The Dutts - Toru, Aru, Abju were very important people in Indo-Anglian poetry
Posted in INDIAN LITERATURETHE BEGINNING
The renaissance in modern Indian Literature begins
with Raja Ram Mohan Roy. The infiltration of western
culture, the study of English literature, the adoption
of western scientific techniques, gave a jolt to India's
traditional life. It shocked us into a new awareness, a
sense of urgency, and the long dormant intellectual and
critical impulse was quickened into sudden life and the
reawakening Indian spirit went forth to meet the violent
challenge of the values of modern science and the civilization
of the west.
Ram Mohan Roy's interests and inquiries ranged
from the rights of women and the freedom of the press
to English education, the revenue and judicial systems
in India, religious toleration and the plight of the Indian
peasantry. He could be named as the first of the Indian
masters of English prose. He wrote a brief autobiographical
sketch on request. Derozio Kashiprasad Ghose,
M.M.Dutt are the other eminent writers of the time. They
are called the first Indo-Anglian writers of verse and
prose. Derozio's most ambitious work was
Jungheera
Kashiprasad Ghose was one of the first Indians to
publish a regular volume of English verse.
and other poems
level of 'Gorboduc' in English literature. Michael
Madhusudan Dutt was equally a talented writer. His
The Fakir of.The shair(1830) is a great contribution to the Meghanad Badha
in English
There followed a lot of writers. 'Derozio's men' who
aspired to become eminent in the field. Besides writers,
political leaders, religious men also wrote in their own
way for the enlightenment of the public. Dadabhai
Naoroji was a teacher turned political leader and a good
orator. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, his disciple Swami
Vivekananda were great orators and their speeches carried
the essence of truth. Vivekananda essayed English
verse too
Sanyasin, My play is Done etc.
is a great Bengali epic and he wroteThe captive Ladie.eg : Kali, the mother, The song of the The Dutts - Toru, Aru, Abju were very important
people in Indo-Anglian poetry. Toru lost her brother
and sister very early. Her father and cousin used to
write poems and poetry ran in her veins. She translated
French renderings into English ; '
French Fields'
consumption. Her Sanskrit translations came posthumously
-
A sheaf gleaned in. She died very young, at the age 21, of"Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan'. Her translations are marvellous and beyond comparison
for a young sick girl. Her mastery in Sanskrit, French,
English, Bengali were commendable. Romesh Chunder
Dutt her cousin was another talented writer. He wrote
three novels -
Bengali, A history of civilization in Ancient India, India
in the Victorian Age, The Economic history of British
India
Other notable figure was Man Mohan Ghoss,
brother of Sri. Aurobindo
Perseus and Adam, Nollo
Todar Mull, Sivaji, and Pratap Singh inetc., Love Songs and Elegies,are his major works. r
Modern Indian literature begins with - Raja Ram Mohan Roy
r
The first of the Indian masters of English Prose - Ram Mohan Roy
r
First Indo - Anglian writers of verse and prose - Henry Derozio
- Kashiprasad Ghose
-
Michael Madhusudan Dutt r
Derozio's most ambitious work - The Fakir of Jungheera
r
The first Indo-Anglian poet - Henry Derozio
r
–––– is considered to be the Keats in Indian literature - H. Derozio
r
of
Sheaf gleaned in French Fields was a famous work - Toru Dutt
r
in the world
Yeats greeted –––– as one of the most lovely works - Man Mohan Ghose's 'Songs of
Life and Death'.
INDIAN WRITING IN ENGLISH
Tagore (1861-1941)
Tagore was a poet, composer,
novelist, short story writer,
playwright philosopher, lecturer,
educator and painter. He
wrote poetry as a child and he
was only fifteen when he published
some of his poems. It
was as a poet and the author of
'Githanjali'
in 1912, and met Rothenstein,
Yeats and others. In 1913, he was awarded the nobel
prize. He is well known as the Founder of Viswa Bharathi
University at Shantiniketan.
In his own language, Tagore was a master - musician
expressing whole world experience in sheer rhythm
of word and phrase. He had written a whole range of
literature works
Senai
largest number of lyrics ever attempted by any poet.
Next only to Gandhiji and Sir Aurobindo, Tagore has
been the supreme inspiration to millions in modern India.
he visited England'Manasi, Chitra, Gitanjali, Smaran,are some of his poems, He wrote probably the The crescent moon, The Gardener, Fruit gathering,
Lover's Glift, The post office, The cycle of spring,
Red Oleander-his plays, The Home and the world,
Gora, Hungry stones
Sadhana Personality, Creative unity, The Religion of
man and autobiography, (Reminiscences).
etc. are his novels, Philosophy, His most prestigious work
of 103 lyrics translated from selected lyrics in
his own Bengali works. The term 'Gitanjali' rendered as
'song offerings' by Tagore. The main theme is the relationship
between the human soul and God. It is centred
in life and the Lord is not only within oneself though to
seek whom one has to travel far and knock at everydoor,
but in the very midst of men and women among
'The poor, lowliest and lost'. Nature and man to the
poet are only means of approaching. God and are not
important for their own sake.
He was equally good at his prose writings, poems
and shortstories. His most ambitious work of fiction
was undoubtedly 'Gora'. It is to the Indian fiction', What
Tolstoy's 'War and Peace' is to the Russian. Tagore
holds the prime position among the Indo-Anglian writers
with his end less talent for creativity.
'Gitanjali' is a sequence r
Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize in - 1913
r
Gitanjali Songs are mainly poems of - Bhakti
r
Tagore is the founder of ––––– University - Viswa Bharati at Shantiniketan
r
collection
Tagore was awarded Nobel Prize for his poetic - 'Gitanjali'
r
Gitanjali contains a sequence of ––––– lyrics - 103
r
audiences
–––– introduced Tagore's work to English - W.B.Yeats
r
to ––––––
Tagore dedicated the English version of Gitanjali - Rothenstein
r
from Gitanjali
'Where the mind is without fear' is the –––– poem - 35th
r
'Where the mind is without fear' is a - Prayer of the poet for his country
r
The freedom mentioned in the poem is - Freedom from fear
Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950)
Sri Aurobindo is the one
uncontestably outstanding
figure in Indo-Anglian literature.
