Indian Writing in English: Authors and Their Works

ANAND, MULKRAJ (1905-2004)
He was greatly influenced by Premchand on the one hand and Tagore on the other.
Works
Some of his famous novels are :

1. The Village (1939)

2. Across the Black waters (1940)

3. The Sword and the sickle (1942)

4. Untouchable (1933) (his first novel)

5. Seven summers (1951)

6. Private Life of an Indian Prince (1953)

7. The Big Heart (1945)

8. Coolie (1936) (It was recast in seventies)

9. Two Leaves and a Bud (1937)

10. The Old Woman and the Cow (1960)

11. The Road (1961)

12. Death of a Hero (1963)

13. Confession of a Lover (1976)

14. Morning Face (1968)

AUROBINDO, GHOSE (1872-1950)
He was known as the 'firebrand' of India.
He was a poet, a saint, a philosopher, statesman, yogi and a prophet.
He is one of the pre-Independence Titanic trio of Indian poets—Tagore, Aurobindo and Sarojini Naidu.
He is chiefly known for his (i) Savitri (1953) a poetic epic on a grand scale. (ii) The Life Divine (1939-40) (iii) Essays on Gita
He is a great exponent and proponent of ancient Indian thought.
According to R. K. Singh, 'Aurobindo is sympathetic to the modernist trends in writing and study of poetry and, in fact, himself adopts some of the methods followed by the modern poets.'
To quote Mr. Singh again, 'In Aurobindo's literary order, poetry is a means of spiritual expression that helps to open the consciousness...'

CHATTERJEE, BANKIM CHANDRA (1838-94)
He is generally called 'The Father of Bengali fiction.'
Today he is most known for his patriotic bent of mind.
In all he wrote 14 novels. (i) Some of them are historical. (ii) Others are social. (iii) Still others are philosophical with stress on renunciation and non-attachment.
Some of his novels are : (i) The Poison Tree (1884): It is a story of Hindu life in Bengal of the period (ii) Kapalkundala (1885) (iii) Durgeshnandini (1890) (iv) Krishnakanta's Will (1895) (v) The Two Rings (1897) (vi) Rajmohan's Wife (1904) (published posthumously) (vii) Anand Math (1884)

CHAUDHURI, NIRAD, C. (1897-1999)
He came into limelight with the publication of his 'The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian.' (1951).
His other important works are: (i) A Passage to India (1959) (ii) Continent of Circe (1966) (He received the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize). (iii) The Intellectual in India (1967) (iv) To Live or Not to Live (1970)
He is known for his most correct and chaste prose for which he has earned much acclaim from the scholars and critics, including Khushwant Singh.

DESAI, ANITA (Born-1937)
She is a renowned novelist and short story writer.
Some of her famous novels are : (i) Cry, the Peacock (1963) (ii) Voices in the City (1965) (iii) Bye-Bye, Blackbird (1971) (iv) Fire on the Mountain (1977) (v) Clear Light of Day (1980)
Her collection of short stories is captioned 'Games at Twilight' (1978)

GANDHI, M.K. (1869-1948)

1. His famous work in English is 'My Experiments with Truth.'

2. The work is an important autobiographical writing which is held in high esteem for its truthfulness, frankness, simplicity and directness of expression in non-ornamental effective English.

MARKANDAYA, KAMALA (1924-2004)

1. She is one of the modern novelists and is known for her: (i) Nectar in a Sieve (her first novel) (It is a novel on miserable rural life). (ii) Some Inner Fury (1955) (It is a novel of violence and destruction) (iii) A Silence of Desire (1960) (It is a novel urging the readers to speak out frankly to unburden their hearts). (iv) Possession (1963) (The problem of possession is discussed in this novel). (v) A Handful of Rice (1966) (It depicts the life of the poor classes in Madras). (vi) The Coffer Danus (1969) (vii) The Nowhere Man (1972) (viii) Two Virgins (1973) (ix) The Golden Honeycomb (1977) (x) Pleasure City (1982).

