Conflict (1947), Venu Chitali’s In Transit (1950), K.A. Abbas’s Inquailab (1955), R.K. Narayan’s Waiting for the Mahatma (1956), Nayantara Sehgal’s A Time to be Happy (1955) and K.Nagarajan’s Chronicles of Kedaram (1961).

Mulk Raj Anand (1905-2004) was one of the most prolific writers of the period who is best known as a social realist and a humanist. His vision of a humanist and a reformist is seen in his novel named Untouchable (1935) which gave him immense popularity. His other humanistic novels Coolie (1936), Two Leaves And A Bud (1937), The Village (1939), Across the Black Waters (1941), The Sword and the Sickle (1942) and The Big Heart in 1945. Anand has also written seven collections of short stories – The Child and other Stories (1934), The Barber’s Trade Union and other Stories (1944), The Tractor and the Corn Goddess and other Stories (1947), Reflections on the Golden Bed and other Stories (1953), The Power of Darkness and other stories (1959), Lajwanti and other stories (1966) and Between Tears and Laughter (1973). His other works include Indian fairy Tales (1961), The Old woman and the Cow (1960). It was followed by The Road (1963) and The Death of Hero (1964). Seven Summers, Morning Face, The Confession of A Lover and The Bubble are his autobiographical novels.

R.K. Narayan is considered as one of the pioneers of regional novel in India. His based many of his novels on the fictional place called Malgudi which he created in his imagination. Some of his autobiographical works include Swami and Friends (1935), The Bachelor of Arts (1936) and The English Teacher. The novels placed on the locale of Malgudi are The Dark Room (1938), Mr. Sampath (1952), The Financial Expert (1955), The Guide (1958), Waiting for the Mahatma, The Vendor of Sweets (1967), The Painter of Signs (1977), A Tiger for Malgudi (1983) and The World of Nagraj (1990). Narayan’s novels display his comic vision of life where his characters show a journey towards experience from innocence and they continue their journey until they are contended with wisdom. The language that Narayan adopts in his works is simple and lucid but his command over the language is remarkable. The Times Literary Supplement comments on Narayan’s style,

His humour is woven into the texture of his prose. It never erupts in a detachable epigram or joke. He did his best to inject the spirit and tempo of Tamilian idiom into English speech in a natural and unaffected manner. In spite of the raciness and simplicity Narayan’s style is rich in evocativeness and suggestiveness.

Raja Rao was the famous novelist of the Gandhian era whose works show an acute consciousness of the forces that came into existence by the Gandhian movement. His works include Kanthapura (1938), The Cow of the Barricades (1947), The Serpent and the Rope (1960), The Cat and Shakespeare (1965), Comrade Kirillov (1976) and The Policeman and The Rose (1978). He was much influenced by Gandhi’s philosophy and this is evident in his two works namely Kanthapura and The Cow of the Barricades where the Mahatma never appears physically but his indomitable presence is felt everywhere. He won the Sahitya Academy Award for The Serpent and the Rope. He was also honoured with the Padma Bhushan for his literary achievements. His works show a perfect blend of eastern and western sensibility. As far as narration is concerned he was a lot inspired by James Joyce, Joseph Conrad, Valmiki and Ved Vyas.

One of the most important post-independent writers includes Bhabani Bhattacharya who contributed many novels; most of them were driven with a social purpose. His works include So Many Hungers (1947), Music for Mohini (1952), He Who rides a Tiger (1954), A Goddess Named Gold (1960), Shadow From Ladakh (1967) and A Dream In Hawaii (1975). He has also written a number of short stories of psychological interest. He was the winner of the Sahitya Academy Award in 1967 for his novel, Shadow From Ladakh. He could easily grasp the social scenario of his times and documented them in his novels.

A renowned writer of the post-independent era, Khushwant Singh, is the recipient of the Padma Bhushan in 1974. He was the editor of Yojana (1951-1953), The Illustrated Weekly of India (1969-1979), The National Herald (1978-1979), New Delhi (1979-1980), and The Hindustan Times (1980-1983). He has written four novels Train to Pakistan (1956), I Shall Not Hear The Nightingale (1959), Delhi (1989) and The Company Of Women (2000). He has also published two collection of short stories called The Mark of Vishnu (1950) and A Bribe for the Sahib (1967). He received the Grove Press Award for Train to Pakistan. In this novel he gives a horrifying picture of the brutality and inhumanity seen during the partition of India. The novel was set in a fictional place called Maono-Majria located in the India-Pakistan border. I Shall Not Hear The Nightingale is set in the pre-independence times and deals with a Sikh family. Delhi and The Company of Women describes a world obsessed with sex and lust.

Manohar Malgonkar has been a notable writer who worked in the Indian Army during the Second World War and was eventually appointed to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. His experiences of army life were recorded in his debut novel Distant Drums (1960). His others books include Combat Of Shadows (1962), The Princes (1963), A Bend in the Ganges (1964), Spy in Amber (1971), The Devil’s Wind (1972) and Shalimar (1978). His novels have a wide range of thematic variety. They depict life of princes, experiences of military life, political upheaval during the partition of the country, the Sepoy Mutiny and many others. Besides novels he has written two collections of short stories named A Tost in Warm Wine and Bombay Beware.

Chaman Nahal is the other prominent writer of the post-independent era who has written books like My True Faces (1973), Azadi (1975), Into Another Dawn (1977), The English Queen (1979), The Crown and the Loincloth (1981) and also a collection of short stories titled The Weird Dance (1965). My True Faces deals with the theme of broken marriage; Into Another Dawn highlights the encounter between East and West, Azadi depicts the partition of India and the age of Gandhi is shown in The Crown and the Loincloth. Chaman Nahal’s skill as a gifted craftsman is seen in The English Queen which is famous for its technical excellence.

During the nineteen seventies a new class of elite Indian English authors emerged and became globally acclaimed. One of such writers is Salman Rushdie, a novelist of global fame and also one of the most controversial writers in Indian English Fiction. He is famous for creating historical fantasy, combining both magic and realism. Most of his works deal with history and politics and to mention here one can talk about Grimivs (1975) which exposes the ‘politics’ of western powers. His Midnight Children (1981) is an extravagant representation of the mingling of an individual’s life and a nation’s history. He received the Booker of Bookers for this novel which deals with the important political happenings of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Shame (1983) highlights the creation of Pakistan after 1947 and exposes the attempts towards dictatorship with the help of caricature. His Satanic Verses (1988) is regarded as a controversial text as it hurt the sentiments of the Islam followers. It has been banned in many countries including India. His other works include Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1990), In Good Faith (1990), Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism (1981-1991), East-West (1994), The Moor’s Last Sigh (1995), The Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999), Fury (2001), Step Across This Line: Collected Non- Fiction (2002) and Shalimar The Clown (2005).

Another eminent writer of this period, Amitav Ghosh has been quite successful in contributing a lot towards Indian English Literature. He worked as a print journalist in The Indian Express during the Emergency and had a first-hand experience of socio-political condition of the contemporary times. His first work is titled The Circle of Reason (1982) where he depicts an individual, who being suspected as a terrorist, flees from unknown village in Calcutta to Bombay and further journeys around the Persian Gulf to North Africa. The Shadow Lines (1986) deals with a family that lives in Kolkata and Dhaka and also unfolds their connection with a British family that lives in London. The novel procured him Sahitya Academy Award. His third novel, In An Antique Land (1993) chronicles an anthropological and historical survey coloured with ample imagination. The Calcutta Chromosome (1995) is written in the genre of science fiction and was quite popular due to the innovative attempt made in its creation. Ghosh won Arthur C. Clarke Award for it, a prestigious award given by Britain for Science.

