Paper4 Assigment Feminism

Feminist Criticism 

“ Feminist criticism examines the ways in which literature (or artifacts, cultural productions) reinforces or undermines the economic, political social and psychological oppression of women”.

What is feminism?

The term “Feminism” originates from the Latin word “Femina” meaning “woman”, thereby referring to the advocacy of women’s rights seeking to remove restrictions that discriminate against women. It essentially relates to the belief that women are equal power holders, and therefore it stands against any form of discrimination or subjugation that women face. 

The construct of patriarchal society has deemed women as the inferior gender.  In literature feminist theory searches for where the texts perpetuates the power-struggle of patriarchy’s sexists ideal:   the belief that women are man’s “other” to which women have been defined by their inadequacy in comparison to men.  Even more so feminist theory seeks to discover where the patriarchal ideology that women can only have two identities:  Madonna (virgin) or whore is either reinforced or broken. 

The 18th Century writings of Mary Wollstonecraft. In her A Vindication of the Rights of Women(1792), Wollstonecraft rejected the established view that women are naturally weaker or inferior to men.

The unequal nature of gender relations, she proposed, was because the lack of education kept the women in a secondary position. She further proposed that women must be treated as equals because they play a crucial role in society. Women themselves should strive to become ‘companions’ rather than mere wives to their husbands.

In the 20th century novelist Virginia Woolf provided the first critiques antly that we can recognize as marking feminism as we know it today. In works like A Room of One’s Own(1929) and Three Guineas(1938), Woolf explored gender relations. One of the first writers to develop a woman-centric notion of reading and education, she argued that the patriarchal education system and reading practices prevent women readers from reading as women. They are Constantly trained to read from the men’s point of view. Woolf also argued that authorship itself is gendered. The language available to the women is patriarchal. 

Contemporary social views of gender owe much to critiques of patriarchy in the words of Simone de Beauvoir. De Beauvoir argued in her most famous work, The Second Sex that men are able to mystify women. This mystification and stereotyping is instrumental in creating patriarchy. She argued that women, in turn, accepted this stereotype, and were thus instruments of their own oppression. In fact, women are measured by the standard of men and found ‘inferior’. This is the process of othering where women will always be seen, not as independent or unique but as a flawed version of the male. Men and women are, therefore, constantly engaged in this subject- other relationships where the man is the subject and the woman the other.

Notable Theorist

 Kate Millet

Kate Millet argued gender is socially constructed as it is performed, taught and reinforced into the concepts of masculinity and femininity.

Simone de Beauvoir

Simone de Beauvoir argued men are considered essential subjects (independent selves with free will), while women are considered contingent beings (dependent beings controlled by circumstances).

Portrayal of Women in Media 

Concept of Media:

Media is the buzzword of the era of globalization. In fact, the rapid expansion of the term and the concept of the present form of globalization has been made possible only through the information revolution throughout the world. It has been widely recognized that media can play a substantial role in promoting and disseminating 

information and are key players in the social and economic development of women. 

Therefore, media largely reflects the life styles, socialization patterns, participation levels, cultural boundaries, political maneuverings, religious manifestations,educational standards, social hierarchy, and of course, society images of any given society.As per the political scientist, James Rosenau definition, "Media is a label that is presently in vogue to account for peoples, activities, norms, ideas, goods, services, and currencies that are decreasingly confined to a particular geographic space and its local and established practices.” In fact media can play a significant role in either perpetuating or challenging social norms and behaviours that condone violence against women. New media can be a platform for the objectification of women and girls, from everyday hyper-sexualized, one-dimensional images of women and girls to overt violence.

women’s magazines have ten and one-half times more ads and articles promoting weight loss than men’s magazines. Television and movies reinforce the importance of a thin body as a measure of a woman's worth. In recent reports over three-quarters of female characters in TV are underweight, and only one in twenty are above average in size. Overweight actresses tend to receive negative comments from male characters about their bodies. This indicates that exposure to images of thin, young, air-brushed female bodies can be linked to depression, loss of self-esteem and the development of unhealthy eating habits in women and girls. Twenty years ago the average.

The model weighed 8 percent less than the average woman, but today’s model's weight is 23 percent less than the average woman. The messages that the media sends to women about  Thinness, dieting, and beauty tells “ordinary” women that they are always in need of adjustment, and that the female body is an object to be perfected. Emotional abuse is any behavior that is designed to control human beings through the use of fear, humiliation, intimidation, guilt, coercion, or manipulation. Emotional abuse is any.kind of abuse that is emotional rather than physical in nature. It can include verbal abuse, constant criticism, put-downs, and constant disapproval. 

Women and Media:

Information revolution, in its truest technical terms in India, is the latest phenomenon. During the phases of economic liberalization in the last one and half decade, the overall scenario of the media in India has changed tremendously. The depiction of Women in Indian media, be it films, television serials, news, media, visual advertisement, or modernized traditional media is indeed an area of great concern for people having interest in social science research and studies. 

Portrayal of women in Soaps:

The term "soap opera" was coined by the American press in the 1930s to denote the extraordinarily popular genre of serialized domestic radio dramas, which, by 1940, represented some 90% of all commercially sponsored daytime broadcast hours. The "soap" in soap opera alluded to their sponsorship by manufacturers of household cleaning products; while "opera" suggested an ironic incongruity between the domestic narrative concerns of the daytime serial and the most elevated of dramatic forms. The defining quality of the soap opera form is its seriality (Pingree and Cantor,1983). Examples of the open soap include (The Guiding Light, etc.), the wave of primetime U.S. soaps in the 1980s (Dallas, Dynasty, Falcon Crest), such British serials as Coronation Street, EastEnders, and Brookside), most Australian serials (Neighbors, Home and Away, A Country Practice), and Indian soaps such as BalikaVadhu, Uttaran Pavitra Rishta enjoy immense popularity. 

The closed soap opera is more common in Latin America, where it dominates primetime programming from Mexico to Chile. In India, Geet, Dil Mil Gaye fall in this category. These "telenovelas" are broadcast nightly and may stretch over three or four years and hundreds of episodes. They are, however, designed eventually to end, and it is the anticipation of closure in both the design and reception of the closed soap opera that makes it fundamentally different from the open form. The term itself signals an aesthetic and cultural incongruity: the events of everyday life elevated to the subject matter of an operatic form.

