This book presents a reasonably comprehensive account of the development of the Indian English novel since Independence. The novel during the colonial period has a different outlook and was more concerned with the problems of the Indian people suffering under the British Yoke. After Independence the Indian writers looked at the Indian scene from the postcolonial point of view. There were new hopes, no doubt, but the problems—social, economic, religious, political and familial—that were submerged in the flood of the national movement emerged and drew attention of the creative writers. The partition, the communal riots after partition, the problem of casteism, the subjugation of women, the poverty of the illiterate masses became the focal points. Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao, R.K. Narayan, Nayantara Sahgal and Kamala Markandaya in the beginning wrote novels of social realism in the fifties.
But after the sixties, new trends emerged. Writers like Anita Desai, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Bhabani Bhattacharya, G.V. Desani, Chaman Nahal, Manohar Malgonkar and B. Rajan portrayed the picture of the post-independence Indian Society. The stream of the early fifties now turned into a broad river with new currents and cross currents. The old traditional method of novel writing gave way to modern techniques.
The Indian English novel took further strides in the eighties and the decades that followed it. Salman Rushdie can be said to be the leader of the new trend. Shashi Deshpande and Arundhati Roy followed suit.
This book divided into six Chapters surveys and discusses the major trends in the post- independence Indian English novel. The major writers discussed apart from the trio,
R.K. Narayan, Raja Rao and Mulk Raj Anand are Bhabani Bhattacharya, Nayantara Sahgal, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Anita Desai, Arundhati Roy and Kamala Markandaya.
This book will be of immense help to the students of Indian English fiction and the general reader.
Dr. B.R. Agrawal is a Senior Reader
in the Department of English, Mahila Mahavidyalaya (P.G.), C.S.J.M. Kanpur University, Kanpur. Previously, she had worked at Shri Rameshwar Das Agrawal Kanya Mahavidalaya, Hathras, Agra University, Agra. Her research papers on Indian English Fiction as well as on SAARC Literature have been published in Research Journals of repute—including The Commonwealth Review. She has organized many National Conferences as well as read papers in National Seminars. She has been Editor of College Magazines and Literary Journals. At present she is engaged in teaching and research and seven researchers are working under her supervision.
Dr. M.P. Sinha was Reader in English (1981-88) and later Professor and Head of Department of English, Kanpur University, Kanpur from 1988 to 2002. Actively engaged in research and teaching—he has produced fifteen Ph.Ds. Besides, a number of papers published in learned journals and edited books, he has three books to his credit: Methods of Research in English (1990), An Introduction to Linguistics (1993) and W.B. Yeats: His Poetry and Politics (2003). At present, he is working on his forthcoming book A College English Grammar and Composition.
