21 A Historical Study of the Origin and Evolution of Indian Fiction in English
Ananya Bhattacharjee
The origin and development of Indian Writing in English took place during the consolidation of British rule in India. Various opinions are found regarding the first text that was written in Indian English and many critics hold the view that history of Indian English Writing could be traced back to at least the early 19th century. The three most important sources that fostered the beginnings of Indian Writing in English are the educational reforms by British government, the efforts of the missionaries and the response of the upper-class Indians who accepted English literature and language in India with great enthusiasm. The Charter Act of 1813 and the 1835 English Education Act of William Bentinck gave way towards an attempt to change and improve the conditions of the servants of the East India Company. The approval of the Charter Act by the English government made England responsible for educational upliftment of the natives. English became the medium of education in India and English literature was established as a disciplinary subject in the educational institutes in India after the English Education Act was initiated by Thomas Babington Macaulay on Indian education.
The history of Indian literature in English is generally believed to be one and half centuries old. The Travels of Dean Mahomet is regarded as the first book to be written in English by an Indian in 1793. English has become the primary or secondary language as the means of communication for a large number of the people if India in present times. The reason behind such a scenario is due to the fact that the British Empire had set up its colony in India for almost
200 years. This might have been a solid ground for the origin and constant flourishing of Indian English literature. The establishment of the East India Company in India was the most influential factor towards the evolution of English language and literature in India. Dr. A.N. Pathak says,
During 1835 to 1855 English education had widely spread in the country and the number of people showing interest in the discipline went on rapidly increasing. Reading culture was in vogue and it is said that in 1834 some 5, 32,000 English books sold in India, the number of books sold in native Indian languages was quite less than this. The craze for English books was generated mostly among the Indians who were educated in English and demand came more from them than the Englishmen in India. People in urban areas started following Western manners and customs and tried to adapt themselves to the current English trends of life. The introduction of railways in India happened in 1853 and in 1854 the first telegraph line was established and a modern postal system was started. Distance gradually narrowed down and eventually there was a common medium of communication among people. Various modern European scientific techniques came to be used in India. Along with the mechanical advancement, there was a kind of renaissance in modern Indian literature which began with the initiative taken by Raja Ram Mohan Roy who acted as a linking factor between India and England. He was the master of many languages that includes Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic besides Bengali. After travelling around the country and even abroad, Raja Ram Mohan Roy was associated with two British officials called Woodford and Digby when he was working for some business in Calcutta. While he was serving in the districts under these two officials, their relation turned out to be more than being official. With Digby’s help, Ram Mohan Roy gained his mastery over the English language. He finally left the company service and returned to Calcutta in 1814. Ram Mohan Roy then started the Atmiya Sabha and devoted himself completely towards the development Calcutta society by instilling new spirits in the minds of the people there. This period is regarded as an age of awakening in Bengal in the various fields of philosophy, literature, economics, science and politics. The relation between the western influence under colonialism, the advent of print and standardised high literature and an awakening of the Indian thought has been shown in many narratives of modern India. For long Bengal has been regarded by historians as the forerunner of modernity in the subcontinent. Two prominent features of the Renaissance in Calcutta were: the formation of associations, societies and organizations; and emergence of innumerable newspapers and magazines. Another important aspect of the Bengal Renaissance movement was the formation of reform movements in both religious and socio-cultural fields. Western ideals and principles influenced this Renaissance movement in Bengal considerably. Thoughts about nationalism and independent ruling derived from the west were disseminated by the educated Bengali elite to all the masses through the various organisations, movements, and magazines.
Invigorated with western education, Bengali intellectuals are supposed to have brought a western style ‘Renaissance’ in contemporary thought and the liberal arts.
