A History of the Indian Novel in English

Cover 1 Half-title 3 Title page 5 Copyright information 6 Table of contents 7 List of figures 10 Notes on contributors 11 Acknowledgments 19 Introduction: Literary Pasts, Presents, and Futures 21 A History of the Indian Novel in English 23 Bhasha Modernities and the Question of English 26 Reading the Postcolonial 34 Contemporaneity and History 40 Terminology and Structure of the Book 43 Notes 47 1 Beginnings: Rajmohan’s Wife and the Novel in India 51 The Colonial Public Sphere and the Politics of Print 51 Translation and Cultural Transactions 54 The Novel and Colonial Society 56 Persons, Objects, and Habitus 58 Space, Plot, and the Colonial Uncanny 60 The Lives of Women and the Future of the Novel 62 Notes 64 2 The Epistemic Work of Literary Realism: Two Novels from Colonial India 65 Reference: A Theoretical Detour 66 Novelistic Discourse and Epistemic Access 68 Conclusion 75 Notes 77 3 “Because Novels Are True, and Histories Are False”: Indian Women Writing Fiction in English, 1860–1918 79 Toru Dutt: Romance and Cosmopolitanism 81 Krupabai Satthianadhan and Ramabai: Conversion and Reform 83 Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain: Feminist Utopias 86 Swarnakumari Devi Ghosal: An Unfinished Song 88 Notes 91 4 When the Pen Was a Sword: The Radical Career of the Progressive Novel in India 93 Is the Anglophone Indian Novel also a Progressive Novel? 93 The Retrospective Politics of Exclusion 96 The Origins of Progressive Writing: Local, National, Colonial, International 99 Anglophone Novelists and the Contested Terrain of the Progressive Novel 101 The Varied Careers of Anglophone Progressive Novelists 103 Notes 106 5 The Road Less Traveled: Modernity and Gandhianism in the Indian English Novel 108 Modernity and Antiquity in Raja Rao’s Kanthapura 110 Narayan’s Invention of Tradition 115 Anand’s Revolutionary Socialism 118 Notes 122 6 The Modernist Novel in India: Paradigms and Practices 123 Locating Indian Modernism 123 Phases of Modernism 125 Theorizing Modernist Realism 129 Anand’s Modernist Realism 132 Premchand’s Theory of Realism 135 7 “Handcuffed to History”: Partition and the Indian Novel in English 139 Harbingers of a Melancholic Modernity 142 The Big Fat Indian (Partition) Novel 145 Geo-Desire and the (Continued) Search for the Sacred 148 Conclusion 151 Notes 152 8 Women, Reform, and Nationalism in Three Novels of Muslim Life 153 Debating Purdah and Polygamy 154 Women Outside the Home 158 Independence and Partition 162 Notes 166 9 Found in Translation: Self, Caste, and Other in Three Modern Texts 167 Translation in the Indian Context 167 Colonial Modernity in Tagore’s Gora 170 Brahminism as the Anti-Modern in Anantha Murthy’s Samskara 173 The Rise of a Modern Dalit Consciousness in Valmiki’s Joothan 175 Conclusion 178 Notes 180 10 Emergency Fictions 182 Emergency Fiction 185 Prefiguring Emergency 188 Truth Vindicated 189 Configuring Emergency 192 Coda 194 Notes 196 11 Cosmopolitanism and the Sonic Imaginary in Salman Rushdie 197 Remembering Max Ophüls 201 “O, My Shoes Are Japanese” 203 A Turn to High Culture 206 Mother Tongue as Palimpsest 209 Notes 211 12 Postcolonial Realism in the Novels of Rohinton Mistry 213 Compositional Structure 215 Looking Too Closely 217 Tipping the Balance 220 Accommodating the Past 222 Conclusion 225 Notes 226 13 Far from the Nation, Closer to Home: Privacy, Domesticity, and Regionalism in Indian English Fiction 227 “Politics Without Issues”: Shashi Deshpande and Sunetra Gupta 230 Rooted Dislocations 233 Deep-Rooted Shadows 235 Home Truths 238 Notes 240 14 Ecologies of Intimacy: Gender, Sexuality, and Environment in Indian Fiction 241 Intimacy and Disability in Transition 243 Rethinking Sexuality and Revolution 247 Conclusion: Indigenous Ecologies, Queer Intimacy, and the Postcolonial City 252 Notes 255 15 Some Uses of History: Historiography, Politics, and the Indian Novel 257 Claiming History 259 Recovering Buried History 261 History under Threat 264 Notes 270 16 Virtue, Virtuosity, and the Virtual: Experiments in the Contemporary Indian English Novel 271 Virtue’s Double-Bind 274 Virtuoso Performatives 276 Virtual Reality 280 Notes 284 17 Of Dystopias and Deliriums: The Millennial Novel in India 287 Postcolonial Dystopias and the Refusal of Future 288 Atrocities of the Now: Two Fictional Examples 291 Delirious Forms 297 Coda: Unreasoned Damage 300 Notes 301 18 “Which Colony? Which Block?”: Violence, (Post-)Colonial Urban Planning, and the Indian Novel 302 “Lashings of the Ultraviolent” 302 Colonial Planning, Post-Colonial City 305 Infrastructural Fiction 308 Notes 315 19 Post-Humanitarianism and the Indian Novel in English 316 Small Global Things 319 Humans as Animals 321 Perverse Human Rights 325 Notes 329 20 Chetan Bhagat: Remaking the Novel in India 330 The Culture of Books 333 “New” Fictions: Chetan Bhagat 334 A New Purpose and Presence? 