India

Introduction

Some interesting new playwrights were published in 2011. In fiction, short stories rather than novels predominate. However, three noteworthy novels appeared: Sujata Sankranti’s In the Shadow of Legends, Rahul Bhattacharya’s The Sly Company of People Who Care and Amitav Ghosh’s River of Smoke. Three significant books dealing with literature and culture have appeared by Professor Jasbir Jain, Professor G.J.V. Prasad and Professor E.V. Ramakrishnan, respectively. A large number of translations from various Indian languages were published, many by translators who are distinguished poets and novelists.

The Rivered Earth by Vikram Seth contains four libretti, performed between 2006 and 2009 at the Lichfield Festival, the Salisbury Festival, the Chelsea Festival and the Chelsea Arts Festival. Vikram Seth, the author of five collections of verse and three novels (including the blockbuster A Suitable Boy) had published Arion and the Dolphin: A Libretto in 1994. The present collection is a collaborative effort, written especially for the composer Alec Roth and the violinist Phillippe Honore. Seth has written a thirty-page introduction, explaining the circumstances in which this work came into being; this would be of interest to lovers of opera. The poems comprise seventy pages, in four sections, each with its own short introduction. The first section, “Songs in Time of War” is set in China, the second in Europe, while the third, “The Traveller” contains translations of ancient and medieval Indian poetry. The last section “Seven Elements” has many new poems. Each section is embellished with Seth’s calligraphy in Chinese, Seth’s poem “Oak”, Brajbhasha (Hindi) and Arabic. Much of the work was done in the Metaphysical poet George Herbert’s house in Salisbury, which Seth bought. The libretti come to life only on stage; as words on the page, The Rivered Earth adds little to Seth’s reputation as a poet.

Novelist, short-story writer, poet, playwright, translator and critic, Shiv K. Kumar (b.1921) has brought out his selected poems: Which of My Selves Do You Wish to Speak To? The poems here range from his first collection, Articulate Silences (1970), to his ninth, Losing My Way (2004). The new poems reveal Kumar as a meta-poet. Here, he seems to be more concerned with the craft of the poet rather than with the self, family, love and sex, the dominant concerns of his earlier poetry: “Only words which/ lay eggs on paper and whose/ offspring never die.”

Brian Mendonça is a traveller-poet, who chronicles an India where the contemporary melds with the classical in the river of time. A Peace of India: Poems in Transit is his second collection (after Last Bus to Vasco, 2006). He describes his travels throughout India. The poems are written in situ, many of them on board trains. Twenty-three states of India, including North-Eastern states like Assam and Nagaland, are covered. The poetry captures the physical reality as well as the various cultures (and cuisines) of India. The book is embellished with specially produced small maps which clearly show the places where the poems have been written. Some poems such as “Hillsong” capture natural beauty:

Sweet scented trees, the pine, the amaltas,

Cling to the hill trail amid cool water lakes.

In the immense silence a twig snaps!

A baby monkey, foraging for berries

Eyes me with a mix of fear and curiosity.

We are given the poet’s personal reaction to what he sees, as in these lines from the poem “Hymn to Ravi” written on the bank of the river in the Himalayas:

If I could take back with me

the sound of your waters, as you course through the night,

I would.

If I could take back with me

your thousand faces, from turquoise to deep green,

I would.

If I could take back with me

the laughter in your gurgle, and the warmth of your people,

I would.

Brian Mendonça pays equal attention to the human presence, as in the poem “Sonepur Mela”: “Absent elephants,/ Cooking pots/ in wayside mangers,/ Snotty children/ sleep on bushels of hay./ Litti in a bamboo hut/ Overlooking a grove of mangoes”. He freely uses Indian words and phrases from various Indian languages and often provides footnotes to explain these terms. The only terms he does not try to explain, perhaps because no explanation would be sufficient, are the references to various food items – yakhni, golgappa, safeda, kebab, litti, appam, pazhampori, etc.

Professor G.N. Panikkar (b.1937) is a well known fiction writer and literary critic in Malayalam. He began writing poetry in English only in 1998. When One Strays into Your Life contains thirty-three poems written over a period of thirteen years and reflects a long life of introspection and experience: “It seems impossible/ To start with a clean slate!/ The more you wipe it,/ Names and events unhappy/ Emerge bolder and starker/ As if with a vengeance”. The poem “To Start With a Clean Slate” ends with the poet longing for “a breakable slate”, because now “unbreakable/ painted tin sheets” have “usurped the old brittle slate”.

K. Srilata’s second collection of poems Arriving Shortly (her first collection Seablue Child was published in 2000) is distinguished by a welcome touch of humour. The section “The Unbearable Lightness of Verse” includes the poem “A Case for the Dosai”: “Indeed, idiomatically the idli wins out./ We invariably speak of idli-dosai, /Never of dosai-idli.” In another poem, a washing machine speaks about itself. Though her poems deal with universal issues, they are full of local references, which might create problems for readers who are not familiar with Madras:

Born and raised in

West Mambalam—

the other side of the railway tracks

where fabled mosquitoes turn people into

elephants. (“Bio note”)

Mambalam in Madras is notorious for huge mosquitoes; a mosquito bite can lead to elephantiasis (filariasis, a disease in which limbs swell up enormously). Overall, the poems have many concerns, ranging from caste violence to international disputes and personal relationships. The poem “Family Tree” observes the difference between the healing power of nature and the bitterness of human relationships:

A tree is a resilient thing.

Cut a branch and the sap flows

smoothly out.

Other branches continue

as ever.

Soon, the healing happens.

Leaves grow back …

Of deep-down hurt there is no trace.

Consider, on the other hand, a family

that has grown apart

branch by branch.

For years, they deliberately ignore each other’s weddings

until

some two generations down

the sap inside begins to fester and hurt.

Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih lives in Shillong, the capital of the Northeastern state of Meghalaya. He belongs to the Khasi tribe and writes poems and short fiction in both Khasi and English. The Yearning of Seeds is his third collection of poems. His poems reflect his preoccupation with the politics and culture of Meghalaya. One of his poems comments on Prime Minister Gujral’s visit to the Northeast: “He came with twin objectives/ a mission for peace and progress./ But he was a rumbling in the clouds/ a prattle in the air”. In Shillong, “bamboo poles sprang up from pavements / like a welcoming committee”, and he himself “was/ only the strident, sounds of sirens/ like warning in wartime bombings”. Nongkynrih’s style ranges from the acerbic to the lyrical, with the locale always in focus.

Poet, painter, academic and translator Sukrita Paul Kumar’s new collection, Poems Come Home, is bilingual – the poems have been translated into Urdu by Gulzar, the well-known poet and lyricist. Another bilingual book is Pranayasatakam by Thachom Poyil Rajeevan; it contains poems in Malayalam along with the poet’s own English versions. Pashupati Jha, professor of English in I.I.T. Roorkee, has published his third collection of poems, All in One. Professor Charu Sheel Singh, who teaches at the department of English, Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith at Benares, has written a collection of poems, prefaced by a foreword, about the ten incarnations of God Vishnu, Born across Millenniums. This follows his tenth collection, Legacies, published in 2010. Slave is Nileen Putatunda’s sixth collection of poetry, all dealing with spirituality and religion.

The Hindu (one of the national newspapers of India) launched the MetroPlus Theatre Fest in 2005, staging a mix of Indian and international plays and organizing symposia on theatre. In 2008 The Hindu launched the annual MetroPlus Playwright Award for the best unpublished and unperformed play in English. Every year between sixty and eighty entries are received, testifying to the abundance of playwriting talent in India. The three prize-winning playscripts for 2008, 2009 and 2010 have now been published (the winning plays are performed every year at the The Hindu MetroPlus Theatre Fest in Chennai). The winner for 2008 was Harlesden High Street, a play in free verse by Abhishek Majumdar. There are three characters: Karim; his mother Ammi; and Rehaan, a young man working with Karim in his shop selling vegetables and fruits. The circumscribed world of poor immigrants in West London is presented effectively. Karim’s sister Firoza, whom Rehaan wants to marry, is a constant presence in the play, though she never appears on stage. The winner for 2009 is The Skeleton Woman by Prashant Prakash and Kalki Koechlin. The play has just two characters, an unnamed young woman and her husband, a young man. The play offers a somewhat surreal presentation of the complex web of human relationships and social pressures. The MetroPlus Playwright Award for 2010 went to Taramandal by Neel Chaudhuri. The play is based on Satyajit Ray’s short story “Patol Babu, Film Star” about Patol’s desire to be a great film star.

Mahesh Dattani has published a new collection, Three Plays. Brief Candle, subtitled “A Dance between Love and Death”, which is about survivors of cancer who are putting up a comic play to raise funds. The play within a play and the abundance of themes make Brief Candle somewhat convoluted. The Girl Who Touched the Stars is a radio play broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It is inspired by the life of Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian woman in outer space, and is in the form of a conversation between the older and the younger Bhavnas. Dattani’s persistent concern with gender bias is revealed: we learn that Bhavna’s mother has deliberately misled her husband to believe that the pre-natal tests have indicated a male foetus; she knows that she would be forced to abort the foetus if he learns the truth. The third play in the collection, Thirty Days in September (first published in 2005) is about a child’s sexual abuse.

Sujata Sankranti won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for the year 1998 and has published a volume of short stories entitled The Warp and the Weft and Other Stories (2001). In the Shadow of Legends, her first novel, is a relatively short work, but it contains enough material for a thousand pages – such is the economy of her style. The story centres around Swati, the youngest daughter of a scholarly landowner in Kerala. The opening chapter, “Legends”, serves as a kind of prologue. Swati’s elder sister Mini has a mind of her own and is interested in studying. Their mother wants her to marry Vishnu, who is managing their estate with great efficiency (and not a little cruelty). Mini is aware of Vishnu’s motives – he wants to marry her “because he thinks he can and must bend” her. Mini becomes a legend by defacing herself, cutting off her beautiful hair and leaving home to escape Vishnu. Sankranti shows the violence of the communist movement against landlords in Kerala: the Shastri household is destroyed when every male member is killed along with the cruel Vishnu. Swati goes to Moscow to study Russian, and falls in love with Misha; the authorities there do not approve of a Russian man planning to marry an Indian, and the young man simply disappears. The reader is given a vivid account of life in Russia in the 1950s and 1960s. Swati comes back to India, and finds a measure of peace by looking after the young girl Pavani, who has lost her mental balance after witnessing the Naxalite violence. She names Pavani’s fatherless child Misha, after her lost love. The novel goes back and forth in time and contains many passages of lyrical beauty, describing Kerala and Russia, and its characters are fully realized.

Rahul Bhattacharya’s debut novel The Sly Company of People Who Care won The Hindu Literary Prize 2011 as well as the £10,000 Ondaatje Prize (awarded by the Royal Society of Literature for the book which best summons up “the spirit of a place”). The unnamed narrator, a sports journalist (like the author himself) spends a year exploring Guyana. The local history and landscape are beautifully evoked, but it is his description of the characters he meets which makes the book memorable.

