Indian English literature (IEL), also referred to as Indian Writing in English (IWE), is the body of work by writers in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

who write in the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

but whose native or co-native language could be one of the numerous

languages of India Languages spoken in India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-European languages spoken by 78.05% of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 19.64% of Indians, both families together are sometimes known ...

. Its early history began with the works of

Henry Louis Vivian Derozio Henry Louis Vivian Derozio (18 April 1809 – 26 December 1831) was an Indian poet and assistant headmaster of Hindu College, Kolkata. He was a radical thinker of his time and one of the first Indian educators to disseminate Western learning an ...

and

Michael Madhusudan Dutt Michael Madhusudan Dutt ((Bengali: মাইকেল মধুসূদন দত্ত); (25 January 1824 – 29 June 1873) was a Bengali poet and playwright. He is considered one of the pioneers of Bengali literature. Early life Dutt ...

followed by

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

and

Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo (born Aurobindo Ghose; 15 August 1872 – 5 December 1950) was an Indian philosopher, yogi, maharishi, poet, and Indian nationalist. He was also a journalist, editing newspapers such as ''Vande Mataram''. He joined the ...

R. K. Narayan Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami (10 October 1906 – 13 May 2001) was an Indian writer known for his work set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. He was a leading author of early Indian literature in English along with Mul ...

Mulk Raj Anand Mulk Raj Anand (12 December 1905 – 28 September 2004) was an Indian writer in English, recognised for his depiction of the lives of the poorer castes in traditional Indian society. One of the pioneers of Indo-Anglian fiction, he, togethe ...

and

Raja Rao Raja Rao (8 November 1908 – 8 July 2006) was an Indian-American writer of English-language novels and short stories, whose works are deeply rooted in metaphysics. '' The Serpent and the Rope'' (1960), a semi-autobiographical novel recounting a ...

contributed to the growth and popularity of Indian English fiction in the 1930s. It is also associated, in some cases, with the works of members of the

Indian diaspora Overseas Indians (IAST: ), officially Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) are Indians who live outside of the Republic of India. According to the Government of India, ''Non-Resident Indians'' are citizens of Indi ...

who subsequently compose works in English. It is frequently referred to as Indo-Anglian literature. (''Indo-Anglian'' is a specific term in the sole context of writing that should not be confused with ''

Anglo-Indian Anglo-Indian people fall into two different groups: those with mixed Indian and British ancestry, and people of British descent born or residing in India. The latter sense is now mainly historical, but confusions can arise. The ''Oxford English ...

''). Although some Indo-Anglian works may be classified under the genre of

postcolonial literature Postcolonial literature is the literature by people from formerly colonized countries. It exists on all continents except Antarctica. Postcolonial literature often addresses the problems and consequences of the decolonization of a country, especia ...

, the repertoire of Indian English literature encompasses a wide variety of themes and ideologies, from the late eighteenth-century to the present day, and thereby eludes easy categorization.

History

IEL has a relatively recent history, being nearly two centuries old. The first book written by an Indian in English was ''The Travels of Dean Mahomet'', a travel narrative by

Sake Dean Mahomed Sake Dean Mahomed (1759–1851) was an Bengali traveller, surgeon, entrepreneur, and one of the most notable early non-European immigrants to the Western World. Due to non-standard transliteration, his name is often spelled in various ways. His ...

, published in England in 1794. IEL, in its early stages had influence from The Western

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

. Early Indian writers used English unadulterated by Indian words to convey an experience which was essentially Indian.

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (also Chattopadhayay) CIE (26 or 27 June 1838 – 8 April 1894) was an Indian novelist, poet, Essayist and journalist.Staff writer"Bankim Chandra: The First Prominent Bengali Novelist" ''The Daily Star'', 30 June 2011 ...

(1838–1894) wrote ''Rajmohan's Wife'' and published it in 1864, making it the first Indian novel written in English. Lal Behari Dey's ''Govinda Samanta or the History of a Bengali Raiyat'' was published in 1874 and the same author's ''Folk Tales of Bengal: Life's Secret'' was published in 1912. ''Bianca, or The Young Spanish Maiden'' (1878) by

Toru Dutt Toru Dutt ( bn, তরু দত্ত; 4 March 1856 – 30 August 1877) was an Indian Bengali translator and poet from British India, who wrote in English and French. She is among the founding figures of Indo-Anglian literature, alongside Henry ...

was the first novel written by an Indian woman. Both Toru Dutt and Krupabai Satthianandhan, two promising Indian English writers of the nineteenth century died untimely in their early twenties and thirties respectively. Satthianadhan's autobiographical novel ''Saguna: A Story of Native Christian Life'' was published serially in ''The Madras Christian College Magazine'' from 1887 to 1888. The only other novel by Satthianandhan is ''Kamala: The Story of a Hindu Life'' (1894). The non-fictional body of prose-works, consisting of letters, diaries, political manifesto, articles, speeches, philosophical works etc. in Indian English literature of the nineteenth and the early twentieth century, is rich and varied. The speeches of Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore, Chittaranjan Das, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi and Subhas Chandra Bose, to name only a few, shaped the destiny of modern India and also the destiny of English language in India (Auddy, 9-10). Gandhi's ''Indian Home Rule or Hind Swaraj'' (1910) was written in an indigenised variety of the English language and challenged successfully 'the hegemony of Standard English' (Auddy, 169) even before R. K. Narayan, M. R. Anand and Raja Rao.

