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Indian English Literature Assignment

Indian writing in English emerged during British rule in India and has since produced many renowned authors. Some prominent themes in modern Indian English literature include women's empowerment, feminism, and the changing social dynamics around gender. Two authors, Shashi Deshpande and Mahesh Dattani, addressed these themes in their works. Deshpande's short story "Intrusion" explored marital rape, while Dattani's play "Tara" questioned why girl children often have to sacrifice their own interests. Both authors chose to write in English because it allowed them to reach wider audiences and express certain concepts more effectively than their regional languages.

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Chanpreet Kaur
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3K views

Indian English Literature Assignment

Indian writing in English emerged during British rule in India and has since produced many renowned authors. Some prominent themes in modern Indian English literature include women's empowerment, feminism, and the changing social dynamics around gender. Two authors, Shashi Deshpande and Mahesh Dattani, addressed these themes in their works. Deshpande's short story "Intrusion" explored marital rape, while Dattani's play "Tara" questioned why girl children often have to sacrifice their own interests. Both authors chose to write in English because it allowed them to reach wider audiences and express certain concepts more effectively than their regional languages.

Uploaded by

Chanpreet Kaur
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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INDIAN

ENGLISH LITERATURE
ASSIGNMENT

Chanpreet Kaur
B.A.(Hons.) English
ENG/20/8
Indian Writing in English came into existence during
the British Rule in India. This existence brought many
evergreen personalities like Tagore, R.K.Narayan,
Amitav Ghosh, Shashi Deshpande, Mahesh Dattani and
many more. In modern time, it is guarded by number of
writers who are getting awards and accolades all over
the world.  Indian Writers – poets, novelists, essayists,
and dramatists have been making momentous and
considerable contributions to world literature since pre
– Independence era, the past few years have witnessed
a gigantic prospering and thriving of Indian English
Writing in the global market. Wide ranges of themes
are dealt within Indian Writing in English. Indian
literature reflects the Indian culture, tradition, social
values and also some of the historical events of India.

Many Indian writers try to express their views in the


story, drama or any of the poem in such a way that the
readers could easily relate to their surroundings (a
scene from a mundane life) or they could easily
imagine the scenes in the story. The themes of the
modern Indian English writers are industrialization,
modernisation, women empowerment, feminism,
inferiority of women and the changing social dynamics.
The most common of all the themes is the inferiority of
women, not giving acceptance to a girl child or not
giving the privileges which a male child is having but
not a girl child.

Shashi Deshpande and Mahesh Dattani wrote a short


story and a drama on these themes respectively.
Deshpande tried to put light on the Marital Rape done
by a husband on his wife where she was forced for a
physical relationship in the short story “Intrusion”.
Dattani from his drama “Tara” forces the reader to
think that why every time a girl child is made to
sacrifice that thing which is completely hers.

Deshpande was the daughter of renowned Kannada


dramatist, Shriranga; She was a novelist and a short
story writer. Roots and Shadows(1983), The Dark
Holds No Terror(1980), The Binding Vine(1993), That
Long Silence, which won the sahitya Akademi Award
for the best book in English 1987. She has also
published several volumes of short stories, including
The Intrusion and Other Stories (1993). In one of her
interviews she said that her father was a writer and she
also wants to become a writer. She said that many of
the interviewers asked them that why she chose English
as a medium to write but she also said that this question
would never be asked by writers such as Anita Desai
because it is pre-assumed that she will be writing in
English. Her father writes in Kannada so that may be
the reason she is asked that question often. Her was a
Marathi so she did learn Kannada and Marathi both the
languages but never learnt a script. There are so many
things which could not be translated in English from a
regional language which may lead to loss of sense and
the original essence could not be shown in the way a
writer wants to convey to the audience. She said that
English is a rich and stark language, it suits her style
but she also says that sometimes it becomes difficult as
if any writer writes in their regional language, it
becomes more natural.

Dattani is considered as one of the best Indian


playwright and he writes in English. He wrote many
dramas such as Final Solutions, Bravely fought the
Queen, Dance Like a Man, Tara, Thirty Days in
September, The Big Fat City. He is the first playwright
in English to be awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award.
He was born in Bangalore to Gujarati parents. The
themes which he chooses to write on, most of the
writers of his time avoid and also he presents his
writings in a very successful manner, adding to new
aesthetical dimensions to it and making it ever rich,
vibrant and dynamic. He got an expected and brilliant
response from his audience in his own creation “Where
there is a will”. It was through the success of this play,
he discovered that English is medium for writing his
rest of his career. Also Dattani said that whenever you
move out from your hometown, mostly people
communicate in English as it has become a common
language in most of the parts of India, so it becomes
comfortable for everyone to communicate their views
to everyone. He also shared a childhood experience that
his parents were very enthusiastic regarding his school
as he would learn to speak “good English” there. So
overall Dattani looks at the positive side of the
acceptability of English.

Both the writers accept English as the medium of


writing their plays, short stories and novels as it makes
the writings so rich in variety and range, remaining
unique in itself all the time. India is one of the largest
English speaking countries in the world. Its been
absorbed in such a way that every second person in the
urban society is always found speaking in English.

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