Deriving from Simone de Beauvoir‟s perception of woman as the "Other‟ to man, sexuality and woman-ness has always been identified as a binary opposition that registers difference between groups of people; differences which are socio-culturally manipulated and transmitted in ways which cause one group to dominate the other (Beauvoir , 2009). This sexuality and woman-ness of these women (or women in general ) has always been fitted within male-constructed stereotypes that through their projections and appropriations has successfully kept the "second sex‟ as the domesticated subaltern. It is interesting to note how popular TV serials uphold and propagate these very notions that unfortunately clog the path of further emancipation and socio-cultural up-liftment. With the nation claiming to join footsteps in the march to globalization and modernization where the state legislatures and judicial systems attempt to emancipate the marginalized women in our society, it does seem a little bizarre to see contemporary TV serials and soaps projecting women more as models of expensive costume-jewelry or "zardosi"sarees.

 

Moreover, the stereotypes used -that of a wronged wife, a domineering mother -in- law, bitter relationships between sisters - in - law ,though bear resemblance with a certain reality of society fails to do justice with the changing and shifting patterns of identity within the household. They fail to circumscribe all the career options that are now being taken up by Indian women, new modes of lifestyle being adopted and remain entrenched in certain deep-rooted notions that are hard to be erased away .

Portrayal of women in Advertisements:

In recent years, Indian advertising has witnessed a significant transformation in the manner in which women are portrayed. The way women are depicted in advertising changes with time, reflecting the transformation taking place in society. Advertising is one of the major media that affects our daily life consciously unconsciously and is responsible for playing a significant role in shaping society from a much broader perspective. 

Women today are no longer consolidated behind kitchen walls. Their aspiration for coming out of the door also taught society to think differently. Marketers wisely utilized this transformation process to launch their product and advertisement strategically.Das (2000) examined the portrayal of women and men in Indian magazine ads from a wide range of magazines in 1987, 1990, and 1994. Results indicated that although the gender portrayals in Indian magazine ads have changed over the period, they are still portrayed in stereotypical ways. Vela et al., (2007) examined male and female stereotypes in Spanish magazine advertising during the last three decades of the twentieth century. The results found that male and female portrayals have undergone significant changes in the last 30 years though gender stereotypes persist. Results also indicated that low and decreasing levels of sexism in Spanish magazines.

 Dwivedyet al., (2009) examined the role portrayals of men and women appeared in India’s most popular men’s, women’s and general interest magazines during.Ads were content analyzed to identify the role portrayal patterns of male and female across magazine types. It was revealed that male and females are portrayed in traditional roles. Men’s magazines depict men and women in very traditional roles while women’s and general interest magazines depict women in more modern roles.

Portrayal of women in media is to reinforce rather than reduce prejudices and stereotypes. None of these women were self defining, powerful characters who decided for themselves and chose for themselves. They were always deciding and choosing and doing as per the norms and values of family, culture and society. In this sense, a hero who smoked and went to a cabaret dance was still a pure man, but a heroine who by choice dressed in a sexually attractive fashion (wore revealing attire), or a vamp to whom the hero goes to satisfy his desires were all not as he point of this analysis is not to argue that women should not be objectified or that it is immoral for women in films to expose their bodies.

These are personal choices made by actresses and directors However, the way this exposure and exhibition of sexuality is portrayed on screen has an undercurrent, which carries messages to the audience, reinforcing further, the pre-existing stereotypes in society, adding strength to the vicious cycle do films lead to socio-cultural stereotypes or do these stereotypes find their way into films.

Work Cited 

Desai, N, & Krishnaraj, M, Women and society in India, New Delhi, Ajanta Prakashan. 1990 Desai and Patel, Indian women: change and challenge in the International decade, 1975-1985, Bombay, Popular prakashan. 1990

Jha, R. Women in Print media: Initiating new perspectives, New Delhi, Northern book center. 1992

KevalJ.kumar, Mass Communication in Media, Jaico, Bombay, 1998.

Pandey,M. The subject is women, New Delhi: Sanchar Publishing House. 

Words:-1,900

Paper3 Assigment Wide Sargasso Sea

                                Jean Rhys      

Jean Rhys, original name Ella Gwendolen Rees Williams, (born August 24, 1890, Roseau, Dominica, Windward Islands, West Indies—died May 14, 1979, Exeter, Devon, England), West Indian novelist who earned acclaim for her early works set in the bohemian world of Europe in the 1920s and ’30s but who stopped writing for nearly three decades, until she wrote a successful novel set in the West Indies.

Racism and Feminism through Antoinette’s Character Jean Rhys,)Wide Sargasso Sea is  an excellent postcolonial deconstruction of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and is appreciated for its subtle and sympathetic portrayal of a Creole madwoman caught in an oppressive and patriarchal society, struggling to find her own identity, in a society that belongs to neither White Europeans nor Black Jamaicans. “It reinvests its own hybridized world with a provincially authoritative perspective, but one which is deliberately constructed as provincial since the novel is at pains to demonstrate the subjective nature of point of view and hence the cultural construction of meaning.” (Tiffin, 24) .

By recreating Bronte’s colonial text from a postcolonial point of view, Rhys exposesmatters related to colonialism that Bronte overlooked and ignored. She gives voice to the colonized people through the protagonist, Antoinette, who is totally silenced, dehumanized in the earlier colonial text.According to Wilson Harris, “Wide Sargasso Sea gives voice to a marginalized character andtransforms her original tragic demise into a kind ofvictorious heroism by telling the story in a differentracial context by translating the Victorian woman's feminist struggle to a West Indian context”.

“I never looked at any strange negro.

  They hated us. They called us white cockroaches. 

  Let sleeping dogs lie.

 One day a little girl followed me singing,

 "Go away white cockroach, go away, go away."

"What is all this," [Mr. Mason] shouted. 

"What do you want?" 

A horrible noise swelled up, like animals howling, but worse.”

"Her coffee is delicious but her language is 

horrible and she might hold her dress up. 

It must get very dirty, yards of it trailing on the floor.

When they don't hold their dress up it's for 

respect," said Antoinette. 

"Or for feast days or going to Mass."

Wide Sargasso Sea begins, Jamaica is already embroiled in racial tensions caused by the recently passed Emancipation Act of 1833, which ruined most white slave owners and opened a huge economic gap between the white aristocracy and black natives.