KHUSHWANT SINGH (Born-1915)
He is known for his novels : (i) Train to Pakistan (his masterpiece) (ii) I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale (1959). (It describes the social life of a Sikh family during the pre-Independence period). 'The Mark of Vishnu' is another of his well-known works.
Some of his known stories (a) Karma (b) When Sikh Meets Sikh (c) The Rape, etc.
He is also known for his: (i) A History of the Sikhs (ii) Translation of Japji Sahib, etc.
His regular columns appear weekly in some dailies, e.g. : (i) 'With Malice Towards One And All'—The Hindustan Times. (ii) 'This Above All'—The Tribune.
Mulk Raj Anand is stated to have said that Khushwant Singh's 'Train to Pakistan' is likely to last, while about his other creative literary work, one may have some doubts.
Among his latest work is 'Truth, Love and Little Malice.'

MULLER, MAX (1823-1900)
He was a famous Indologist, German orientalist and linguist, who unearthed a lot of ancient Indian history and Sanskrit scriptures, the Rig Veda, in particular, of which he published six colossal volumes, for which he had got an assignment from the East India Company in 1847
Actually he was a student of Sanskrit, who started comparative study of languages and 'Avesta' (in 1845) which is the renowned sacred book of the Zoroastrians.
He gave seven lectures on Indian and ancient Indian philosophy at Cambridge University, which have now been published by Rupa & Co. under the caption: 'India:
What Can it Teach Us?
He distinguishes the highest wisdom of Greece and India by using the terms 'to know ourselves' and 'to know our self', respectively.
Muller makes very appreciative comments on the Rig Veda and the Vedic Religion.

NAIDU, SAROJINI (1879-1949)
She is a well-known Indian English poet who started writing poetry at a very early age and she was inspired by Edmund Gosse to choose Indian themes and scenery rather than imitating the English classics.
She is now known as 'The Nightingale of India.'
She took a keen interest in India's struggle for freedom.

Some of her works are :

1. The Golden Threshold (1905)

2. The Bird of Time (1912)

3. The Broken Wing (1917)

4. The Sceptred Flute (1946)

5. The Feather of the Dawn (1961) (It appeared posthumously)

Some of her famous poems are :

1. The Queen's Rival

2. Palanquin Bearers

3. To My Fairy Fancies

4. The Pardah Nashin

5. Awake

6. Village Song

7. The Soul's Prayer

8. Fishermen of Coromondel

9. It You Call Me

10. Caprice

11. Summer Woods

12. Songs of Radha

13. The Bird Sanctuary, etc.

NANDY, PRITISH (Born-1951)
He was the editor of the 'Illustrated Weekly of India' and has now Telecast a T.V. serial over the Doordarshan: 'Hungama Unlimited.' (i) He is a prolific poet, though he is still not considered one of the best. (ii) Most of his poetry has been dismissed by critics as mere experimental gimmickry. Such was Saleem
Peeradina. (iii) Even Nissim Ezekiel dubbed him to be a poetaster.
Some of his works are : (i) Gods and Olives (1967) (ii) On Either Side of Arrogance (1968) (iii) From the Outer Bank of the Brahmputra (1969) (iv) Riding the Midnight River (1975) (v) In secret Anarchy (1979), etc.
He has written a number of anthologies and translated a number of poets including Agyeya, Amrita Pritam, Kaifi Azmi etc.
He has also written some short stories and a verse play.

NARAYAN, R.K. (1906-2001)
Of the three great novelists, Narayan, Anand and Rao, it is Narayan who has won the maximum accolade both in India and abroad.
One of his great achievements is his creation of the famous town of Malgudi like Hardy's Wessex.
Narayan is the true master of humour, irony, realism, romance and artistry.
Most of his novels and stories depict the life of people of South India.
It is sometimes held that Narayan lacks true pathos, genuine depth of feeling, realistic description of poverty and misery, the elements which go in for making a novelist a great one.
However, he has earned much popularity as a novelist, and within the range of his own art, he cannot be taken except with due regard and attention.
Some of his famous novels are :

