Indian English Literature Exam Notes

Indian English Literature - Krishna Sharma

Useful for UGC NET, SET/SLET, TGT PGT, M.A. PHD Exams etc.

  • © 2019 All rights reserved.
  • No reproduction without permission except for quotations in book reviews.
  • Work of fiction; resemblance to actual persons or events coincidental.
  • Dedicated to the author's parents.

About the Author: Krishna Sharma

  • Educator and writer from Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, India.
  • Bachelor's and Master's from Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut.
  • Known for novella ‘Why Modi Became Saint (2019)’.
  • Assistant Professor of English literature.
  • Published research papers and articles in national and international journals.
  • Books include ‘Indian English Literature (2019)’, ‘American Literature (2020)’, Sexual Life: Secrets of Enjoyment, Worship of Trees: A Way to God.
  • Hindi works: ‘Yon Jeewan ke Anand ka Rahsyay’ and ‘Ped Podho ki Puja’.
  • Guiding students for competitive examinations.
  • Reachable via Twitter and Instagram.

Acknowledgement

  • Acknowledges support and encouragement from parents.
  • Gratitude to Nikki, true friend and inspiration.
  • Thanks to Keshav Sharma, an Engineer, for support and inspiration.
  • Gratitude to scholars in libraries and all those who helped and inspired.

Preface

  • Few books satisfy the needs of Indian English literature students, especially those preparing for competitive exams like NET/JRF.
  • This book aims to systematically present Indian English literature for clear understanding.
  • Covers important writers in India.
  • Up-to-date knowledge provided, with suggestions for improvement welcomed.
  • Regards to parents, family, and friends.

Unit I - Legends of Indian English Literature

  • Writers in this section are considered legends, with unforgettable contributions.
  • They struggled to ensure a pleasant life for their countrymen.
  • English is a foreign language that has significantly impacted India, especially in education and literature.
  • Indian writers in English have various native languages.
  • Indian English literature is linked to writers of the Indian diaspora.
  • Early works focused on political writing, like Raja Ram Mohan Roy’s works.
  • Aurobindo Ghose: outstanding Indo-Anglican; Savitri (epic), The Life Divine (prose).
  • Ravindra Nath Tagore: First Asian to win the Nobel Prize; attracted intellectuals worldwide.
  • Sarojini Naidu (Nightingale of India): Rendered familiar things with color and romance; works include The Golden Threshold, The Bird of Time, The Broken Wings.

Novelists

  • Mulk Raj Anand: Novels about the underprivileged (e.g., Coolie, Untouchable, The Big Heart).
  • R.K. Narayan: Famous for the imaginary town 'Malgudi' (e.g., Swami and Friends, The Dark Room, The Guide, Waiting for Mahatama, The Man Eater of Malgudi); humorous style.
  • Raja Rao: Prominent writer with famous works like Kanthapura, The Serpent and the Rope, and The Cat and the Shakespeare; also a short story writer.
  • Khushwant Singh (Train to Pakistan) and Bhabani Bhattacharya (So Many Hungers, He Who Rides Tiger, Music for Mohini) are other famous Indian novelists.
  • Salman Rushdie: Won Booker Prize for Midnight’s Children; faced ‘Fatwa’ for Satanic Verses.

Poets

  • Mid-20th century saw the rise of poets like Nissim Ezekiel and AK Ramanujan.
  • Female figures: Kamla Das, Toru Dutt, Amrita Pritam.
  • Toru Dutt: Keatsian style; ‘Our Casuarina Tree’ is her famous poem.
  • Kamla Das: Confessional poet; works include My Grandmother’s House, Alphabet of Lust, and My Story.
  • Amrita Pritam: Prominent Punjabi poet; The Pinjar is among her best works.
  • Early female writers paved the way for women's rights.
  • These writers blend Indian phrases with English words.
  • Indian writers contribute significantly to world literature and are gaining critical and commercial fame.

Nissim Ezekiel (1924-2004)