The novel brings forth the ‘other side' to Jane Eyre; it gives a voice, identity and culture to the silenced and dehumanized Bertha Mason. It also constructs a much diverse and less labeled Caribbean world. Rhys shows the complex racial groupings- black, white, ‘colored'-along with the way in which the specific colonial history of individual islands produced a very rich mixture of cultures.

Antoinette, a Creole woman, is denied acceptance by both Jamaicans as well as the white majority. She is an absolute foreigner. There is an apparent difference between the “white” that once was Jamaica’s colonists and the “white” that she is. She is often denounced as “White nigger”. It is considered to be better to be a “black nigger” than “white nigger” when Tia, Antoinette’s so called friend, reveals that there are “real” white people in Jamaica who have gold money and are poor. However, Antoinette and her mother, Annette, share the racist view of other Whites in Jamaica, for they know that they are completely dependent on Christophine and other black helpers.The result of such inner conflict based on race is marginalization from both communities and a fractured sense of personal identity.

Race also enters the picture through the two Englishmen, Mr. Rochester and Mr. Mason, who are prejudiced against the black inhabitants of the island. Mr. Mason tells Antoinette to not acknowledge her black relatives. Mr. Rochester believes that Christophine and most ex-slaves are superstitious people after his money. Decadence And hypocrisy of the “superior” white community can be grasped when Rochester himself marries Antoinette only to receive her inheritance and 30,000 pounds. Writing as a white Creole woman, Rhys represents black women as necessarily ‘free’, liberated, and occasionally tyrannical.

Legally, black Caribbean people were freed from colonial rule with the introduction of the Emancipation Act of 1833.Rhys’s novel is in that anxious time when racial relations in the Caribbean were most tense. The apprehensions of the local white and mixed race populations are played out in new modes of representing black islanders.It is substantial to note that Antoinette’s dislocation is expressed in terms of negatives. She is not black, but she is not white either. Similarly, her longing is expressed also in negatives: “not to leave Coulibri, not to go.”It is really only through her interaction with her friendTia that Antoinette comes to realize how drastically out of place she is among the black people of Jamaica, and how mundane her wish to become one of them truly is.

This imperial world in its cultural context is one in which a dominant group 

of white men create, control and oppress dormant groups of women, slaves and so on, and being a woman means negotiating the suffering caused by this ascendency. Annette negotiates this torment minutely, or rather, doesn’t at all, and Antoinette's 

an unsettled relationship with her rejecting mother exposes her to a deep sense of instability and mistrust. 

Antoinette is a victim of abuse during her childhood. Her family is pushed out of the society because “the people… hated them”. Consequently, she suffers physical and emotional conflicts which establish her rites of passage. As a result, sympathy is evoked and she becomes an anti-heroine. The loss of a family member and a friend devastates her psychological endurance and helps reveal her inner beliefs in relation to religions and social values. She recognizes her issues and develops standards of righteousness. Antoinette thinks “there is no God” .. This attitude towards God reflects her ability to break free from the stereotypical images of women by determining and expressing her own independent principles and command in a patriarchal society.

Lastly, her womanhood experiences are shown through the final establishment of a new 

identity in society. Firstly, she becomes part of a family by marrying Edward Rochester who “hated her” . She finds redemption by liberating herself form the status of an outsider through the institution of family.Although she is labeled as a madwoman who “lives in her own darkness” , and subsequently becomes confined in the Attic of Thornhill Hall, Antoinette finds self-exemption and independence through death, or even possibly rebirth. Rekindling her relationship with society reveals a certain kind of passion in her heart, seeking love and hope, which is shown through the imagery of nature.

Even in failure, Antoinette manifests a resilient female spirit that refuses to be subjugated by males. The text renders an experience of womanhood of female outcasts striving to break free from the traditional views of women in a patriarchal society. Insight is gained while suffering abuse, losing family and friends, and ultimately achieving liberation to freedom. The novel Wide Sargasso Sea is in two major forms- enslavement/entrapment based on race and on gender. 

 Antoinette’s relationship with Rochester represents the bond that a colonizer shares with the colonized. She is economically enslaved as, by virtue of her marriage, all her 

fortune becomes Mr. Rochester’s, for him to dispose at his will. Women’s dependence on fathers and husbands embodies a symbolic slavery that is made literal in Antoinette’s ultimate physical captivity.Rhys portrays black women as relatively unrestricted.Black women were not usually forced into marriage against their will, and were allowed a degree of sexual freedom that white British women could only dream of.Tia, is presented as an extremely liberated free spirit in the novel. Early in the novel, the reader understands that Tia has skills to be envied; ‘fires always lit for her, sharp stone did not hurt her bare feet, I never saw her cry.’

 Spatially, Tia is shown to be free:she has the freedom to go where she pleases, and do whatever she wants. In contrast, Antoinette feels repressed by her own inability to leave Jamaica, or, eventually, to leave Rochester. This idealization of Tia is quite possibly, in part, a reflection of Antoinette/Rhys’s own longing to be just like her. Similarly, the black serving girl Amelie is portrayed as both morally and economically liberated. 

Her lack of moral constriction permits her sexual encounter with Rochester to take place. Afterwards, all Rochester can recall is her free and light-hearted manner: ‘She was so gay, so natural…’ . Along with this, Amelie is also economically shackle free. She is aware of what she wants to do with life and how to achieve the same, and knows that she requires a large sum of money for the same. As a result, she is able to fulfill her dream and travels to Rio, where all the rich men lived. In stark contrast to this, we see Antoinette’s extreme poverty, and her financial inability to go anywhere without her husband’s consent.

Rochester’s dominant voice becomes a process of self-identification that enables him to 

maintain his superiority over the uncivilized island and over its racially different natives. He initially promises peace and happiness to Antoinette but changes his course as soon as power and money enter his domain. 

As Thornfield Hall is the concrete manifestation of Rochester’s inheritance from his father, and the culmination of the Rochester fortunes made from colonial wealth, Antoinette’s final act of defiance overturns the past history in which she was the helpless watcher of Coulibri’s destruction.”In the novel, freedom can mean desertion or isolation,the fear of which leads many to enter self-righteously and sometimes even willingly into their own imprisonment. “Even if it is violent and  ultimately tragic, freedom is shown to be inevitable, the necessary path to redemption in the novel on both a societal and personal level.