The women novelists of Indian English literature have marked a distinctive form of writing which is especially shaped by their feminine sensibility. The early women novelists include Raj Laxmi Devi, Cornelia Sorabji, Iqbalunnisa Hussain and some others. Kamala Markandaya was a prolific writer who dealt with social and political concerns. Her works include Nectar in a Sieve (1954), A Silence of Desire (1960), A Handful of Rice (1966), The Coffer Dams (1969), Two Virgins and The Golden Honey.

Ruth P. Jhabvala is a unique writer of Indian English novels. She brings to light the follies and foibles of her characters in the most humorous way. She has written To Whom She Will (1955), The Nature of Passion (1956), Esmond in India (1958), The Householder (1960), Get Ready for Battle (1962), A Backward Place (1965), A New Dominion (1972), Heat and Dust (1975) and My Nine Lives: Chapters on a Possible Past (2004). She has also written several collections of short stories like An Experience of India (1967), Like Bird, Like Fishes (1963) and A Stronger Climate (1963).

Nayantara Sehgal is one of the other remarkable novelists of the times. She mostly focuses her attention towards the political situation and its influence upon human lives. She also highlights the degeneration of human values and the rampant corruption of political upheaval in her novel A Time To Be Happy (1957). She is also the author of The Time of Morning (1965), Storm in Chandigarh (1969), The Day in Shadow (1971), A New Situation in New Delhi (1977) and Rich Like Us (1985).

Anita Desai, in her novels, mostly probes into the psychological lives of her characters. Trauma of the past, mental anguish, struggle with one’s own self are some of the aspects she is concerned with in her novels. She has written Cry, the Peacock (1963), Voices in the City (1963), Bye-Bye Blackbird (1971), Where Shall We Go This Summer (1975), Fire on the Mountain (1977), Clear Light of Day (1980), The Village by the Sea (1982) and The Zigzag way (2004).

Shashi Deshpande is one of the most celebrated women novelists. Her novel The Dark Holds No Terror (1980) depicts the struggle of a woman named Sarita who tries to break the strictures of society and rebels against familial authority. Her other novel Roots and Shadows (1983) received the Thirumati Rangmal Award. That Long Silence (1988) deals with the search for one’s identity and it won The Sahitya Academy Award. Her other novels include The Binding Vine (1992), The Match Of Time (1999), Small Remedies (2000) and Moving On (2004).

Arundhati Roy is famous for her novel, The God Of Small Things which is about a family living in Ayemenem, a town in the state of Kerala during post-independence times. The novel received good reviews from major publications such as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Toronto Star. Her other works include a television serial called The Banyan Tree and a documentary DAM/AGE: A Film With Arundhati Roy (2002). She also wrote a book named We Are One: A Celebration of the Tribal Peoples published in 2009. Besides these she contributed several essays on contemporary politics and culture. She has been working for political activism since a long time and is a strong opponent of India’s rapid industrial development that includes Sardar Sarovar Project and India’s nuclear weapon policies which found expression in The End Of Imagination which she wrote in 1998.

Shobha De mostly deals with the theme of marginalisation of women in India and voices the idea of women empowerment through her novels. She shows her concern towards women who struggle to renounce patriarchal hegemony, domestic life and marital relationship to forge an identity for them. She is the author of Socialite Evenings (1989), Starry Nights (1991), Sisters (1992), Strange Obsession (1992), Sultry Boys (1994) and Snapshots (1995).

In the recent times Indian English Fiction has developed a new trend in writing both in its theme and the technique. A new group of writers belonging to the elite class has taken the forefront with their innovative and challenging approach towards creative writing. Novelists such as Pankaj Misra, Chetan Bhagat, Jhumpa Lihiri, Dominique Lepierre, William Dalrymple have received international acclaim. The evolution of disciplines in critical literary studies such as feminist, diasporic, postmodern, postcolonial, dalit literature have given a new outlook and perspective of studying Indian English Fiction writing.

Story-board

History of the Origin and Evolution of Indian Fiction in English

The Beginnings

• The origin and development of Indian Writing in English took place during the consolidation of British rule in India.
• Various opinions are found regarding the first text that was written in Indian English and many critics hold the view that history of Indian English Writing could be traced back to at least the early 19th century.
• One most important source that fostered the beginnings of Indian Writing in English is the educational reforms by British government.
• Another is the effort of the missionaries and the response of the upper-class Indians who accepted English literature and language in India with great enthusiasm.
• The history of Indian literature in English is generally believed to be one and half centuries old.
• The Travels of Dean Mahomet is regarded as the first book to be written in English by an Indian in 1793.
• The novel as a genre of literature was almost absent in India until the 1900s.

Writers of the pre-Independence era

• The pre-independence Indian English fiction has been shaped by the contributions made by the pioneers of Bengali literature namely Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, R.C. Dutt and Rabindranath Tagore.

The Independence Phase

• The period of the freedom struggle and the influence of Gandhi were responsible for the growth and development of novel in its early stage.
• S.Jogendra Singh’s Nasrin (1915), The Love of Kusuma (1910) by Balkrishna, Sorabji Cornelia’s Love and Life behind the Purdah and Sun Babies (1910) and Between the Twilight (1908) are some of the famous novels based on the theme of national awakening and political consciousness.
• Some other memorable works dealing with the theme of freedom struggle are Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable (1935), Raja Rao’s Kanthapura (1938), K.S. Venkatramani’s Kandan the Patriot (1932), K.A. Abbas’s Inquailab (1955), R.K. Narayan’s Waiting for the Mahatma (1956), Nayantara Sehgal’s A Time to be Happy (1955) and K.Nagarajan’s Chronicles of Kedaram (1961).

The post-Independence Period

• Bhabani Bhattacharya, Khushwant Singh, Manohar Malgonkar, Chaman Nahal, Amitav Ghosh, Salman Rushdie and many other popular writers of the post-Independence era dealt with the idea of brutality and inhumanity seen during the partition of India.
• Many novelists highlighted the fragmentary nature of the modern world and the crisis of identity.

The Women Novelists

• Some of the early women novelists include Raj Laxmi Devi, Cornelia Sorabji, Iqbalunnisa Hussain and many others.
• The later novelists who gained immense popularity are namely Kamala Markandaya, Ruth P. Jhabvala, Nayantara Sehgal, Anita Desai, Shashi Deshpande, Arundhati Roy, Shobha De and some others.

The Contemporary Novelists

• Novelists such as Pankaj Misra, Chetan Bhagat, Jhumpa Lihiri, Dominique Lepierre, William Dalrymple have received international acclaim in present times.
• The evolution of disciplines in critical literary studies such as feminist, diasporic, postmodern, postcolonial, dalit literature have given a new outlook and perspective of studying Indian English Fiction writing.
• Iyengar, K. R. Srinivasa, Indian Writing In English, Indiana University: Sterling Publishers Pvt.Ltd, 2012
• McCutchion, David, Indian Writing in English, Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1969
• Naik, M.K., A History of Indian English Literature, the University of Michigan: Sahitya Akademi Publications, 1982
• Piciucco, Pier Paolo (ed.), A Companion to Indian Fiction in English, New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers, 2004
• Ramamurti, K.S., Rise of the Indian Novel in English, Pennsylvania State University: Oriental University Press, 1987
• Singh, Ram Sewak and Singh, Charu Sheel, Spectrum History of Indian Literature in English, New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Dist, 1997
• https://books.google.co.in/books?isbn=8126903104
• www.jstor.org/stable/4087326

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View from here – english in india: the rise of dalit and ne literature.