English education influenced Indian social, cultural, religious and literary traditions to a great extent and there was an awakening among the people who transformed their traditional ways and culture. Such awakening, which many call as ‘renaissance’, shaped literature totally in a different light. There was a regeneration of Indian literatures which stepped into a new venture through adapting new literary techniques, forms and genres from the west. The introduction of prose style and its further development in literature influenced Indian writers to adopt modern creative forms of writing such as poetry, novel, drama and short story. Great works have been done in Indian English literature notably in poetry, fiction, philosophy and criticism. However, the Novel as a literary form served best to provide an artistic shared experience of the relationship between society and human beings. The novel as a genre of literature was almost absent in India until the 1900s. When this creative form of art first arrived in the country along with the British, it was quite new to the Indian literature. According to Samaresh C. Sanyal, “During the late Nineteenth century it was absorbed into the Bengal literary tradition, while this century, and has witnessed a continuous output of novels in English. The strength and maturity of much Indian writing in English as recorded in the Indo-Anglian novels are beyond dispute. K.R.S. Iyengar in Indian Writing in English opines, Novels have been, and are being published in a dozen Indian languages, and also in English; and the reciprocal influence between the novels in English and the novel in the regional languages has been rather more intimate and purposive than such influence in the fields of poetry or drama. And this has, of course, been facilitated by the comparative ease with which a novel can be translated from one to another of the many languages current in the country.
Indian English Fiction is believed to have emerged during the early years of the twentieth century. Most of the early practitioners of Indian English Literature were mostly British and this is not quite surprising since India was perhaps not in a condition under British domination to produce excellence in native English language and literature. Although there were many Indian exponents who arrived some time later but the history of Indian English literature belonged solely to the elite British section of the society. The works of George Orwell, Rudyard Kipling and Jim Corbett had offered the preliminary push towards growth of Indian English Writings that was later developed by other British writers. The contribution made by Rabindranath Tagore, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, R.C. Dutt, Raja Rao, Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi among others consolidated the historical maturity of English literature in India. They represented the natives and served as the pre-Independent spokesperson in delineating the vision of life then.
The pre-independence Indian English fiction has been shaped by the contributions made by the pioneers of Bengali literature namely Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, R.C. Dutt and Rabindranath Tagore. The popular novels by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (1838-1894) include Kopalkunda, Durgeshnandini, Krishankanta’s Will, The Two Rings and Rajmohan’s Wife. Most of his novels are based on themes of social life which he delineated with realism. His historical novels representing ideas of patriotism and revolution provided an impetus to many other Indian English novelists. R.C. Dutt (1848-1909) wrote six novels in Bengali; four were historical novels called Banga Bijeta (Conqueror of Bengal), Madhavi Kanan (Bracelet of Flowers), Rajput Jiban Sandhya (Evening of Rajput Life) and Maharashtra Prabhat (Dawn of Maharashtra). The first two novels deal with the conquest of Bengal by the emperor Akbar. The third novel tells the heroic stories of Rana Pratap Singh and the fourth one depicts Shivaji’s leadership and the rise of Maratha rule. All of these four novels were published in 1879. Dutt also wrote two social novels; Samaj (1885) and Sangsar (1893). The first one is based on the theme of widow remarriage and the second one deal with the issue of inter-caste marriage. Most of his novels introduced the theme of social reformation. Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) is a major presence when one thinks of Bengal and its culture; a paramount figure in Indian English literature. A collection of poems, Gitanjali (Song Offerings), secured for him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. He excelled in various genres of art and culture and became renowned as a poet, dramatist, novelist, composer, actor, singer, editor of the Bengali literary journal (Sadhana). He wrote eight novels and four novellas among them Chaturanga, Shesher Kobita, Chare Adhyay and Noukadubi. Some of his famous novels that were rendered into English include The Wreck (1921), Gora (1923) and Home and the World (1919). Many of his works are the inspiration for filmmakers. Some hundred films have been made, out of which more than half in Bengali, are based on Tagore’s works, making him one of the most adapted writers of all time.