339 Notes 341 21 “New India/n Woman”: Agency and Identity in Post-Millennial Chick Lit 344 The Rise of the Literary Popular: Chick Lit 345 Desai and Deshpande: Deciding on Silence 347 Kala and Hasan: Deciding on Choice 351 Conclusion 354 Notes 356 22 The Politics and Art of Indian English Fantasy Fiction 357 “Sultana’s Dream” and the Origins of Political Fantasy 358 Mythical Predecessors 359 The Success of Fantasy Fiction 364 Conclusion 365 Notes 366 23 The Indian Graphic Novel 368 Comics in India before the Graphic Novel 369 The Indian Graphic Novel Appears 370 Recent and Future Developments of the Indian Graphic Novel 376 Notes 377 24 “Coming to a Multiplex Near You”: Indian Fiction in English and New Bollywood Cinema 379 Worlds Apart 382 World-Building 385 Notes 390 25 Caste, Complicity, and the Contemporary 393 Modernity and Contemporaneity 394 The Politics of Humiliation 397 The Politics of Ressentiment 400 Conclusion 403 Notes 406 Works Cited 409 Primary Sources 409 Secondary Sources 419 Index 445 Machine generated contents note: 1. Beginnings: Rajmohan's Wife and the novel in India Supriya Chaudhuri; 2. The epistemic work of literary realism: two novels from colonial India Satya P. Mohanty; 3. 'Because novels are true, and histories are false': Indian women writing fiction in English, 1860-1918 Barnita Bagchi; 4. When the pen was a sword: the radical career of the progressive novel in India Snehal Shingavi; 5. The road less travelled: modernity and Gandhianism in the Indian English novel Rumina Sethi; 6. The modernist novel in India: paradigms and practices Vinay Dharwadker; 7. Handcuffed to history: partition and the Indian novel in English Ananya Jahanara Kabir; 8. Women, reform, and nationalism in three novels of Muslim life Suvir Kaul; 9. Found in translation: self, caste, and other in three modern texts Rashmi Sadana; 10. Emergency fictions Ayelet Ben-Yishai and Eitan Bar-Yosef; 11. Cosmopolitanism and the sonic imaginary in Salman Rushdie Vijay Mishra; 12. Postcolonial realism in the novels of Rohinton Mistry Eli Park Sorensen; 13. Far from the nation, closer to home: privacy, domesticity, and regionalism in Indian English fiction Saikat Majumdar; 14. Ecologies of intimacy: gender, sexuality, and environment in Indian fiction Kavita Daiya; 15. 'Some uses of history': historiography, politics, and the Indian novel Alex Tickell; 16. Virtue, virtuosity, and the virtual: experiments in the contemporary Indian English novel Rukmini Bhaya Nair; 17. Of dystopias and deliriums: the millennial novel in India Mrinalini Chakravorty; 18. 'Which colony? Which block?': Violence, (post- ) colonial urban planning, and the Indian novel Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee; 19. Post-humanitarianism and the Indian novel in English Shameem Black; 20. Chetan Bhagat: remaking the novel in India Priya Joshi; 21. 'New India/n woman': agency and identity in post-millennial chick lit E. Dawson Varughese; 22. The politics and art of Indian English fantasy fiction Tabish Khair and Se;bastien Doubinsky; 23. The graphic novel in India Corey K. Creekmur; 24. 'Coming to a multiplex near you': Indian fiction in English and new Bollywood cinema Sangita Gopal; 25. Caste, complicity, and the contemporary Toral Jatin Gajarawala "A History of the Indian Novel in English traces the development of the Indian novel from its beginnings in the late nineteenth century up until the present day. Beginning with an extensive introduction that charts important theoretical contributions to the field, this History includes extensive essays that shed light on the legacy of English in Indian writing. Organized thematically, these essays examine how English was "made Indian" by writers who used the language to address specifically Indian concerns. Such concerns revolved around the question of what it means to be modern as well as how the novel could be used for anti-colonial activism. By the 1980s, the Indian novel in English was a global phenomenon, and India is now the third largest publisher of English-language books. Written by a host of leading scholars, this History invites readers to question conventional accounts of India's literary history"-- Provided by publisher This book traces the development of the Indian novel from its beginnings in the late nineteenth century up until the present day. Beginning with an extensive introduction that charts important theoretical contributions to the field, this History includes extensive essays that shed light on the legacy of English in Indian writing. Organized thematically, these essays examine how English was 'made Indian' by writers who used the language to address specifically Indian concerns. Such concerns revolved around the question of what it means to be modern as well as how the novel could be used for anti-colonial activism. By the 1980s, the Indian novel in English was a global phenomenon, and India is now the third largest publisher of English-language books. Written by a host of leading scholars, this History invites readers to question conventional accounts of India's literary history