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Nandana Dutta, View from Here – English in India: The Rise of Dalit and NE Literature, English: Journal of the English Association , Volume 67, Issue 258, Autumn 2018, Pages 201–208, https://doi.org/10.1093/english/efy025

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This article argues that transactions between the English text and local conditions are an important aspect of developments in English in India determining interpretations in teaching and research. Texts emerging from contemporary conditions feature in courses, with one of the most significant of these transactions resulting in the incorporation of Dalit and minority literatures into English Studies. Perceived as an instrument of empowerment by Indians almost from the time it was introduced, English has never quite lost this aspect of its role – and even as the discipline has taken note of global expansions in the field through theory and the incorporation of new areas, it has gradually acquired a strong national/regional flavour through the incorporation of texts that have emerged out of struggles for visibility and voice by marginal groups. The rise of Dalit and Northeast Indian English literature and their incorporation into English syllabi are two examples of this trend.

While trying to capture a sense of the current status of the discipline of English as it is taught at college and university level in India, and brought up short by the impossible task of pulling together the many ways in which the discipline exists here, I realized that perhaps the only common thread that runs through its multiple practices is the growing interest in Dalit writing from all over the country and writings (mostly in English) from the north eastern states of India (or NE as it is commonly known). The bird’s eye view would reveal literatures from these two sites – the Dalit and the NE – making the most significant impact on the discipline by their hospitality to current developments in theory, their strong ideological moorings in otherness of caste and tribe respectively, and, perhaps most importantly, their accessibility as areas of study.

‘English in India’ as a meta-issue has been the subject of study ever since Gauri Viswanathan’s Masks of Conquest demonstrated how English Literature was used by the British as a tool of subject construction and governance. While the goals and influence of English (language and literary study) changed with Independence in 1947, interest in what can be achieved through it has continued to grow and change. A Google search would show many essays and books that describe and analyse ‘English in India’ with varying degrees of success and most often with an emphasis on the language. English is taught in schools across the country, functions as the language of communication among the educated, is the language of higher education, and is often used as an official language in administration and in the courts. Simultaneously, Indian Writing in English (IWE) has become an exciting new addition to the global English Literature corpus. And English continues to be part of subject construction and empowerment exercises. But what is the nature of the discipline in contemporary India? An overview would show the presence of English in the above-mentioned ways as a significant context for developments in the discipline, while transactions between the English text and local conditions appear to affect interpretations in teaching and research. Texts emerging from contemporary conditions feature in courses, with one of the most significant of these transactions resulting in the incorporation of Dalit and minority literatures into English Studies. Perceived as an instrument of empowerment by Indians almost from the time it was introduced, English has never quite lost this aspect of its role – and even as the discipline has taken note of global expansions in the field through theory and the incorporation of new areas, it has gradually acquired a strong national/regional flavour that has helped turn the very real disadvantages of practising the discipline outside of its primary Anglo-American sites of production into a source of strength. And since higher education is administered from the University Grants Commission (UGC) through a combination of suggestion and direction, model curricula periodically issued by it are often a barometer of change with Dalit, regional, minority, Indian English, and classical literature being highlighted in such advisories at different times.

Over the last seven or eight decades the primarily British-English syllabus inherited from colonial education has expanded to include literatures in English from other parts of the world and India, and has come to terms with offering a percentage of translated texts from European and Latin American literatures and from some of the major Indian literary traditions. Today it is a combination of a historically inherited core British literature component supplemented in different universities with American, African, Australian, Canadian, South Asian, and Caribbean texts and elective courses (these national literatures do not always feature as full courses but individual texts often appear in courses on Women’s Writing, literature and environment, post-humanism and literature, graphic novels, etc.). Besides, newer texts and areas emerging in the wake of India’s national and regional politics, social concerns, and discourses about public events have gradually begun to appear.

Such new texts from socio-economic and political conditions and events stemming from churning amongst the many racial, class, and caste components in India’s tradition-bound social fabric have helped to evolve reading strategies that are directed at critiquing the domains from which they have emerged even as they have contributed to the formation of new critical terminologies and themes. The UGC’s curricular suggestions have facilitated incorporation of region and language specific content. So the English syllabus at a university in the north east of India would have English and translated texts from Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, and Tripura (available from reputed publishers at local booksellers). A university in West Bengal might have courses on Bengali Dalit writing (both Jadavpur University and West Bengal State University have individual faculty offering such courses). A central university (like Hyderabad, Delhi, or Jawaharlal Nehru University [JNU]) with a different kind of ethnic composition and cultural politics might have courses on both Dalit and writing from the NE states on offer or encourage research in these areas. This scene, with obvious regional modifications, is repeated in universities all over the country.

Many dimensions of English are apparent in various parts of the country (regional variations emerging from racial, ethnic, linguistic and cultural conditions), and English is made to bear the weight of different expectations. Debates over whether students should study Indian writing in English or continue to read the British and American writers were common at one time and, we continue to argue whether Shakespeare (and other early writers) should be taught in general courses in English and whether science students in their compulsory English paper should read literary classics or science writings, or should be prescribed Indian short stories and poems in original English or in English translation from Indian languages. Many of these concerns come out of an interpretation/understanding of contemporary India, especially about disparities in education and wealth, about social class, caste and gender discriminations, and the need to provide education that will help ameliorate such problems.

The ‘politics of English literature as a colonial phenomenon’ has long been displaced as a way of thinking about the discipline and the language even as newer strategic uses have been regularly reinvented. That earlier view is usually taken for granted as part of the history of English in India but to think of current practice is to acknowledge how deeply immersed English has become in the Indian everyday, which includes the socio-political changes going on in post-Independence India, the tone and rhetoric of public discourse, and everyday events that catch news headlines – acts of corruption, violence, multi-ethnic Indian classrooms, gender and ethnic discrimination – all of which quickens English language usage and sharpens interpretation of literary representation. In fact, one eminent English teacher narrates his own experience of teaching Hemingway’s ‘Hills like White Elephants’ through processes of translation in a multi-ethnic classroom and discovers what students might learn: ‘readers of “Hills” in languages other than English open up other worlds where their selves are relocated and discovered. No one is perfectly at home or elsewhere in reading such stories as “Hills,” a discovery only a translation, however imperfect, can teach them’. 1 Chandran’s essay, one of many others that he has written on the experience of teaching English in India, suggests that young readers bring to the classroom and to the specific texts cultural experiences drawn from the reality of their lives in contemporary India that determine how they are likely to respond to the English text.

The complex reception and strategic hospitality accorded to the English text are the result of the urgency in students and researchers to make their discipline more responsive and relevant. This urgency has gradually begun to appear as the profile of the English classroom, determined by a combination of merit and social welfare schemes of reservation (the reservation of seats for constitutionally defined disadvantaged groups at all levels and going up to recruitment of faculty), has become more and more complex, and has begun to influence text selection and modes of classroom practice. The ideal of social upliftment through English is not new. 2 It has been a part of the expectations attendant upon knowledge of the English language and has been one of the tacit goals of English literary study at the university during its long history in India. But the growing self-consciousness, protests, and demands for visibility and justice on the part of India’s variously disadvantaged communities have ensured a path-breaking shift in Indian society and English has frequently been the engine driving this movement even as it has itself felt the impact of the upheaval.

