35 Introduction

INTRODUCTION
English Language was introduced in India during British rule. Indians

learned this colonial language and some Indian writers started writing in English.
The first book written by an Indian in English was by Sake Dean Mahomet titled
‘Travel of Dean Mahomet’ published in 1793. From that date the trend of English
writing remained continue and today not male but female writers have made their
own field. Female writers made their contribution through grate novels poetry
and prose.
English language has made prominent place in Indain societies and has
become a dominant language. Though it is not official language in various areas
but its influence could be observed from the education system of India. It has
been used and still is used by official businessmen and writers. In Literature its
role remained active from 18th century to 21st century. The past few years have
witnessed a gigantic thriving of Indian writing in English in the global market.
Indian writers have not only “natives” the British language in terms of stylistic
features, but also accumulated English in terms of Indianite context. Now India
has emerged as a major literary nation. Female English writers too used the
British style and made their contribution in the literature. The women in India
have made notable contribution is well appreciated in all literary circles.
Women are inherently artistic. Women and literature are closely related to
each other because it requires a lot of artistic creativity to be good at literature
and women are too good when it come to artistic creativity. Women novelists
from India are the one to add a new dimension to the English literature of India.
Obviously, the current Indian English literature is due to the effort of many
prolific writers. The best part is that most of these writers are women. Common
examples include Sarojini Naidu, Nayanthara Sehgal and Arundhati Roy.
At the time, when novels were not so popular in the world of literature,
women writers in India used to create lyrics for songs, write short stories and
small plays too. Profound literary personalities believe that women writers were
the one who supported the old tradition of narrating tales in India. In between the
19th century, more women became English writers, and as the time went on,
women writers were able to inculcate the emotions of ladies in their writings. This
had a great impact on the language patterns of Indian literature. Women writers
introduced new styles in Indian writing, and such novels have become very
popular among the Indian readers these days.
The work of the women writers has not been given its due importance in the
past, most probably due to male chauvinism. In the past, the basic subject matter
of women writers was the feelings of a woman while she is confined in the walls
of a house, while the main authors used to write on vibrant themes. So the work
of male authors was able to collect more praise from the readers. But in the 19th
century, many Indian women writers played their role against the British rule by
participating in the India’s reform movement, and this was the point when the
work of women writers started getting praise. This was because they were written
on the themes of freedom of the country from the British rule.
In the last century, the readers acknowledge the work of women writers as a
strong way to spread modernism and feminist statements. In the past 20 years,
there has been a remarkable progress when we talk about feminist writings in the
Indian literature. In today’s generation, women writers are wealthier and are
foreign qualified too. Novels written by modern women writers focus on the
issues related to women, for societal issues as well, like corruption and injustice.
Most of the stories focus on the themes of unknown psyche of females, and we
can witness many such stories where the sorrows of an unlucky housewife are
portrayed. These novels are much appreciated by the readers and it adds wealth
to the bank accounts of the publishers too.
Indian women writers have been exploring feminine subjectivity and deal
with themes that range from childhood to complete womanhood. Shashi
Deshpande and Anita Desai have discussed problems and issues faced by the
women in today’s male-dominated world as the main theme of their books. Indian
English writing started with authors like Sarojini Naidu. This great poetess
charmed the readers with her writings. Feminism themes have also been used by
authors like Nayanthara Sahgal. Writings of Anita Nair have a special place in
Indian English writing by women. Most of these female novelist’s novels is
basically, are the novels of protest and may be seen as an outburst of reservations.
There are many Indian women writers both novelists and poets, based in
USA and Britain. Some like Jhabvala and Anita Desai are late immigrants while
others, like Jhumpa Lahiri belongs to the second generation of Indians abroad.
Most expatriate writers have a weak grasp of actual conditions in contemporary
India, and tend to recreate it through the lens of nostalgia. Their best works deal
with the Indian immigrants, the section of society they know at first hand. Sunithi
Nam Joshi, Chithra Benerji, Divakarvas and Bharathi Mukherjee are the oldest,
and naturally, the most prolific.
Writers like Jhumpha Lahiri, Manju Kapur, and Arundhati Roy too have written
novels of Magic Realism, Social Realism and Regional fiction and benefited from
the increasing attention that this fiction has received National and International
awards. They have probed into human relationship, since the present problem is
closely concerned with mind and heart and the crusade is against age-old
established systems. In order to make the process of changes smooth and really
meaningful, women writers have taken upon themselves this great task.

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INTRODUCTION

English Language was introduced in India during British rule. Indians

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