The second volume of Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis Trilogy is entitled River of Smoke; it centres around the “Opium Wars” fought by the Chinese Empire to eradicate the illegal opium trade promoted by the British. Sea of Poppies ended with the Ibis caught in a storm, which provides an opportunity for the convicts Neel Rattan and Ah Fatt (a criminal from Canton) to escape from the ship. Another ship caught in a storm is the Anahita, owned by Bahram Modi, a Parsi opium trader from Bombay. The focus shifts from Deeti and Kalua (who are almost deified in Mauritius) to Bahram Modi in Canton, who is ready to do anything to prove himself to his rich relatives. There are a number of narrative strands – Paulette, a young girl whose father is a botanist, comes to Canton in search of a rare plant, the Golden Camellia. She is helped by Ah Fatt, Bahram’s illegitimate son, and Robert Chinnery, a gifted but eccentric English painter. Raja Neel Rattan disguises himself and starts working as Bahram’s munshi. Ghosh skilfully mixes fact and fiction, where the most important historical figure is Commissioner Lin, a formidable bureaucrat known for his competence and high moral standards. Lin was sent to Guangdong as imperial commissioner by the Emperor in late 1838 to halt British opium smuggling. The letter he is shown writing to Queen Victoria in 1839, urging her to end the opium trade in the novel, is based on the letter he actually wrote (but did not send) to Queen Victoria:

It appears that this poisonous article is manufactured by certain devilish persons in places subject to your own rule. It is not of course either made or sold at your bidding, nor do all the countries you rule produce it, but only certain of them. We have heard that England forbids the smoking of opium within its dominions with the utmost rigour. This means you are aware of how harmful it is. Since the injury it causes has been averted from England, is it not wrong to send it to another nation? (River of Smoke, 543-44)

Lin Tse-hsu emerges as a powerful moral figure. Even while destroying the impounded opium to save human beings, he is aware of the damage it may do to the environment: he is shown praying before releasing the poison into the sea. Ghosh exposes the hypocrisy of the British. They present themselves as supporters of Free Trade, conveniently forgetting that Indians in Bengal and Bihar had been forced to cultivate opium (as depicted in Sea of Poppies) for the British-controlled opium trade.

Anjana Basu is one of our underrated fiction writers. Her books include a collection of short stories based on her experience as an advertising consultant, The Agency Raga and Other Variations (1994), and two novels, Curses in Ivory (2003) and Black Tongue (2007). The central character of her new novel Rhythms of Darkness is Shyama (meaning “dark”) whose life is dominated by the fact that she has a very dark complexion. She is a gifted dancer and enters politics by providing cover for anti-government militants working for the poor in rural Bengal. Basu’s fiction is based on facts and provides an authentic picture of Bengal politics in well-crafted prose.

Aravind Adiga’s third book Last Man in Tower is set in a co-operative housing society in a Bombay suburb where a real-estate developer plans to put up luxury apartments. The plot deals with his efforts to buy out the people living there; a retired teacher, Yogesh Murthy, refuses to move out and remains there, the last man in the tower. The plot is well worked out, but not the characters or the setting. The conspiracy of residents like Mrs. Puri, Ashwin Kothari and Ibrahim Kudwa to murder Murthy is not credible. The descriptions are not based on actual observation of life in Mumbai, and phrases like “day-labourers” and “water buffalo” (the Indian usage is “daily wage-earners” or just “labourers”, and “buffalo”) are irritants for the Indian reader.

Bharati Mukherjee’s eighth novel Miss New India depicts the difference between the metropolis and the small town in present-day India. Nineteen-year-old Anjali Bose runs away from the small town of Gauripur and arrives in Bangalore in search of a job in a call centre.

David Davidar was at the helm of affairs when Penguin India was set up in 1985. Ithaca is his third novel, reflecting his knowledge of the contemporary publishing scene, where giant corporations are taking over small independent publishing firms.

Namita Gokhale’s sixth novel Priya in Incredible Indyaa can be considered a kind of sequel to her first novel, Paro: Dreams of Passion (1984), as Priya, the protagonist in her earlier work, is a character in her new work. Gokhale presents satirical vignettes of life in contemporary Delhi, but readers who do not know Hindi may not fully understand the mixed language she uses.

Sherlock Holmes occupies an important place in the Indian literary imagination. Vithal Rajan’s Holmes of the Raj (2005) had Holmes and Watson travelling throughout India. The Year of High Treason is set in 1911, when ruling princes from all over India came for the “Delhi Durbar” (the Coronation of King George V). Winston Churchill sends Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to Delhi to protect the king when he learns of a threat to his life. The novel parodies not just Arthur Conan Doyle’s work but also the heroes of other popular writers such as Maurice Leblanc’s Arsène Lupin, Anthony Hope’s Rupert of Hentzau, E. W. Hornung’s Raffles, Sax Rohmer’s Dr. Fu Manchu and Sir Denis Nayland Smith, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan, and Jules Verne’s Mikhail Strogoff.

Chetan Bhagat, the best-selling Indian English novelist, has published his fifth novel Revolution 2020 with the subtitle “Love. Corruption. Ambition”. It is the story of childhood friends Gopal and Raghav who fall in love with the same girl, Aarti. It reveals the pressures on young men to get admission in good engineering colleges. Gopal does not make it, in spite of spending a small fortune in coaching classes. He becomes very rich by selling his ancestral fields to set up the Gangatech College in association with corrupt politicians and bureaucrats. Although the novel satirises the mushroom growth of coaching institutes and private engineering colleges, it seems to lose steam towards the end – the conclusion is not very convincing.

A great deal of popular literature is being published. Chicklit predominates, with titles like Shinie Antony’s When Mira Went Forth and Multiplied and There Is No Love on Wall Street by Ira Trivedi. Devapriya Roy’s first novel The Vague Woman’s Handbook is something more than chicklit because of the character of fifty-two-year-old Indira Sen, a senior officer in a government-supported literary organisation (obviously based on the Sahitya Akademi). Twenty-two-year-old Sharmila has married Abhimanyu, a research scholar, who has no clear plans; the book deals with their struggles to set up house. Indira Sen, whose household has three old people, takes the absent-minded Sharmila under her wing. The book has a lot of enjoyable satire on government offices and universities and presents a vivid picture of life in contemporary Delhi.