For the discipline the shift was initially visible in MPhil and PhD research and in projects funded by the UGC 3 and has been the result of a number of negative and positive factors. The negatives include the impossibly large numbers coming into higher education institutions to study for BA and MA degrees and often going onto research degrees (with that nth PhD dissertation based on a superficial reading of a chosen author); uncertain competence in core English literature; and problems of access to primary materials on British and other English language authors. Among the positives are the alternative and local language histories of the canonical English text (as it came to be translated and circulated in one or other of the many literary cultures); theoretical engagement in the global culture of the discipline with issues of trauma, violence, otherness, and the body facilitating the incorporation of texts from Dalit and tribal experience and from Indian experiences of Partition, the Emergency, the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, etc.; and contemporary events that have made it impossible to insulate the English text from its moment of reception (for example, frequent events of rape and honour killings occurring in the still heavily feudal societies in many parts of India have often served as prisms to refract the representation of interpersonal violence in the English text). Literatures representing and making visible these experiences are also invested with the goal of empowerment and social development that runs through Indian higher education policy, even as they speak to ideological associations (and identity issues) of communities. It is possible to identify two kinds of responses in this situation – one in the inclusion of actual new texts and fields of study drawn from India’s current socio-political and economic conditions/crises; and a second in readings of the canonical English text alongside radical new texts (the English text now seems closer even as it allows the event to be seen more sharply and critically).

So, from being a tool in British colonial hands it has now metamorphosed into a strategic tool in the hands of Indian students and researchers of the discipline. It has been progressively Indianized – through the admission of new texts from hitherto ignored and invisible areas of culture, through comparative work, and in a turn to Indian aesthetics and classic Indian texts. The most recent (2015) UGC model curriculum for the BA course starts off with a paper on Indian Classical Literature that includes Kalidasa’s Shakuntala, Sudraka’s Mrcchakatika, ‘The Book of Banci’ from Adigal’s Cilappatikaram: The Tale of an Anklet and several sections from the Mahabharata while among suggested readings is Bharata’s Natyashastra – all of which would earlier only have been referred to in passing in the classroom, if at all. 4

The interest in politically charged work has accompanied the protest movement of the Dalit Panthers and has created serious readership for Dalit autobiographies and poetry and fiction on Dalit experience. Autobiographical novels like Karukku by Bama and Ittibritte Chandal Jibon by Manoranjan Byapari, autobiographies by Baby Kamble ( Jina Amucha ) and Daya Pawar ( Baluta ), and the powerful poetry of Namdeo Dhasal (to name a random handful of representative Dalit texts in Tamil, Marathi, and Bangla, all available in English translation) now feature in syllabi across the country. The emergence of Dalit consciousness is a pan-Indian phenomenon and its powerful discourse of otherness has led to discovery of similar literatures in regions earlier thought to be devoid of Dalit groups. 5

Dalit literature finding a place in English curricula has been the result of much of this literature being either written in English or being quickly translated into English. The role of Katha and Sahitya Akademi in supporting translations from the literary traditions of other languages, the rise of new publishers and local presses, as well as the changed policy on translations of big publishing houses like OUP and Penguin, has been largely responsible for the availability of this literature. Publishing houses that have begun to specialize in Dalit writing are identified by Jaya Bhattacharji Rose as Macmillan India ( Karukku was brought out by them), Orient Longman/OBS, OUP India, Zubaan, Navayana, Adivaani, Speaking Tiger, and Penguin Random House. 6 Besides these there are smaller presses throughout India publishing minority and Dalit literature. The case of literature in English from the ‘North East’ is similar, with visibility and circulation being achieved because of the interest shown by the same publishers.

Recently, I was at a workshop on Translation organized by the English Department of West Bengal State University (WBSC). The focus was on translations of Bangla Dalit writings. The overall ambience of the workshop was distinctly Bengali with workshop participants (comprising of translators who were expected to use the three days of the workshop to fine tune their translations through interactions with the writers present and with one another) and invited Resource Persons (mainly senior academics who were expected to use their own experience of translation to comment on the problems brought up by the participant-translators and set them against current positions in the field of translation studies) being asked to use English, Bangla, and Hindi in their presentations and interventions. Several of the writers whose works had been or were being translated were present along with their translators, even as the workshop identified new writings under this category. Since there was no Dalit literature in my region (comprised of the eight states of India’s northeast), the example I gave was of a similar translation context. This was a project that the English Department of my university had carried out in 2000–2001 which involved the collection of folk tales from several tribal languages of Assam and their translation into English. The project was titled ‘Representation of Women in the Folk Narratives of Assam’ and the process of collection from oral sources and already existing published versions in Assamese translation revealed two interesting features: one was a desire for visibility on the part of communities/groups marginalized by a dominant literary culture – and hence the willingness to be translated into English; the second was the mediatory role played by departments of English in this politics of visibility, a role that has elements of social responsibility, genuine desire to make a rich vernacular literature available to a larger readership, and perhaps most crucially the need to reinvent or at least reenergize the discipline and redefine the place of the Indian academic within this discipline.

The other significant surge of interest has been in literature produced in the eight states of the region known collectively as ‘the North East’ (much of it in English, though literature in the Assamese language has a long history and powerful presence). This literature has successfully articulated the region’s historical marginalization, its cultural and ethnic distinctiveness, its contemporary politics of identity, and accompanying insurgencies and violence, even as the conditions that produced this literature have provided insight into issues of power and powerlessness, and of processes of othering in social and political sites. The experience of alienation, misrepresentation, and political neglect of the NE has been long drawn out and persistent and its perceived and real marginalization has been frequently represented in its literature; and since much of it has been in English or is available in English translation this literature has entered syllabuses without too much resistance.

These two areas of experience have led to hitherto unimaginable representations of cruelties; of bodily oppression and mental agonies; of disgust, shame and revulsion, strong resistance, and critiques of historical persecution. The struggle to find voice and expression has helped refurbish the critical apparatus of writers and critics. Questions of space, body, and otherness have become the stuff of critical language, and students and teachers of English literature have been quick to make the connection between English texts and Dalit and NE literature and allow the insights gained to influence approaches to otherness, and social oppression in the English text.

An example of the kind of thing that happens in the contemporary classroom in India should give a sense of these shifts. The classroom at my university has students coming from different ethnic groups, from rural and urban backgrounds, often with little or no previous exposure to English literature before they enter the BA programme. The challenge is to find a point where we can converse and use the familiar to introduce the strange. The entry point for them is often life in the region, and their access to the discourse about the region made up of identity, neglect, invisibility, and marginalization has both colonial and contemporary resonances. When faced with a text like The Merchant of Venice (one of the most popular and featuring frequently in syllabi), the student’s sympathy for Shylock is immediate. While they enjoy the twists and turns of the plot and readily mouth critical platitudes derived usually these days from online notes, their response to Shylock is experiential and therefore more engaged. With a little steering into the social dynamics of the play they quickly see the way the majority Christian community treats the minority Jewish community – drawing on their own sensitivity to the treatment NE students receive when they go to study or work in metropolises like Delhi and face discrimination and violence from landlords and neighbours or randomly on streets because of different food habits, dress, and supposedly bohemian lifestyles.

