Contents Preface 9 Introduction T.S.Anand 11 The Humanist as Fabulator: Humanism in Indian Writing in English K.B.Razdan 13 Humanistic Concerns in Indian English Fiction (1950-2000): Perspectives and Challenges NibirK Ghosh 18 "Shutting Each Other Out"? Cross-cultural Relationships in Diasporic Indian English Fiction Somdatta Mandal 32 Humanism in the Fictional Works of Indian Authors in English SangeetaDas 46 VI Humanistic Concerns in Indian English Fiction (1950-1975): An Analysis Saraswati Kupwade 52 Rethinking Humanism: Considering Raja Rao's Fiction Swaraj Raj 61 Commitment to Humanistic Ideology: Some Reflexes R.G. Kulkartti 71 Humanistic Concerns in Attia Hosain's Sunlight on a Broken Column AnilRaina 76 The Stuff of Human Life: Rupa Bajwa's The Sari Shop Rupinder Kaiir 86 Variations on a Theme: Humanism in Arundhati Roy's The Cost of Living and Githa Hariharan's The Art of Dying ProbhaPant 95 The God of Small Things: A Repository of Concerns Human Jaspreet Marnier 103 The Dark Night of the Soul: A Study of Arun joshi's The Last Labyrinth Avtar Singh ill vii Humanistic Concerns in Amitav Ghosh's The Glass Palace N. K. Neb 120 Scrambling the Gender Binary: New Woman in Markandaya's Nectar in a Sieve Subhash Chandra 128 Humanistic Concerns in Chaman Nahal's Azadi N.S.Tasneem 136 Tollington in Turmoil: Human Predicament in Meera Syal's Anita and Me Rabinder Powar 142 Humanistic Concerns in Mulk Raj Anand's Untouchable and Coolie Hargunjot Kaur Kaput 150 Humanitarian Perspective in Mulk Raj Anand's Untouchable D.S. Kaintura 157 Humanistic Concerns: A Study of Bhabani Bhattacharya's So Many Hungers! and Kamla Markandaya's A Handful of Rice AshooTbor-Gill 166 Human Relationships: An Evaluation of Anita Desai's Novels Sumedha Bhandari 174 Society and Individualism: The Humanistic Concerns in Anita Desai's Voices in the City Apurva Chawla 188 Voyage in Terminal Individualism: Anita Desai's Where Shall We Go This Summer? Bhupinder Parihar 193 Assertion and After: A Study of the Woman Protagonist in R.K. Narayan's The Guide Shalini Gupta 198 Identity Crisis and Rethinking Feminism in Shobha De's Second Thoughts Anupama Kaushal 205 Contextualizing Ageism: A Reading of Shauna Singh Baldwin's A Pair of Ears and Shashi Deshpande's And Then... ? Seema Malik 214 Wounded Humanity: A Study of Tamos Sudhi Rajiv 224 The Human Worlds of Naipaul and Mistry Manjit Inder Singh 235 Index 241 Notes on the Editors and Contributors 245.