1. Swami and Friends (1935)

2. Bachelor of Arts

3. The English Teacher

4. The Financial Expert

5. Mr. Sampath (1949)

6. The Guide (1958)

7. The Man-eater of Malgudi

8. The Dark Room (1939)

9. Waiting for the Mahatma

10. The Vendor of Sweets

11. The Painter of Signs (1976) (He won the Sahitya Akademi Award for 'Guide' in 1961)

R.K. NARAYAN (as a short story writer)
Some of his stories have appeared in the following collections: (i) Malgudi Days (ii) Dodu and Other Stories (iii) Cyclone and Other Stories (iv) Gods, Demons and Others
Narayan has written a few hundred stories, most of them quite interesting and highly readable:
Some of his famous short stories are :

1. The Golden

2. A Career

3. The Snake Song

4. Man Hunt

5. A Willing Slave

6. An Astrologer's Day

7. The Doctor's word

8. God of Troubles, etc.

NEHRU, JAWAHARLAL (1889-1964)
He needs no introduction as a freedom fighter, statesman and first Prime Minister of India.
Some of his literary works are : (i) An Autobiography (1936) (ii) Glimpses of World History (1939) (iii) Discovery of India (1946)
Children enjoy reading his 'Letters from Father to His Daughter.'
He is known for his simple, chaste, poetic English which is a model of natural style.

PRITAM, AMRITA (1919-2005)
She is the most famous Punjabi Author.
She won the Jnanpith Award for her 'Kagaj Te Kenvas' in 1981.
Her best known autobiographical work which appeared in the seventies is 'Rasidi Ticket.' (i) Her 'Shadows of words : An Auto-biography' (a transcreation of the Hindi original by Jyoti Sabharwal) has been published by Macmillan in 2002. (ii) The book presents 'an inner journey down the memory lane' presented by the author, who considers old age the best part of her life, like the last sips of tea, which are 'usually the sweetest.'

RADHAKRISHAN, SARVAPALLI (1888-1975)
He is known as an outstanding educationist and a philosopher who presented the Hindu/Indian viewpoint to the world.
His works include (i) An Idealist View of Life (Lectures) (ii) Indian Philosophy (1923,1927) (iii) The Hindu View of Life (1932) (iv) An Idealist View of Life (1932) (v) Eastern Religious and Western Thought (1939)
He wrote in a very simple, intelligible prose-style.

RAO, RAJA (1908-2006)
His famous works are: (i) The Serpent and the Rope (1960) (ii) Kanthapura (1938) (iii) The Cat and Shakespeare (1965-66) (i) He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award for his 'The Serpent and the Rope' in 1964. (ii) He was also decorated with Padma Bhushan in 1969.
Raja Rao as a short story writer
He is also a well-known short story writer.
His first collection of short stories was 'Jauni' which was published in France in 1930.
The collection: 'The Cow of the Barricades' was published in 1947
Some of his famous short stories are :

1. Akkayya

2. The Little Gram-shop

3. Kanaka Pal

4. Narsiga

ROY, ARUNDHATI (Born-1961)
She made her debut with her novel: 'The God of Small Things' which won her the Booker Prize in 1997, besides a handful amount running into crores as royalty.

DE, SHOBHA (Born-1948)
She is a renowned contemporary Indian English novelist and T.V. serial script writer.
Some of her novels are prescribed in universities in England and Australias.
Her T.V. serial 'Swabhiman' which ran into numerous episodes was telecast over the Doordarshan. (i) She has become even more popular with her serial 'Kittie Party' telecast over the Zee T.V. (ii) According to the Tribune, it 'is a clever insight into the mind of today's urban Indian women poised at the crossroads of modernity and tradition.'

TAGORE, RABINDRANATH (1861-1941)
Tagore was a versatile genius. He was a : (i) poet (ii) novelist (iii) short story writer (iv) dramatist (v) musician (vi) actor (in dramas) (vii) painter (viii) statesman and a host of other things.
Some of his famous novels are :

1. The House and the World (1919)

2. The Wreck (1921)

3. Gora (1923)

VIVEKANANDA, SWAMI (1863-1902)
He is a well-known Indian seer, prophet, recluse preacher, lecturer and poet, who: (i) made the ancient Indian philosophy known to the whole world at the Parliament of Religious in
Chicago, US A. (ii) Brought about a wave of resurgence among the
Indian masses through his stirring spiritually inspired speeches which were also full of: (a) patriotic fervour (b) love for universal brotherhood. (c) spirit of social uplight, etc.