Contextual elements as part of literary-critical concerns decide themes of research, setting up evaluative schema that address and critique existing frames for reading that have their origin in other contexts (for example, Partition violence or Indian representations of violence and trauma might help to critique migration writing as well as the literature of the Holocaust or 9/11). The need to speak to the specific classroom – and this varies across India – the importance of taking note of current events and social concerns and registering these as relevant to the English classroom, are also part of keeping the discipline relevant.

While it is impossible to generalize, the blend of canonical and local elements found in the university English classroom today points to a dual urge at work in the way English is developing – one that looks both outward and inward. This is the empowerment that the discipline’s practitioners have perhaps been seeking ever since it was introduced and it looks forward to what might very well be an enabling indigenous strand in English Studies in India alongside developments in keeping with its global status.

K. Narayana Chandran, ‘Being Elsewhere: “Hills Like White Elephants,” Translation, and an Indian Classroom’, Pedagogy, 16.3 (2016), 381–92 (p. 391).

Gyanendra Pandey writes of the Dalit relationship to English in ‘Dreaming in English: Challenges of Nationhood and Democracy’, Economic and Political Weekly , LI.16 (2016), 56–62.

See the present author’s essay on ‘The Politics of English in India’, Australian Literary Studies , 28.1–2 (2013), 84–97.

See < https://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/5430486_B.A.-Hons-English.pdf > [accessed 20 March 2018].

A brief overview of Dalit history and marginalization may be had at Palak Mathur and Jessica Singh, ‘Minorities in India: Dalits’ < https://palakmathur.wordpress.com > [accessed 14 February 2018, 11:30].

Jaya Bhattacharji Rose, ‘Dalit Literature in English’ (4 May 2016) < www.jayabhattacharjirose.com > [accessed 14 February 2018, 11:23].

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Brief History of Indian Writing in English

Table of Contents

Indian English Literature is a realistic scenario that endeavour to manifest the evergreen gems of Indian Writing in English. From being a singular and exceptional, wide spread of native geniuses, Indian Writing has emerged as a new formation of Indian culture and voice in which India counters regularly. Indian Writers – poets, novelists, essayists, and dramatists turned out to make momentous and considerable contributions to world literature since before the independence of our nation.  The past few years have been observed an immense flourishing and progress of Indian English Writing through worldwide.

Indian English Literature has attained an independent status in the area of world Literature. Wide ranges of themes are distribute within Indian Writing in English. While this literature continues to contemplate Indian culture, tradition, social and moral values and even Indian history that portrays the lifestyle and culture of Indians. Present Indian English fiction has been trying to give expression to the Indian experience of the modern circumstances.

Brief History of Indian Writing in English – Quiz PDF Download 

History of Indian Writing in English – Download PDF 

History of Indian Writing in English

Indian Writing in English is basically started during the British rule in India .Indian writing in English began with the emergence of East India Company in India. As East India Company spread its wing through southern peninsula, English language started to get newer pockets of influence. But it was still time for the first English book to capitalize. Late 17th century saw the coming of printing press in India but the publication were largely confined to either printing Bible or government decrees. Then came newspapers. It was in 1779 that the first English Newspaper named Hickey’s Bengal Gazette was published in India. The breakthrough in Indian English literature came in 1793 A.D. when a person by the name of Sake Dean Mahomet published a book in London titled Travels of Dean Mahomet. This was essentially Mahomet’s travel narrative that can be put somewhere between a Non-Fiction and a Travelogue.  It is relatively not so old, as it is one and half centuries old.

Early Indian writers used English unmixed by Indian words to demise an expression which was basically Indian. Apart from the freedom struggle that awakened many of the Indians who fought for the freedom, the writers at that time were able to transmit their point of view, which ultimately helped to motivate and guide the crowds. The happiness of accomplishing the magnificent victory against the British rulers was suddenly spoiled by the shocking and traumatic partition of 1947. The horrors, tragic consequences and partition like the large scale migration, adventurous looting and merciless massacres were portrayed by the writers in their works which captured the interest, and imagination of the reader, the Indian English novels began to prove its mark towards the global dignified storyline. English novels began to prove its mark towards the global dignified storyline.

The first connection that we should be looking at is the introduction of the English language as a medium of instruction in India and the introduction of English literature as a subject in the Universities. Earlier Indians have to meet two preconditions before writing a poetry in English. First, the English language had to be sufficiently Indianized to be able to express the reality of the Indian condition. Secondly, Indians had to be sufficiently Anglicized to use the English language to express themselves. English was, as a result, introduced in educational institutions, Courts and offices thus displacing the traditional use of Arabic and Sanskrit as a mode of communication and documentation. In 1835 Lord William Bentinck announced that the government would “favour English Language alone” therefore would move towards “a knowledge of English literature and Science through the medium of English language alone.”

The period between 1850 and 1900 is the mimetic phase when the Indian poets were romantic poets in the Indian garb or in George Bottomley’s words “Matthew Arnold in a saree” or as some slanderingly observes “Shakuntala in a mini-skirt”. The period from 1900 to 1947 is the absorbtive period when the Indian poets still romantic tried to absorb the romanticism of the early nineteenth century. British poets and the “new” romantics of the decadent period for expressing the consciousness of the Indian renaissance between nationalism and political changes which ultimately led to the achievement of political freedom in 1947.

The second generation poets were, still romantic in spirit were Sarojini Naidu, Tagore, Aurobindo Ghose and Harindranth Chattopadhyaya. The poetic output of these poets was fecund in nature. Romanticism of these Indian poets was distressed  with nationalism, spirituality and mysticism. It was therefore different from English romanticism,  Indian romanticism widened the poet’s vision. While Aurbindo’s was the search for the Divine in Man and Tagore’s was the hunt for the Beautiful in Man and Nature. Both were philosophic poets. Sarojini Naidu’s romantic impulse highlighted the beauty and richness of traditional Indian life and culture.

The beginning of the 20 th century saw a gradual growth of the novel form in English in India. Romesh Chandra Dutt was an important figure writing at that time. However one name that stands apart from this body is that of Rabindranath Tagore. It would be inapt to appropriate him as a writer of English because he wrote with equal felicity and grace in Bengali. As a matter of fact he was not known as a writer alone but as an equally accomplished poet, playwright and painter.

It was in late seventies that a new breed of Convent, boarding school educated and elite class of novelists and writers started to work on English literature. The likes of Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Amitabh Ghosh and Dominique Lepierre  set the literature world on fire. Rushdie’s Midnight Children won Booker in 1981 and send the message loud and clear that Indians are here to stay. Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai repeated the feat when they won Man Booker in the year 1997 and 2006 respectively. In the mean time, a new crop of authors such as Pankaj Misra, Chetan Bhagat, Jhumpa Lahiri, William Dalrymple, Hari Kunzuru have arrived on the international scene and their writings are being appreciated round the globe. A special mention to Jhumpa Lahiri and her work; the inspiration of her work stems from the emotional crisis generated from cultural Diaspora and identity crisis that Indians suffer from when they live outside the boundaries of their own culture and geographical setting.

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Importance of English Literature in India

English as a global  language has highly influenced the literature of India. The history of Indian Writing in English began with the  The Indian Writing in English can be compared to an old stinging root which has regrowned  its branches in the modern generation. The new saplings are thriving with green leaves and twigs to be enjoyed by all not only in the Indian landmass , but across the globe as well.