Though he came out successful
in the Indian Civil service
examinations, he did not
join the service, but decided
to devote himself to the task
of freeing India from foreign
yoke, making revolutionary
speeches and hinting at armed
rebellion as a means of attaining
it.
Savitri, Bhavani Mandir, The Life Devine, The synthesis
of yoga, Essays on the Gita, The secret of Veda, The
future poetry, The foundations of Indian culture, Renaissance
in India,
works.
Songs to Myrtilla, Urvasie, Love and Death,and Heraclitus are some of his major Tagore
Sri Aurobindo
To many of his contemporaries, Sir Aurobindo was
a power out of the ordinary, a star that dwelt apart. The
politician, the poet, the philosopher, and the yogi were
all of a piece, and made the sum - the power that was
Rishi Aurobindo. He turned the political movement in
the country towards the right goal. In his philosophy
and yoga, he turned the current of human progress itself
towards the goal of super manhood. His poetry
was meant to bridge the present and the future, self
divided present life and the life Divine that is to be.
Considered merely as a poet and critic of poetry,
he would rank among the supreme masters of our time.
There are five blank verse plays,
Vasavadatta, Rodogune, The viziers of Bassora,
Perseus the Deliverer,and Eric
work of prose art. In his prophetic treatise.
Poetry,
of the poetry of the supramental age. His
opus,' 'Savitri' ; A Legend and a symbol
parts, divided into 12 Books. Savitri is symbolic of the
true wife's devotion and power - unflinching devotion
and power even to overcome the greatest of evils, Death.
And Satyavan is Truth.
To Aurobindo, poetry is the Mantra of the Real. It
is the breath of Greater Life. He was a great poet, a
mystic, a even greater revolutionary who was the first
to declare openly that complete autonomy, free from
British control should be the aim of the freedom struggle,
got arrested but came out as an even powerful yogi.
He settled in his Ashram at Pondicherry, from there his
voice reached the entire world through his writings till
his death in 5th December 1950.
. The Life Devine is a treatise on metaphysics, andThe Futurehe tried to indicate the possible extended frontiers'magnumis in three r
philosophy is
Sri Aurobindo's colossal work of mystical - 'The Life Divine'
r
The Prestigious work of Aurobindo is –––– - 'Savitri' an epic poem,
containing about 24,000 lines
r
'The future poetry' is a great work of - Sri Aurobindo
r
Aurobindo's 'Savitri' is - Symbolic of the true wife's
devotion and power.
Sarojini Naidu (1879-1949)
Sarojini Naidu whose birth centenary, was celebrated
in 1979, is one of the first exponents of the tradition
of romanticism in Indian poetry.
The Bird of Time, The Broken wing, The Feather
of the Dawn
She began writing from an early age. In all poems,
the emphasis is on song - the music of poetry, seen in
the title and the lilting quality of her verse. Love is a
dominant strain and the love poems in the different
volumes can be studied together with, the themes of
nature death. The range and variety of life find place in
almost every volume. There is an attempt to Indian
themes and English tradition. Politics has no place in
her poems but nationalism is present in it.
Her merits as a poetess is many. Her's is a pan -
Indian vision, breath taking in its range, variety and
colour. Almost all aspects of the Indian ethos are
touched upon which refute the charge of escapism. The
focus is on the keatsian principle of beauty in all things,
be it wandering Beggars, Coin Grinders, or the Budha
seated on a lotus, or the various objects and manifestations
of nature. She is one of the first to see the common
people of India with sympathy and invest their
lowly profession with grace and beauty. eg : Palanquin
Beares, coromandel fishers, Bangle sellers etc.
The single minded devotion to beauty makes her
ignore the pain and boredom of daily labours. We are
taken to a world of exotic music and splendour. True to
her romantic muse, she recreates the past of India in
terms of traditional practices and places of historic interest.
The 'past' with its wondrous charm comes alive
in her evocation of cities like Delhi, and Hyderabad in
her depiction of Indian religious customs. eg : Raksha
Bandhan, Vasant Panchami etc. The colour of the Indian
landscape with its gulmohers, champakes, bulbuls,
Koils, the dances with red roses, gem-tangled hair, glittering
garments etc. splashes through her lyrics, eg : In
a latticed Balcony, In the Bazaars of Hyderabad.
Her vision of Nature with an eye for its loveliness,
colour and charm is aesthetic than spiritual. It is in her
love poems that her lyric impulse reaches its height.
Love is a many stringed instrument in her stands. To
her love is both agony and ecstasy, the emotions being
felt in separation and union.
In her poetry, she has succeeded in recreating the
glory of India with joy and intensity. The cadence and
colour of her poetry predominates over intellectual
musings, because hers is a lyrical genius.
'The Golden threshold',are her poetic works. r
The last of the Indian romantic writers - Sarojini Naidu
r
1979 was the birth centenary year of - Sarojini Naidu
r
Prominent themes of Sarojini Naidu's poetry - Love, nature, nationalism
r
'Coromandel Fishers' is a ––––– song - Folk
r
The poem 'Coromandel, Fishers' is taken from - The Golden Threshold
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
Gandhiji was no writer, nor was he at anytime particularly
interested in the act of writing. The period
between the two world wars is called the 'Gandhian Age'.
The arrival of Gandhiji in the Indian struggle for freedom
was a period of awakening. Life could not be the
same as before, and every segment of our national life,
polities, economics, education, religion, social life, language
and literature acquired a more or less pronounced
Gandhian hue. Several regional languages acquired a
new versality and power and many of the political leaders
of the Gandhian Age - Abul kalam Azad, Rajaji, Rajendra
Prasad, Nehru and Vinoba Bhave - were themselves
thinkers, writers, agitators and social reformers
rolled into one.
The greatness of Gandhi was the greatness of an
ordinary man who through a long process of trial and
error, aspiration and endeavour, achieved a greatness
indubitably his own. The story of his 'Experiments with
Truth' is one of the imperishable classics of our time. In
this autobiographical record, described in candid detail
the events and circumstances of his life from birth to
the launching of the non-coperation movement in India
in 1920. The latter part of his life till his death is the
history of India as well. So he was called as the 'father
of the nation'.
The Gandhian impact on contemporary Indian literature
has brought about results at various levels one
result was ; a general preference for the mother tongue
or regional language or bilingualism. And whatever the
medium chosen, the stress has been more on simplicity
and clarity and immediate effectiveness.