(1908–2006), Indian philosopher and writer, authored ''Kanthapura'' and ''The Serpent and the Rope'', which are Indian in terms of their storytelling qualities.

Kisari Mohan Ganguli Kisari Mohan Ganguli (also K. M. Ganguli) was an Indian translator known for being the first to provide a complete translation of the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata in English. His translation was published as ''The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vy ...

translated the

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...

into English, the only time the epic has ever been translated in its entirety into a European language.

(1861–1941) wrote in Bengali and English and was responsible for the translations of his own work into English.

Dhan Gopal Mukerji Dhan Gopal Mukerji ( bn, ধন গোপাল মুখোপাধ্যায়; ''Dhan Gōpāl Mukhōpādhyāy'') (6 July 1890 – 14 July 1936) was the first successful Indian man of letters in the United States and won a Newbery Med ...

(1890–1936) was the first Indian author to win a literary award in the United States.

Nirad C. Chaudhuri Nirad Chandra Chaudhuri CBE (23 November 1897 – 1 August 1999) was an Indian writer. In 1990, Oxford University awarded Chaudhuri, by then a long-time resident of the city of Oxford, an Honorary Degree in Letters. In 1992, he was made an hono ...

(1897–1999), a writer of non-fiction, is best known for his ''

The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian ''The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian'' is the 1951 autobiography of Indian writer Nirad C. Chaudhuri. Written when he was around 50, it records his life from his birth in 1897 in Kishoreganj, a small town in present-day Bangladesh. The book ...

'' (1951), in which he relates his life experiences and influences.

P. Lal Purushottama Lal (28 August 1929 – 3 November 2010), commonly known as P. Lal, was an Indian poet, essayist, translator, professor and publisher. He was the founder of publishing firm Writers Workshop in Calcutta, established in 1958. Life a ...

(1929–2010), a poet, translator, publisher and essayist, founded a press in the 1950s for

Indian English Indian English (IE) is a group of English dialects spoken in the republic of India and among the Indian diaspora. English is used by the Indian government for communication, along with Hindi, as enshrined in the Constitution of India. E ...

writing,

Writers Workshop Writers Workshop is a Kolkata-based literary publisher founded by the Indian poet and scholar Purushottama Lal in 1958. It has published many new Indian authors of post-independence urban literature. Many of these authors later became widely kn ...

. Ram Nath Kak (1917–1993), a Kashmiri

veterinarian A veterinarian (vet), also known as a veterinary surgeon or veterinary physician, is a medical professional who practices veterinary medicine. They manage a wide range of health conditions and injuries in non-human animals. Along with this, vet ...

, wrote his autobiography ''Autumn Leaves'', which is one of the most vivid portraits of life in 20th century Kashmir and has become a sort of a classic.

(1906–2001) contributed over many decades and continued to write till his death. He was discovered by

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...

in the sense that the latter helped him find a publisher in England. Greene and Narayan remained close friends till the end. Similar to the way

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Word ...

used

Wessex la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons , common_name = Wessex , image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg , map_caption = S ...

, Narayan created the fictitious town of

Malgudi Malgudi is a fictional town located in Agumbe in Karnataka in the novels and short stories of R. K. Narayan. It forms the setting for most of Narayan's works. Starting with his first novel, ''Swami and Friends'', all but one of his fifteen nov ...

where he set his novels. Some criticise Narayan for the parochial, detached and closed world that he created in the face of the changing conditions in India at the times in which the stories are set. Others, such as Greene, however, feel that through Malgudi they could vividly understand the Indian experience. Narayan's evocation of small-town life and its experiences through the eyes of the endearing child protagonist Swaminathan in ''

Swami and Friends ''Swami and Friends'' is the first of a series of novels written by R. K. Narayan (1906–2001), English language novelist from India. The novel, the first book Narayan wrote, is set in British India in a fictional town called Malgudi. The second ...

'' is a good sample of his writing style. Simultaneous with Narayan's pastoral idylls, a very different writer,

(1905–2004), was similarly gaining recognition for his writing set in rural India, but his stories were harsher, and engaged, sometimes brutally, with divisions of caste, class and religion. According to writer

Lakshmi Holmström Lakshmi Holmström MBE (1 June 1935 – 6 May 2016Amanda Hopkinson"Lakshmi Holmström obituary" ''The Guardian'', 18 May 2016.) was an Indian-British writer, literary critic, and translator of Tamil fiction into English. Her most prominent wor ...