Many English newspapers like The Bengal Gazette, The Bombay Herald, The Madras Courier came to gratify the needs of the infuriated youth during the freedom struggle. These English newspapers linked the entire nation with a common feeling of national spirit and by English education in India was initiated with the sole purpose of modifying British interests to inspire Indians with the western thoughts which sooner or later were meant to fortify foreign supremacy. Lord Maculay, British historian and politician strongly believed in anglicizing the education system in India. Macaulay’s Minute on Indian Education published in 1835 is considered as an important account in this regard.  His ideas were based on an assumption of the intrinsic authority of British ethnicity, a vital remark which is documented in Macaulay’s  Minute: bonded them together with a common agenda of nation’s freedom.

  Role of Woman Authors in English Literature

Women novelists have played a crucial and momentous role in enhancing the quality and quantity of the Indian English Fiction. They have further added the woman’s perspective and feministic dimensions to the novels. These rich contributions have widened the spectrum of issues intended in the novel. Earlier because of some patriarchal assumptions Indian women authors has always been underrated. Indian societies gave more priorities to male authors. In those days, women used to write about a women’s perception and experiences within the domestic sphere. As male authors are used to deal with heavy subjects, that their work would get more priority and acceptance in the society. These assumptions led to the declaration of women writing in eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century, more and more women actively participated in India’s revolutionary movement against the British rule. It again led to the women’s literature. At that time, their write – ups mainly concentrated on the country’s freedom struggle. Over the years, the world of feminist ideologies began to influence the English literature of India.

The contributions by women writers cannot go unnoticed. In fact the works by women writers constitute a major segment of the contemporary Indian writing in English. Today women are seen establishing their identity in almost all walks of life and they have heralded a new consciousness in the realm of literature too.

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Indian writing in English has commended magnanimous respect in both home and abroad, is now in its full wave. It has shaped out a new track, a new vision – a vision that is replete with an unanswering faith and hope, myths and traditions, customs and rights etc. If we dive deep into the works of the Indian stouts of English fictions, it is revealed that their works are not an imitation of English literary pattern but highly original and intensely Indian in both theme and spirit. They have given a new shape and color to English literature in the same way as the Australians and Americans have evolved their own literature in their respective countries.

Must Read Gems of Indian English Literature

• The Story Of My Experiments With The Truth – Mahatma Gandhi
• Gitanjali – Ranindranath Tagore
• The Guide – R.K Narayan
• A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
• Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
• A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
• God of Small Things – Arundathi Roy
• The Glass Palace – Amitav Ghosh
• The Inheritance of Loss – Kiran Desai
• The Private Life of an Indian Prince – Mulk Raj Anand
• Rich Like Us –  Nayantara Sahgal
• The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian – Nirad C . Choudhuri

Brief History of Indian Writing in English – Quiz!

• Q: Who is considered the father of Indian English literature? A: Raja Rammohan Roy is often referred to as the father of Indian English literature.
• Q: Which was the first novel written by an Indian in English?  A: The first novel written by an Indian in English is “Rajmohan’s Wife” by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.
• Q: Who wrote the famous Indian English novel “Untouchable”?  A: “Untouchable” was written by Mulk Raj Anand.
• Q: Which Indian author won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913?  A: Rabindranath Tagore became the first Indian and non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• Q: Who wrote the renowned historical novel “The Great Indian Novel”?  A: “The Great Indian Novel” was written by Shashi Tharoor.
• Q: Who authored the book “Midnight’s Children,” which won the Booker Prize in 1981?  A: “Midnight’s Children” was written by Salman Rushdie.
• Q: Who is considered the pioneer of Indian English poetry? A: Henry Louis Vivian Derozio is regarded as the pioneer of Indian English poetry.
• Q: Which famous Indian poet wrote the collection “Gitanjali”?  A: “Gitanjali” was written by Rabindranath Tagore.
• Q: Who wrote the novel “A Suitable Boy” set in post-independence India?  A: Vikram Seth is the author of “A Suitable Boy.”
• Q: Which Indian English poet penned the poem “An Atlas of the Difficult World”?  A: Adrienne Rich, an American poet, wrote “An Atlas of the Difficult World,” not an Indian poet.
• Q: Who wrote the book “Train to Pakistan”?  A: “Train to Pakistan” was written by Khushwant Singh.
• Q: Which Indian author’s works include “The Shadow Lines” and “The Glass Palace”?  A: Amitav Ghosh is the author of “The Shadow Lines” and “The Glass Palace.”
• Q: Who wrote the novel “English, August”?  A: “English, August” was written by Upamanyu Chatterjee.
• Q: Which Indian author wrote the novel “The God of Small Things”?  A: “The God of Small Things” was written by Arundhati Roy.
• Q: Who is the author of the book “A Passage to England”?  A: Nirad C. Chaudhuri is the author of “A Passage to England.”
• Q: Who wrote the novel “Fasting, Feasting”?  A: “Fasting, Feasting” was written by Anita Desai.
• Q: Who authored the novel “The Inheritance of Loss”?  A: “The Inheritance of Loss” was written by Kiran Desai.
• Q: Which Indian writer’s work includes the novel “The White Tiger”?  A: “The White Tiger” was written by Aravind Adiga.
• Q: Who wrote the famous play “Tughlaq”?  A: “Tughlaq” was written by Girish Karnad.
• Q: Which Indian author wrote the novel “The Palace of Illusions”?  A: “The Palace of Illusions” was written by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.

India became independent from British rulers in 1947, and the English language was supposed to be weed out by 1965. However, today English and Hindi are the official languages. With its distinct flavor, Indian English writings are there to stay. With the stream of English speaking population, the future looks anything but disolate.

Zubaida Naheeda

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Indianness in Indian English Literature – Definition, Concept & Examples

Indian English literature, though it took off late compared to the original English literature that emerged in England with the very incarnation of English as a popular language, has given many reasons to us to celebrate our contribution to the world literature. Indians began learning the English language mainly to distinguish themselves as sophisticated and elite among ‘Indians’ who did not speak or understand English. (Unfortunately, the same stands as the sad truth even today, to a large extent.) However, once Indians began to master the language of their rulers, things changed. The literature that Indians produced in English attracted not only the British audience but also gave Indians a valid reason to learn this foreign language. And that’s how we have come so far. Indian English literature, since its origins, has reached several miles now. Literary critics in India have begun looking for Indianness in Indian English Poetry and literature in various genres. From look East to experience East, the journey has resulted in several wonderful discoveries. 

What is Indianness? What is Indianness in Indian English Literature? 

The answer to what is Indianness is nearly impossible. What not is Indianness? Today, as the world fights the worst pandemic in decades in the form of Coronavirus, coded COVID-19, the world is following the Indian way of greeting and also conforming to Yoga and name chantings. What they are doing today, we did ages ago. What the world is learning today, we taught many hundred centuries ago. So, answer to the question of Indianness is impossible. However, we can come directly to the major concern that we deal with. Indianness in Indian English Literature is something that we can try to trace and summaries. 

This question is immense. No simple answer can satisfy the person who raises this question. At the same time, one has to be careful as well. Any complex answer can easily complicate the idea called Indianness. Indianness is not only about national identity. It’s not only about traditions, culture, and our wonderful civilisation. It’s not about the way we live and the way we conduct ourselves. It’s not only about the best of the religions as well. So, what is Indianness? And what is that thing when we are specific to a certain context – Indianness in Indian English literature? 

