Postcolonial Indian English Fiction: Decentering the Nation

Since the 1980s, the re-visiting or re-contextualization of India by Indian novelists has offered exciting possibilities in fiction composed in English. India is a huge construct in which each segment of the society feels it owns the totality in much the same way as the whole structure assimilates and celebrates plurality authenticating different marginalized sections and their narratives, the postcolonial way. Of late, these voices from the margins and their narratives have become integral to the Indian English Fiction scene. Indian fiction writers subverted the English language to make it their own, using it in a freewheeling resonant manner. Salman Rushdie, I. Allan Sealy, Amitav Ghosh, Dina Mehta, Githa Hariharan, Arundhati Roy, and a host of other novelists have created a fictional corpus that provides space, voice, and visibility to marginalized groups in terms of class, community, religion, and gender. This volume examines the perspectives of the postcolonial Indian fiction writers, who have made a habit of re-viewing history, resisting hegemonic perspectives, both imposed and home-grown, while projecting a spirit of liberation in the process. The topics discussed are wide ranging, from reconstruction of minority histories, nationalism, and communalism to freedom struggles, reflected in an array of fascinating fictional works. [Subject: India Studies, Literary Criticism] Read more