Tag: Indian writing

  • Themes and Motifs of Indian English Fiction

    Most Indian English fictions written in the post-independence period are different from the earlier English writings that dealt mostly with social reform issues, in contrast to the present ones that deal with issues of relatively peripheral nature. The difference is clearly visible through the issues they take up based on the present discourses. 

    The three famous writers – R K Narayanan, Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao, belonged to the post-independence period who were known to have dealt with issues that prevailed during their age, like the issues of freedom, struggle, and the social and political problems of the then India. Novels published during this timeframe (1935 to 1960) delineate the experience of the colonial age and dilemmas of post-independent reality. When these issues were well known to readers, the harshness of colonial activities and postcolonial India were also predominant in writing fiction. Mulk Raj Anand has focused on the untouchable mentality of the colonisers that prevailed them in his works like Untouchable and Coolie.

    Next comes the modern generation writers like Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh, Shashi Tharoor, Vikram Seth, etc, transcending the then existing writing to create new patterns and traditions. They show case the past in the present era thereby emphasising on the affected lives of people and about the sensitive issues that have been ignored for various reasons. R.K.Narayanan has focused on the South Indian middle class in his fictions, by being aloof from his contemporary socio-political issues. Though he did not deal with socio political issues, his novels written after independence were much notable. His fictions resemble more of caricature rather than characters.

    Raja Rao was considered as a new star shining bright, though he was the youngest of the trio. His Kandhapura represents the Gandhian principles and ideologies of non-violence and abolition of untouchability. He has also written a metaphysical comedy named, The Cat and the Shakespeare. The Bengali writer of that time Bhabani Bhattacharya dealt with cultural and political themes in his works. His major work So Many Hungers! deals with various types of hungers that dwell in people’s life – hunger for food, money, sex, and power. His other works like Music of Mohini also deals with socio political issues with a harsh reality.  

    Many writers of the present trend have also involved in writing about migration and displacement, which is named the Diasporic studies. Jhumpa Lahiri, Anita Desai, Bharathi Mukherjee, Amitav Ghosh and so on deal with this type of themes and issues by exhibiting the sufferings faced by the displaced people who belong to nowhere. Though it is generally called diasporic studies, it has several variations in it like temporal and special aspects, hybridity and so on. 

    They talk about the people who immigrate into a country carrying only the memories of their motherland which M.G.Vasanji ironically  calls as “Gunny sack”. Moreover, the recent writers also talk of various other themes like postcolonialism, postmodernity and also about reinventing history, which has neglected and erased the sacrifices made by the common and the ordinary people; bringing them back by dwelling into the minds of these imaginary characters with real pain. They deal with the protagonists opposite the great figures of history.

    They question the certainties of the past by looking into the private lives of ordinary people. The postcolonial literature focuses on historical issues what Rushdie calls as ‘weightlessness’. They also exhibit the experience of cultural transplantation thereby developing various new perspectives and possibilities. Several of these writers are settled in the West. Their motive is to recreate the contemporary social milieu and cultural crisis in their native land and attempt to redefine it in the emerging postcolonial context. They intend to mix the past with the present and future. And, about the cultural diversities that prevailed or prevail in Indian fiction. Their themes and motifs are hence to explore various areas like political domination by the foreign forces, the invasion of West upon the East, cultural fragmentation and slavery over the natives by following the footsteps of their colonisers.

  • Growth of the Indian Novels in English

    Growth of the Indian Novels in English

    Indian writing in English is a broad outcome of the English Education system that prevailed in India during British colonisation. It is widespread in recent years and has been recognised as a part of  “Commonwealth Literature” which possesses the writings of  British colonised countries. Until recently, this attitude has taken a turn and has also claimed a higher position in itself as Indian English Literature, thus contributing a great significance in the World Literature.

        A number of Indian writers contribute their writings in English to the modern world. The pioneers of this contribution are Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Lord Macaulay, who were inspirational in sowing the writings across the country. Among all the genres, fiction being the most powerful weapon has acquired greater significance in the present era. The country’s writing, mainly fiction has reached the developed countries like Europe and America who admire and appreciate the works of Indian writers.