Indianness is an amalgam of all the things mentioned above. It’s an idea that strikes one’s mind and compels the emotional outburst in a person to relate to the elements involved in a particular event; in this case, it’s literary work. While Indianness, as an Idea, can be a perfect mixture of all the things mentioned above, anything can constitute the simple idea of Indianness until it connects the reader’s mind with India – India that is a thought, not merely a nation. M. K. Naik offers a beautiful example of two Indian brothers, Aurobindo and Manmohan Ghosh, who went to England to become pucka Englishmen. They both returned home after their education. However, one turned to Indianness and produced Savitri while another kept looking for the disconnect between himself and Indianness and could not produce anything remarkable. (Naik, 175)

Indianness, if we look seriously, is a quality that must be present in Indian English literature or it will appear to be hollow or shallow, if not entirely hollow. Those who write in English naturally disconnect from most of the Indianness because of their language. It is a fact and a truth so naked that we cannot ignore it. Moreover, if a literary production in the English language will have nothing that can reflect Indianness, the literary production will certainly become redundant for Indians as well as the foreigners. Think it this way: an Indian will read the book because of the connect, that the English language often usurps and a foreigner will read the book because of something new that he can learn and the language further simplifies that learning adventure. However, it is purely my personal opinion. M. K. Naik, in his book Indian English Poetry, reminds the readers of Longfellow’s wonderful idea – nationality in literature is good, but universality is better. However, what is not universal? Any writer draws inspiration from his roots only. In the times he grows and in the society he dwells, a writer learns many things. Nevertheless, it is equally true that a writer adds strength to his craft by picking the best arrows for his quiver from the annals of history and the womb of civilisation. Luckily, the Indians are very lucky! 

To conclude this section, one can easily understand that Indianness is not merely an idea. Indianness in Indian English literature is an action that attracts reactions from the readers. Indianness is about embedding values and history in a literary work that has originated, evolved and transformed on the Indian soil. Krishna and Ram and their teachings, when they appear in poetry mostly, constitute Indianness in Indian English Poetry that is admired and loved by the readers at large. A poor man’s survival and still helping another, a fellow pauper in need, constitute Indianness in a story or a novel that does not only draw pathos in the heart of the readers but also lets them revel in the depth of Indian philosophy that inspires us to live for others, every single day of life. And I will end it with a very formal and succinct paragraph so that the readers, students of literature and academicians, can have a clear idea and we conclude this section to move ahead to other sections in this special series by English Literature Education platform.  

Conclusion: 

Any literary production by an Indian in English is Indian English Literature and by default, it has the element of Indianness. However, merely being a work by an Indian does not add serious and apparent elements that might be classified as Indianness which may be serious. The elements that embed or highlight Indian values, the Indian way of life, Indian religious colours, Indian history and even various Indian problems should ideally be called Indianness in Indian literature and since we are dealing with Indian English literature, just add English to these lines. For example, we can take the works of Raja Rao with a special focus on Kanthapura. We have all the Indianness of that time, with problems and solutions, with constructive and destructive qualities highlighted in the novel. Likewise, novels like Coolie and Guide by Anand and Narayan have wonderfully presented the Indian way to the world. In the modern literary scenario in India, the works by Chetan Bhagat and Amish Tripathi , works by Anita Nair and Arundhati Roy, even Durjoy Datta and other sensual writers exhibit Indianness but within a limited context and as per their convenience and the inclination of their respective audience groups. 

I will get into other details in this series of post and my next posts will have a detailed analysis of the ideas like: 

Indianness in Indian English Poetry 

Indianness in Indian English Novels 

Indianness in Indian English Non-fiction  

by Alok Mishra for English Literature Education 

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5 Comments . Leave new

This is one of the best articles on Indianness in Indian English literature that I have read on the internet. Simple, easy to understand and no-nonsense! Great job! I admire the work this platform has been doing for English literature students. Keep the good work up guys!

Very apt description…. how can we use the concept of Indianness in a research paper? Will you please guide? I am an English literature research scholar.

Beautiful writing. Strengthened my learnings of it

Pls write on Indian women writers writing in English

This helped me a lot in understanding what Indianness means. Thank you for sharing this wonderful article about Indian English literature. I am waiting for other articles in the series so that I can understand the concept of Indianness and find more Indianness quotes to satisfy my understanding. Thanks again.

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75 Best Indian Authors and their Books in English: The Must-Read List (2020 Update)

[Updated on 26-April-2020]

I’ve been trying to compile this list of Best Indian Authors in the English Language for a long time now. Every time I start, I get stuck up at zeroing in on the names.

There are so many great writers and novelists from India and of Indian origin, in the English language, that it is difficult to keep the list short.

Though I’m not a great fan of literary fictions and tend to incline towards mysteries and thrillers, I have tried my best to be unbiased and impartial.

While creating such lists, it is unavoidable to incline towards one’s preferences and tastes. If you are a fan of romance, you’d prefer Durjoy Dutta over Amish Tripathi; if you are a fan of humour, you’d prefer Sidin Vadukut over Ravinder Singh, and vice versa.

So, I decided to break down the list into different genres.

Also Read : 121 Best English Books by Indian Authors: The Definitive List (2024)

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THE BEST WRITERS OF ROMANCE NOVELS IN INDIA

BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER AUTHORS IN INDIA

TOP-MOST WRITERS OF SCI-FI/FANTASY NOVELS IN INDIA

BEST CHICK-LIT AUTHORS IN INDIA

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Also Read : 121 Best English Books by Indian Authors: The Definitive List (2018)

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About the Author

Father to Ahaana. Husband to Mayuri. Co-founder at bookGeeks. Engineer at BMM.

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Journey of Indian English Drama

Indian English Drama: An Essay

Table of Contents

Introduction

Drama is a composite art form. It is mimetic like all other performing arts in literature. It imitates life, particularly reflecting the three unities of time, place and action.

“It is designed for representation on the stage by actors who act the parts of the characters of its story, and among whom the narrative and the dialogue are distributed.”

India has a long and fertile history in Drama, starting from Sanskrit plays of Vedic Age. Dramatists of Indian Writing in English have scaled the length and breadth of the experimentation in dramaturgy of India during and after independence. To fathom the depths of Indian Drama in English certain characteristic features are to be kept in mind. Basically, the Indian Writings in English during Modern Age articulate the budding and the already present writers as well as the influence of Existentialism, Globalisation, Surrealism, Dadaism, Magic Realism and the Post Colonial issues. India had been under the colonial shackles for a time period of three hundred years and as a matter of fact the colonial language and culture had cast its direct shadow on the Indian literary venues.

Classical Indian Drama: It’s Origin

Drama in India has had a rich glorious tradition. It begins its journey with the Sanskrit plays. Indian tradition preserved in the  Natyasastra . The oldest of the texts of the theory of the drama, claims for the drama divine origin and a close connection with the sacred Vedas themselves. Origin of English drama can be traced to the ancient rules and seasonal festivities of the Vedic Aryans. The most renowned and talented dramatists of the ancient era are Ashwaghosh, Bhasa, Shudraka, Kalidas, Harsha, Bhavabhuti, Visha-khadatta, Bhattanarayana, Murari and Rajeshkhora, who enriched Indian theatre with their words like  Madhya Mavyaayoda ,  Urubhangam ,  Karnabharan ,  Mrichkatikam ,  Abhigyana Shakuntalam ,  Malankagnimitram ,  Uttar Ramacharitam ,  Mudrarakshasa ,  Bhagavadajjukam ,  Mattavilasa  etc.