Regarding themes
and characters, there has been
a conscious shift from the city
to the village or a sharp contrast
between the two. The
works of Venkataraman, R.K.
Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand,
Kamala Markandeya are suitable
example.
In some novels, Gandhian
thoughts and feelings
are there and R.K. Narayan made Gandhi a character in
'Waiting for Mahatma'. The important events in the preindependent
period and the freedom beautifully blended
in most of the works of literature. There were a lot of
writers, writing on Mahatma, his biographies, memoirs,
criticial studies and discussions, apart from the immense
mass of Gandhi's, own writings and speeches.
'Mahatma by D.G. Tendulkar, P.A. Wadia's
'Mahatma Gandhi,' E.M.S. Namboodiripad's
'the Ism'
60 years Gandhi has been the subject of biographical
and expository studies.
'The Mahatma and theare important studies on Gandhi. For the last Gandhi as a man of letters
Gandhi had no literary ambitions though he wrote
some verse and a great deal of prose. In fact he was a
journalist. He himself edited south African and Indian
Journals, like the
Harijan
allusiveness or the power to conjure up associations.
But whatever he wrote one could see a transparency
and absolute sincerity and often a profound
aspiration. His twin values of Truth and Non violence
gave him a stand point from which he could speak or
write about even trivialities and it is that which make his
work alive for all time.
His major work the Autobiography is written in
Gujarati. His personality as revealed in his Autobiography
is ethico-religious whether it is operating in the
political, social or domestic sphere.
Indian opinion, Young, India and. His writings had no literary graces, suggestiveness, r
Regional novels or bilingualism is the result of - Gandhian impact on Indian
literature
Mahatma Gandhi
r
Gandhiji as a character, is written by
'Waiting for Mahatma' is an important novel with - R.K. Narayan
r
reflected in
Gandhiji's principles of Truth and non violence is - His autobiography and writings
r
called
The period between the two world wars in India is - The Gandhian Age
r
of
'My Experiments with Truth' is the autobiography - M.K. Gandhi
Jawaharlal Nehru (1889 - 1964)
The history of Nehru's writings
and speeches merges with his
life, and his life likewise merges
with the life of the nation. He was
a fascinating writer too.
of world history
of India, Autobiography, his
speeches, Letters from a Father
to a Daughter
talent of the great statesman.
He was tutored and given the
best education that money could buy but he used those
powers in his speeches, and literary works. He plunged
into the cauldron of freedom struggle and politics and
his literary pursuits came along with him....... written
when he was in jail. Later his political involvement prevented
him from writing more but was famous for his
great speeches. He rose to the high office as the P.M. of
India. He was an avid reader and appreciated quality in
them. Many eminent writers were his friends and he
used to write to them even in his busy political career.
Glimpses, The Discoverybears the varied r
'The Discovery of India' is one of the great works of - Jawaharlal Nehru
r
father and the daughter mentioned
'Letters from a father to a Daughter' - who is the - Nehru and his daughter Indira
Gandhi
r
Outstanding works of Nehru are - Glimpses of Word History
- The Discovery of India
- Autobiography
- Letters from a father to a daughter
DRAMA
Drama written in the earlier period of Indian literature
is not, meant for actual stage production.
Madhusudan Dutt's,
Is this called civilization, Tagore's Chitra, The post office, Sacrifice, Red Oleanders, Chandalika
Muktadhara, Natir Puja
Aurobindo's
Rodogune, The Viziers of Bassora
in English as original dramatic creations. He was a
prophet and a recluse and he stood apart in unique
solitariness and anyhow his plays, were but a small
fraction of his phenomenal literary output.
Harindranath Chattopadhyay's
Sidhartha ; Man of peace, plays and playlets on the
lives of the saints,
are other playwrights too, Lakham Deb, Pratap Sharma,
Nizzim Ezekiel, Gurucharan Das who tried their talents
in plays of realism, comedy, tragi comedy, farce and
historical play.
etc.Perseus the Deliverer, Vasavadatta,and Eric were writtenFive playsare notable plays of the period. There NOVEL
Development of novel in India
The novel as a literacy phenomenon is new to India.
At first there were the translation of western classics
including novels, as a result of the western impact'
on India's cultural front. It was in Bengal that the 'literary
renaissance' first manifested itself. The first novel
written in Bengali was
son of a rich family). The first novel published in English
was Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's
wife
Vishavriksha, Anandamath, Devi Chaudhurani
Alaler Gharer Dula (1858) (spoiltRaj Mohan's(1864), followed by 'Durgesa Nandini, Kapal Kundala, etc. by the same author.
Tagore was a very considerable novelist too. 'Choker
Bali' (Binodini) is his first success followed by 'Yogayog'.
Another great novelist was Saratchandra Chatterjee.
'Srikanta, Grihadaha, Pather Datri, Bi pradas and
Sesprasna' are his works. Tarashankar Banerjee, Bibhu-
Jawaharlal Nehru
ti Bhushan Banerjee, Manik Banerjee, Naini Bhaumik
were a few of the outstanding performers. Bibhuti Bhushan's
Pather panchali
the children Apu and Durga. The vicissitudes of
the Bengali Novel foreshadow more or less the vicissitudes
of the Novel in India.
Before 1947, the English models were the major
outside influence on the Indian novel. After the independence,
the more serious novelist has shown how
the joy of freedom has been more than neutralized by
the tragedy of partition. Novels whose action is set by
the side of a river are a category by themselves. Nirad
C. Chaudhuri has advanced the theory that, for the
Aryans in India, the 'river cult is a symbol of their pre -
Indian existence eg : R.K. Narayan's novels centred in
Malgudi -on-Sarayu, Raja Rao's Kanthapura , the river
Hemavathy is a person and a presence.
History as the theme of creative fiction seems indeed
to exercise a special fascination for many Indian
novelists. R.C.Dutt's,
Ayyar's
to recapture life in Ancient India. Tagore's Home and
the world, 'four chapters', present the issue between
ends and means in politics in context of the revolutionary
movements of the 20th century. Mulk Raj Anand's
portrays two inforgettable characters,The slave girl of Agra, A.S.P.Baladitya, Chanakya and Chandragupta try The sword and the sickle,
roughly cover the politics of the twenties. Raja Rao's
K.A. Abbas's Inquilab both Kanthapura
disobedience movement, in the early thirties.
