Writing India, Writing English: Literature, Language, Location

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This volume explores the complex interaction between English and other Indian languages in the Indian literary oeuvre. The essays in this book examine how the nation is negotiated and constructed in English (and English translation), a language thatcalls for constant transformation even as it transforms Indian realities. It looks closely at how translation plays a major role in the making of an alternate nation, especially discussing the various developments in Tamil to give a counter-perspective. The different essays raise a variety of questions and embody the tense power dynamics that mark this relationship.The first section discusses the decisive influence of English in India and the ideas of connectedness as a nation. Starting with an assessment of Macaulay and his famous Minutes, it includes essays on translating from Tamil and on the mixed language that is evolving in the Tamil cultural world because of the presence of English (and Hindi); the politics of anthologisation; and how Karnad's Tughlaq deals with the idea of the nation, looking at its historical location.The second part delves into how Indian English literature grapples with the representation of the Indian nation, sometimes obsessively, evinced both in poetry and in novels. The ultimate focus is on the struggle between the dominant regional language of a place and English, along with the author's location at this interface - part of the creative tension that gives energy and uniqueness to Indian English writing.

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G.J.V. Prasad is Professor of English and Chairperson of the Centre for English Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.Table of ContentsPart I: India, English, Translation;  1. A Minute Stretching into Centuries: Macaulay, English and India;  2. Translating Dalit Tamil Literature into English;  3. Tamil, Hindi, English: The New Ménage à Trois;  4. Trans-creating India(s): The Nation in English Translation;  5. Karnad, Tughlaq, India;  Part II: Indian English Literature and the Nation;  6. Writing India, Writing English;  7. Romance in the West: Toru Dutt, the Novelist;  8. 'Food for Thought': The Tamil World of R. K. Narayan;  9. Always in the Poet's Eye: Nissim Ezekiel's India;  10. India in Verse: The Indian English Nation;  11. Terrifying Tara: The Angst of the Family