Wide Sargasso Sea expresses a more extreme and shocking perspective revealing the cruel misogynistic views of a male-dominated society where women are judged as weak and docile. An acclaimed feminist text, the novel aims to bring forth the bitter reality faced by ostracized women in the society. “The end of Wide Sargasso Sea is left open; readers do not witness the death of Antoinette Cosway. What readers witness is her decision to seize the confrontation of her own destiny at last”“now at last I know why I was brought here and what I have to do. There must have been a flame flickering and I thought it was out. But I shielded it with my hand and it burned up again to light me along the dark passage".

In conclusion, Jean Rhys shows that a White Caribbean woman can in no way fight the oppression she faces in society except through demise and obliteration. However, Rhys grants her heroine a voice and an identity of her own, even though it is conflicted, in the face of colonialism and its effects on the external world. 

Work Cited 

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Wide Sargasso Sea". Encyclopedia Britannica, 10 Sep. 2017, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Wide-Sargasso-Sea. Accessed 19 October 2022.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Jean Rhys". Encyclopedia Britannica, 20 Aug. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Rhys. Accessed 19 October 2022 

The Post-colonial Studies Reader. Italy, Routledge, 1995.

Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. United Kingdom, W.W. Norton, 2016.

 

Paper2 Assigment Midnight’s Children

Salman Rushdie 

Salman Rushdie, in full Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie, (born June 19, 1947, Bombay [now Mumbai], India), Indian-born writer whose allegorical novels examine historical and philosophical issues by means of surreal characters, brooding humor, and an effusive and melodramatic prose style. His treatment of sensitive religious and political subjects made him a controversial figure.

In 1983, Rushdie was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was appointed a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France in 1999.Rushdie was knighted in 2007 for his services to literature. In 2008, The Times ranked him 13th on its list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. Since 2000, Rushdie has lived in the United States. He was named Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University in 2015.[8] Earlier, he taught at Emory University. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2012, he published Joseph Anton: A Memoir, an account of his life in the wake of the events following The Satanic Verses.

Midnight's Children 

Midnight’s Children, allegorical novel by Salman Rushdie, published in 1981. It is a historical chronicle of modern India centring on the inextricably linked fates of two children who were born within the first hour of independence from Great Britain.

Exactly at midnight on Aug. 15, 1947, two boys are born in a Bombay (now Mumbai) hospital, where they are switched by a nurse. Saleem Sinai, who will be raised by a well-to-do Muslim couple, is actually the illegitimate son of a low-caste Hindu woman and a departing British colonist. Shiva, the son of the Muslim couple, is given to a poor Hindu street performer whose unfaithful wife has died.

Saleem represents modern India. When he was 30, he wrote his memoir, Midnight’s Children. Shiva is destined to be Saleem’s enemy as well as India’s most honored war hero. This multilayered novel places Saleem at every significant event that occurred on the Indian subcontinent in the 30 years after independence.Midnight’s Children was awarded the Booker McConnell Prize for fiction in 1981. In 1993 it was chosen as the best Booker Prize novel in 25 years.In 2008, the novel was selected as the best of Bookers in the past 40 years.

Cultural ,Gender and Religious Issues in Midnight’s Children

  Midnight's Children presents the familial history of a Muslim  family  from  pre-independence  era  to  the period  of  emergency.  The  story  of  the novel  covers three  major  countries  of  the  Indian subcontinent.The   novel   throws   light   on the   KashmiriMuslim culture  in  which  religion  plays a very  crucial  role.  The foreign returned  young  doctor  Aziz  feels sad when returning to his native land and looks at the proximity of the horizon. He is hated by Tai because Aziz used an  imported  Heidelberg  bag  which  in  Tai‘s  view  is made  from  the  skin  of  the  pig. 

 When  Naseem,  the daughter   of   blind   landowner   falls  ill, Aziz   is summoned  to  provide  treatment  to  her.  But  as  a Kashmiri Muslim culture, women‘s body must not be seen  by  the  other  men  even  if  he  is  a  doctor.  So Ghani  finds  a  solution.  He  appoints  four  muscular women to hold a bed sheet which has at the center of it a  hole of  about  seven  inches diameter. And  Aziz  is allowed  to  see  the  portion  of  her  body  which  has problems for her. The irony of the situation is that due to her frequent  illness,  Aziz is  able to see the  whole of her body except her face.

It also represents the upbringing of a Muslim girl in a traditional  Muslim  society  where  she  has  limited exposure   to   the   publiclife.   Her   family   is   like everything  for  her.  Aziz  is  not  even  allowed  to  see his   patient   even   when   she   falls   ill.   This   has a profound impact in the course of the novel.It  is  due  to  this kind  of  upbringing  that  Naseem  is unable  to  come  out  of  her  veil  throughout  her  life. For   her,   not   covering   her   ankles   and   feet   is nakedness.  She  does  not  endorse  her  husband‘s idea  that  the  religious  teachers‘  preaching  her daughters  to  hate  Hindus,  Buddhists  and  other vegetarians  is  not  a  good  idea. She  is  also  less supportive to her husband on bed also. When India is  divided  into  three  parts,  she  wants  to  go  to Pakistan  quite  against  her  husband‘s  wish.  In Pakistan she runs a profitable profession of running a petrol Bunk.Aziz‘s  mother  is  also  another  notable  character here.  Though  she  never  comes  out  of  her  veil throughout   her   life,   when   her   husband   has   a stroke,  she  gains  courage  and runs  a  gemstone business  for  feeding  both  her  husband  and  her son. Now it is her husband who ―sat hidden behind the  veil  which  the  stroke  had  dropped  over  his brain‖(Rushdie, 1995)When  observing  the  Rushdianwomen  characters in the novel, though they are bound by the religious and  cultural  conventions,  they  seem  stronger  than their  male  counterparts.  It  is  Naseem  who  literally controls the whole of the family affairs and even all the  servants  and  people  are  afraid  of  her.She stoically  accepts  the  death  of  her  husband  Mrs. Briganza , the aaya in Salim‘s house, later sets up her   own   pickle   factory   where   Saleem  meets Padma.

Aziz's mother feeds the whole family.  Amina   Sinai   on   the   one   hand,   secretly maintains  an  affair  with  Nadir  Khan,  the  hummingbird  but  at  the  same  time she  remains  committed  to her  husband.  She  begins  loving  her  husband  bit  by bit. She carefully transforms her husband bit by bit to make  him  an  exact  replica  of  her ex-loverNadir Khan. At the time of need, her courage comes to the fore.  When  Lifafadas  is  nearly  killed  by  the  Muslim people,  she  protects  him  and  challenges  them  that they  should  kill  her  before  killing  him  and  she  has sheltered Lifafadas. Her secularism is commendable.

