Postcolonialism In Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy

Postcolonial studies is defined as “the critical analysis of the history, culture, literature and modes of discourse that are specific to the former colonies of England and other imperial powers of Europe” (M.H.Abrams, 236). Though Postcolonialism implies ‘after colonialism’ hegemony or domination and exploitation etc., never ends for it began with the days of Adam and Eve. As language, literature and culture are inseparable; Postcolonial studies has been gaining prominence since 1970’s, focusing mainly on the ‘Third World countries’. ‘Postcolonialism’ has acquired various interpretations. The postcolonial writer has to expand the consciousness of his people and retrieve the past glory of his country. The wide ranging debates and research

His works are filled with the penetrating insight of cultural decadence, social mobility, religious fermentation, death of old values and they also portray his wide knowledge of the history and literature of the countries of India and England. His second novel A Suitable Boy occupies a unique place in Seth’s fiction as an epic novel. It is the story of society in transition of a country, marching forward the new base and means of stability. It portrays the protagonist’s search for a ‘suitable boy’ and also the struggle of a newly independent nation to establish itself. Vikram Seth has been awarded the 1994 Common Wealth Writers Prize for this magnum opus. The mammoth novel, A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, narrates in the third person, the interwining lives and relationships over a period of eighteen months of a cross-section of individuals of family in and around or connected with Brahmpur, an imaginary North Indian city. The guiding thread is supplied by a quite traditional theme, namely a young woman’s search for husband. Lata, a nineteen year old student of English Literature, examines the claims of three rival suitors before making her choice in the final