Module Details

Paper: 08; Module No 15: E Text (A) Personal Details: Role Name Affiliation Principal Investigator: Prof. Tutun Mukherjee University of Hyderabad Paper Coordinator: Prof. Ipshita Chanda Jadavpur University, Kolkata Content Writer: Mamud Hassan Research Scholar, University of Hyderabad Content Reviewer: Dr. Soma Mukherjee Viswa-Bharati, Shantiniketan Language Editor: Dr. Soma Mukherjee Viswa-Bharati, Shantiniketan (B) Description of Module: Items Description of Module Subject Name: English Paper No & Name: Paper 08: ‘New’ Literatures in English Module Id/No: 15 Module Name: Indian English Writings in the World Pre-requisites: Students need to know about the New English literature and the Indian English writings especially contemporary Indian English writings Objectives: To Study famous Indian English writings of the world. Key Words: Indian English Lieterature, Indian English Writing, Indian Diaspora, Indian English Poetry, Indian English Fiction, Indian Novel. 1 15.1. About the Module: This module aims to introduce learners to the emerging body of literature being produced by writers from India in the form of New English Literature. It deals with a broad range of writers from various parts of India and abroad. It traces the history of Indian English education and the trends of Indian English writing. It tries to bring out the early writings in India dates back to Raja Rammohan Roy, Sarojini Naidu, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee etc. It would also present post-Independence Indian English writings and the contemporary English writings by Indians throughout the world. 15.2. Introduction The study of New English Literatures is concerned with colonial and postcolonial writing which emerged in former British colonies such as: parts of Africa, Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Caribbean countries, India, Malaysia, Malta, New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore, islands in the South Pacific, and Sri Lanka. Through the medium of English, writers from the aforesaid countries, today confront the so called mainstream English literature. India, with a huge number of writers is leading globally in the field of New English Literature. Indian English writers have been contributing much, adding new trends, themes and techniques to the English literature of the world. Regarding the contribution of Indian English writings to the world, K. V. Suryanarayana Murti has rightly mentioned in his book titled Kohinoor in the Crown Critical Studies in Indian English Literature (1987) that “The rich Indian cultural and spiritual heritage and imagination’ is like the precious Kohinoor, cut and polished, emitting its brilliant light through its myriad facets, in the Crown of English”. Indian English Literature is an honest enterprise to demonstrate the ever rare gems of Indian Writing in English. Wide ranges of themes are dealt within Indian Writing in English. While this literature continues to reflect Indian culture, tradition, social values and even Indian history through the depiction of life in India and Indians living elsewhere, recent Indian English fiction has been trying to give expression to the Indian experience of the modern predicaments. The phrase ‘Indo-Anglian’ was used to describe the original creative writing in English by the Indians. It is the literature written by the Indians whose mother-tongue is not English. According to K.R.S. Iyengar (1973:11) there are three types of Indian writers in English, first those who have acquired their entire education in English schools and universities. Secondly, Indians who have settled abroad but are constantly in touch with the changing surroundings and traditions of their country of adoption, and finally, Indians who have acquired English as a second language. Consequently, a large number of Indians were greatly moved by the genuine desire to present before the western readers authentic pictures of life in India through their numerous writings. Indian English literature has a relatively recent history; it is only one and a half centuries old. The first book written by an Indian in English was by Sake Dean Mahomet, titled Travels of Dean Mahomet; Mahomet's travel narrative was published in 1793 in England. In its early stages it was influenced by the Western art form of the novel. Early Indian writers used English unadulterated by Indian words to convey an experience which was essentially Indian. 2 Indian English literature refers to the body of work by writers in India who write in the English language and whose native or co-native language could be one of the numerous languages of India. It is also associated with the works of members of the Indian diaspora, such as V. S. Naipaul, Kiran Desai, Jhumpa Lahiri, Agha Shahid Ali, Rohinton Mistry and Salman Rushdie, who are of Indian descent. 