The Literature Book

314

UIETLY THEY

MOVED DOWN

THE CALM AND

SACRED RIVER

A SUITABLE BOY (1993), VIKRAM SETH

O

ver the last few decades

Indian English writing

has carved a niche as

a recognizable literary genre that

has gained increasing international

attention. In the 1950s and ’60s

some Indian writers—notably

R. K. Narayan, one of the first

Indian English novelists to be

recognized outside India—made a

deliberate choice to write about the

Indian experience in English rather

than in one of the numerous Indian

languages or dialects. Most of

these earlier Indian English

novelists were writing from

within India, portraying everyday

experiences. Since the 1980s,

however, a new generation of

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Indian English writing

BEFORE

1950s R. K. Narayan’s texts

help introduce Indian English

writing to a global readership.

1981 Salman Rushdie’s

Midnight’s Children marks

a new stage in Indian

English writing.

AFTER

1997 Arundhati Roy wins

the Booker Prize with The

God of Small Things, which

challenges the caste system.

2000 Amitav Ghosh looks

at migration and colonial

control in The Glass Palace, a

historical novel set in Burma,

Bengal, India, and Malaya.

2006 In The Inheritance of

Loss, Indian English author

Kiran Desai explores the

impact of colonialism.

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