         The first Indian English novel was written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, RajMohan’s Wife (1864) which paved way to several other fictions. The novels written during the 1860s were mostly based on social and historical issues which were basically modelled on the British writers like Daniel Defoe and Sir Walter Scott. To mention some of the novels between 1860 and 1900 are Ramakrishna Punt’s The Bay of Bengal, Anand Prasad Dutt’s The Indolence and Trailokya Das Hirimba’s Wedding.

       Later arrived the twentieth century novels that paved way for translation of their own works or even other’s works. Romesh Chandra Dutt translated his own Bengali novels one among which appears to be a first realistic novel that aimed at social reform, supporting widow marriage. A few other writers to mention are S.T.Ram The Cosmopolitan  Hindustani, B.K.Sarkar’s Man of Letters and T,K.Gopal Pannikar’s Storm and Sunshine.

      The next stage was influenced by Gandhian views and principles that grew across the country creating a great impact on patriotism . His principles affected not only the political field of India but also on every walk of life. It created a sudden change on the writings but turned their attention towards the contemporary issues from that of the past. Various political issues and problems were taken into account and were brought out to the people of India by the eminent writers through their writings. The major themes that were dealt by them were struggle for freedom, fight between the East and West, pathetic situations of the untouchables, the poor farmers and their exploited lands and so on. 

         Such impact of the Gandhian perceptions can be seen in the works of K.S. Vengatramani’s Murugan, The Tiller. Followed by these writers came the trinity writers as K R Srinivasa Iyengar calls them, –Raja Rao, Mulk Raj Anand and R.K.Narayanan whose emergence created an enormous impact in the field of writing, especially, fiction. They propogated the writing of Indo English fiction, the earlier named Indian writing in English, followed by another prominent contemporary of theirs, Bhabani Bhattacharya, whose novels also dealt with people’s sufferings.

        Their creations were a pathway to writing fictions, through which Indian writing in English achieved a remarkable position in the history of world literature. They also brought in Indo-Anglian novels into existence which gave them distinctiveness that laid a stone on content and form in writing. This has led to the recent writings of the present era of the twenty first century writers.

      The period from 1980s witnessed a second period of the Indian novel in English through the writing of Salman Rushdie’s  Midnight’s Children. Its impact has been seen in numerous ways by various critics and novelists. The inclusion of Bollywood references sexual utterances, allergory, touch upon history and the use of language have made the work a landmark of this period. It has reached out to international audiences by creating its own identity on Indian English Literature.

         Along with him are several other writers who call themselves Stephenians as they studied in St.Stephens college, Delhi who are Allan Sealy, Amitav Ghosh, Shashi Tharoor  and Upamanyu Chatterjee. They seem to acknowledge each other’s influence in their works. Their flow of imagination on the untouched facts has given prominence for the books to be published in International publications like Penguin, Harpercollins,etc.

         Authors of 1980s like Upamanyu Chatterjee tried to blend in the ‘Indianness’ as a mixture of culture to touch upon various aspects of languages that are being used to bring out various concepts and stories like his English August. Some other novelists have tried to create an awareness regarding the earlier prevailed inequality of access to the language English and its problems of communication between various classes and culture prevailing within India . They try to explore the conflict between tradition and the modernity in contemporary India.

        As stated in Contemporary Indian Writers, ‘such variations are seen in many writers like Rushdie, who considers Bombay to be a place where many cultures meet and finds it a supplementary is seen in contrast as a place which possesses  a sense of disorienting loss’ by Amit Chaudhuri. In the same era comes Amitav Ghosh, who took the same turn as that of Rushdie through his works. Ghosh was the first Stephanian who gave an immediate response to the challenge of Midnight’s Children. His first novel The Circle of Reason is written almost in Rushdie’s work of magical realism.

        All his works are almost reinvention of history and about the lives of the unnoticed ordinary people, nationalistic, colonisation, migration and colonial hegemony.  Several novelists have followed Ghosh in creating historical narratives and have succeeded in doing so. Another similar idea of converting or using one of the greatest Indian legends for the purpose of historical narration is Shashi Tharoor’s The Great Indian Novel which adapts the story of the great legend Mahabaratha as an allergy of modern Indian history.

        Hence if all these writers share a common interest in retrieving history, suppressed histories, they do it in their own ways and act of narration. This process of excluding the country as a national imaginary has brought about a great change into looking at history. This making of history which itself acts as a form of narrative relies on these literary devices to create and predict its own meaning.