Jamila, Saleem's sister, becomes a famous singer in Pakistan. It is she who plans to send Saleem to the Cutia unit  of  the  Pakistan‘s  army  to  get  rid  of  him.  Mary Pierera  in  order  to  get  admiration  from  her lover, changes  the  two  babies  and  Saleem  the  baby  born as   a   result   of   the   relationship   between   Methold Vanita gets the advantage of the richness and Shiva, the son of the rich Sinais is doomed to the life of a poor. The conflict between secularism and fundamentalism is  one  of  the  major  themes  in  the  novel.

 In  Aziz‘s family  there  is  always  conflict  between  his  liberal ideas and his wife‘s conservative ideas. He does not want the partition of India whereas she wants it. It is Naseem who finally wins in the war and takes control of the whole of the family. Mian Abdullah‘s murder is another notable event in the   novel.   He   starts   free   Islam Convention   and works to  unite  like minded  people  so  as  to  prevent the  nation  from  division.  He  also  has  the  desire  to unite both Hindus and  Muslims. Dr Aziz, the  Rani of Cooch Naheen are the members of the commission. Nadir  Khan  is  the  general  secretary. However  their aim of forming an alternative to the dogmatism of the Muslim  Leaguers  is  considered  a  threat  to  Muslim Leguers. Hence  he  is  murdered cruelly.

 The  views of  the  conservative  Muslims  towards  Mian  Abdullah is expressed through Naseem‘s hatred towards him as she says to her husband,

“You  have  your  Hummingbird,‟......  „but  I, what's its name,  have  the  Call  of  God.  A  better noise, whatsitsname, than that man‟s hum".

On  the  other  hand,  the  conflict  is  another  kind  in Agra.  Ahmed  Sinai,  father  of  Saleem  Sinai  suffers  a lot  due  to  the  religious  hatred  towards  Muslims  in India.   The   Ravana   Gang is   robbing   the   Muslim merchants  in  the  name  of  religion..  Ravana  is  the name of many headed demons in Ramayana. But this name is used by a group of incendiary rogues. It is a fanatical  anti-Muslim  movement.  They  in  order  to provoke  Muslims  leave  the  pigs‘  heads   in   the courtyards   of   Friday   mosques.   They   paint   out slogans  on  the  walls  of  the  cities  that  Muslims  are the   Jews   of   Asia.   It   soon   becomes   a   brilliantly conceived  commercial  enterprise.  The  members  of the  gang  begin  demanding  money  from  the  Muslim merchants  to  let  their  world  unburnt. 

 Ahmed Sinai,the  narrator‘s  father, also  demanded  a  sum  of money to let his godown unburnt. Though Sinai takes the money to give it to the gang to save his world, he is unable to  give  it because the monkeys snatch his money  bag  and  throws  the  money  all  over  and thereby   he   becomes   unable   to   pay   the   money demanded  by  the  gang  and  as  a  result    his  reccine godown  is  burnt  into  ashes  that  makes  him  become anti-Hindu. Similarly  Lifafa Das is a peep show street man who leads Amina to Shri Ramram Seth in gratitude after she saves his life from a Muslim mob. Shri Ramram Seth is a Hindu seer, a cousin of Lifafa Das. Amina visits him while pregnant and he makes prophecies on the future life of her yet unborn son, Saleem Sinai.  As  soon  as  the  people  come  to  know that  he  is  a  Hindu,they  become  angry  and  begin attacking him. They even try to kill him because he dares to enter into a Muslim area. However Amina saves him from their attack.The cultural conflict is the reason behind the fall of Saleem‘s Midnight Children‘s Conference. 

Thus, Rushdie  ironically depicts the  cultural, religious gender issues in the novel 'Midnight Children‘s '.

Work Cited 

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Salman Rushdie". Encyclopedia Britannica, 14 Aug. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Salman-Rushdie. Accessed 19 October 2022.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Midnight’s Children". Encyclopedia Britannica, 27 Jan. 2016, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Midnights-Children. Accessed 19 October 2022.

Gayatri, V, Shoba. C. “Identity crisis in select novels of Salman Rushdie” International Journal of English Language, Literature and Translation Study (IJELR). Vol.4, Issue 3. July-Sep-2017.Web.5.11.2018 ISSN 2349-9451/ 2395-2628 <http://www.ijelr.in<4.3.17

G. Vijayapraveena, R. S. P. N. (n.d.). A pragmatic portrayal of Indian culture, politics, history and magical realism in Salman Rushdie's Midnight Children – a critical study. Annals of the Romanian Society for Cell Biology. Retrieved October 19, 2022, from https://www.annalsofrscb.ro/index.php/journal/article/view/1701

Rushdie, Salman. Midnight's Children: A Novel. United States, Random House Publishing Group, 2010.

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Paper1 Assigment The Home and the World

     

 Rabindranath Tagore 

Rabindranath Tagore, Bengali (born May 7, 1861, Calcutta [now Kolkata], India—died August 7, 1941, Calcutta), Bengali poet, short-story writer, song composer, playwright, essayist, and painter who introduced new prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali literature, thereby freeing it from traditional models based on classical Sanskrit. He was highly influential in introducing Indian culture to the West and vice versa, and he is generally regarded as the outstanding creative artist of early 20th-century India. In 1913 he became the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Tagore modernized Bengali art by spurning rigid classical forms and resisting linguistic structures. His novels, stories, songs, dance-dramas, and essays spoke to topics political and personal. Gitanjali (Song Offerings), Gora (Fair-Faced) and Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World) are his best-known works, and his verse, short stories, and novels were acclaimed—or panned—for their lyricism, colloquialism, naturalism, and unnatural contemplation. His compositions were chosen by two nations as national anthems: India's "Jana Gana Mana '' and Bangladesh's "Amar Shonar Bangla ''. The Sri Lankan national anthem was inspired by his work.