, "The writers of the 1930s were fortunate because after many years of use, English had become an Indian language used widely and at different levels of society, and therefore they could experiment more boldly and from a more secure position." Kamala Markandeya is an early writer in IEL who has often grouped with the trinity of R.K. Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao. The contributions of

Manoj Das Manoj Das (27 February 1934 – 27 April 2021) was an Indian author who wrote in Odia and English. In 2000, Manoj Das was awarded the Saraswati Samman. He was awarded Padma Shri in 2001, the fourth-highest Civilian Award in India, Padma Bhusan ...

and Manohar Malgoankar to growth of IEL largely remains unacknowledged.

Later history

Among the later writers, the most notable is

Salman Rushdie Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Wes ...

, born in India and now living in the UK. Rushdie, with his famous work ''

Midnight's Children ''Midnight's Children'' is a 1981 novel by Indian-British writer Salman Rushdie, published by Jonathan Cape with cover design by Bill Botten, about India's transition from British colonial rule to independence and partition. It is a postcolo ...

'' (

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...

1981, Booker of Bookers 1992, and Best of the Bookers 2008), ushered in a new trend of writing. He used a hybrid language – English generously peppered with Indian terms – to convey a theme that could be seen as representing the vast canvas of India. He is usually categorised under the magic realism mode of writing most famously associated with

Gabriel García Márquez Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one ...

Nayantara Sehgal Nayantara Sahgal (born 10 May 1927) is an Indian writer who writes in English. She is a member of the Nehru–Gandhi family, the second of the three daughters born to Jawaharlal Nehru's sister, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit. She was awarded the 1986 S ...

was one of the first female Indian writers in English to receive wide recognition. Her fiction deals with India's elite responding to the crisis engendered by political change. She was awarded the 1986

Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...

for English, for her novel, ''

Rich Like Us ''Rich Like Us'' is a historical and political fiction novel by Nayantara Sahgal. Set in New Delhi during the chaotic time between 1932 and the mid-1970s, it follows the lives of two female protagonists, Rose and Sonali, and their fight to live ...

'' (1985), by the

Sahitya Akademi The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of, the Indian government. Its of ...

, India's National Academy of Letters.

Anita Desai Anita Desai, born Anita Mazumdar (born 24 June 1937) is an Indian novelist and the Emerita John E. Burchard Professor of Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As a writer she has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize three t ...

, who was shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times, received a Sahitya Akademi Award in 1978 for her novel ''Fire on the Mountain'' and a British

Guardian Prize The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize or Guardian Award was a literary award that annual recognised one fiction book written for children or young adults (at least age eight) and published in the United Kingdom. It was conferred upon the author ...

for ''The Village by the Sea''. Her daughter

Kiran Desai Kiran Desai (born 3 September 1971) is an Indian author. Her novel ''The Inheritance of Loss'' won the 2006 Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award. In January 2015, The Economic Times listed her as one of 20 "most ...

won the 2006

Man Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...

for her second novel, ''

The Inheritance of Loss ''The Inheritance of Loss'' is the second novel by Indian author Kiran Desai. It was first published in 2006. It won a number of awards, including the Booker Prize for that year, the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award in 2007, and the 20 ...

''.

Ruskin Bond Ruskin Bond (born 19 May 1934) is an Anglo-Indian author . His first novel, ''The Room on the Roof'', was published in 1956, and it received the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1957. Bond has authored more than 500 short stories, essays, and n ...

received Sahitya Akademi Award for his collection of short stories ''Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra'' in 1992. He is also the author of a historical novel '' A Flight of Pigeons'', which is based on an episode during the

Indian Rebellion of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the fo ...

Vikram Seth Vikram Seth (born 20 June 1952) is an Indian novelist and poet. He has written several novels and poetry books. He has won several awards such as Padma Shri, Sahitya Academy Award, Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, WH Smith Literary Award and Crosswor ...

, author of '' The Golden Gate'' (1986) and ''

A Suitable Boy ''A Suitable Boy'' is a novel by Vikram Seth, published in 1993. With 1,349 pages (1,488 pages in paperback), the English-language book is one of the longest novels published in a single volume. ''A Suitable Boy'' is set in a newly post-inde ...

'' (1994) is a writer who uses a purer English and more realistic themes. Being a self-confessed fan of

Jane Austen Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...

, his attention is on the story, its details and its twists and turns. Vikram Seth is notable both as an accomplished novelist and a prolific poet. Another writer who has contributed immensely to the Indian English Literature is

Amitav Ghosh Amitav Ghosh (born 11 July 1956)Ghosh, Amitav
, ''Encyclopædia Britannica''

who is the author of '' The Circle of Reason'' (his 1986

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...

