Introduction To Indian English Literature

Introduction to Indian English Literature: English, the language of international status, is especially remarkable for its flexible and variable character. It is not tied down to typical English conventions and social, cultural and literary background in various countries when it is read and spoken. It, on the other hand, has come under the dominant influence of the cultural and social background of the countries concerned. The geographical, climatic, social and cultural conditions prevalent in a country have determined the character of written and spoken English. Now-a-days English is not of the English men alone. It has become the cultural and literary heritage of mankind. The Americans have done a lot to transform English idiom and

After publication of two admirable books by K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar, the term ‘Indo-Anglian’ has not only acquired wide currency but has come to stay as a familiar and accepted term which is applied to Indian Contribution to literature in English. This Indo-Anglian literature came into existence soon after Macaulay introduced English education in 1835. This literature was motivated by political, economic and cultural factors. First it was pleasure to write in English. It was imitative; it soon became assimilative and adoptive. The terms, “Indo-Anglian”, “Indo-English” “Indian Writings in English” are all synonymous and the flowering of Indian English Literature is the direct result of formal English education in India. This ‘Indo-Anglian Literature’ is to be distinguished from ‘Anglo-Indian Literature’. This term ‘Anglo-Indian Literature’ is used to denote the writing of Englishmen in English about India and Indian life. Thus Rudyard Kipling is an Anglo-Indian Writer. Their works are also significant as they serve to interpret India to the West. There is another term ‘Indo-English Literature’ which is used to denote translations into English from literature in Indian languages. The Indo-English Literature has its own significance since in this way literary classics in regional

Their work is feeble both in form and expression. Then they used out-dated devices of allegory and didacticism. They do not evince any remarkable development either in characterisation or plot construction. The historical novels written during this period do not show very much originality or sense of historical perspective. They have not breadth and vision. The result is these novels are just historical romances. It becomes apparent that the novels upto 1920 are a strong mixture of the good and bad. None of the novels raise much above the standard of mediocrity. Technical skill, various artistic methods of story-telling and stark realism-all those find no place in the novels of this period. The best that one can say about them is that some of the novelists are good-story