The period of the freedom struggle and the influence of Gandhi were responsible for the growth and development of novel in its early stage. S.Jogendra Singh’s Nasrin (1915), The Love of Kusuma (1910) by Balkrishna, Sorabji Cornelia’s Love and Life behind the Purdah and Sun Babies (1910) and Between the Twilight (1908) are some of the famous novels based on the theme of national awakening and political consciousness. The various momentous events of the Gandhian era like the boycott of the Simon Commission, the boycott of foreign goods, the Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre, Civil Disobedience Movement, Dandi March, Quit India Movement and many others forms of Gandhian movement are represented in many of the novels written during this period of the freedom struggle. Many writers of this period were influenced by the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi who voiced against the injustice done towards the under-privileged, the marginalized and the suppressed. According to Amarnath Prasad the works dealing with the theme of either Gandhi or the contemporary freedom struggle are Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable (1935), Raja Rao’s Kanthapura (1938), K.S. Venkatramani’s Kandan the Patriot (1932), D.F. Karaka’s We never Die (1944), Amir Ali’s Conflict (1947), Venu Chitali’s In Transit (1950), K.A. Abbas’s Inquailab (1955), R.K. Narayan’s Waiting for the Mahatma (1956), Nayantara Sehgal’s A Time to be Happy (1955) and K.Nagarajan’s Chronicles of Kedaram (1961).
Mulk Raj Anand (1905-2004) was one of the most prolific writers of the period who is best known as a social realist and a humanist. His vision of a humanist and a reformist is seen in his novel named Untouchable (1935) which gave him immense popularity. His other humanistic novels Coolie (1936), Two Leaves And A Bud (1937), The Village (1939), Across the Black Waters (1941), The Sword and the Sickle (1942) and The Big Heart in 1945. Anand has also written seven collections of short stories – The Child and other Stories (1934), The Barber’s Trade Union and other Stories (1944), The Tractor and the Corn Goddess and other Stories (1947), Reflections on the Golden Bed and other Stories (1953), The Power of Darkness and other stories (1959), Lajwanti and other stories (1966) and Between Tears and Laughter (1973). His other works include Indian fairy Tales (1961), The Old woman and the Cow (1960). It was followed by The Road (1963) and The Death of Hero (1964). Seven Summers, Morning Face, The Confession of A Lover and The Bubble are his autobiographical novels.
R.K. Narayan is considered as one of the pioneers of regional novel in India. His based many of his novels on the fictional place called Malgudi which he created in his imagination. Some of his autobiographical works include Swami and Friends (1935), The Bachelor of Arts (1936) and The English Teacher. The novels placed on the locale of Malgudi are The Dark Room (1938), Mr. Sampath (1952), The Financial Expert (1955), The Guide (1958), Waiting for the Mahatma, The Vendor of Sweets (1967), The Painter of Signs (1977), A Tiger for Malgudi (1983) and The World of Nagraj (1990). Narayan’s novels display his comic vision of life where his characters show a journey towards experience from innocence and they continue their journey until they are contended with wisdom. The language that Narayan adopts in his works is simple and lucid but his command over the language is remarkable. The Times Literary Supplement comments on Narayan’s style,
His humour is woven into the texture of his prose. It never erupts in a detachable epigram or joke. He did his best to inject the spirit and tempo of Tamilian idiom into English speech in a natural and unaffected manner. In spite of the raciness and simplicity Narayan’s style is rich in evocativeness and suggestiveness.
Raja Rao was the famous novelist of the Gandhian era whose works show an acute consciousness of the forces that came into existence by the Gandhian movement. His works include Kanthapura (1938), The Cow of the Barricades (1947), The Serpent and the Rope (1960), The Cat and Shakespeare (1965), Comrade Kirillov (1976) and The Policeman and The Rose (1978). He was much influenced by Gandhi’s philosophy and this is evident in his two works namely Kanthapura and The Cow of the Barricades where the Mahatma never appears physically but his indomitable presence is felt everywhere. He won the Sahitya Academy Award for The Serpent and the Rope. He was also honoured with the Padma Bhushan for his literary achievements. His works show a perfect blend of eastern and western sensibility. As far as narration is concerned he was a lot inspired by James Joyce, Joseph Conrad, Valmiki and Ved Vyas.