Novels on the 'partition' horrors are numerous eg :
Kushwant Singh's
is the best novel about the Gandhian civilTrain to Pakistan, Manohar Malgonkar's Distant Drum
are regional novelists like Tara Shankar (Bengal) K.S.
Karant (South Canara), Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai (Kuttanad)
who have tried to immortalise in creative fiction
the genius of particular regions or localities. Munshi
Premchand's
the life of the peasants in the difficult period of
transition from the old feudalism to the new wage economy.
Thakazhi's
life of the sea faring folk on the coast of Alleppey.
'Sanyasi' has often figured Indian fiction. R. K.
Narayan's
Kamala Markandeya' s
the Swamy is a faith healer.
, A bend in the Ganges. ThereGodan, Thakazhi's 'Rantitangozhi', describes'Chemmeen' is a poignant record of the'The Guide,' Raju is a 'Swami' by mistake.A silence of Desire and 'possession, r
––– is the seat of literary renaissance in India - Bengal
r
The first novel written in Bengali - Alaler Gharer Dulal
r
First novel published in English - Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's
Raj Mohan's Wife
r
'Anandamath' is a popular work of - Bankim Chandra Chatterjee
r
'Pather Panchali' is an outstanding work of - Bibhuti Bhushan Banerjee
r
which records the life of the sea faring folk on the
coast of Alleppey
'Thakazhi's –––– is an example of regional novel, - Chemmeen
r
of
'A Train to Pakistan' is a pitiless precise picture - Indo-Pak Partition
r
K.A. Abbas's 'Inquilab' covers the politics of - The Twenties
Mulk Raj Anand (1905 - 2004)
Of the Indo-Anglian novelists
Mulk Raj Anand has
shown real talent, stamina and
stern consistency of purpose.
As with Bankim Chandra before
him, political action took the form
of writing novels. He wrote of
the people, for the people, and
as a man of the people. '
coolie, Two leaves
and a Bud, The village, Across
the Black waters
There are short stories too.
His untouchable is the most compact and artistically
satisfying , it is the shortest of the novels. As a
writer of fiction, Anand's notable marks are vitality and
a keen sense of actuality. He is a veritable Dickens for
describing the inequities and idiosyncrasies in the current
human situation with candour as well as accuracy.
The titles of his early novels seem to emphasize the
universal as against the particular. He is a committed
writer.
Untouchable,, are his novels. Mulk Raj Anand
r
Indian literature
––––– is considered as a veritable Dickens in - Mulk Raj Anand
r
––– is the shortest of Anand's novels - Untouchable
r
caste boy Bakha is the theme of Mulk Raj Anand's
novel
The events of a single day in the life of the low - Untouchable
r
––––– in the contemporary society with accuracy
Mulk Raj Anand's novels describes the ––––– and - Inequities and idiosyncrasies
r
The famous 'Trio' of Indo - Anglian literature - Mulk Raj Anand
- R.K. Narayan
- Raja Rao
R.K. Narayan (1906 - 2001)
R.K. Narayan is a man of
letters pure and simple. He is one
of the few writers in India who
take their craft seriously, constantly
striving to improve the
instrument, pursuing with a
sense of dedication for perfection.
Swami and his friends
his first novel,
The Dark Room, The English
Teacher, Mr. Sampath, The financial
Expert, Waiting for the
Mahatma. The Guide
has also collected two volumes of his short stories, '
Astrologer's Day, Lawley Road
into several European and Indian languages.
isBachelor of Arts,, etc. HeAn. He has been translated Swami and friends
novels. He is a master of comedy who is not unaware of
the tragedy of the human situation. He can present smiles
and tears together. In Narayan's novels, there is generally
a flight, an uprooting, a disturbance of order - followed
by a return, a renewal ,a restoration of normalcy.
The soul of his fiction is the miracle of transcendence
and the renewal of life, love, beauty, peace.
is the most enjoyable of the r
–––– is R.K. Narayan's 'Caster bridge' - Malgudi
r
English Teacher are
Swami and friends, Bachelor of Arts, and The - A trilogy of Malgudi - on - Sarayu
r
R.K. Narayan's 'The Guide' won him - The Sahitya Academy Award in
1960
r
The mode of narration, Narayan uses in 'The Guide' - (1) Authorial
- (2) Autobiographical
r
'Malgudi Days' is a –––––of R.K. Narayan - Short Story Collection
Raja Rao
A novelist and a short
story writer, Rao too is a child
of the Gandhian Age and reveals
in his work his sensitive
awareness of the forces let
loose by the Gandhian Revolution
as also of the thwarting
or steadying pulls of past tradition.
His major works are
'Kanthapura
and the Rope
the Barricades, and a collection of short stories.
His short stories are marvellous. In 'Javni', he portrays
a noble soul, a loyal domestic servant Javni. His
half poetical, half whimsical approach to Gandhian politics
sets the tone of Raja Rao's first novel Kanthapura.
The tremors of Gandhi's impact on a south Indian Village
are recorded here in the chatty language of an elderly
widow, and we see everything through the film of
her memory.
His prose have a poised brevity an in candescent
sufficiency. He turns sensibility itself into glowing
prose. His 'The serpent and the Rope' is an ambitious
and meritorious effort at achieving a total projection of
India in vivid fictional terms and it is the most impressive
novel yet written by an Indian in English.
, The serpent, The cat and Shakespeare, The cow of r
–––– is a veritable Grammar of the Gandhian Myth - Kanthapura
r
The locale of action of novel 'Kanthapura' - Kanthapura
r
Kanthapura is regarded as - A social and regional novel
R.K. Narayan
Raja Rao
r
rich in
According to Raja Rao, every village in India is - Sthala - Purana
r
'The cat and Shakespeare' is written by - Raja Rao
Bhabani Bhattacharya (1906-1988)
His five novels -
Mohini, He who Rides a Tiger, A goddess Named Gold,
Shadow from Ladakh
The Sahitya Academic award to him in 1967 was a
fitting recognition of his out standing achievement in
the field of Indian fiction in English. He gives satirical
and humorous sketches in his novels.
