Chapter 1 Literature is a weaponto express our views on anything and everything . It is a medium ofcommunication and expression of emotion, feeling ,problem and also creativity . Indian literature is a product ofmultilingual , multicultural and socio- historical mélange cannot be overlooked .
Today Indian literature reached its zenithof creation with the contributionof regional as well as national writers . Main developmentis form its root ,that is in the development of writingin English and the genre novels . Indo-Anglican literature contributed to the common pool of world writing in English.Indian English Literature refer to thebody of work by writers in India who writes in English and whose native or co-native language could be one of the numerous language of India. Indian English Literaturehas a relatively recent category . The first book written by an Indian in Englishwas by Sake Dean Mahomet , titled‘Travel of Dean Mahomet’ .Early Indian writersused English unadulterated by Indian words essentially Indian .
Indian writingin English are a product of the historian encounter between the two culturesIndian and western.Indian English literature originated as a necessary outcomeof the English education in India ,believing that social evils could be eliminated through hub Christian missionaries and British rulers ,especially in Bengal where the British had made their first in roads in the mid19th century . Started girls schools and 1880s Indian women started tograduate from universities . However vast mejority of girls did not attendschools because the education forwomen was mainly confined to the largestowns and cities. Later began to rise ofnovels as a form of literature . Still it set to be the genre of novel existedin India as a crude form of literature . The Early novels were the imitation ofwesterns .
It mainly concerns the realism and unfailing interest in man .It represents the cultural perspective of people . So Indian English novelisthave given their expression to their hopes and aspiration.
According to Paul Vergheese:“ A novelist , it mayne said , is in search of a unity in diversity of life and civilizationHe therefore cannot turnhis back on the social realities his time , but should crave man’sImage in his art withhis social awareness and insight intolife.”The birth of English novelin India is to some extent , result of historical , political , social ancient culturalincidence. The main themes considered in the novels are humanity like romances,tragedy, comedy. At first politics influenced very much in literature. Raja ramMohan Roy ‘s social reforms alsofavored the English language spreading thewealth information and culture available in British publication . From the appearance of R.
K.Narayan, Mulk Rajanand , Raja Rao and host of others were trying their art fictionwriting with equal facility and felicity. That had unlimited and unrestrictedthemes.
They protest against feudalism and imperialism of the period. Thereligious and mythical Indian traditions have been successfully presented theirnovels. He portrayed village life ,study about family and variant familyrelationship, conflict between tradition and modernityetc.
His best works are Malgudy Days, The Guide, Swami and Friends etc.The Indian Englishnovel originated from Indian regional language ,Bengali. It was in Bengal thata literary renaissance first manifested .
Later it developed by R.K Narayan, Mulk Rajanand etc.Until 1950s women have nofreedom to write in India. After1950s they moved frim private sphere into public. Novelists like Anita Desai, Kamala Markandaya , NayantharaSehgal, changed through their works contain seeds of future development.
Thenovel after independence got the real momentum of its development and eminentnovelists contributed for it. M.K Naik states: “ Independence IndianEnglish fiction retains the momentumwhich the novel hadgained during the GandianAge.
The tradition of social realism established earlier on a sound footing by MulkRaj Ananda is contained by novelists like Bambini Bhattacharya, ManoharMangolkar, Kushwant Singh ,who made their appearance during fifties and theearly sixties.”After gainingindependence had changes come over Indian life .The convention of socialrealism in Indian fiction established by Mulk Rajanand was handled by Bhattacharya, Malgaonkar andKushwant Singh while , AnantaNarayanan enlivened the trend of theexperimental novel by Raja Rao in this Kanthapura. Theemergence of the first body of poetry by women in India couldbe attributed to the advent of Buddhism.
Like the women poets there also asignificant school of women novelist .The growth of Indian novelist is an important feature of this period . Thereappearance on the literary scene added a new dimension to enrich India’sfreedom . The presented social realism in their novels. Many Indian womennovelists have explored female subjectivity in order to establish an identity thatis not imposed by a patriarchal society . Thus ,the theme of growing up fromchildhood to womanhood , that isa recurrent strategy . The dominant womennovelists in thisperiod are Ruth PrewarHabvala, Kamala Markandaya ,Anitha Desai.
After 1960s Indian Englishfiction is considerably changed in its themes and technique . The fiction shifted its focus from the public life theprivate sphere . The mass destruction was caused by nuclear weapons in theWorld War Second and it bought unrest and anxiety all over the world . Thissituation gave rise to psychological disorders and loss of moral values and itprofoundly disturbed man’s mentalpeace and harmony . The world literatureresponded to the new era and started to deal with different gloomy focus onsoceity. Manju Kapur another noted novelist understudy. Her novelA Married Woman which is aseductive story of a love at time of political and religious upheaval , told withsympathy and intelligence . She emphasized on the issue of patriarchy ,inter-religious marriage and family bond and male and female bond ,co-existence of put and present .
She has narrated her women protagonist as avictim of biology , gender, domestic violence and uncircumstances.There is a man withevery women and a women in every man . When mood is questioned And womanhood fragile”Anitha Desai also afeminist expressed the struggle of women in modern soceity .
Her major themeswere loss of identity Sara Joseph whois a feminist influence by women’s writing she expressed her view as: “ If there is genderdiscrimination in the soceity there will be language which denotes. , that discrimination.”Indian writing inEnglish is now developed , gaining ground rapidly . Feminist used it as aweapon to express their views against patriarchal system.
A major developmentin the modern fiction is the growth of feminist centered approach. As PatriciaMeyer Specks remarks: “ There seems to be something thatwe call women’s point of view onoutlook sufficiently distinctto be recognizable through countries. “ Many Indian novelisthave exploredfemale subjectivity in order to establish an identity which isimposed as a patriarchal soceity . The there is from childhood to womanhood developed soceity representing women ingeneral.
Shashi Deshpande’s novel represent thecontemporary modern woman’s struggle to define and attain an autonomousselfhood.Her female protagonist at great pains to free themselves from stratifyingtraditional constraints . The Independence has made women conscious of need todefine themselves , their place in soceity and their surrounding. The newgeneration novelist’s are very popular in Indian English Literature . The novelafter 1980s and 1990s began the period so called “ new fiction” .
In thisperiod a new novelists emerged . This period is also called “ third generationof Indo English novels. John Mec once said:The 1980s witnessed asecond coming for the Indian novel in English.
Its mesial seems to have been SalmanRushdie , the appearance of Midnight’sChildrenin 1981brought about a renaissance in Indian writing in Englishwhich out done that of the 1930s” Women novelist seems to sayrights of women must be presented . It means that the Indian English womenwriters say that women should be treated as a human being not as anal in family. So like Shashidesh Pande and Rama Mehta contributed this field , Anitie Myle observed: “ The novelists , some established andsome others beginning of create powerful narratives , have provided a freshre-orientation to Indian Fiction in English. Today Indian EnglishLiterature has won for international acclaim and distinction . Fiction is themost powerful form of literaryexpression and it has acquired a prestigious position in Indian EnglishLiyerature