One of the most important post-independent writers includes Bhabani Bhattacharya who contributed many novels; most of them were driven with a social purpose. His works include So Many Hungers (1947), Music for Mohini (1952), He Who rides a Tiger (1954), A Goddess Named Gold (1960), Shadow From Ladakh (1967) and A Dream In Hawaii (1975). He has also written a number of short stories of psychological interest. He was the winner of the Sahitya Academy Award in 1967 for his novel, Shadow From Ladakh. He could easily grasp the social scenario of his times and documented them in his novels.
A renowned writer of the post-independent era, Khushwant Singh, is the recipient of the Padma Bhushan in 1974. He was the editor of Yojana (1951-1953), The Illustrated Weekly of India (1969-1979), The National Herald (1978-1979), New Delhi (1979-1980), and The Hindustan Times (1980-1983). He has written four novels Train to Pakistan (1956), I Shall Not Hear The Nightingale (1959), Delhi (1989) and The Company Of Women (2000). He has also published two collection of short stories called The Mark of Vishnu (1950) and A Bribe for the Sahib (1967). He received the Grove Press Award for Train to Pakistan. In this novel he gives a horrifying picture of the brutality and inhumanity seen during the partition of India. The novel was set in a fictional place called Maono-Majria located in the India-Pakistan border. I Shall Not Hear The Nightingale is set in the pre-independence times and deals with a Sikh family. Delhi and The Company of Women describes a world obsessed with sex and lust.
Manohar Malgonkar has been a notable writer who worked in the Indian Army during the Second World War and was eventually appointed to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. His experiences of army life were recorded in his debut novel Distant Drums (1960). His others books include Combat Of Shadows (1962), The Princes (1963), A Bend in the Ganges (1964), Spy in Amber (1971), The Devil’s Wind (1972) and Shalimar (1978). His novels have a wide range of thematic variety. They depict life of princes, experiences of military life, political upheaval during the partition of the country, the Sepoy Mutiny and many others. Besides novels he has written two collections of short stories named A Tost in Warm Wine and Bombay Beware.
Chaman Nahal is the other prominent writer of the post-independent era who has written books like My True Faces (1973), Azadi (1975), Into Another Dawn (1977), The English Queen (1979), The Crown and the Loincloth (1981) and also a collection of short stories titled The Weird Dance (1965). My True Faces deals with the theme of broken marriage; Into Another Dawn highlights the encounter between East and West, Azadi depicts the partition of India and the age of Gandhi is shown in The Crown and the Loincloth. Chaman Nahal’s skill as a gifted craftsman is seen in The English Queen which is famous for its technical excellence.
During the nineteen seventies a new class of elite Indian English authors emerged and became globally acclaimed. One of such writers is Salman Rushdie, a novelist of global fame and also one of the most controversial writers in Indian English Fiction. He is famous for creating historical fantasy, combining both magic and realism. Most of his works deal with history and politics and to mention here one can talk about Grimivs (1975) which exposes the ‘politics’ of western powers. His Midnight Children (1981) is an extravagant representation of the mingling of an individual’s life and a nation’s history. He received the Booker of Bookers for this novel which deals with the important political happenings of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Shame (1983) highlights the creation of Pakistan after 1947 and exposes the attempts towards dictatorship with the help of caricature. His Satanic Verses (1988) is regarded as a controversial text as it hurt the sentiments of the Islam followers. It has been banned in many countries including India. His other works include Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1990), In Good Faith (1990), Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism (1981-1991), East-West (1994), The Moor’s Last Sigh (1995), The Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999), Fury (2001), Step Across This Line: Collected Non- Fiction (2002) and Shalimar The Clown (2005).
Another eminent writer of this period, Amitav Ghosh has been quite successful in contributing a lot towards Indian English Literature. He worked as a print journalist in The Indian Express during the Emergency and had a first-hand experience of socio-political condition of the contemporary times. His first work is titled The Circle of Reason (1982) where he depicts an individual, who being suspected as a terrorist, flees from unknown village in Calcutta to Bombay and further journeys around the Persian Gulf to North Africa. The Shadow Lines (1986) deals with a family that lives in Kolkata and Dhaka and also unfolds their connection with a British family that lives in London. The novel procured him Sahitya Academy Award. His third novel, In An Antique Land (1993) chronicles an anthropological and historical survey coloured with ample imagination. The Calcutta Chromosome (1995) is written in the genre of science fiction and was quite popular due to the innovative attempt made in its creation. Ghosh won Arthur C. Clarke Award for it, a prestigious award given by Britain for Science.