), ''

The Shadow Lines ''The Shadow Lines'' (1988) is a Sahitya Akademi Award-winning novel by Indian writer Amitav Ghosh. It is a book that captures perspective of time and events, of lines that bring people together and hold them apart; lines that are clearly vis ...

'' (1988), ''

The Calcutta Chromosome ''The Calcutta Chromosome'' is a 1995 English language, English-language novel by Indian author Amitav Ghosh. The book, set in Calcutta and New York City at some unspecified time in the future, is a medical Thriller (genre), thriller that drama ...

'' (1995), ''

The Glass Palace ''The Glass Palace'' is a 2000 historical novel by Indian writer Amitav Ghosh. The novel is set in Burma, Bengal, India, and Malaya, spans a century from the Third Anglo-Burmese War and the consequent fall of the Konbaung Dynasty in Mandalay, thr ...

'' (2000), ''

The Hungry Tide ''The Hungry Tide'' (2004) is the fourth novel by Indian-born author, Amitav Ghosh. Set in the Sundarbans, it follows an unlikely trio who travel up river together to find the rare Irrawaddy dolphin. It won the 2004 Hutch Crossword Book Award ...

'' (2004), and ''

Sea of Poppies ''Sea of Poppies'' (2008) is a novel by Indian novelist Amitav Ghosh which was Short list, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2008 in literature, 2008. It is the first volume of the Ibis trilogy. In the words of Rajnish Mishra, "the Ibis tr ...

'' (2008), the first volume of ''The Ibis'' trilogy, set in the 1830s, just before the

Opium War The First Opium War (), also known as the Opium War or the Anglo-Sino War was a series of military engagements fought between Britain and the Qing dynasty of China between 1839 and 1842. The immediate issue was the Chinese enforcement of the ...

, which encapsulates the colonial history of the East. Ghosh's latest work of fiction is ''

River of Smoke ''River of Smoke'' (2011) is a novel by Indian novelist Amitav Ghosh. It is the second volume of the Ibis trilogy. Synopsis The promotional text refers to the storyline which can be summarized as follows: After the incidents on Ibis, which was ca ...

'' (2011), the second volume of ''The Ibis'' trilogy.

Rohinton Mistry Rohinton Mistry (born 1952) is an Indian-born Canadian writer. He has been the recipient of many awards including the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2012. Each of his first three novels were shortlisted for the Booker Prize. His ...

is an India born Canadian author who is a

Neustadt International Prize for Literature The Neustadt International Prize for Literature is a biennial award for literature sponsored by the University of Oklahoma and its international literary publication, ''World Literature Today''. It is considered one of the more prestigious inte ...

laureate (2012). His first book

Tales from Firozsha Baag ''Tales From Firozsha Baag'' is a collection of 11 short stories by Rohinton Mistry about the residents of Firozsha Baag, a Parsi-dominated apartment complex in Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995 ...

(1987) published by

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Such a Long Journey (1991) and

A Fine Balance ''A Fine Balance'' is the second novel by Rohinton Mistry, published by McClelland and Stewart in 1995. Set in "an unidentified city" in India, initially in 1975 and later in 1984 during the turmoil of The Emergency, the book focuses on four ...

(1995) earned him great acclaim. In a similar vein,

M. G. Vassanji Moyez G. Vassanji (born 30 May 1950 in Kenya) is a Canadian novelist and editor, who writes under the name M. G. Vassanji. Vassanji's work has been translated into several languages. As of 2020, he has published nine novels, as well as two sho ...

was born in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

of Indian descent and emigrated to Canada; he twice won the

Giller Prize The Giller Prize (sponsored as the Scotiabank Giller Prize), is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English (including translation) the previous year, after an annual juried competition be ...

, for ''

The Book of Secrets ''The Book of Secrets'' is the sixth studio album by Loreena McKennitt, released in 1997. It reached #17 on the Billboard 200. Its single "The Mummers' Dance," remixed by DNA, was released during the winter of 1997–98, and peaked at #18 on th ...

'' (1994) and ''

The In-Between World of Vikram Lall ''The In-Between World of Vikram Lall'' is a novel by M. G. Vassanji, published in 2003 by Doubleday Canada. The novel won the Scotiabank Giller Prize that year and narrates a story of Vikram Lall in the colonial and post-colonial Kenya. The titl ...

'' (2003), as well as the

Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction The Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction is a Canadian literary award that annually recognizes one Canadian writer for a non-fiction book written in English. Since 1987 it is one of fourteen Governor General's Awards for Litera ...

for ''A Place Within: Rediscovering India'' (2008), a travelogue.

Shashi Tharoor Shashi Tharoor (; ; born 9 March 1956 in London, England ) is an Indian former international civil servant, diplomat, bureaucrat and politician, writer and public intellectual who has been serving as Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, ...