15.3. History of English language and Writing in India Macaulay’s Minute introduced in 1833 provided for the introduction of English as a medium of instruction with the claim that “the English tongue would be the most useful for our native subjects.” While presenting his famous minute, Macaulay admitted quite candidly that he had not read any of the Sanskrit and Arabic books and yet did not desist from making such a pronouncement: “…A single shelf of a good European library is worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia. …All the historical information which has been collected in the Sanskrit language is less than what may be found in the paltry abridgements used at preparatory schools of England…” Lord William Bentick announced in 1835 that the government would “favour English Language alone” henceforth and would move towards “a knowledge of English literature and Science through the medium of English language alone.” The Wood Dispatch of 1854 proclaimed the establishment of the Universities at Bombay, Madras and Calcutta and thereafter made the English language accessible to students, professors and also the officials of Government offices. In the arena of literary studies too English began to assert itself. 15.4. Early Indian English Writing- Poetry The first literary texts in English emerge from Bengal. Raja Rammohun Roy (177401833), the progressive advocate of English civilization and culture, wrote numerous essays and treatises, which were collected in a complete volume in 1906. But it seems that poetry was the genre that first took flight in the Indian imagination, the best-known nineteenth-century poets being Henry Derozio (1809-31), Michael Madhusudan Dutt (1827- 73), Toru Dutt (1856-77), her cousin Romesh Chunder Dutt (1848-1909), and Manmohun Ghose. Henry Derozio and Michael Madhusudan Dutt started out writing epic verse in English, but returned to his native Bengali later in life. The poems of Toru Dutt (1855-1876) who died at the age of 21, have received academic acceptance as the earliest examples of Indian literature written in English. Toru Dutt not only composed poetry in English, but more interestingly translated French poetry as well. Her best works include Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan. However, the most famous literary figure of this era was Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913 for his book Gitanjali, which is 3 a free rendering of his poems in Bengali. Sarojini Naidu (1879-1949) was a great poetess whose romanticism charmed readers in India and Europe. Her Golden Threshold (1905) and The Broken Wing (1917) are works of great literary merit. Aurobindo Gosh (1872-1950) was a poet philosopher and sage for whom poetry was akin to a form of mediation. His epic, Savitri and Life Divine (2 vols.) are outstanding works in English literature. 15.5. Early English Writing- Novel Bankim Chandra Chatterjee‟s Rajmohan’s Wife (1864) was the first English novel written by an Indian. His works brought a certain space and stature to Indian novels in English. The period after the First World War has been considered the second period. In the first decade after the war, S.K. Ventaramani, Shankar Ram and A.S.P. Ayyer were the novelists who came to the fore. After them comes the emergence of the great ‘Trio’- Mulk Raj Anand, R.K.Narayan and Raja Rao, who are considered as the finest painters of Indian sensibilities. They tried to revive the ancient tradition of the Epics and Puranas of India. 15.6. Post-Independence Indian English Writings The Post-Independence Era, which is the third phase has a two-fold effect on Indian writing in English. The radical changes like poverty, hunger, death, disease etc., which were brought about by the Partition of the country, on the one hand made the writers dream about a finer future and on the other hand widened their vision, sharpened their self-examining faculty. Thereby provided fertile soil for many novelists to flourish and a considerable number of novels were produced. Some prominent writers of this period are -Bhabani Bhattacharya, Manohar Malgonkar, Kushwant Singh, G.V. Desani, and others. Another important feature of this period was the growth of Indian women novelists. Their appearance added a new dimension to the Indian English Novel. The chief figures are Ruth Pawar Jhabvala, Kamala Markandaya, Nayantara Sahgal and Anita Desai. After the 1960s there was a thematic and technical shift in focus in the Indian English fiction owing to the influence of the modern British novel. There was the impact in the post-war period on the populace that gave rise to psychological disorders, loss of moral values and the disturbance to man’s peace of mind. This agonized existence of modern man is sympathetically explored by Anita Desai and Arun Joshi and this changed the face of Indian English novel. It is with the novels of Arun Joshi and Anita Desai that a new era in the Indo- English fiction began and also witnessed a change in the treatment of psychological themes. Chaman Nahal is also another major novelist of repute who belongs to this period. After 1980 is the period of so-called ‘new’ fiction which includes new novelists like Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Upamanyu Chatterjee, Shashi Deshpande, Shashi Tharoor, Amitav Ghosh, Amit Choudhary, Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai, Arvind Adiga and others.

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