Table of Contents

Introduction, by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra 1. The English Writings of Raja Rammohan Ray, by Bruce Carlisle Robertson 2. The Hindu College: Henry Derozio and Michael Madhusudan Dutt, by Sajni Kripalani Mukherji 3. The Dutt Family Album: And Toru Dutt, by Rosinka Chaudhuri 4. Rudyard Kipling, by Maria Couto 5. Two Faces of Prose: Behramji Malabari and Govardhanram Tripathi, by Sudhir Chandra 6. The Beginnings of the Indian Novel, by Meenakshi Mukherjee 7. The English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore, by Amit Chaudhuri 8. Sri Aurobindo, by Peter Heehs 9. Two Early-Twentieth-Century Women Writers: Cornelia Sorabji and Sarojini Naidu, by Ranjana Sidhanta Ash 10. Gandhi and Nehru: The Uses of English, by Sunil Khilnani 11. Verrier Elwin, by Ramachandra Guha 12. Novelists of the 1930s and 1940s, by Leela Gandhi 13. R.K. Narayan, by Pankaj Mishra 14. Nirad C. Chaudhuri, by Eunice De Souza 15. Novelists of the 1950s and 1960s, by Shyamala A. Narayan and Jon Mee 16. On V.S. Naipul on India, by Suvir Kaul 17. Poetry Since Independence, by Rajeev S. Patke 18. From Sugar to Masala: Writing by the Indian Diaspora, by Sudesh Mishra 19. Looking for A.K. Ramanujan, by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra 20. Five Nature Writers: Jim Corbett, Kenneth Anderson, Salim Ali, Sankhala, and M. Krishnan, by Mahesh Rangarajan 21. Salman Rushdie, by Anuradha Dingwaney 22. After Midnight: The Novel in the 1980s and 1990s, by Jon Mee 23. The Dramatists, by Shanta Gokhale 24. Translations into English, by Arshia Sattar

Promotional Information

From Ram Mohan Ray to Arundhati Roy, two hundred years of Indian literature in English are covered in essays by experts including Sunil Khilnani, Ramachandra Guha, Sudesh Mishra, and Amit Chaudhuri. Spanning a period from 1800 to the present, this collection of historical essays covers the canonical Indian poets, novelists, and dramatists writing in English-names like Rudyard Kipling, Rabrindanath Tagore, R.K. Narayan, and Salman Rushdie-as well as lesser-known literary figures-scientists, social reformers, anthropologists.

About the Author

Arvind Krishna Mehrotra is a well-known poet, critic, and translator. He teaches English at the University of Allahabad. His books include The Transfiguring Places and The Absent Traveller: Prakrit Love Poetry from the Gathasaptasati and he has edited the Oxford India Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian Poets.

Reviews

Mehrotra has put together an amazing volume... A rigorous book, with a brilliant introduction, this compendium joins K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar's legendary Indian Writing in English. Essential. Choice [A] useful and detailed guide to a varied body of writing. Times Literary Supplement [A] first truly comprehensive history of the extensive and now widely read and respected Indian literature in English. Undoubtedly of supreme importance for all hyperliterate Indians... Mehrotra's smart packaging of these literary-historical essays and his selection of widely scattered critics to write them, can be hailed as one unequivocally positive result of globalization. -- John Oliver Perry World Literature Today