Pre-Independence Indian English Drama

The Indian English Drama began in the 18th century when British Empire came and strengthened its political power in India. It is started with the publication of Krishna Mohan Banerjee’s  The Persecuted   in 1813. It is a social play in which the author tries to present the conflict between the East and the West. The real journey of Indian English Drama begins with Michael MadhuSudan Dutt’s  Is This Called Civilization  which appeared on the literary horizon in 1871. Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo, the two great sage – poets of India, are the first Indian dramatists in English worth considering. R.N. Tagore wrote primarily in Bengali but almost all his Bengali plays are available to us in English renderings. His prominent plays are  Chitra ,  The Post Office ,  Sacrifice ,  Red Oleanders ,  Chandalika ,  Muktadhara ,  Natir Puja  and  The Mother’ Prayer  etc.. These plays are firmly rooted in the Indian ethos and ethics in their themes, characters and treatment. Sri Aurobindo’s complete plays are  Perseus the Deliverer ,  Vasavadutta ,  Radoguna ,  The Viziers of Bassora and Eric  and each of these plays is written in five acts.

• Notes on Origin of Drama in English Literature

Harindranath Chattopadhyaya added a new dimensions to Indian English drama . He sympathizes with the underdogs same like Mulk Raj Anand. His collection of social plays include  The Windows ,  The Parrots ,  The Santry Lantern ,  The Coffin   and  The Evening Lamps .

Post Independence or Post Modern Indian English Drama

D. M. Borgaonkar’s Image-Breakers (1938) is a problem play that aims to break the conventions of caste system, horoscope, dowry, etc. S. Fyzee’s Rahamin’s D aughter of Ind   (1940) portrays the conflict between love and social barriers, featuring a low-caste girl loving an Englishman. Balwant Gargi’s  The Vulture ,  Mung-Wa,   The Fugitive   and  The   Matriarch  “ dealt with themes which are engaging the attention of people everywhere.”

Another dramatic voice on the Indian literary scene that demands attention is that of T.P. Kailasam. He wrote both in English and Kannada. Though Kailasam is regarded as the father of modern Kannada drama, his genius finds its full expression in his English plays such as The  Burden  (1933),  Fulfilment  (1933),  The Purpose  (1944),  Karna  (1964) and  Keechaka  (1949).

Bharati Sarabhai is the modern woman playwright during the colonial era of Indian English drama. She has written two plays  The Well of the People  (1943) and  Two Women  with some considerable measure of success.

J.M. Lobo Prabhu is the last great name in pre-Independence Indian English drama. He has written over a dozen plays but only  Mother of New India : A Play of India Village in three Acts (1944) and  Death Abdicates  (1945) appear before Independence.

The use of blank verse is flawless and the last play compels us to remind of T.S.Eliot’ s  Murder In The Cathedral . Other verse plays of the period include P.A.Krishnaswami’s  The Flute of Krishna  (1950) M.Krishnamurti’s  The Cloth Of Gold  (1951). S.D.Rawoot’s  Immortal Song .  Karm and The Killers  (1959) Satya Dev Jaggi’s  The Point Of Light  (1967) Pritish Nandy’s  Rites for a Plebian Salute  (1969). P.S. Vasudev’s  The Sunflower  (1972) etc.

Nissim Ezekiel’s Three Plays (1969) including  Nalini : A Comedy ,  Marriage Poem : A Tragi Comedy and  The Sleep Walkers : An Indo-American farce are considered to be a welcome addition to the dramaturgy of Indian English drama.

Girish Karnad in the capacity of writer, director and actor substantially contributed to enrich the tradition of Indian English theatre. His well known plays are  Yayati  (1961),  Tughlaq  (1962),  Hayvadana  (1970),  Nagmandala  (1972). He borrowed his plots from history, mythology and old legends.

Vijay Tendulkar symbolizes the new awareness and attempts of Indian dramatists of the century to depict the agonies, suffocations and cries of man, focusing on the middle class society. In the plays  Silence! The Court Is In Session  (1968) and  Ghasiram Kotwal  (1972), the theme of oppression dominates.  Sakharam Binder  (1972) is a study in human violence amounted to powerful dramatic statement.

Gurucharan Das (1943- ) is known for his popular play,  Larins Sahib  ( 1970). Set in Punjab, it is about the political career of a British Resident in Punjab. Vera Sharma wrote a number of one act plays, including  Life is Like That  (1997) and  Reminiscence   (1997) which deal with the plight of women.

Badal Sircar too is a prestigious name in the realm of contemporary theatre. He represents New Theatrical Movement in India. His earlier plays are  Evan Inderjit  (1962)  That Other History  (1964) and  There Is No End  (1971). All these plays are based on political, social, psychological and existential problems.

Post Independence era witnessed the birth of several one act plays. R. Raja Rao’s  The Wisest Fool   on Earth and Other Plays   (1996) is on the theme of homosexuality. T.S. Gill’s  Asoka   (1983), V.D. Trivedi’s  Gandhi: A Play  (1983) and Prema Sastri’s  Gandhi,   Man of the Millions   (1987), Gieve Patel’s  Princess ,  Savaksha   and  Mr. Behram , Dina Mehta,s  The Myth Maker   (1959) and  Brides Are Not for   Burning , Uma Parameswaram (1938- )’s  Sons Must   Die and Other Plays   (1998) are some to quote.

The Post Modern era ushered in new changes in the Indian English drama. Mahesh Dattani (1958- ) a playwright of World stature, has added a new feather to the Indian English drama. His plays deal with serious and sensitive issues like communalism, homosexuality, female infanticide, domestic abuse, child sexual abuse, condition of eunuchs in Indian society. His plays include  Where There’s a Will ,  Tara ,  Bravely Fought the Queen ,  Final Solutions ,   Dance like A Man  and  Thirty Days in September .

Post-Independent Indian Drama in English falls short of the level reached by poetry and fiction in India. There are four reasons for this:

i) drama is essentially a composite art involving the playwright, the actors and the audience in a shared experience on the stage-has its own problem of which the other literary forms are free.

ii) As Srinivas Iyenger attributes  “the failure to the fact that English is not a natural medium of conversation in India.”  

iii) Lack of living theatre in our country.

iv) The Indian English playwrights do not give much importance to the rich and varied Indian dramatic traditions involving the native myth and Indian historical heritage.

In short, Indo-Anglican literature continues to grow and flourish and this despite all the misguided and prejudiced and politically motivated campaign against English as a foreign language , a language which comes in the way of its growth. More Indians are writing in English than ever before, and the Indo-Anglican writer is enjoying a much wider market. Indo-Anglican drama has, indeed, a bright future.

Related posts:

• Plot Construction in Tughlaq by Girish Karnad
• Essay on Indian English Woman Novelist
• A Passage to England by Nirad C. Chaudhuri Summary and Analysis
• Silence! The Court is in Session as a Feminist Play
• Silence! The Court is in Session as a Social Satire

3 thoughts on “Journey of Indian English Drama”

Hi sir… Thank you so much. It is really helpful. All the best to chase your dream sir.

I’m working on a project for an event in my college and this helped me greatly to understand this topic better … thank you very much sir

Sincerely welcome

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