, in his ''

The Great Indian Novel ''The Great Indian Novel'' is a satirical novel by Shashi Tharoor, first published by Viking Press in 1989. It is a fictional work that takes the story of the ''Mahabharata'', the Indian epic, and recasts and resets it in the context of the In ...

'' (1989), follows a story-telling (though in a satirical) mode as in the

drawing his ideas by going back and forth in time. His work as UN official living outside India has given him a vantage point that helps construct an objective Indianness. Vikram Chandra is another author who shuffles between India and the United States and has received critical acclaim for his first novel ''Red Earth and Pouring Rain'' (1995) and collection of short stories ''Love and Longing in Bombay'' (1997). His namesake Vikram A. Chandra is a renowned journalist and the author of ''The Srinagar Conspiracy'' (2000).

Suketu Mehta Suketu Mehta is the New York-based author of ''Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found'', which won the Kiriyama Prize and the Hutch Crossword Award, and was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize, the Lettre Ulysses Prize, the BBC4 Samuel Johnson Pri ...

is another writer currently based in the United States who authored

Maximum City ''Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found'' is a narrative nonfiction book by Suketu Mehta, published in 2004, about the Indian city of Mumbai (also known as Bombay). It was published in hardcover by Random House's Alfred A. Knopf imprint. When rele ...

(2004), an autobiographical account of his experiences in the city of Mumbai. In 2008,

Aravind Adiga Aravind Adiga (born 23 October 1974) is an Indian writer and journalist. His debut novel, '' The White Tiger'', won the 2008 Man Booker Prize. Biography Early life and education Aravind Adiga was born in Madras (now Chennai) on 23 October 197 ...

received the Man Booker Prize for his debut novel

The White Tiger A white tiger is a tiger with a genetic condition affecting its pelt's pigmentation. White tiger, White Tiger or The White Tiger may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Characters * White Tiger (comics), various Marvel Comics superhero ...

. Recent writers in India such as

Arundhati Roy Suzanna Arundhati Roy (born 24 November 1961) is an Indian author best known for her novel ''The God of Small Things'' (1997), which won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997 and became the best-selling book by a non-expatriate Indian author. S ...

and

David Davidar David Davidar (born 27 September 1958) is an Indian novelist and publisher. He is the author of three published novels, ''The House of Blue Mangoes'' (2002), ''The Solitude of Emperors'' (2007), and ''Ithaca'' (2011). In parallel to his writing ...

show a direction towards contextuality and rootedness in their works. Arundhati Roy, a trained architect and the 1997 Booker prize winner for her ''

The God of Small Things ''The God of Small Things'' is a family drama novel written by Indian writer Arundhati Roy. Roy's debut novel, it is a story about the childhood experiences of fraternal twins whose lives are destroyed by the "Love Laws" prevalent in 1960s Ker ...

'', calls herself a "home grown" writer. Her award-winning book is set in the immensely physical landscape of

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

. Davidar sets his ''The House of Blue Mangoes'' in Southern Tamil Nadu. In both the books, geography and politics are integral to the narrative. In his novel Lament of Mohini (2000), Shreekumar Varma touches upon the unique matriarchal system and the ''sammandham'' system of marriage as he writes about the Namboodiris and the aristocrats of Kerala. Similarly, Arnab Jan Deka, a trained engineer and jurist, writes about both physical and ethereal existentialism on the banks of the mighty river Brahmaputra. His co-authored book of poetry with British poet-novelist Tess Joyce, appropriately titled ''A Stanza of Sunlight on the Banks of Brahmaputra'' (1983), published from both India and Britain (2009), evokes the spirit of flowing nature of life. His most recent book ''Brahmaputra and Beyond : Linking Assam to the World''(2015) made a conscious effort to connect to a world divided by racial, geographic, linguistic, cultural and political prejudices. His highly acclaimed short story collection ''The Mexican Sweetheart & other stories''(2002) was another landmark book of this genre.

Jahnavi Barua Jahnavi Barua is an Indian author from Assam. She is the author of 'Next Door', a critically acclaimed collection of short stories set in Assam with insurgency as the background. Barua lives in Bangalore, and obtained her MBBS at Gauhati Medical ...

, a Bangalore-based author from Assam has set her critically acclaimed collection of short stories ''Next Door'' on the social scenario in Assam with insurgency as the background. Most recently,
Rajeeva Nayan Pathak
(b 1972) in his romantic novel The Living Splits''' sensitizes about the people in need of organ transplantation for their survival, thus promotes organ donation an
cadaver transplantation
The stories and novels of Ratan Lal Basu reflect the conditions of tribal people and hill people of West Bengal and the adjacent states of Sikkim, Bhutan and Nepal. Many of his short stories reflect the political turmoil of West Bengal since the Naxalite movement of the 1970s. Many of his stories like ''Blue Are the Far Off Mountains'', ''The First Rain'' and ''The Magic Marble'' glorify purity of love. His novel ''Oraon and the Divine Tree'' is the story of a tribal and his love for an age old tree. In Hemingway style language the author takes the reader into the dreamland of nature and people who are inexorably associated with nature.