About The Home and the World 

The Home and the World (in the original Bengali, ঘরে বাইরে Ghôre Baire or Ghare Baire, lit. "At home and outside") is a 1916 novel by Rabindranath Tagore. The book illustrates the battle Tagore had with himself, between the ideas of Western culture and revolution against the Western culture.These two ideas are portrayed in two of the main characters, Nikhilesh, who is rational and opposes violence, and Sandip, who will let nothing stand in his way from reaching his goals. These two opposing ideals are very important in understanding the history of the Bengal region and its contemporary problems.

Beyond a Conjugal Life; Tagore’s 

Home and the World: A Gendered perspective

Tagore has viewed the notion of nationalism in general and then tries to find its reflection in the novel.

Whether intentional or not Ghare Baire has questioned the stereotyped mainstream conjugality of the then Bengali society which may be relevant even now. The institutionalized conjugal life may allow couples to stay under the same roof without even knowing each other. The novel in a way tried to construct a new kind of conjugality based on the recognition of equality of men and women. Such a new conjugality was aspired by none other than Nikhilesh in the novel. However, the honest intention behind Nikhilesh’s aspiration didn’t appeal to Bimala initially who were used to thinking in a conventional way of the society. “The first two anniversaries of our married life I spent time in Calcutta, where I went through my examinations. But from the next year onwards, for seven years without a break, we have celebrated our union among the blossoming water-lilies. Now begins the next octave of my life. It was difficult for me to ignore the fact that the same month of August had come round again this year. Does Bimala remember it, I wonder? —she has given me no reminder. Everything is mute about me”. For Bimala, conjugal life was premised on a traditional role played by women while carrying out a selfless service to the family. Furthermore, being highly influenced by her mother’s chastity Bimala wanted to retain the same legacy in her own domestic life. As such initial years of her marriage went away in worshiping her husband, that too in a much institutionalized form. In Fact she wanted to uphold her chastity as the replacement of her beauty which she lacked in the conventional sense. In doing so she was neither true to herself nor to her relationship. 

 

Perhaps Tagore whether consciously or not tried to project that nationalism in whichever form is practiced ultimately lands up in pursuing self interest, be it a nation or an individual. Possibly his disregard for nationalism and strong recommendation in favor of cosmopolitanism finds a latent manifestation through the novel.Tagore’s emphasis upon morality can also be traced even through the female character of the novel. It appears as if the women in the novel were provided with a free space but at the same time it is being limited by some principles of moral conduct beyond which her journey seems to be non-permissible. This becomes evident through Bimala in the novel. Bimala’s exposure to the outer world, her education – all seems to be provided for being a good companion to her husband. Things perhaps went wrong when her subjectivity prompted her to move a step ahead and respond both to the call of nationalism and Sandip. 

Even if nationalist call might have been excused, her passionate involvement with Sandip seems to have violated the code of morality.Let what I have had to bear end with this one birth. I could not bear it over again.”Another interesting feature of the novel is that Tagore has created his two male protagonists in sharp contrast to each other. Throughout the novel “Nikhilesh describes his relationship to Bimala and others in a much contemplative, non-masterful, eager to respect the autonomy of others” which is exactly the opposite characterization of Sandip. Sumit Sarkar argues that while projecting Nikhilesh Tagore had actually suggested an alternative conception of masculinity different from the mainstream aggressive one (as projected through Sandip). Further, here it must also be noted that the contrast characterization of Nikhilesh and Sandip however shares a common aspect, if studied carefully. Both tried to construct Bimala thereby ignoring her autonomous subjectivity. It also seems that both forms of nationalism as projected through these characters tried to treat Bimala as their extended colony where each in a way created their own sphere of influence and expected Bimala to act in accordance with their wishes. Whenever such a sphere of influence is likely to be threatened, they either disassociate her (as with the case of Nikhilesh) or dismiss her (as with Sandip) from their lifestyles. 

Critics like Krishna Kripalani pointed out the reasons for considering Char Adhyay as a continuation of Ghare Baire. To quote him, “in this short but powerful novel he returns to the theme he had discussed earlier, in a different setting in his novel The Home and The World- human values and political ideals. The setting is the underground revolutionary movement in Bengal, against his heroism and its terrorisms depicted the frustration of love and the gradual debasement of human values. The author’s analysis of the motives that inspire and condition political heroisms is marked by deep insight into the psychology of the characters in this tragic drama of frustrated idealism and is expressed in language of great vigor and beauty. The novel aroused a storm of controversy in Bengal and the author was mercilessly reviled. He had uttered too many home truths”.Infact, to understand Tagore, one needs to understand the time and the cultural context in which he wrote. This we often ignore and thereby interpret very crudely and mechanically. For instance, by the end of the passage Nikhilesh is satisfied that he has at last found the true path in life and that in doing so he has attained freedom, while acknowledging the freedom of others – specifically the world. Michael Sprinker is however critical about it since to him it seems “Nikhilesh discovering the secret of self-liberation discloses that the subject, which is the agent of his own freedom, depends on the world to realize its freedom”.

 Sprinker perhaps was very mechanical in arguing freedom cannot be given to one another; one can only achieve it for oneself. It is here that I presume the question of culture becomes significant. The family structure of a Bengali society, the mutual interdependence and social bonding between married couples, their relation with other members of the family and society is very different from that of the west. It was not a customary feature of women of the then society to move out of their ‘andarmahal’ and meet the outside world. Bimala, herself was hesitant to do so because of her socialization but did it on her husband’s insistence. She could not have realized the true spirit of liberty, had she not stepped into the outside world. In this respect Nikhilesh’s cooperation cannot be denied. But at the same time it must also be mentioned that Bimala, once exposed to the outside world, could exercise her liberty perfectly which is revealed through her interaction with both Nikhilesh and Sandip. This freedom she has acquired because of her individual subjectivity. As such, it will not be correct to universalize the nature of the concept of freedom. Hence, when Nikhilesh said, ‘…. I shall allow freedom to others ‘. Perhaps here he tried to mean that he will respect the freedom of others and like other husbands of the then society he would not allow the social norms to dictate the terms and conditions of freedom of others, doesn’t matter even if it happens to be his wife. Thus from the core of his heart he was a liberal humanist in all respects. In fact, this is where I would like to go back to my introductory part on interpretation and add further that there cannot be any ultimate conclusion of a text; all we can suggest are temporal ones.No doubt, Ghare Baire has questioned the nature of conjugality of the Bengali society yet Bimala’s return to Nikhilesh at the end without any outside compulsion is very significant. Bimala, though motivated by Sandip initially, responded to the nationalist call but her dedication to the movement was an honest one and hence cannot be questioned. Her strong passion towards Sandip was revealing and so was her love for Nikhilesh. Her inner conflict has created within her a split personality.