More than eighty first novels have appeared. Calcutta Exile by Bunny Suraiya depicts the life of Anglo-Indians (Eurasians) in mid-twentieth century Calcutta; they are uncertain of their identity, being unable to decide whether they should align themselves with Indians or with the British “back home”. Poets Sanjiv Bhatla and K. Srilata have published their first novels, Injustice and Table for Four, respectively. Jaskiran Chopra’s Autumn Raga is set in Dehradun; classical Indian music is its central concern. Dilliz Boyz by A.P.S. Malhotra deals with the life of young boys in Delhi in the 1980s. Shweta Srivastava Vikram’s Perfectly Untraditional has New York-based Shaili Kapoor as the protagonist; the novel is about her reconciliation with her father who has disowned her when he finds out that she is a lesbian. Dipika Mukherjee’s Thunder Demons, longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2009, is a political thriller set in Malaysia; what qualifies one as a Bumiputra (son of the soil) is an important issue in the novel. Major General G.D. Bakshi’s Siege of Warwan is a kind of a war novel; the hero is Major Dushyant ‘Dusty’ Bharadwaj who is fighting jihadi terrorists in Kashmir. Priya Vasudevan’s debut novel Middle Time is a murder mystery with two time frames linked together by characters with similar names: Thulasi, of sixteenth century Hampi (the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire), and Tulsi who dies in Chennai (Madras) of the 1990s. Another first novel, The Tenth Unknown, by Jvalant Nalin Sampat has an even longer time frame, beginning in Asoka’s court in 232 B.C.E. and ending with India’s independence in 1947.

New as well as established writers have published collections of short stories. Neelum Saran Gour’s Song without End and Other Stories has fifteen short stories, twelve of them from her earlier collections. They reveal a variety of literary styles and topics and range widely in length. The title story about Narendra, a heart patient, and Dr. Mehta, his old friend who is treating him, has a surprise ending. The affection they have for each other and the positive attitude of the patient are described successfully. Gour’s touch is right, her awareness of India, past and present, quite complete. Each story is remarkable in its own way. “Coming of Age” is set in British India and beautifully recreates the ambience of a memsahib’s party in Calcutta in the 1860s. Gour has a feel for the finer nuances of literary styles and effectively presents Edwin’s father’s Victorian English. She is equally successful in rendering in English dialogues that would historically have been spoken in an Indian language like Bengali or Hindi.

Lakshmi Kannan is a bilingual writer who uses the pseudonym Kaaveri when she writes in Tamil. A poet, novelist and short story writer, she is also a reputed translator who has translated leading Tamil writers. The sixteen stories in her new collection Nandanvan and Other Stories are based on stories she wrote in Tamil. She takes up many issues such as the discrimination against the girl child, caste prejudice, the neglect of aged parents, or the ill-treatment of widows in India. The title story “Nandanvan” has touches of an animal fable; when an old man dies, the birds and the flowers in his garden mourn their friend and condemn his greedy sons who are squabbling over his property. Her female protagonists avoid both the victim syndrome and a strident feminist tone. Her male characters are equally well developed.

All the short stories in Jahnavi Barua’s first book Next Door (2008) were set in Assam. In Rebirth, her first novel, the story moves between Bangalore and Guwahati and centres around Kaberi, a young woman trying to come to terms with an uncertain marriage and relocation in an Indian city which is very far away and different from her native Assam. Rebirth provides a sensitive and original insight into the mother-child relationship in beautiful prose.

Bulbul Sharma, author of the critically acclaimed and very readable collections of short stories The Anger of Aubergines and My Sainted Aunts, has published a novel and a new collection of short stories. Now That I Am Fifty subtitled “Stories of Women Who Have Scored a Half Century” consists of eleven stories in which the women of the subtitle come from various strata of society. The title story has an upper middle class woman as the narrator. She does not go out much after her husband has died and although she has a comfortable life with her married sons staying with her, she starts seeing things. Another story “Afterlife” is narrated by a poor village woman after her death at fifty. She looks back at her married life and comments on the unequal gender relations. One of the most enjoyable stories in the collection has the title “Salsa at Fifty”; the protagonist deals with a broken marriage (“my husband Ramesh left me and went to live in Goa with his secretary – a boy named Monty”) by joining salsa classes: “I wasn’t really keen to join, in fact I didn’t even know that salsa was a kind of dance, I always thought it was a tomato salad type of thing you ate with funny triangle chips”. Bulbul Sharma’s short stories are distinguished by their humour. She is a better short story writer than a novelist. Her second novel The Tailor of Giripul is slow moving.

In her long career, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (b.1927) has published nineteen books of fiction; for the last two decades, she seems to be favouring the short story rather than the novel – her twelfth novel Shards of Memory appeared in 1995. A Lovesong for India, subtitled Tales from East and West has eleven stories with almost the same themes as her previous collections’. The title story is a powerful indictment of corruption and loss of values in present-day India. An Englishwoman (whose ancestors were in the Indian Civil Service) is married to an honest bureaucrat. They struggle to come to terms with their son, their only child, whose life has no place for their values. This collection recreates the ambience, whether Indian or North American, with great sensitivity. The worlds of the East and the West are joined by the theme of emotional exploitation. Material fulfilment is no shield against emotional deprivation. Jhabvala’s style is marked by economy; she never wastes words and introduces characters, settings and situations with great precision.

The three stories in Anita Desai’s The Artist of Disappearance deal with loss of various kinds (reminiscent of the theme explored in her daughter’s, Kiran Desai’s Booker Prize-winning novel The Inheritance of Loss, 2006) and with the issue of the lack of parental affection. The title story is about a neglected child who revels in nature. As an adult, he is unable to adjust to life in the city and returns to his childhood home in the hills, which is falling into disrepair (one is reminded of the judge’s house in The Inheritance of Loss). “The Museum of Final Journeys” has a civil servant as the narrator, recounting an experience of a rural posting early in his career. The fifty-two-page-long “Translator Translated” seems to be the best story in the collection. Prema, a lonely woman, considers it her mission to translate into English the powerful stories of Suvarna Devi, an activist who writes in Oriya, the regional language of Orissa. Prema’s life of deprivation (she makes a living by teaching English in a college in a small town) is very different from the life of her classmate at school – the glamorous Tara, with a high profile career in journalism, who has turned to publishing. The story effectively reveals the creative process as akin to translation. Desai recreates the situation in India authentically – studying English is prestigious, and very few people are interested in learning their mother tongue.