Debates

One of the key issues raised in this context is the superiority/inferiority of IWE (Indian Writing in English) as opposed to the literary production in the various languages of India. Key polar concepts bandied in this context are superficial/authentic, imitative/creative, shallow/deep, critical/uncritical, elitist/parochial and so on. The views of Salman Rushdie and Amit Chaudhuri expressed through their books ''The Vintage Book of Indian Writing'' and ''The Picador Book of Modern Indian Literature'' respectively essentialise this battle. Rushdie's statement in his book – "the ironic proposition that India's best writing since independence may have been done in the language of the departed imperialists is simply too much for some folks to bear" – created a lot of resentment among many writers, including writers in English. In his book, Amit Chaudhuri questions – "Can it be true that Indian writing, that endlessly rich, complex and problematic entity, is to be represented by a handful of writers who write in English, who live in England or America and whom one might have met at a party?" Chaudhuri feels that after Rushdie, IWE started employing magical realism, bagginess, non-linear narrative and hybrid language to sustain themes seen as microcosms of India and supposedly reflecting Indian conditions. He contrasts this with the works of earlier writers such as Narayan where the use of English is pure, but the deciphering of meaning needs cultural familiarity. He also feels that Indianness is a theme constructed only in IWE and does not articulate itself in the vernacular literatures. He further adds "the post-colonial novel, becomes a trope for an ideal hybridity by which the West celebrates not so much Indianness, whatever that infinitely complex thing is, but its own historical quest, its reinterpretation of itself". Some of these arguments form an integral part of what is called

postcolonial theory Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More specifically, it is a ...

. The very categorisation of IWE – as IWE or under post-colonial literature – is seen by some as limiting.

Amitav Ghosh Amitav Ghosh (born 11 July 1956)Ghosh, Amitav
, ''Encyclopædia Britannica''

made his views on this very clear by refusing to accept the Eurasian

Commonwealth Writers Prize Commonwealth Foundation presented a number of prizes between 1987 and 2011. The main award was called the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was composed of two prizes: the Best Book Prize (overall and regional) was awarded from 1987 to 2011; the Best ...

for his book ''

'' in 2001 and withdrawing it from the subsequent stage. The renowned writer V. S. Naipaul, a third generation Indian from Trinidad and Tobago and a Nobel prize laureate, is a person who belongs to the world and usually not classified under IWE. Naipaul evokes ideas of homeland, rootlessness and his own personal feelings towards India in many of his books. Jhumpa Lahiri, a

Pulitzer prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

winner from the U.S., is a writer uncomfortable under the label of IWE.

Poetry

Early notable poets in English include Derozio,

, Romesh Chunder Dutt,

, Sarojini Naidu, and her brother Harindranath Chattopadhyay. Notable 20th Century authors of English poetry in India include Dilip Chitre, Kamala Das, Eunice De Souza, Nissim Ezekiel,

Kersy Katrak Kersy Katrak (1936–2008) was an Indian Parsi advertising personality and poet of the 1970s. He revolutionized Indian advertising, great leeway to creatives, and managed to attract an enormous talent pool including Ajit Balakrishnan, Sudarsh ...

Shiv K. Kumar Shiv K. Kumar (16 August 1921, Lahore, British India – 1 March 2017, Hyderabad, India) was an Indian English-language poet, playwright, novelist, and short story writer. His grandfather late Tulsi Das Kumar was a school teacher and his father B ...

, Arun Kolatkar,

, Jayanta Mahapatra,

Dom Moraes Dominic Francis Moraes (19 July 1938 – 2 June 2004) was an Indian writer and poet who published nearly 30 books in English. He is widely seen as a foundational figure in Indian English literature. His poems are a meaningful and substantial c ...

, Gieve Patel, A. K. Ramanujan, Madan Gopal Gandhi, and

P C K Prem P C K Prem (P C Katoch) is an Indian poet, novelist, short story writer, editor and critic, writing in English and Hindi. He is a former academician, civil servant, and member of the Himachal Public Service Commission, Shimla. Biography P C K ...

among several others. The younger generation of poets writing in English include Abhay K, Arundhathi Subramaniam, Anju Makhija, Arnab Jan Deka, Bibhu Padhi, Ranjit Hoskote,

Sudeep Sen Sudeep Sen (born 1964) is an Indian English poet and editor. Early life He was educated at St Columba's School in Delhi and received a degree in English literature from Hindu College, University of Delhi. He received a master's degree from t ...

Smita Agarwal Smita Agarwal (born 1958) is an Indian poet and a professor of English literature at the University of Allahabad, India. Biography Smita Agarwal's poetry has appeared in journals and anthologies. In 1999 she was a writer in residence at the Un ...

