FROM COLONIAL MEDIUM TO PLURAL VOICE: THE EVOLUTION AND DISTINCTIVE AESTHETICS OF INDIAN ENGLISH LITERATURE

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Abstract

Indian English literature emerged from a colonial language system but developed into a plural and self-reflexive body of writing that cannot be reduced to imitation of British models. This critical review examines its historical formation, linguistic strategies, thematic concerns, representative writers, and international circulation. Using a qualitative historical-critical method, the study reads selected poetry, fiction, drama, and essays alongside major scholarship in postcolonial and Indian literary studies. It argues that the field is distinguished by five interacting features: the Indianization of English; a continuing conversation with multilingual literary traditions; formal experimentation with history and memory; sustained attention to caste, class, gender, nation, region, and migration; and a double orientation toward local social worlds and global readerships. Close attention to writers including Rabindranath Tagore, Mulk Raj Anand, R. K. Narayan, Raja Rao, Nissim Ezekiel, Kamala Das, A. K. Ramanujan, Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh, Arundhati Roy, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Kiran Desai shows that Indian English writing is best understood as a changing literary formation rather than a single uniform tradition. Its importance lies not merely in international prizes or market reach, but in its capacity to transform English while interpreting the conflicts and possibilities of modern Indian life.

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