Indian Brief Story in English – A Study

Murli Das Melwani: Themes in the Indian Shorter Story in English: An Historic and A Critical Study. Bareilly: Prakash Guide Depot, 2009. Web pages 207. Selling price: Rs. 175/-, ISBN-978-81-7977-323-9.

As Murli Das Melwani states in the Preface, the goal of the book is to attract awareness to the style of Indian Limited Stories in English by critically surveying its historic growth from 1835 to the current. He delineates the attribute thematic options of many authors in 7 sections divided into a number of sub-sections. Nevertheless, as the author states in the Preface, “The scope of this reserve is confined to tales collected and printed in the ebook kind.” Neither the ebook includes uncollected published small tales, retold stories, fairytales and extensive small tales, nor does it contain translated short stories.

In the ‘Introduction’, Melwani traces the enhancement of shorter story from Kathasaritsagar to Raja Rao with no excluding its enhancement as a sort in the West. He normally takes into account early practitioners these kinds of as E.T.W. Hoffman, N. V. Gogol, Merimee, Balzac, Gautier, Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, Stephen Crane, O’Henry, and H. G. Wells and so forth in the West and Sudhin Ghosh, R. K. Narayan, Raja Rao and some others in India.

The 1st portion entitled ‘The Beginnings:1835-1935’ contains authors these types of as Pallab Sengupta, Soshee Chunder Dutt, Cornelia Sorabjee, S. B. Banerjea, Dhan Gopal Mukerji, A. S. Panchpakesa Ayyar, C. T. Ramabhai etcetera. These early Indian writers in English paved the way for the fantastic trio of Indian English Fiction, namely Mulk Raj Anand, R.K.Narayan, and Raja Rao who are all reviewed independently in Area II of the guide. In ‘The Initial Flowering: 1935-1945’ Melwani features these types of other writers as Manjeri S. Isvaran, Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, Ela Sen, and Louis Gracious who enriched the nationalist movement of the interval with their producing.

Part III bargains with many celebrated authors of 1950s these types of as Attia Hossain, Khushwant Singh, G. D. Khosla, and other folks who reflected on human figures vis-à-vis financial advancement in the early section of Put up-Independence India.

Section IV, ‘The Next Flowering: 1960-1970’ deals with some nicely recognized writers this kind of as R. P. Jhabvala, Bunny Reuben, Ruskin Bond, Bhabani Bhattacharya who are less ethical but more satirical and paradoxical in their therapy of themes.

Area V is aptly titled as ‘The Blossoming’ due to the fact it covers the myriad of limited tale writers this kind of as Padma Hejmadi, Keki N. Daruwalla, Anita Desai, Hamdi Bey, Kamala Das, Arun Joshi, Manohar Malgaonkar, and others who flourished throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

They deal with a wide variety of themes this sort of as changing techniques of small city Indian lifestyle, human psyche, parables, politics, the army etc.

The following chapter, Portion VI ‘An Extended Spring’ will take into account contemporary writers such as Vikram Chandra, Amit Chaudhuri, Githa Hariharan, Anita Nair, Uma Parameswaran, Meher Pestonji, and other people who ponder on themes these kinds of as mystery, fantasy, migration, homosexuality, custom compared to modernity and so forth.

The last segment ‘The Prospect’ gives details about the history of publishing residences. It also mentions the neglected females publishers such as Kali, Katha, Stree, Tara, Tulika, Yoda, Karadi, Zubaan, Females Unlimited, and Biblio. It also talks about the foreseeable future of Indian Quick Tale in English. The segment displays on absence of literary prizes in India and mentions positive developments these kinds of as Vodaphone Crossword Ebook Award, Indiaplaza Golden Reserve Awards, Readerr’s Selection award and so forth for selling short tale crafting and examining.

One particular of the considerable capabilities of the guide is that it contains facts about the lesser known writers alongside with very well known writers. Crucial surveys normally go over only the very well regarded names.

The Bibliography can be of terrific assistance to researchers since it supplies detailed data about anthologies of small stories from the time as early as 1908.

On the unfavorable aspect, even so, the ebook excludes mention of some nicely recognised present-day writers this kind of as Jhumpa Lahiri, Arundhati Roy, Farrukh Dhondy, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Rohinton Mistry etc. The e book would have been strengthened with their dialogue even if the motive of the writer may well have been to acquaint the viewers to lesser recognized names which most textbooks are inclined to overlook. However, it is a considerable publication, practical to every researcher and pupils of Indian English Writing.

(jointly with Sudeshna Pandey, M.Phil Researcher)