So many Hungers, Music forform rather an impressive achievement. Manohar Malgonkar (1913-)
'Distant Drum' A Bend in the Ganges, Combat of
Shadows, The princes
is a certain maturity about them, and in plotting as well
as in telling his stories he displays an ability that compels
recognition. In these novels he reveals a sound
historical sense.
after the manner of Ian Fleming.
are his prestigious works. ThereSpy in Amber is his latest novel, a thriller The women novelists
Toru Dutt's Bianca is considered to be the first
novel written by a woman. It was unfinished. There
followed a lot of women writers but only after the second
world war that women novelists of quality have
begun enriching Indian fiction in English.
Kamala Markandeya is an outstanding novelist.
'Nectar in a sieve, Some Inner Fury, A silence of Desire,
Possession, A Handful of Rice, The coffer Dams
are her popular works. Her marks as a novelist is the
sufficiency and suggestiveness of her prose. Kamala
neither repeats herself, nor turns her fiction into a formula.
In her two novels -
in the city'
the achievement of Indian women writers in English
fiction. The intolerable grapple with thoughts, feelings
and emotions is necessarily reflected in the language,
syntax and imagery of her novels.
Other novelists of repute are G.V. Desani (All about
H. Hatterer) M. Ananthanarayanan, Arun Joshi, Khushwant
Singh, O.V. Vijayan and Salman Rushdie.
Among the critics and historians of literature are
K.R. Sreenivasa Iyengar, C.D. Narasimhaiah and M.K.
Naik. Other big names in Indo-Anglian writing include
Ruskin Bond (The Room on the Roof) Amitav Ghosh
(circle of Reason, Shadow Lines) Upamanyu Chatterjee
(English August), Vikram Chandra (Red Earth and Pouring
Rain), Shobha De, and Ginu Kamani.
There are many other talented writers like Manjula
Padmanabhan (The Harvest) Arundhati Roy (The God
of Small Things), Rajkamal Jha (The Blue Bed Spread).
Pulitzer Prize winning Jhumpa Lahiri (The Interpreter of
Maladies, The Name Sake), Rohinton Mistry (Family
Matters). Anurag Mathur (The Inscrutable Americans)
Manil Suri (The Death of Vishnu), Ruchira Mukherjee
(Toad in My Garden), Kavita Deswani (Everything Happens
for a Reason). Recent works include Rushdie's Shalimar
the Clown and Kiran Desai's Inheritance of Loss.
'Cry, the Peacock, and voicesAnita Desai has added a new dimension to Arundhati Roy
She is a novelist, activist. She won the Booker
Prize in 1997 for her first novel
Roy was born in Assam to a Keralite Syrian mother, the
women’s rights activist Mary Roy, and a Bengali Hindu
father, a tea planter by profession. She spent her childhood
in Aymanam in Kerala, and went to school in Corpus
Christi. She then studied architecture at the Delhi
School of Architecture.
Roy began writing
1992 and finished it in 1996. She received half a million
pounds as an advance, and rights to the book were
sold in 21 countries. The book is semi-autobiographical
and a major part captures her childhood experiences in
Aymanam.
Contrary to some assumptions, Roy is not one of
twins. This misinformation arose from the assumption
that the character of Rahel is based on herself. We see
this in the physical description of the character in her
adulthood and also by some of this character’s interactions
with her mother, Ammu.
The God of Small Things.The God of Small Things in Books
The God of Small Things (1997), The Greater Common
Good (1999), The Algebra of Infinite Justice (2001),
An Ordinary Person’s Guide to Empire (2004), The End
of Imagination (1998), The Cost of Living (1999), Power
Politics (2002), War Talk (2003).
Vikram Seth
He is an Indian poet, novelist,
travel writer, librettist, children’s
writer, biographer and memoirist.
An unusually forthcoming
writer whose published material is
replete with un- or thinly-disguised
details as to the personal
lives of himself and his intimates
related in a highly engaging narrative
voice. In each of Seth’s novels and in much of
his poetry, there have been central or peripheral gay
themes and characters. Seth is now best known for his
novels, though he has characterised himself as a poet
first and novelist second. He has published five volumes
of poetry. His first,
privately published.His travel book
Lake: Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet
was his first popular success and won the Thomas
Cook award for travel writing.
The first of his novels,
indeed a novel in verse about the lives of a number of
young professionals in San Francisco. The novel is
written entirely in rhyming tetrameter sonnets after the
style of Charles Johnston’s 1977 translation of Aleksandr
Pushkin’s
wide acclaim (Gore Vidal dubbed it “The Great California
Novel”) and achieved healthy sales.
After the success of
up residence in his parents’ house back in Delhi to work
on his second novel,
page novel is a four-family saga set in post-independence,
post-Partition India, and alternatively satirically
and earnestly examines issues of national politics in the
period leading up to the first post-Independence national
election of 1952, inter-sectarian animosity, land
reform and the eclipse of the feudal princes and landlords,
academic affairs, inter- and intra-family relations
and a range of further issues of importance to the characters.
His most recent book,
family memoir written at the suggestion of his mother,
and published in October, 2005.
Seth’s considerable range is demonstrated by the
meticulous historical accuracy of
the finely nuanced cultivated-Indian English of the narrative
voice and the entirely in-character voices of the
principals of the story. In most of Seth’s writing (apart
from
central character), there is a strong, and always engaging
and attractive, narrative persona.
Mappings (1980), was originallyFrom Heaven(1983)The Golden Gate (1986), isEugene Onegin. The verse novel receivedThe Golden Gate, Seth tookA Suitable Boy (1993). The 1349-Two Lives, is a non-fictionA Suitable Boy, withAn Equal Music, narrated in the first person by its Kiran Desai
She is a South Asian American
author. Her novel
of Loss
Man Booker Prize. She is the
daughter of the noted author
Anita Desai, who short-listed
for the Booker prize three times.
Her first novel,
in the Guava Orchard
published in 1998 and received
accolades from such notable
figures as Salman Rushdie. It went on to win the Betty
Trask Award, a prize given by the Society of Authors
for the best new novels by citizens of the Commonwealth
of Nations under the age of 35.
Her second book,
has been widely praised by critics throughout Asia,
Europe and the United States and won the 2006 Man
Booker Prize.