The women novelists of Indian English literature have marked a distinctive form of writing which is especially shaped by their feminine sensibility. The early women novelists include Raj Laxmi Devi, Cornelia Sorabji, Iqbalunnisa Hussain and some others. Kamala Markandaya was a prolific writer who dealt with social and political concerns. Her works include Nectar in a Sieve (1954), A Silence of Desire (1960), A Handful of Rice (1966), The Coffer Dams (1969), Two Virgins and The Golden Honey.
Ruth P. Jhabvala is a unique writer of Indian English novels. She brings to light the follies and foibles of her characters in the most humorous way. She has written To Whom She Will (1955), The Nature of Passion (1956), Esmond in India (1958), The Householder (1960), Get Ready for Battle (1962), A Backward Place (1965), A New Dominion (1972), Heat and Dust (1975) and My Nine Lives: Chapters on a Possible Past (2004). She has also written several collections of short stories like An Experience of India (1967), Like Bird, Like Fishes (1963) and A Stronger Climate (1963).
Nayantara Sehgal is one of the other remarkable novelists of the times. She mostly focuses her attention towards the political situation and its influence upon human lives. She also highlights the degeneration of human values and the rampant corruption of political upheaval in her novel A Time To Be Happy (1957). She is also the author of The Time of Morning (1965), Storm in Chandigarh (1969), The Day in Shadow (1971), A New Situation in New Delhi (1977) and Rich Like Us (1985).
Anita Desai, in her novels, mostly probes into the psychological lives of her characters. Trauma of the past, mental anguish, struggle with one’s own self are some of the aspects she is concerned with in her novels. She has written Cry, the Peacock (1963), Voices in the City (1963), Bye-Bye Blackbird (1971), Where Shall We Go This Summer (1975), Fire on the Mountain (1977), Clear Light of Day (1980), The Village by the Sea (1982) and The Zigzag way (2004).
Shashi Deshpande is one of the most celebrated women novelists. Her novel The Dark Holds No Terror (1980) depicts the struggle of a woman named Sarita who tries to break the strictures of society and rebels against familial authority. Her other novel Roots and Shadows (1983) received the Thirumati Rangmal Award. That Long Silence (1988) deals with the search for one’s identity and it won The Sahitya Academy Award. Her other novels include The Binding Vine (1992), The Match Of Time (1999), Small Remedies (2000) and Moving On (2004).
Arundhati Roy is famous for her novel, The God Of Small Things which is about a family living in Ayemenem, a town in the state of Kerala during post-independence times. The novel received good reviews from major publications such as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Toronto Star. Her other works include a television serial called The Banyan Tree and a documentary DAM/AGE: A Film With Arundhati Roy (2002). She also wrote a book named We Are One: A Celebration of the Tribal Peoples published in 2009. Besides these she contributed several essays on contemporary politics and culture. She has been working for political activism since a long time and is a strong opponent of India’s rapid industrial development that includes Sardar Sarovar Project and India’s nuclear weapon policies which found expression in The End Of Imagination which she wrote in 1998.
Shobha De mostly deals with the theme of marginalisation of women in India and voices the idea of women empowerment through her novels. She shows her concern towards women who struggle to renounce patriarchal hegemony, domestic life and marital relationship to forge an identity for them. She is the author of Socialite Evenings (1989), Starry Nights (1991), Sisters (1992), Strange Obsession (1992), Sultry Boys (1994) and Snapshots (1995).
