THE FUTURE OF INDIAN ENGLISH WRITING
by Subhajit Ghosh

The spread of English in South Asia started with the beginning of colonisation by the British. English is the only language which has successfully binded educated Indians. Even in earlier days, great writers like Rabindranath Tagore ( Gitanjali ) and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay ( Rajmohan's wife ) have felt the necessity for an Indian English literature to reach out to a greater number of readers.

Since then the journey has been a long one filled with several accolades and brickbats along the way. R. K. Narayan who is widely acclaimed for his many novels has been likened by the British press to Charles Dickens, a rare honour for any writer. Nirad Choudhuri, V. S. Naipaul, Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao and others who followed, or were contemporaries of Narayan, have put Indian English literature on a high pedestal. Nirad Choudhuri have been decorated with Order of the British Empire ( OBE ), a very rare honour for any writer. And V. S. Naipaul has also bagged several prestigious International prizes. And many of his admirers will vouch that he certainly deserves the Nobel prize which has eluded him. Nirad Choudhuri's The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian, Naipaul's A House for Mr. Biswas and Mulk Raj Anand's Coolie are highly acclaimed works.

Spurred on by these success, more notable names emerged on the Indian English literary firmament. Salman Rushdie is one such vaunted name and his novel "Midnight's children" is considered by many to be the best novel to be written in English literature in the last twenty-five years. And suddenly a glut of remarkable writers like Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh, Anita Desai, Khushwant Singh, Rohinton Mistry, Upamanyu Chaterjee, Vikram Chandra, Gita Hariharan and others appeared on the scene. They came, they saw and they conquered. One good novel followed another from most of these authors. And they have picked up awards as well, right, left and centre. For example, Amitav Ghosh has bagged both the prestigious Commonwealth award and Arthur C. Clarke award for creative writing.

Nowadays more publishers are keen on printing the works of these authors as millions of copies sell by their very names. Readers are lapping up the works of these writers, and it's a healthy trend.

Of late, the realistic mode of the first three decades of post-independence writing is giving way to a non-representational, experimental, self-conscious and optimistic literature. The real challenge the writers of today face is the enforced homogenisation and standardisation of culture due to globalisation and the new, easy and superficial internationalism which tempts Indian English writers to make themselves saleable in the western market.

Starting from Independence era, celebrated Indian English poets like Sarojini Naidu, Sri Aurobindo and later on Nissim Ezekiel, Dom Moreas, P. Nandy, A. K. Ramanujan, J. Mahapatra and others possess tremendous craftsmenship. They have explored varied themes through their poetry.

And with the recent International success of Arundhuti Roy ( Booker prize for 'The God of Small Things' ) and Jhumpa Lahiri ( her 'Interpreter of Maladies' won the Pulitzer prize ) the world at large has suddenly woken up and taken notice of the talent of Indian writers. And more talented writers like Kiran Desai and Sagarika Ghosh and many others are joining the bandwagon and they hold a lot of promise.

In conlcusion, the future of Indian English writing is really good. To brush aside the recent accolades bestowed upon the works of these award-winning writers as a flash in the pan would be an extremely cynical view. In my view, the future of Indian English writers appears to be rosy.

21/05/2001 ---------------- o -------------------