Makarand Paranjape Makarand R. Paranjape (born 31 August 1960) is an Indian novelist, poet, the Director at Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla and, since 1999, a Professor of English in the Centre for English Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru Univer ...

Jeet Thayil Jeet Thayil (born 1959) is an Indian poet, novelist, librettist and musician. He is the author of several poetry collections, including ''These Errors Are Correct'' (2008), which won the Sahitya Akademi Award. His first novel, '' Narcopolis,'' ( ...

Jaydeep Sarangi Jaydeep Sarangi (Bengali: জয়দীপ ষড়ঙ্গী) is a bilingual writer, poet, and critic. Early life Jaydeep Sarangi was born on 11 December 1973 in Jhargram, West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , ...

Mani Rao Mani Rao (born 28 February 1965) is an Indian poet and independent scholar, writing in English. Biography Mani Rao has authored twelve poetry collections and three books in translation from Sanskrit including the works of Kalidasa, a translation ...

Jerry Pinto Jerry Pinto (born 1966) is a Mumbai-based Indian English poet, novelist, short story writer, translator, as well as journalist. Pinto's works include '' Helen: The Life and Times of an H-Bomb'' (2006), which won the Best Book on Cinema Award at ...

K. V. Dominic K. V. Dominic (born 13 February 1956), an Indian poet, short story writer, editor, and critic, writing in English. He is a retired Associate Professor of the PG & Research Department of English, Newman College, Thodupuzha, Kerala. He was awarde ...

Meena Kandasamy Ilavenil Meena Kandasamy (born 1984) is an Indian poet, fiction writer, translator and activist from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Meena published two collections of poetry, ''Touch'' (2006) and ''Ms. Militancy'' (2010). From 2001-2002, she edi ...

Nalini Priyadarshni Nalini Priyadarshni is an Indian poet and writer. Literary journals *Poetry Breakfast – Journal of poems Poetry Breakfast – Journal of poems, 2016 *Silver Birch Press I Am Waiting Series Silver Birch Press I Am Waiting Series, 31 Decem ...

Gopi Kottoor use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = , death_cause = , body_discovered = , resting_place = , resting_place_coordinates ...

, Tapan Kumar Pradhan,

Rukmini Bhaya Nair Rukmini Bhaya Nair is a linguist, poet, writer and critic of India. She won the First Prize for her poem ''kali'' in the "All India Poetry Competition" in 1990 organised by The Poetry Society (India) in collaboration with British Council. She i ...

Robin Ngangom Robin S Ngangom (born 1959) is an Indian poet and translator from Manipur, North Eastern India. Biography Robin Singh Ngangom was born in Imphal, Manipur of North Eastern India. He is a bilingual poet who writes in English and Meiteilon. He stud ...

Vihang A. Naik Vihang A. Naik or Vihang Ashokbhai Naik (2 September 1969) is a modern bilingual poet from Gujarat, India. He has authored many collections of poetry in English and Gujarati, besides translating poems from Gujarati into English. He died in the ...

, Anuradha Bhattacharyya,

K Srilata K. Srilata (also known as Srilata Krishnan) is an Indian poet, fiction writer, translator and academic based in Chennai. Her poem, ''In Santa Cruz, Diagnosed Home Sick'' won the First Prize in the All India Poetry Competition (organized by the B ...

and Nandini Sahu. Modern expatriate Indian poets writing in English include

Agha Shahid Ali Agha Shahid Ali (4 February 1949 – 8 December 2001) was an Indian-born poet who immigrated to the United States, and became affiliated with the literary movement known as New Formalism in American poetry. His collections include ''A Walk T ...

Sujata Bhatt Sujata Bhatt (born 6 May 1956) is an Indian poet. Life and career Sujata Bhatt was born in Ahmedabad, Gujarat and brought up in Pune until 1968, when she immigrated to United States with her family. She has an MFA from the University of Iowa, ...

Richard Crasta Richard Crasta ( knn, रीचर्ड क्रास्ता (Devanagari)) is an Indian American writer and novelist. He grew up in Mangalore, lived in the United States for twenty years, mostly in the New York metropolitan region, and no ...

Yuyutsu Sharma Yuyutsu Ram Dass Sharma ( ne, युयुत्सु शर्मा; born January 5, 1960) is a Nepalese-Indian poet and journalist. He was born at Nakodar, Punjab and moved to Nepal at an early age. He writes in English and Nepali. Life and ...

, Tabish Khair and

Alternative writing

India's experimental and

avant garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or 'vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical De ...

counterculture is symbolized in the Prakalpana Movement. During the last four decades this bilingual

literary movement Literary movements are a way to divide literature into categories of similar philosophical, topical, or aesthetic features, as opposed to divisions by genre or period. Like other categorizations, literary movements provide language for comparing ...

has included Richard Kostelanetz,

John M. Bennett John M. Bennett (born 1942, in Chicago) is an American experimental text, sound, and visual poet. Personal life Bennett was born in 1942 in Chicago. After World War II he spent three years of his childhood living in Japan, where his fathe ...

