A Clash between Male Chauvinism and Existential Concerns

Abstract

Out of evil cometh good.” one of the important consequences of colonialism in India is the birth of Indian English literature. The process through which it developed had three distinct stages. In the first stage there was admiration and imitation of the Western models. After the first flush was over, a reaction set in. That was the second stage, The stage of resentment and rebellion. This naturally led to the third stage—the one we are passing through—the stage of self-discovery and self-assertion. The writers now draw on the rich cultural heritage of India and at the same time explore its contemporary relevance. A writer of an independent country cannot afford to lose touch with social reality and he must understand, transcribe and recreate it in Verbal artefact. The task is rendered more difficult because the Indian English writers are obliged to write in a language they are not born into. But the writers have remarkably overcome all these difficulties and, looking at the achievements of the Indian English writers, it can be definitely claimed that Indian writing in English has come of age and has completely got over ‘the anxiety of influence.’ The nineteen essays that constitute this volume cover a wide range of authors and subjects. Starting with Nirad C. Chaudhuri, one of the greatest thinkers and most controversial writers of the last century, the essays shed new lights on different aspects of the makers of Indian English literature: Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan, Manohar Malgaonkar, Nayantara Sahgal, bhabani Bhattacharya, kasthuri sreenivasan, Vikram Seth, Kamala mark an day a, Anita Desai, Arundhati Roy, a.K. Ramanujan and Kamala Das. Since Indian writing in English is prescribed in most of the universities in India, both the teachers and the students will find this volume very useful and anybody interested in Indian writing in English will also find these luminous essays intellectually stimulating.