  • Indian Jewish poet, playwright, and critic from Bombay, Maharashtra.
  • Father was a professor, and mother was a school principal.
  • Belonged to Mumbai’s Marathi-speaking Jewish community (Bene Israel).
  • Acclaimed as the father of post-independence Indian English verse; started modernity in Indian English poetry.
  • Contemporary poets followed his simple, conversational style and selection of themes.
  • A ‘Protean Figure’ in literature, with versatile genius in poetry, plays, criticism, journalism, and translation.
  • Traveled widely and lectured in the U.S.A, Australia, and England.
  • Professor and Head of the Department of English at Mumbai University.
  • Known as the Psychologist and poet of the mind.
  • Explored human mind and revealed conscious and subconscious thoughts.
  • Poems like ‘Case Study’ and ‘London’ involve self-exploration.
  • ‘Island’ shows the search for self and acceptance of the environment.
  • Satyanarain Singh: Ezekiel called “a pilgrim with a sense of commitment”.
  • His poems embody views about metaphysics, ethics, and principles of life.
  • Believed man can only know the Supreme Being through revelation.
  • Editor of several journals, encouraging poetry, plays, and criticism.
  • Influenced by Rilke and W.B. Yeats.
  • Treated poetry as ‘the record of the mind’s growth’.
  • Topped University of Bombay in M.A. English literature, winning the R.K. Lagu Prize.
  • Secretary of the Indian P.E.N from 1963 to 1966 and 1968 to 1972.
  • Conducted courses in art appreciation and programmed for Bombay Television.
  • Tour of the United States on an invitation from the U. S. Government in 1974.
  • Won Sahitya Akademi Award in 1983 for “Latter Day Psalms” poetry collection.
  • Enriched and established Indian English literature beyond spiritual and orientalist themes.
  • His poem “Night of the Scorpion” is study material in schools.
  • Often considered the father of Modern Indian English poetry.
  • Honoured with the Padamshri Award in 1988.
  • Works: Time to Change, Sixty Poems, The Discovery of India, The Third, The Unfinished Man, The Exact Name, Snakeskin and Others Poems, Hymns In Darkness, Latter – Day Psalms, Collected Poems, The Three Plays, Do Not Call It Suicide, Naipaul’s Indian and Mine.
Poems
  • The couple, A Time To Change, For Elkana, Soap, In the Country Cot, Night of the Scorpion, Good Bye Party for Miss Pushpa T.S., Background, Casually, Poet Lover and Bird Watcher, Enterprise, Island, The Professor, Marriage, The Paradise Flycatcher, Entertainment.
NIGHT OF THE SCORPION
  • Details a night when Ezekiel’s mother was stung by a scorpion.
  • Describes the villagers' reactions, beliefs, and attempts to save her.
  • Father's sceptic, rationalist attempts to use every method.
  • Mother expresses gratitude to be bitten instead of her children.

KAMLA DAS (1934 – 2009)

  • Indian English Poet and Malayalam author from Kerala.
  • Popularly known by her Pen name Madhavi Kutty.
  • Born in Thrissur Kerala, spent childhood in Kolkata.
  • Grew up in a family of artists, felt ignored and unloved.
  • Style and content departed from 19th-century Romantic ideas of love.
  • Content includes emotional and sexual problems, and young motherhood.
  • Broke with conventions in personal life; free treatment of female sexuality.
  • Said poetry does not sell well in India.
  • A confessional poet compared to Anne Sexton and Robert Lowell.
  • ‘The Times’ called her “the mother of modern English Indian Poetry”.
  • Converted to Islam and named herself Surayya Begum.
  • Asserted her identity against hypocritical man-woman relationships.
  • Celebrated the experience of self, love-despair, anguish, failure, and disgust.
  • Called the Indian Monroe, writings titillating and seductive.
  • Poems explore the struggle for power and autonomy by women poets.
  • Forced expression of women's problems made her controversial poet.
Works:
  • Alphabet of Lust (novel), My Story (autobiography), A Doll For the Child Prostitute (stories), Padmavati the Harlote and other stories.
Poems:
  • The Descendants, The Old Play House And Other Poems, The Strange Time, Collected Poems, Anamalai Poems, Only The Soul Knows How To Singh, My Mother At Sixty -Six, Ya Allah, Tonight, This Savage Rite, Summer in Calcutta, The Sirens

A.K RAMANUJAN (1929-1993)

  • Attipate Krishnaswami Ramanujan was an Indian poet and scholar.
  • Born in Mysore in 1929.
  • Father was an astronomers and professor of Mathematics at Mysore University.
  • Brother A.K.Srinivasan was also a writer.
  • Critical work in Indian folklore and translation of Indian classical literature are highly regarded around the world.
  • Considered to be one of the cornerstones of Indio –American poetry, with his poems being on exploration of immigrant life.
  • The Striders’, ‘Relations’ and ‘Selected Poems’ have been praised by the literary critics for the succinct expression and originality.
  • He says that with the passage of time, the individual is prone to see the law of Karma in all changes around him.
  • Ramanujan’s use of irony is most evident in the poem ‘Entries for a Catalogue of Fears’.
  • Even at the advanced age of sixty instead of having total faith in God, one may “talk now and then of God”.
  • The mystification of events due to lack of scientific approach and empirical analysis, produce a host of problems which are hurdles in the way of progress maintains Ramanujan.
  • The poetry of Ramanujan is like a mirror in which one can see the face of Indian tradition, along with a host of other things.
Works:
  • The Interior Landscape – 1967, Speaking of Siva – 1973, The Literature of India – 1974, Hymns for Drowning – 1981, Poems of Love and Wars – 1985, Is There Any Way of Thinking? – 1990, A Flower Tree and Other Tales from India – 1997, The Striders – 1966, Relations – 1971, Selected Poems – 1976, Second Sight, The Collected Poems – 1997, Three Hundred Ramayana: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation

R K NARAYANA (1906 – 2001)

  • Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayan was a famous Indian writer.
  • Born in Madras, British India in a Brahman family.
  • After completing his schooling in Madras, he got his Bachelor Degree from Maharaja College of Mysore.
  • He is considered as one of the leading figure of early Indian literature in English.
  • He is the one who made India accessible to the people a window to peep into Indian culture and sensibilities.
  • His writing style is often compared to that of the great American author William Faulkner.
  • Narayan’s mentor and friend Graham Greene helped him to get publishers in starting years of his literary career.
  • He is also called the “South Indian E M Forster “ .
Works:
  • Novels: Swami and Friends – 1935, The Bachelor of Arts – 1937, The Dark Room – 1938, The English Teacher – 1945, Mr.Sampath -1948, The Financial Expert -1952, Waiting for Mahatama -1955, The Guide – 1958, The Man Eater of Malgudi- 1961, The Vendor of Sweets – 1967, The Painter of Signs – 1977, A Tiger for Malgudi – 1983, Talkative Man – 1986, The World of Nagraj – 1990, Grandmother’s Tale – 1992
  • Non- Fiction: Next Sunday – 1960, My Dateless Diary – 1960, My Days – 1974, Reluctant Guru – 1974, The Emerald Route – 1980, A Writer’s Nightmare – 1988, A Story Teller’s World – 1989, The writerly Life – 2001
  • Mythology: Gods, Demons and Others – 1964, The Ramayana – 1973, The Mahabharata – 1978
  • Short Story Collections: Malgudi Days – 1942, An Astrologer’s Days – 1947, A lawleg Road and Other Stories – 1956, A Horse and Two Goats – 1970, Under the Banyan Tree and Other Stories – 1985

BHABANI BHATTACHARYA (1906 – 1988)

  • Bhabani Bhattacharya was an Indian writer.
  • He got his bachelor degree from Patna University and PhD from the University of London.
  • In London, Bhattacharya became closely associated with Marxist groups and an active member of the League Against Imperialism.
  • He translated Tagore’s The Golden Boat.
  • His work ‘So Many Hungers’ deals with exploitation and greed set against the background of the Independence movement and the Bengal famine of the early 1940s.
  • His work ‘He Who Rides a Tiger’ is based on an ancient saying, He who rides a tiger can not dismount. ”
  • His other novel ‘Music for Mohini’ is essentially a novel of women, traditional and modern values, resolved by blend of the two.
  • Bhattacharya's novel ‘A Goddess named Gold’ is rated as the one of the best novels on Indian village life.
Works:
  • Some Memorable Yesterday – 1941, So Many Hungers – 1947, Indian Cavalcade – 1948, He Who Rides a Tiger – 1955, Towards Universal Man – 1961, Music for Mohini – 1964, Shadow from Ladakh – 1966, A Goddess Named Gold – 1967, Steel Hawk and Other Stories – 1968, Gandhi the Writer – 1969, A Dream in Hawaii – 1978, Socio-Political Currents in Bengal: A Nineteenth Century Perspective – 1980

NIRAD C CHAUDHURI (1897 – 1999)

  • Nirad C Chaudhuri was an Indian writer.
  • He completed his study at Kishurganj and Kolkata.
  • Chaudhuri wrote several works in English and Bengali.
  • He is best known for “The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian”.
  • Chaudhuri immigrated permanently to Britain in 1970, initially to research European Indologist Friedrich Max Muller's documents in the University of Oxford.
Works:
  • The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian – 1959, A Passage to India – 1959, The Continent of Circe – 1965, Intellectual in India – 1967, To Live or Not to Live – 1971, Scholar Extraordinary – 1974, Culture in the Vanity Bag – 1976, Clive of India – 1975, Hinduism: A Religion to Live by – 1979, Thy Hand, Great Anarch! – 1987, Three Horsemen of the New Apocalypse – 1997, The East is East and West is West – (Essay), Why I mourn for England – ( Essay )

RAO RAJA: (1908 – 2006)

  • Raja Rao was an Indian writer.
  • He belonged to an orthodox Indian Brahmin family.
  • He received PhD at the University of Sorbonne under the professor Cazamian.
  • His works are deeply rooted in Metaphysic.
  • His works are seen as a varied and significant contribution to Indian English literature as well as world literature as a whole.
  • The first novel of Raja Rao ‘Kanthpura’ deals with the Quit India phase of Indian freedom movement.
  • This novel presents a 'conflict' between