Keki N. Daruwalla is better known as a poet. Love across the Salt Desert: Selected Short Stories has twenty stories, including the title one, which was first published more than thirty years ago. All the stories have already appeared in earlier collections like The Sword and the Abyss (1979), The Minister for Permanent Unrest and Other Stories (1996) and A House in Ranikhet (2003).

Adultery and Other Stories by Farrukh Dhondy is marked by wit and irreverence. He presents a variety of characters caught in what seems to be the collection’s overall themes of adultery and betrayal. The title story presents a poet who is writing the annals of the Raj in verse. He has not managed to reach much further than the pun “adultery is what adults do”. The stories have many objects of satire – the church, government offices, poetasters, and the art industry, etc. They have a contemporary touch: one of the funniest stories, “Bollox”, is in the form of email exchanges regarding an Indian who is going to “donate his parts” to a Mr. Cruickshank so that he becomes capable of fatherhood.

Khwaja Ahmad Abbas (1914-1987), novelist, short story writer, crusading journalist and screenplay writer, has not received the attention he deserves; present-day students of Indian English literature are aware only of the “big three” (Anand, R.K.Narayan and Raja Rao) of the earlier generation of writers. An Evening in Lucknow: Selected Stories edited by Suresh Kohli includes a perceptive introduction, a postscript that includes several interviews, and a letter by Mulk Raj Anand to Abbas. Abbas was a committed writer whose work was often based on actual incidents and real-life figures.

The seven stories in Ruskin Bond’s new collection Secrets are set in the late 1940s in Dehra. Like most of his stories, they appear deceptively simple. Bond’s six-page short story “Susanna’s Seven Husbands” has been made into a Hindi film, 7 Khoon Maaf. Vishal Bhardwaj had earlier made a children’s film The Blue Umbrella based on a story by Ruskin Bond. At his request, Bond developed “Susanna’s Seven Husbands” into a novella, creating new characters and incidents. Penguin has published the novella, the original short story and the screenplay (by Vishal Bhardwaj and Matthew Robbins) in one volume. The book Susanna’s Seven Husbands gives the reader an interesting insight into the way a short story becomes a film story and then a screenplay.

India: A Traveller’s Literary Companion, edited by Chandrahas Choudhury, attempts to present different regions of the country through fourteen short stories. Writers range from old masters like Fakir Mohan Senapai and Lalithambika Antherjanam (translated into English) to contemporary Indian English writers like Salman Rushdie, Vikram Chandra and Mamang Dai.

Jasbir Jain has made a sustained contribution to criticism across linguistic boundaries; her exploration of the growth of the novel in India (Feminizing Political Discourse, 1997, and Beyond Postcolonialism, 2006) is based on works written in Bangla, Urdu, Punjabi, Malayalam, Hindi, and English. Her new book, Indigenous Roots of Feminism, crosses not only linguistic boundaries but also disciplinary and media ones by offering readings of historical, psychological and sociological texts as well as folk songs and films. Jain traces feminism in India from its beginnings in ancient times to the twenty-first century. She comes to the conclusion that “because of the difference in cultural systems and political histories, the origins and nature of the feminist movement are different in the two worlds”. She shows that religions like Budhhism, Jainism and Sikhism concede greater equality to women. She condemns the widespread tendency to construct Indian culture predominantly through Hindu culture and religion. The book’s colour photographs reveal feminism in contemporary India in an original and very effective manner. Indigenous Roots of Feminism deserves to be the basic text for Women’s Studies in India.

O.P. Mathur’s Post-1947 Indian English Novel: Major Concerns examines social or political concerns as treated in some of the important novels of the decades between 1947 and 2008. It includes a critical essay on Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger (by Sudhir K. Arora) which is an outright condemnation of the novel; according to Arora, Adiga won the Booker Prize because his depiction of India can “help the West in proving the superiority of the Occident over the Orient”.

Writing India, Writing English: Literature, Language, Location by poet, novelist and translator G.J.V. Prasad discusses how “the notion of the nation in terms of specific locations is negotiated/constructed in English and in Tamil.” He explores how English pollinates Indian languages in present-day India and the ways in which English combines with Hindi to infiltrate other Indian languages like Tamil. One of the most interesting essays in the book is “Tamil, Hindi, English: The New Ménage à Trois”. Prasad lays stress on the importance of translation in the Indian context: “For an Indian English critic, Translation Studies becomes even more inescapable because Indian English is a language born in and of translation”.

In Locating Indian Literature: Texts, Traditions, Translations, poet and translator E.V. Ramakrishnan advocates a new approach to the study of texts and traditions, with translation forming the fulcrum. He argues that “Indian Literature” is not an essential category and lays emphasis on its diversity. The book also presents readings of Malayalam literary texts that demonstrate the plurality of literary traditions.

Translations from various Indian languages into English have increased. The volume is so large that the bibliography which follows lists only the translations done by Indian English creative writers like Shashi Deshpande, Ranjit Hoskote or Anita Nair. One other translation deserves mention – the English translation of Michael Madhusudan Dutt’s first modern epic in Bengali, The Poem of the Killing of Meghnad, by William Radice, known for his translations of Rabindranath Tagore’s poetry.

Bibliography

Research Aids

Chutnefying English: The Phenomenon of Hinglish eds Rita Kothari and Rupert Snell 207pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs299.