The Inheritancewon the 2006Hullabaloo, wasThe Inheritance of Loss, (2006) The Inheritance of Loss
are migration and living in between two worlds and in
between past and present. Set in the 1980s, the book
tells the story of Jemubhai Popatlal Patel, a judge living
out a disenchanted retirement in Kalimpong, a hill station
in the Himalayan foothills, and his relationship with
his granddaughter Sai. Another element in the novel is
the encroachment on their lives by a band of Nepalese
insurgents. Another concern of the novel is the life of
Biju, the son of Mr. Patel’s cook, an illegal immigrant in
New York.
: Among its main themes Shashi Tharoor
Born in London in 1956, Shashi Tharoor was educated
in Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi and the United States.
Since 1978, he has worked for the United Nations. On 1
June 2002, he was confirmed as the Under-Secretary-
General for Communications and Public Information of
the United Nations.
The youngest ever Under Secretary General to be
Vikram Seth
Kiran Desai
appointed in the UN, at the age
of 22 he joined the United Nations-
one of the most prestigious
organizations of the world- and
the world witnessed his meteoric
rise through the years. At the
age of 48, he was a candidate to
succeed Kofi Annan as the next
UN Secretary General.
Tharoor is the author of
numerous articles, short stories
and commentaries in Indian and Western publications,
and the winner of several journalism and literary awards,
including a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.
His books include
study of Indian foreign policy;
Novel
& Other Stories
Reasons of State (1982), a scholarlyThe Great Indian(1989), a political satire; The Five-Dollar Smile(1990); a second novel, Show Business (1992), which received a front-page accolade from
New York Times Book Review
motion picture titled
to the Millennium
anniversary of India’s independence. On August 13,
2001 Penguin Books (India) published Tharoor’s latest
novel
Theand was made into aBollywood; and India: From Midnight(1997), published on the 50thRiot. Salman Rushdie
He was born in Bombay (now Mumbai) on 19 June
1947. His first novel,
His second novel, the acclaimed
Grimus, was published in 1975. Midnight’s Children
in 1981. It won the Booker
Prize for Fiction, the James
Tait Black Memorial Prize (for fiction),
an Arts Council Writers’
Award and the English-Speaking
Union Award, and in 1993
was judged to have been the
‘Booker of Bookers’, the best
novel to have won the Booker
Prize for Fiction in the award’s 25-year history. The
novel narrates key events in the history of India
through the story of pickle-factory worker Saleem Sinai,
one of 1001 children born as India won independence
from Britain in 1947. The critic Malcolm Bradbury
acclaimed the novel’s achievement in
British Novel
late-twentieth-century novel.’
The publication in 1988 of his fourth novel,
Verses
and demonstrations by Islamist groups in India and
Pakistan. The book itself centres on the adventures of
two Indian actors, Gibreel and Saladin, who fall to earth
in Britain when their Air India jet explodes. It won the
Whitbread Novel Award in 1988.
Salman Rushdie continued to write and publish
books, including a children’s book,
Sea of Stories
story-telling that won the Writers’ Guild Award (Best
Children’s Book), and which he adapted for the stage.His
most recent novel,
of the third millennium, was published in 2001. He
is also the author of a travel narrative,
, was publishedThe Modern(Penguin, 1994): ‘a new start for theThe Satanic, lead to accusations of blasphemy against IslamHaroun and the(1990), a warning about the dangers ofFury, set in New York at the beginningThe Jaguar Smile (1987), an account of a visit to Nicaragua in 1986.
Salman Rushdie is also co-author (with Tim Supple
and Simon Reade) of the stage adaptation of
Children
Company in 2002.
His latest novel is
story of Max Ophuls, his killer and daughter, and a fourth
character who links them all. It was shortlisted for the
2005 Whitbread Novel Award.
Midnight’s, premiered by the Royal ShakespeareShalimar The Clown (2005), the Prizes and Awards
1981
Arts Council Writers’ Award 1981
Booker Prize for Fiction Midnight’s Children 1981
Children
English-Speaking Union Award Midnight’s 1981
James Tait Black Memorial Prize (for fiction) (joint winner)
Midnight’s Children 1983
Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist) Shame 1984
Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger (France)Shame 1988
Verses
Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist) The Satanic 1988
Whitbread Novel Award The Satanic Verses Shashi Tharoor
Salman Rushdie
1989
German Author of the Year The Satanic Verses 1992
Kurt Tucholsky Prize (Sweden) 1992
Writers’ Guild Award (Best Children’s Book) Haroun and the Sea of Stories
1993
Austrian State Prize for European Literature 1993
celebrate 25 years of the Booker Prize for Fiction)
Booker of Bookers (special award made to Midnight’s Children
1993
Prix Colette (Switzerland) 1995
Last Sigh
Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist) The Moor’s 1995
Moor’s Last Sigh
British Book Awards Author of the Year The 1995
Whitbread Novel Award The Moor’s Last Sigh 1996
Aristeion Literary Prize 1997
Mantova Literary Prize (Italy) 1998
Budapest Grand Prize for Literature (Hungary) 1999
(France)
Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres 1999
Freedom of the City, Mexico City (Mexico) 2005
Clown
Whitbread Novel Award (shortlist) Shalimar The 2006
Best Book)
Commonwealth Writers Prize (Eurasia Region,(shortlist) Shalimar The Clown Shakuntala Shrinagesh, Santha Rao, Mrs. Ruth
Prawer Jhabwala, Nayantara Sehgal, are other prominent
women novelists of the period.
r
Dutt
–––– is the first novel written by a woman, Toru - 'Bianca'
r
Author of 'A Handful of Rice' - Kamala Markandeya
r
possession are the major work of
Nectar in a sieve, A silence of Desire and - Kamala Markandeya
r
––––– is the first woman novelist in India - Toru Dutt
r
'Cry, the Peakcock' is a novel written by - Anita Desai
PROSE
Emergence of prose in English in India
The western impact, the infusion of English literature
and European thought and the resulting cross -
fertilisation have been the means of quickening the interplay
and circulation of ideas and the emergence of a
new literature, a new climate of hope and endeavour in
the country, and a bold marching towards new horizons.
From the great Ram Mohan Roy flowed divers
streams of renascent activity - religious awakening,
social reform, the new education, women's emancipation,
literary river,' political consciousness' - each carried
forward by its own dedicated spirits.
India is blessed with many great political personalities,
religious men, ascetics, men of letters and scholars.
R. Mohan Roy, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Vivekananda,
M.N.Roy Gandhiji etc. and the list goes end
less. Vivekananda's appearance and speech in 1893 at
the Chicago Parliament of Religions is part of history.