, Don Webb, Sheila Murphy and many others worldwide and their Indian counterparts. Vattacharja Chandan is a central figure who contrived the movement.''Songs of Kobisena'' by Steve Leblanc in ''Version 90'', PMS Cafe Press, Alston, MS, USA. Prakalpana fiction is a fusion of prose, poetry, play, essay, and pictures. An example of a Prakalpana work is Chandan's bilingual ''Cosmosphere 1'' (2011).

Notes

References

*Auddy, Ranjan Kumar. "In Search of Indian English: History,Politics and Indigenisation. London & New York: Routledge, 2020 & 978-0-367-35271 & 978-0-429-33160-2 Haq, Kaiser (ed.). ''Contemporary Indian Poetry''.Columbus: Ohio State University Press,1990. *Haq, Rubana (ed.). ''The Golden Treasury of Writers Workshop Poetry''. Kolkata: Writers Workshop, 2008. *Hoskote, Ranjit (ed.). ''Reasons for Belonging: Fourteen Contemporary Indian Poets.'' Viking/Penguin Books India, New Delhi, 2002. *Singh, Bijender. "Indian Writing in English: Critical Insights." New Delhi, Authorspress, 2014.
Indian Writing in English
, Men and Dreams in the Dhauladhar by Novels by Indian Authors
Kochery C Shibu
*Joseph, Margaret Paul. "Jasmine on a String: a Survey of Women Writing English Fiction in India." Oxford University Press, 2014. *King, Bruce Alvin. ''Modern Indian Poetry in English: Revised Edition''. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1987, rev. 2001. ("the standard work on the subject and unlikely to be surpassed" — Mehrotra, 2003). *King, Bruce Alvin. ''Three Indian Poets: Nissim Ezekiel, A K Ramanujan, Dom Moraes''. Madras: Oxford University Press, 1991. *Mehrotra, Arvind Krishna (ed.). ''The Oxford India Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian Poets''. Calcutta: Oxford University Press, 1992. *Mehrotra, Arvind Krishna (ed.). ''A History of Indian Literature in English''. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003. Distributed in India by Doaba Books Shanti Mohan House 16, Ansari Road, New Delhi. *Parthasarathy, R. (ed.). ''Ten Twentieth-Century Indian Poets (New Poetry in India)''. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1976. *Prem, PCK. ''English Poetry in India: A Comprehensive Survey of Trends and Thought Patterns'' New Delhi: Authorspress, 2011. *Reddy, T. Vasudeva. ''A Critical Survey of Indo-English Poetry'' New Delhi: Authorspress, 2016. *Roy, Pinaki. "''Encountering the West'': A Very Brief Overview of the Indian Diasporic Novelists". ''Journal of Higher Education and Research Society'' (ISSN 2321-9432) 1(1), October 2013: http://herso.org/vol-1-issue-1-oct-2013/ *Roy, Pinaki. “''Dramatic Chronicle'': A Very Brief Review of the Growth of Indian English Plays”. ''Indian Drama in English: Some Perspectives''. Ed. Kaushik, A.S. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors Pvt. Ltd., 2013 (). pp. 272–87. *Sadana, Rashmi. "Writing in English," in ''The Cambridge Companion to Modern Indian Culture''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. *Sadana, Rashmi. ''English Heart, Hindi Heartland: the Political Life of Literature in India''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012. *Shivdasani, Menka (ed.). ''Anthology of Contemporary Indian Poetry'' : USA, BigBridge.Org,

Michael Rothenberg Michael Rothenberg (1951 – 2022) was an American poet, songwriter, editor, artist, and environmentalist. Born in Miami Beach, Florida, Rothenberg received his Bachelor of Arts in English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. H ...

, 2004. *Souza, Eunice de. "Nine Indian Women Poets", Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1997. *Souza, Eunice de. ''Talking Poems: Conversations With Poets''. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999. *Souza, Eunice de. ''Early Indian Poetry in English: An Anthology : 1829-1947.'' New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2005. *Srikanth, Rajini. ''The World Next Door: South Asian American Literature and the Idea of America. Asian American History and Culture. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2004. *Mahapatra, Jayanta & Sharma, Yuyutsu (ed.). ''Ten: The New Indian Poets''. New Delhi: Nirala Publications, 1993. http://niralapublications.com/new-release-ten-the-new-indian-poets/ *Jha, Vivekananad. (ed) ''

The Dance of the Peacock ''The Dance of the Peacock: An Anthology of English Poetry from India'' is a 2013 anthology of poems written by one hundred and fifty-one poets; edited by Dr Vivekanand Jha. The one hundred and fifty-one poets include Indians and diasporic Indian ...

''. Canada: Hidden Brook Press, 2014. * {{Authority control Indian literature by language