Making a Difference: Memoirs from the Women’s Movement in India ed Ritu Menon 386pp Women Unlimited (New Delhi) Rs350.

Empire, Media and the Autonomous Woman: A Feminist Critique of Postcolonial Thought Esha Niyogi De 246pp OUP (New Delhi) Rs745.

Poetry

Bhatla, Sanjiv A Sinner Says 71pp Crabwise Press (Mumbai) Rs150.

Devarajan, P. Walking the Road 50pp Writers Workshop (Kolkata) Rs100.

Gupta, Advika Silhouettes Unravelled 95pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs 195

Heptulla, Najma Impressions 112pp Rupa (New Delhi) Rs295 [2010].

Jha, Pashupati All in One 64pp Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors (New Delhi) Rs125.

Jussawalla, Adil Trying to Say Goodbye: Poems 88pp Almost Island Books (Mumbai) Rs300.

Kumar, Shiv K. Which of My Selves Do You Wish to Speak To? 152pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs250.

Mendonça, Brian A Peace of India: Poems in Transit cartography Anis Ahmad artwork Goutam Ghosh 68pp self-pub (Vasco-da-Gama, Goa) Pb Rs200.

Mishra, Binod Silent Steps and Other Poems 66pp Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors (New Delhi) Rs125.

Nair, Anita Malabar Mind 96pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs199 [first pub 2002].

Nandrajog, Divyam Child of Liberty: Introspections of a Wandering Mind 87pp Writers Workshop (Kolkata) Rs100.

Nongkynrih, Kynpham Sing The Yearning of Seeds 168pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs199.

Panikkar, G.N. When One Strays into Your Life 128pp Folio (Thiruvananthapuram, India) Pb Rs160.

Peeran, S.L. Garden of Bliss 128pp Buzz (Bangalore) Rs100.

Putatunda, Nileen Slave 60pp Writers Workshop (Kolkata) Rs100.

Qazi, Moin A Fistful of Embers 123pp Writers Workshop (Kolkata) Rs150 [2010].

Rajeevan, Thachom Poyil Pranayasatakam 100pp Mathrubhumi Books (Kozhikode) Rs100.

Seth, Vikram The Rivered Earth 104pp Hamish Hamilton: An Imprint of Penguin Books (New Delhi) Rs399.

Sharma, Lalit Mohan Pearls and Pebbles: Poems 78pp Books Plus (New Delhi) Rs200 [2010].

Shomshuklla Do Not Stand So Close to Me 108pp Rupa (New Delhi) Rs550.

Shukla, R.C. Ponderings I 122pp Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors (New Delhi) Rs.95 [2010].

Singh, Charu Sheel Born across Millenniums: Incarnations of Vishnu xii+266pp Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors (New Delhi) Pb Rs225.

— Legacies xi+126pp Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors (New Delhi) Pb Rs95 [2010].

Sio, Kewlian Bugged and Other Poems Preface P. Lal 35pp Writers Workshop (Kolkata) Rs100.

Srilata, K. Arriving Shortly 94pp Writers Workshop (Kolkata) Rs200.

Sukrita Poems Come Home 408pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs299 [with Urdu translation by Gulzar].

Sumirasko Flower of Love: A Collection of Poems 152pp Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors (New Delhi) Rs225.

Verma, Satish Dancing with Death 160pp Sahityagar (Jaipur) Rs400.

Verma, Vinay God Owes Me Royalties 41pp Writers Workshop (Kolkata) Rs100.

Viswas, Asha The Rainbow Cave and Other Poems 64pp Bridge-in-Making Publication (Kolkata) Rs150.

Drama

Chaudhuri, Neel Taramandal in Three Plays pp91–177.

Dattani, Mahesh Brief Candle: Three Plays 139pp Penguin (New Delhi) [2010].

Gandhi, Gopal Dara Shukoh 204pp Tranquebar (New Delhi) Pb Rs250 [first pub 1993].

Majumdar, Abhishek Harlesden High Street in Three Plays pp1–46.

Majumdar, Abhishek, Prashant Prakash and Kalki Koechlin, Neel Chaudhuri Three Plays 182pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs250 [2010].

Prakash, Prashant and Kalki Koechlin The Skeleton Woman in Three Plays pp47–91.

Fiction

Abbas, Khwaja Ahmad An Evening in Lucknow: Selected Stories ed Suresh Kohli 296pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs299.

Adiga, Aravind Last Man in Tower 421pp Fourth Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins (New Delhi) Rs699.

Agarwal, Sumit Office Shocks 112p Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs95.

Ahluwalia, Sunaina Serna An Autumn Melody 288pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.

Antony, Shinie When Mira Went Forth and Multiplied 224pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs250.

Badrinath, Tulsi Man of Thousand Chances 314pp Hachette India (Gurgaon) Pb Rs395.

Bajpai, Shailaja Three Parts Desire 380pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs399.

Bakshi, G.D. Siege of Warwan 292pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs299.

Balan, Judy Two Fates: The Story of My Divorce 450pp Westland (New Delhi) Pb Rs295.

Banerjee, Madhuri Losing My Virginity and Other Dumb Ideas Penguin Metro Reads (New Delhi) Pb Rs232.

Barua, Jahnavi Rebirth: A Novel 216pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs250

Basu, Anjana Rhythms of Darkness 247pp Gyaana Books (New Delhi) Pb Rs250.

Basumatary, Kenny Deori Chocolate Guitar Momos 248pp Tranquebar (New Delhi) Pb Rs200.

Benegal, Gautam 1/7 Bondel Road 123pp Wisdom Tree (New Delhi) Pb Rs145 [short stories].

Bhattacharya, Rahul The Sly Company of People Who Care 278 pp Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York) $26; Viking Penguin (New Delhi) Rs495.

Bhagat, Chetan Revolution 2020 296pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs140.

Bhardwaj, Kunal Love Was Never Mine 144pp Cedar Books (New Delhi) Pb Rs150.