 “On the one hand I was eager that my husband would win in an argument and that Sandip’s pride should be shamed. Yet, on the other hand, it was Sandip’s unabashed pride which attracted me. Like Nikhilesh she too suffered from mental agony but unlike her husband her pain cannot afford to receive any sympathy from the readers since she has done something which is regarded as a crime in our society. Hence conflict regarding social values and changing times did not end. It continues even today when women having a dual mind pass through a similar trauma. Her return to Nikhilesh is however crucial since it shows how her self liberated position took her a step ahead towards self emancipation. Self emancipation or ‘Atmamukti’ however utopian it might sound, bears an important stage of salvation of the human soul in Indian philosophy. Tagore, a firm believer of it, did not want to deprive women from such essence of spirituality. As such his creation of Bimala in Ghare Baire tries to achieve this ultimate objective of ‘atma mukti’ nourished and based upon ‘atmashakti’. This in fact confirms and upholds his unbiased position regarding gender. 

Furthermore, Bimala’s return to Nikhilesh also indicates the relevance of commitment to one’s own relationship. This commitment is not merely for retaining the relationship, but commitment to discover our true selves, to realize our own self-reliant powers or “Atmasakti” by complementing each other which otherwise goes missing in our everyday thirst for consumerism. This is something which is rooted in our culture, which with changing times changed its form but the underlying philosophy is retained.

Work Cited

Permanent Black, Delhi,.Guha Thakurta Bar nana, 2012 , ‘Gender and Nationalism:  Tagore’s Home and the World and Four Chapters’ in R.Basu ed.Women and Tagore Recreating the Space in New Millennium, Abhijeet Publications, New Delhi.

Robinson, W. Andrew. "Rabindranath Tagore". Encyclopedia Britannica, 3 Aug. 2022,             https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rabindranath-Tagore.Accessed 19 October 2022.

Rabindranath Tagore – Facts. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2022. Wed.     19 Oct 2022. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1913/tagore/facts/>

Sarkar Sumit, 2002, Beyond Nationalist Frames-Relocating Postmodernism,   Hindutva, History,.

Sprinkers, M. 2002, ‘Homeboys: Nationalism, Colonialism and Gender in The Home and The World’ in P.K.Datta ed. Rabindranath Tagore’s the Home and the World: A Critical Companion, Permanent Black, Ranikhet.

Tagore,Rabindranath.The Home and the World. United States, Dover                                                               Publications, 2018

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My Daughter Join a Cult

Hello!everyone 

Myself, Aamena Rangwala student of Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University, Department of English. This blog is based on docu-series 'My Daughter Joined a Cult. 

My Daughter Joined a Cult 

'My Daughter Joined a Cult is a docu-series based on Following the life of the controversial and self-styled godman,Swami Nithyananda and it was released on OTT platform Discovery+ . 

Directed by Naman Saraiya, the show captures the exposure of the godman, who allegedly deceived his believers by luring them into joining his ashram and gurukul trust 'Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam', and then later allegedly abused them.

Cults controlling minds pattern 

cults can control behavior by psychological manipulating,such as asking all members to live on a commune together, and keeping members busy. By scheduling their days, is the another form of behavior control.

Nithyananda's trapping devotees/audience by his speech 

 The moment you sit in front of me, enlightenment starts, says Nithyananda to his audience. It is one of the many declarations the godman makes, which leave us questioning what made people fall for him. His vast number of followers includes influential and wealthy people, who are unnamed, and like many Indian spiritual gurus he has his share of foreign devotees. There are accounts from followers-turned- whistleblowers. The most insightful voice here belongs to an anonymous woman whose experience suggests that Nithyananda knew how to target the vulnerable and make people commit to him so much that they had ready to sever ties with their families.

Nithyanandas two-faced ways are revealed best by Sarah Landry aka Sudevi, his social media manager, and Jordan Lozada through their recollection of goings-on in the ashram, which include verbal abuse and beating of disciples as well as demands to ramp up the videos propagating his teachings and increase the enrolments for his inner awakening programme. Landry and Lozada do as the boss orders with a video segment called Keeping up with the Kailashians, in which they dress up in saffron robes and chronicle their lives in the ashram.

Sarah Landry 

‘IF WE DON’T DO AS HE TELLS US, WE ARE MADE TO SEEM LIKE A RAAKSHAS'

The former head of Nithyananda's social media team, Sarah Landry, and another core member, Jordan Loazada, add depth to the documentary as they clearly demarcate when they went from thinking that they had chosen an alternate way of living to realising they had joined a cult.

From demanding nude selfies from her for her own 'personal development' to ordering she get thousands of registrations for his programmes, Sarah faced all forms of abuse before extracting herself from the situation.

Having headed the online slander campaigns against former devotees who spoke out, she now says she was "brainwashed" and programmed to believe her 'guru'.

"If we don't do as he tells us, we are made to seem like a raakshas (devil)."

The highlight is on-the-record interviews with lapsed devotees, which include Sarah Landry and another prominent foreign follower, Jordan Lozada. 

The interviewees include journalists, among them The NewsMinute founder Dhanya Rajendran, who, while working for Times Now, tracked down a supposedly absconding Nithyananda and did a revealing interview with him.

The most moving conversation is with Jansi Rani, the mother of 24-year-old Sangeetha, who refused to leave Nithyananda’s side despite mounting scandals. Sangeetha was reported dead from a heart attack a few months after she called her mother, saying she was planning to flee the ashram. In Jansi Rani’s tragedy, we gain some understanding of the perils of blind faith and the willing suspension of disbelief.

Prose Writers and Poets

Flipped learing task 1

1] Write a note on S. Radhakrishnan's perspective on Hinduism.

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, (born Sept. 5, 1888, Tiruttani, India—died April 16, 1975, Madras [now Chennai]), scholar and statesman who was president of India from 1962 to 1967. He served as professor of philosophy at Mysore (1918–21) and Calcutta (1921–31; 1937–41) universities and as vice chancellor of Andhra University (1931–36). He was professor of Eastern religions and ethics at the University of Oxford in England (1936–52) and vice chancellor of Benares Hindu University (1939–48) in India. From 1953 to 1962 he was chancellor of the University of Delhi.