In the recent times Indian English Fiction has developed a new trend in writing both in its theme and the technique. A new group of writers belonging to the elite class has taken the forefront with their innovative and challenging approach towards creative writing. Novelists such as Pankaj Misra, Chetan Bhagat, Jhumpa Lihiri, Dominique Lepierre, William Dalrymple have received international acclaim. The evolution of disciplines in critical literary studies such as feminist, diasporic, postmodern, postcolonial, dalit literature have given a new outlook and perspective of studying Indian English Fiction writing.
Story-board
History of the Origin and Evolution of Indian Fiction in English
The Beginnings
- The origin and development of Indian Writing in English took place during the consolidation of British rule in India.
- Various opinions are found regarding the first text that was written in Indian English and many critics hold the view that history of Indian English Writing could be traced back to at least the early 19th century.
- One most important source that fostered the beginnings of Indian Writing in English is the educational reforms by British government.
- Another is the effort of the missionaries and the response of the upper-class Indians who accepted English literature and language in India with great enthusiasm.
- The history of Indian literature in English is generally believed to be one and half centuries old.
- The Travels of Dean Mahomet is regarded as the first book to be written in English by an Indian in 1793.
- The novel as a genre of literature was almost absent in India until the 1900s.
Writers of the pre-Independence era
- The pre-independence Indian English fiction has been shaped by the contributions made by the pioneers of Bengali literature namely Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, R.C. Dutt and Rabindranath Tagore.
The Independence Phase
- The period of the freedom struggle and the influence of Gandhi were responsible for the growth and development of novel in its early stage.
- S.Jogendra Singh’s Nasrin (1915), The Love of Kusuma (1910) by Balkrishna, Sorabji Cornelia’s Love and Life behind the Purdah and Sun Babies (1910) and Between the Twilight (1908) are some of the famous novels based on the theme of national awakening and political consciousness.
- Some other memorable works dealing with the theme of freedom struggle are Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable (1935), Raja Rao’s Kanthapura (1938), K.S. Venkatramani’s Kandan the Patriot (1932), K.A. Abbas’s Inquailab (1955), R.K. Narayan’s Waiting for the Mahatma (1956), Nayantara Sehgal’s A Time to be Happy (1955) and K.Nagarajan’s Chronicles of Kedaram (1961).
The post-Independence Period
- Bhabani Bhattacharya, Khushwant Singh, Manohar Malgonkar, Chaman Nahal, Amitav Ghosh, Salman Rushdie and many other popular writers of the post-Independence era dealt with the idea of brutality and inhumanity seen during the partition of India.
- Many novelists highlighted the fragmentary nature of the modern world and the crisis of identity.
The Women Novelists
- Some of the early women novelists include Raj Laxmi Devi, Cornelia Sorabji, Iqbalunnisa Hussain and many others.
- The later novelists who gained immense popularity are namely Kamala Markandaya, Ruth P. Jhabvala, Nayantara Sehgal, Anita Desai, Shashi Deshpande, Arundhati Roy, Shobha De and some others.
The Contemporary Novelists
- Novelists such as Pankaj Misra, Chetan Bhagat, Jhumpa Lihiri, Dominique Lepierre, William Dalrymple have received international acclaim in present times.
- The evolution of disciplines in critical literary studies such as feminist, diasporic, postmodern, postcolonial, dalit literature have given a new outlook and perspective of studying Indian English Fiction writing.
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Reference
- Iyengar, K. R. Srinivasa, Indian Writing In English, Indiana University: Sterling Publishers Pvt.Ltd, 2012
- McCutchion, David, Indian Writing in English, Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1969
- Naik, M.K., A History of Indian English Literature, the University of Michigan: Sahitya Akademi Publications, 1982
- Piciucco, Pier Paolo (ed.), A Companion to Indian Fiction in English, New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers, 2004
- Ramamurti, K.S., Rise of the Indian Novel in English, Pennsylvania State University: Oriental University Press, 1987
- Singh, Ram Sewak and Singh, Charu Sheel, Spectrum History of Indian Literature in English, New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Dist, 1997
- https://books.google.co.in/books?isbn=8126903104
- www.jstor.org/stable/4087326