Bhargava, Sangeeta The World Beyond 352pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs295.

Bhaskar, P.G. Jack Patel’s Dubai Dreams 248pp Penguin Metro Reads (New Delhi) Rs150.

Bhatla, Sanjiv Injustice 237pp Crab Wise Press (Mumbai) Pb Rs300.

Biddu Curse of the Godman 336pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs299.

Birjepatil, Jaysinh The Good Muslim of Jackson Heights 256pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs275.

Bond, Ruskin Secrets 150pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs250 [short stories].

— Susanna’s Seven Husbands xi+206pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs250.

Borgohain, Nilakshi Waltz in Happiness 222pp Niyogi Books (New Delhi) Rs295.

Capur, Aneesha Stealing Karma 233pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs299.

Chauhan, Uttara Blue Blood 239pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs250.

Chhibba, Neeraj Zero Percentile-2.0: Missed IIT, Kissed Gurgaon 272pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs140.

Chopra, Jaskiran Autumn Raga 188pp Niyogi Books (New Delhi) Rs395.

Choudhury, Nilanjan P. Bali and the Ocean of Milk 320pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs199.

Currimbhoy, Nayana Miss Timmins’ School for Girls 512pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs399.

Daruwalla, Keki N. Love across the Salt Desert: Selected Short Stories 248pp Penguin and Ravi Dayal (New Delhi) Rs299

Das, S.K. The Collector’s Daughter 295pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs295.

Davidar, David Ithaca 288pp McClelland & Stewart (Toronto) $29.99 Fourth Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins (New Delhi) Rs499.

Desai, Anita The Artist of Disappearance 156pp Random House India (Noida) Rs350.

Desai, Salil The Body in the Backseat 254pp Gyaana Books (New Delhi) Pb Rs250.

Deva, Mukul Tanzeem 364pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs225.

Devulapalli, Krishna Shastri Ice Boys in Bell-Bottoms 272pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs299.

Dhalla, Ghalib Shiraz The Exiles 406pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs350.

Dhanker, Ismita Tandon Love on the Rocks 210pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs150.

Dhar, Mainak Line of Control 322pp Vitasta Publishing (New Delhi) Pb Rs295; first pub 2009.

Dhar, Payal Satin: A Stitch in Time 288pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs250.

Dhar, Shantanu Company Red 181pp Om Books (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.

Dharker, Rani Anurima 232pp Roli Books (New Delhi) Pb Rs295.

Dhillon, Kanika Bombay Duck Is a Fish 200pp Westland (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.

Dhondy, Farrukh Adultery and Other Stories 265pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs299.

Dixit, Varsha Right Fit Wrong Shoe 248pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs140.

Doctor, Raj Melancholy of Innocence 344pp LeadStart (Mumbai) Pb Rs250.

Douglas, Misquita Haunted 372pp LeadStart (Mumbai) Pb Rs350.

Dutta, Naomi The 6 PM Slot 304pp Random House India (Noida) Pb Rs199.

Faiyaz, Ahmed Another Chance 224pp Grey Oak/Westland (New Delhi) Rs195.

Garg, Agniwesh Hangover of Fun 127pp Vitasta (New Delhi) Pb Rs99 [campus novel].

Ghatak, Deep Fish in Paneer Soup 181pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs150.

Ghosh, Amitav River of Smoke 558pp Hamish Hamilton an imprint of Penguin (New Delhi) Rs699.

Gokhale, Namita Priya in Incredible Indyaa 193p Penguin-Viking (New Delhi) Rs350.

Gopinath, C.Y. The Book of Answers 353pp Fourth Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins (New Delhi) Rs499.

Gore, Rohit A Darker Dawn 244pp Niyogi Books (New Delhi) Rs395.

— Focus Sam 260pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.

Gour, Neelum Saran Song without End and Other Stories 285pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs299.

Govardhan, Ram Rough with the Smooth 212pp LeadStart (Mumbai) Pb Rs125.

Gupta, Puneet The Suicide Banker 228pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.

Jaidka, Manju Scandal Point 240pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.

Jalil, Rakshanda Release and Other Stories 144pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Rs299.

Jhabvala, Ruth Prawer A Lovesong for India: Tales from East and West 276pp Little, Brown (London) £13.99; Special Indian price Rs495.

John, Binoo K. The Last Songs of Savio de Souza 265pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs350.

Joshi, Parinda Live from London 212 pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.

Kala, Aporva Life… Love… Kumbh…290pp Srishti (New Delhi) Pb Rs200.

Kant, Meera Paper Bastion and Other Stories 224pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.

Kannan, Lakshmi Nandanvan and Other Stories 280pp Orient Blackswan (Hyderabad) Pb Rs325.

Kapur, Manju Custody 424pp Random House India (Noida) Rs450.

Kapur, Ratika Overwinter 248pp Hachette India (Gurgaon) Rs495.

Kaushik, Nishant Conditions Apply 294pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.

Khamar, Rikin The Lotus Queen 170pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.

Khullar, Ajay The Nothing Man 184pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.

Kolanad, Gitanjali Sleeping with Movie Stars 192pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs225 [short stories].

Kottary, Gajra Broken Melodies 282pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Rs299.

Krishnan, P.A. The Muddy River 296pp Tranquebar (New Delhi) Pb Rs250.

Kumar, N. Sampath Campus Cola 372pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs295.

Lal, Ranjit Black Limericks 180pp Roli Books (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.

Lalit, Ritu A Bowlful of Butterflies 225pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.

Liddle, Madhulika The Eighth Guest and Other Muzaffar Jang Mysteries 296pp Hachette (Gurgaon) Pb Rs350.

Mahajan, Nikhil As Long As I Love You I Will Let You Hurt Me 176pp Srishti (New Delhi) Pb Rs100.