Several volumes of his complete works, published by
the Advaita Ashram comprise courses of lectures on
different Yogas, on 'Gita' and numerous other essays.
The great freedom movement brought various Orators
to the front. Rajaji , Ranade, Gokhale, Tilak, Nehru
are only a few of them. Besides orators and journalists,
there are historians, philosophers, the jurists, the biographers,
the auto-biographers, essayists, critics, scientists,
economists and sociologists.
Dr. Radhakrishnan (1888 - 1975)
Dr. Radhakrishnan is a
philosopher - Statesman with
an international reputation, a
scholar with a phenomenal
memory, a resourceful and eloquent
and effective speaker,
and a voluminous writer with
an uncanny flair for lucidity
and epigrammatic strength.
The range of his interests, the
sweep of his mind, the commendable
Catholicity of his
tastes and the temper and quality of his eloquence have
Dr. Radhakrishnan
marked this man of 'words and wisdom' a Guru for his
contemporaries.
'The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore, The
Reign of Religion in Contemporary Philosophy, Indian
Philosophy, Eastern Religion and Western thought,
the English renderings of
Pada, the Principal Upanishads, Brahma Sutra
some of his works.
his most valuable contribution to constructive
philosophy. He was indeed the greatest, gift given to
Indians and to the world.
Bhagavad Gita, DhammawereAn Idealist View of Life is unquestionably Dr. Radhakrishnan's birthday is celebrated
as Teachers' Day (September 5)
r
means,
Tagore's popular play is 'Chandalika', the title - An untouchable girl
r
Parliament of Religion was in
Vivekananda's historical speech at the Chicago - 1893
r
about the children born in the midnight hour of
India's tryst with Destiny' on 15 August '47.
Indian born Salman Rushdie's novel ––––– is - Midnight's Children
r
of
Revolutionary - Rishi - Poet; that sums up the life - Sri Aurobindo
r
the Indian Philosophy
–––––– is considered as the standard treatises on - Dr. Radha Krishnan's Indian
Philosophy' (1923, 27)
r
Dr. Radhakrishnan is a rare combination of - Philosopher - States man - Writer
- Scholar
Nirad C. Chaudhuri (1897 - 1999)
Nirad C. Chaudhuri is the 'Grand Solitary' among
Indian writers.
A passage to England, The continent of circe, To
live or not to live'
The Autobiography of an unknown Indian,are some of his works. The Autobiography made him suddenly famous. It is confessedly,
more of a national than personal
history', the environment being
given precedence over the product.
The continent of circe
as 'an essay on the peoples
of India. Apart from his shortcoming
as a writer - a sort of love
hate relationship with India and
people of India - his great merit as
an intellectual is that he is not
ever too lazy to avoid doing his
own thinking or too timid to hesitate to give outspoken
expression to his own views. He has the supreme faith
of the moral man in an amoral society.
is described r
eminent work of
The Autobiography of an unknown Indian' is an - Nirad C. Chaudhuri
r
The 'Grand Solitary' among Indian Writers - Nirad C. Chaudhuri
r
'A passage to England' is written by - Nirad C. Chaudhuri
r
on the peoples of India.
Nirad Chauduri's –––––– is described as 'an essay - The continent of Circe
Indo-Anglian Poetry
Though Indo-Anglian poetry can claim to have a
history of 150 years, the early poetry has often been
criticised for its derivative quality. Only 'echoes' could
be heard and not an authentic 'voice'. The poetry of
post Independent period has won critical recognition.
The poetry of Ezekiel, Ramanujan, Kamala Das and
Parthasarathy proved that Indo-Anglian poetry is no
longer
the Indo Anglian poetry was born under a romantic star
in the early Eighteen hundreds. It was Derozio that lisped
in the manner of Byron followed by Madhusudan Dutt
and others. The last quarter of the 19th century saw the
birth of genuine lyrical poetry in Toru Dutt. The early
decades of 20th century witnessed a rich harvest of
mystical poetry written after the romantic and Victorian
manner.
Indo -Anglian poetry has been strengthened by
'a tongue in English chains'. The tradition of Nirad C. Chaudhuri
modernist as well as neo symbolist trends. Ezekiel, Kamala
Das, Ramanujan, Lal are some of the neo-symbolists.
Today new poets outnumber the novelists and other
men of letters. It was a trickle in the fifties, a stream
during the sixties and now almost a flood.
The 'new' poets
Since the end of world war II, these has been a
visible stir everywhere. A new generation comes up
with a striking individuality of its own, a sharpness in
its features, an angularity in its gestures, a tone of defiance
in its speech, a gleam of hope in its eyes.
The Indo-Anglian poet also strived for self - expression
in English. Several of the poets in the various
regional languages - Balamani Amma, K.M. Panikkar,
Umashankar Joshi, Sri Sri V.K. Gokak, Ramdhari Singh
Dinkar, Amrita Pritam - are efficiently bilingual. In the
post 1947 period, Indo - Anglian poetry acquired a new
currency and even respectability. One grew familiar with
the names of Nizzim Ezekiel, Dom Moraes, Leo Fredricks,
A.K. Ramanujan, Shiv K. Kumar, Arun Kolatkar, Keki
Daruwalla and a few others.
The most successful of the New poets, Dom Moraes
has published five volumes - A Beginning, poems,
John Nobody, The Brass Serpent and poems and excellent
biographical works
Home
Son of My Father and Never at. Nizzim Ezekiel (1924 - 2004)
Another significant new poet has,
change, Sixty poems, The Third, The unfinished man,
The exact name,
take pains, to cultivate reticence, to pursue the profession
of poetry with a sense of commitment, Ezekiel's
poems are lucid, and are splendidly evocative and satisfyingly
sensuous. The recurring note in Ezekiel's recent
poems is the hurt that urban civilization inflicts on
modern man dehumanizing him, and subjecting his virtues
to population and devaluation.
He is a painstaking craftsman in whose poems we
find form. His poetry is simple, introspective and analytical
. He is highly disciplined and unpretentions, His
skilful use of prosody, his restraint, conversational style,
his mastery of irony, his purity of diction and perfect
control over his 'emotions place him on the top of the
modern, Indo - Anglian poets.
is one of his best poems - A simple narrative poem in
which superstitious practices still out grown one juxtaposed
with the scientific developments.
