Indian fiction in English now enjoys a major presence across the world. From its humble beginnings in the thirties it has come a long way to emerge as a serious contender to some of the most coveted literary prizes in the world. In terms of popularity and market presence it has experienced phenomenal success in the recent years. While it behoves well to celebrate its success and revel in its glory, we should also stop to enquire into its strengths and weaknesses, its achievements and failures and its present status and future prospects standing as we do on the threshold of the twenty first century. The underlying purpose of Indian Fiction in English, therefore, is to attempt a fairly comprehensive ‘turn of the century stocktaking’ of Indian fiction in English.
The anthology puts together incisive and highly rated articles on almost all the important Indian novelists in English. Starting with the three pioneers, namely Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan and Raja Rao, it goes on to include perceptive and analytical articles on the second generation novelists such as Manohar Malgonkar, Bhabani Bhattacharya, Arun Joshi, Anita Desai, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Kamala Markandaya and Nayantara Sahgal and finally, it attempts an assessment of the relatively recent entrants into the field like Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh, Bharati Mukherjee, Rukun Advani and Boman Desai.
Among the contributors are some of the most respected scholars in the field of English studies in India: K.K Sharma, Saros Cowasjee, Alastair Niven, H.H. Anniah Gowda, G.S. Amur, Ayyappa Paniker, M. Sivaramkrishana, Vasanth A. Shahane, Shiv K. Kumar and S. Krishna Sarma.
Professor P. Mallikarjuna Rao is the Head of the Department of English at Kakatiya University, Warangal, Andhra Pradesh. Earlier, he worked for two years as Professor at Regional Institute of English, Bangalore. He currently edits Kakatiya Journal of English Studies. Prof. Rao’s articles have appeared in leading journals like New Quest and reference works abroad. Being interested in American, Canadian and African fiction and Indian Writing in English, he frequently writes on these literatures. He has also edited a number of textbooks.
Prof. Rao is the external member on the Boards of Studies of Osmania University, Hyderabad, and Amravati University, Maharashtra. He is on the visiting faculty of Amravati University and C.I.E.F.L., Hyderabad.
Dr. M. Rajeshwar is an Assistant Professor of English at Kakatiya University, Warangal, Andhra Pradesh. He has been a university topper all through his post-graduate studies.
Dr. Rajeshwar’s first book The Novels of Wole Soyinka, has been hailed as a signal contribution to the Soyinka scholarship. His second book Indian Women Novelists and Psychoanalysis is the first full-length psychoanalytic study of Indian fiction in English. He has published dozens of articles in reputed journals like New Quest, The Journal of Indian Writing in English, Revaluations and Indian Literature. Some of these articles have been repeatedly reprinted in various anthologies.
Dr. Rajeshwar has vast editorial experience. He had been the Associate Editor of Kakatiya Journal of English Studies for several years. Postmodernism and English Literature, which he co-edited, has been released recently.
Dr. Rajeshwar is keenly interested in translation. He has published many Telugu short stores in English translation. His full-length work of translation Lifescapes: Telugu Short Stories by Naveen, has been accorded wide recognition.