Radhakrishnan led the Indian delegation to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO; 1946–52) and was elected chairman of UNESCO’s executive board (1948–49). From 1949 to 1952 he served as Indian ambassador to the Soviet Union. On his return to India in 1952 he was elected vice president, and on May 11, 1962, he was elected president, succeeding Rajendra Prasad, who was the first president of independent India. Radhakrishnan retired from politics five years later.

Radhakrishnan’s written works include Indian Philosophy, 2 vol. (1923–27), The Philosophy of the Upanishads (1924), An Idealist View of Life (1932), Eastern Religions and Western Thought (1939), and East and West: Some Reflections (1955). In his lectures and books he tried to interpret Indian thought for Westerners.

Radhakrishnan sought to define, defend, and promulgate his religion, a religion he variously identified as Hinduism, Vedanta, and the religion of the Spirit. He sought to demonstrate that his Hinduism was both philosophically coherent and ethically viable. Radhakrishnan’s concern for experience and his extensive knowledge of the Western philosophical and literary traditions has earned him the reputation of being a bridge-builder between India and the West. He often appears to feel at home in the Indian as well as the Western philosophical contexts, and draws from both Western and Indian sources throughout his writing. Because of this, Radhakrishnan has been held up in academic circles as a representative of Hinduism to the West. His lengthy writing career and his many published works have been influential in shaping the West’s understanding of Hinduism, India, and the East.

2] "The autobiography of an unknown Indian" is 'more of a national than personal history'. Explain

The Autobiography of An Unknown Indian” is the most widely known work of famous thinker and writer Nirad C. Chaudhuri, an Indian English literary artist of the 20th century. He had written this autobiographical account when he was around 50. Although he was born in 1879 in Kishoreganj, a small town of at present  Bangladesh, yet his autobiographical description relates his mental and intellectual development, his life and growth connected to Indian atmosphere exclusive Calcutta. His observation of vanishing landmark the connotation of this dual-changing Indian situation and historical forces that were making the exit of British from Indian an imminent affair.

Although, this book is by nature an account of autobiography yet it is more concerned with the story of the struggle of a civilization with a hostile environment in which the destiny of the British rule become necessarily involved. It is about the maturity of a scholar’s mind in that environment. It seeks to show how the mind and character of a typical Indian were made, shaped and quickened by the same British rule.

This Autobiography has been divided into four different books in which each book has four chapters. “Autobiography” with his views of “Indian History”. He believes that that the tropical land of India has ever been a corrupting influence on its people. The land was rejuvenated only when foreign invasions took place. He hopes that in the future the USA alone or along or along with the British Commonwealth may come to rejuvenate India again.

The Autobiography ends here; “In the words of Nirad C. Chaudhuri himself”. It is more of a national than personal history. 

Task 2

Write a note on How Kaikini differs from other Indian poets in his poems.

Jayant Kaikini is one of the most popular writers in Kannada literature. He is a man of many diverse talents and has made a name for himself through his significantly different work. Apart from being a renowned poet and short story writer, he also serves as a scriptwriter for Kannada movies.He is valued as one of the best writers among the younger generation in Kannada literature and has revolutionized the field by giving it a fresh new perspective. He has it's own style of writing. According to him, "Style is nothing but how you perceive things unconditionally".

Famous poems:-

• Rangadindondishtu Doora (1974)
• Kotitheertha (1982)
• Shravana Madhyahna (1987)
• Neelimale (1997)
• Jayant Kaikini Kavithegalu (2003)
• Ondu Jilebi (2008)

Write a critical note on the poems by Nissim Ezekiel.

Nissim Ezekiel is a great Indo-Anglican poet. Versatility is the outstanding characteristic of his poetry. The Indian contemporary scene, modern urban life, human relationship, love and sex and spiritual values are the major themes of his poetry. He has experimented endlessly with form and craft. Flawless craftsmanship makes his poetry unique.

Ezekiel is a poet of city life. In his poem we find the description of Bombay. It is symbol of any modern city. Through this symbol the poet has presented the ugliness, dirt, wickedness, inhumanity and squalor of life. According to him the city reduces human personality to a zero. 

Ezekiel has centred his attention on marital, family and human relationship. As a sharp observer of marital life the poet says that husbands and wives should try to create harmony for a successful marital life. Some of his poems deal with domestic life. In these poems the poet draws memorable pictures of his parents and children. There is a confessional note also in them.

Ezekiel is great craftsman. He has a rich sense of humour and wit. To attack on absurdities and follies of life, he takes help of irony. He shows keen sense of form and structure. Words are chosen and used carefully. He frequently uses the colloquial English. His conversational tone is interesting. Ezekiel's symbols and images are evocative.

Thus, Ezekiel is a versatile poet. He has prepared grand path for the new poets. He has made a valuable contribution to stylistic felicities in Indo- Anglican poetry.

Task3

India is not a country", says Raja Rao, "India is an idea, a Metaphysic". Explain with example.

Raja Rao, (born November 8, 1908, Hasan, Mysore [now Karnataka], India—died July 8, 2006, Austin, Texas, U.S.), author who was among the most-significant Indian novelists writing in English during the middle decades of the 20th century.

One of the central characters of Raja Rao's book The Serpent and The Rope said, “India is not a country like France is, or like England; India is an idea, a metaphysic.” In fact, Raja Rao himself had once told a UNESCO official, who wanted him to write a book on India, that India didn't exist!

What were the reasons that writers of post - Independence Indian writing in English preferred to write in English rather than their mother tongue. Explain with example.

The phrase „Indo-Anglian‟ was used to describe the original creative writing in English by the Indians. It is the literature written by the Indians whose mother-tongue is not English. 

 The evolution of Indian fiction in English may be broadly divided into four stages. The Post-Independence Era which is the third phase has a two-fold effect on Indian writing in English. The radical changes like poverty, hunger, death, diseased., which were brought about by the Partition of the country, on the one hand made the writers dream about a finer future and on the other hand widened their vision, sharpened their self-examining faculty. Thereby provided fertile soil for many novelists to flourish and a considerable number of novels were produced. Some prominent writers of this period are-BhabaniBhattacharya, Manohar Malgonkar, Kushwant Singh, Sudhin Ghosh, G.V.

Desani, Ananthanarayanan, J. Menon Marath and others.

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