A Time toto his credit. An artist who is willing toThe night of the Scorpion, r
as crucial point of departure in the history of
Indo-Anglian poetry
–––––– and ––––– and ––––– may be regarded - Ezekiel's An Exact Name' (1965)
- Ramanujan's 'The striders'
(1966)
- Kamala Das's 'Summer in
Calcutta' (1995)
r
by
'Night of the Scorpion' is a simple narrative poem - Nizzim Ezekiel
r
The recurring note in Ezekiel's poem - The pain that urbanism inflicts
on modern man
r
–––– is an incident from the rustic life - The theme of the poem 'Night of
the Scorpion'.
r
for the comic
Ezekiel uses ––– genre of poems reveal his flair - Indian English
A.K. Ramanujan (1929 - 1993)
The dominant theme of Ramanujan's poetry is his
preoccupation with the past, his personal as well as
racial. He is one of the most talented of the new poets.
"The striders'
(poems) are some of his great works. He settled in
Chicago, and his 'exile' there has made him consider 'a
search for one's roots' an integral part of his poetry.
There is an awareness of the presence of the past in the
present, and of the strength of a rich culture and tradition,
informs the poetry of Ramanujan. His poetry is an
attempt to repossess the usable past at personal and
racial levels. 'Snakes, River, conventions of Despair,
Small scale reflection are some of his beautiful poems.
Authentic poetic language is the hallmark of Ramanujan's
poetry. He has an enduring concern with Tamil
classical poetry and medieval Kannada literature, his
poetic technique has absorbed the motifs and stylistic
devices of both. All this results in a forceful, meaningful,
personal voice and Ramanujan has established himself
as one of the most talented of the new Indo-Anglian
poets.
a collection of poems in Tamil and Relations, R. Parthasarathy (1934-)
Of the poets who cultivate an extreme austerity in
style, Parthasarathy is probably the most successful.
'The first step-poems, 1956-66, is his poetic collection.
His best poems reveal an uncommon talent and a sensibility
that deliberately puts shackles on itself. His most
ambitious effort is
Towards an Understanding of India. He is a conscientious artist with a scrupulous aesthetic
taste. His poetry is the articulation of his predicament,
of an exile who has alienated himself from his
culture. His poetry is an intense search for identity, a
search for roots in his nature, culture environment and
language. The search is realised by an objective probing
of the personal as well as the historic past. The
inner conflicts that are inherent in such a search provide
the basic tension of his poetry.
r
The dominant theme of Ramanujan's poetry is - Preoccupation with the past.
r
The striders is a poetic collection of - A.K.Ramanujan
r
poetry
Authentic poetic language is the hallmark of ––– - A.K.Ramanujan's
r
of ––––– poetry
'A search for one's roots' is an important factor - Ramanujan's
r
prestigious work of
'Towards an understanding of India' is the - R. Parthasarathy
Kamala Das (1934 -)
Kamala Das is perhaps the most interesting and
appealing among Indo-English poets. Both her life and
her works are so controversial and unconventional as
to invite comments and criticism from readers and critics.
Kamala occupies a position of considerable importance
in post independent Indian writing in English.
Ever since the publication of
1965, her first volume of poetry
in English, She has wielded
great influence as a leading poet
constituting the modern trend
of Indian poetry in English. She
is a confessional poet speaking
out her intimate private experiences
with astonishing honesty
and brutal frankness.
She began writing under
the pen name Madhavikutty, a
bilingual writer. She has written 30 novels in Malayalam.
Her poetic collections,
Descendants, The old play house and other poems
short story collection
and other stories'
Her skill as an artist perfectly matched with her deep
insight into human predicaments - social and psychological.
She is basically a poet of love, an emancipated
poet, feminist, and an iconoclast.
Summer in Calcutta inSummer in Calcutta, The,A Doll for the child Prostituteand My Story her autobiography. r
Kamala Das's poems are mainly - Autobiographical
r
her works
The place which Kamala Das always refers to in - Malabar
r
poetry are -
The two dominating themes of Kamala Das's - The Search for identity as a
woman
- Nostalgia for her ancestral home
in Malabar
r
Kamala Das is a –––– poet - Confessional
r
'My story' is the autobiography of - Kamala Das
r
Madhavikutty is the pen name of - Kamala Das
r
Kamala Das is an ––––– poet - Emancipated
Jayanta Mahapatra
Mahapatra is a very subjective poet, draws his
images from his experiences in life which makes him
difficult to interpret. His four volumes of verse are titled
Kamala Das
Close The sky, Ten by Ten, Swayamvara and other poems,
Counter measures, A rain of Rites
most important concept in Mahapatra's poems. Some
of his poems are the genuine products of his imaginative
apprehension of evil in the Indian society.
Gieve Patel, A.K. Mehrotra , Lal, K Satchidanandan,
Priya Sarukkai Chabria and Marylin Noronha, GJV
Prasad are some of the other notable writers.
'. Silence is the Shashi Deshpande (1938-)
Shashi Despande's first novel The
Terrors
her mother to become a Doctor, defies her caste to
marry outside, and defies social conventions by using
Boozie to advance her career. Sarita and Manu had
made a love marriage, but something soon went wrong.
He is a failure and she has to earn both bread and butter
for the family, her liaison with Boozie means nothing.
Since he is after all impotent, but it gives a vicous sadistic
twist to Manu's relations with her. She escapes for a
while to her parental home, and her mother's curse echoes
still and the ghosts of the past will not leave her in
peace. She strips herself of her self deceptions, guilt
complexes, and emotive illusions, and Shashi Deshpande's
language itself flickers like a candle, and blobs
of remembrance melt and form icicles of furrowing
thoughts. Sarita cannot forget her children or the sick
needing her expert attention, and so she decides to face
her home again. In this unpredictable world, even total
despair can open up a new spring of elemental self confidence
Sarita says . "If we can't believe in ourselves,
we're sunk".
Shashi Deshpande began her literary career in 1970.
At first, she wrote short stories. She wrote four children's
books.
novel. Her other novels are
Today, Come up and Be Dead
Dark holds nopresents an unusual character, Sarita who defiesThe Dark holds No Terrors is her firstThat Long Silence, If I Dieand Roots and Shadows.