Mahajan, Sarang Luwan of Brida 272pp Popular Prakashan (New Delhi) Pb Rs175.

Majumdar, Anuradha The God Enchanter 176pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs199.

Majumder, Subha Strange Connections 138pp LeadStart (Mumbai) Pb Rs125.

Malhotra, A.P.S. Dilliz Boyz 146pp Niyogi Books (New Delhi) Rs250.

Malik, Suchita Memsahib Chronicles 208pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs295.

Mallick, Nazia Meshes of Smoke 319pp Dronequill (Bangalore) Rs295.

Manral, Kiran The Reluctant Detective 184pp Westland (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.

Mathur, Rita Night in Kullu 252pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.

Mehta, Chandralekha Murder in San Felice 172pp Zubaan (New Delhi) Pb Rs295.

Mehta, Giselle Blossom Showers: A Novel 440pp LeadStart (Mumbai) Pb Rs395.

Mehta, Rahul Quarantine 252pp Random House India (Noida) Rs399 [2010].

Menacherry, Matthew Vincent Arrack in the Afternoon 500pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Rs.350 [2010].

Mishra, Vineet Vinu I Am Getting Married 260pp Alchemy Publishers (New Delhi) Pb Rs150.

Misra, Jaishree A Scandalous Secret 384pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs299.

Misra, Ruchita The (In)eligible Bachelors 252pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.

Mittra, Vipul Pyramid of Virgin Dreams 280pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.

Mukherjee, Bharati Miss New India 336pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs295.

Mukherjee, Dipika Thunder Demons 272pp Gyaana Books (New Delhi) Pb Rs280.

Mukherjee, Sam Chopped Green Chillies in Vanilla Ice Cream 298pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.

Mullick, Sumit Fairyish Tales 360pp Macmillan (New Dellhi) Rs295.

Naikar, Basavaraj Rayanna: The Patriot and Other Novellas 300pp Gnosis (New Delhi) Pb Rs300.

Narayan, Brinda S. Bangalore Calling 320pp Hachette India (Gurgaon) Pb Rs295.

Naval, Deepti The Mad Tibetan: Stories from Then and Now 159pp Amaryllis (New Delhi) Rs395.

Pagare, Sharad When Faith Turned Red 308pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs295.

Pant, Sohrab The Wednesday Soul: The Afterlife with Sunglasses 226pp Westland (New Delhi) Pb Rs250.

Parashar, Sujata In Pursuit of Ecstasy 256pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs95.

Paul, Sharad P. To Kill a Dragonfly 232pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Rs399.

Pereira, Oswald The Newsroom Mafia 266pp Westland (New Delhi) Pb Rs245.

Perkins, Mitali The Secret Keeper 232pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs199.

— White House Rules 212pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs250.

Phukan, Mitra A Monsoon of Music 432pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs450.

Pisharody, Ajay The Weight of Days 112pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs95 [short stories].

Pitroda, Rajal Starstruck 316pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs199.

Prabhu, Manjiri The Cavansite Conspiracy 272pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.

Prasad, T.G.C. Along the Way 296pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.

Puri, Nandita C. Two Worlds 446pp Rupa (New Delhi) Rs395 Pb Rs295.

Purkayastha, Ishani Kar The Dancing Boy 352pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs350.

Raghunath, Prema The Cousins 209pp Zubaan (New Delhi) Pb Rs325.

Rahator, Marya The Fountain’s Magic 116pp Mehta Publishing House (Pune) Pb Rs140.

Rajan, Vithal Holmes of the Raj 255pp Random House India (Noida) Pb Rs295 [first pub 2006].

— The Year of High Treason 327pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.

Rajendra, Rajiv Doosra: A Tale of Cricket, Crime and Controversy 184pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs150.

Rajendran, Prithvin The Iron Tooth 226pp LeadStart (Mumbai) Pb Rs195.

Ranganathan, Anand The Land of the Wilted Rose 168pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.

Rathi, Vikas Resident Dormitus 205pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.

Rao, Anil CS Desi Stories 147pp Cyberwit.net (Allahabad) Pb Rs300.

Rao, Arjun Third Best 392pp Hachette India (Gurgaon) Pb Rs295.

Ray, Jayanta Withered Leaves 130pp LeadStart (Mumbai) Pb Rs130.

Ray, Trisha The Girls behind the Gunfire 304pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs299.

Raychaudhuri, Diptendra A Naxal Story 359pp Vitasta Publishing (New Delhi) Rs300 [2010].

Roy, Anuradha The Folded Earth 368pp Hachette India (Gurgaon) Rs495.

Roy, Devapriya The Vague Woman’s Handbook 343pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs199.

Roy-Bhattacharya, Joydeep The Storyteller of Marrakesh 350pp Tranquebar (New Delhi) Rs495.

Saikia, Ankush Spotting Veron and Other Stories 192pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.

Sampat, Jvalant Nalin The Tenth Unknown 287pp Niyogi Books (New Delhi) Rs295.

Samrat The Urban Jungle 248pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs250.

Sandhu, Chanchaldeep Singh I Never Thought I Could Fall in Love 164pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs99.

Sankranti, Sujata In the Shadow of Legends 275pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.

Sarang, Vilas The Dhamma Man 184pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs250.

Sethi, Aman A Free Man 240pp Random House India (Noida) Rs399.

Sharma, Bulbul Now That I’m Fifty: Short Stories 145pp Women Unlimited (New Delhi) Pb Rs250.

— The Tailor of Giripul 315pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs299.

Shekhar, Arjun A Flawed God 296pp Hachette India (Gurgaon) Pb Rs250.

Shukla, Vikrant, The Wrong Chase 241pp Mehta Publishing House (Pune) Pb Rs300.

Sikka, Arun The Kabab Maker and the Consultant 200pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs150.

Singh, Rachna Dating, Diapers and Denial 222pp Alchemy Publishers (New Delhi) Pb Rs175.

Singh, Ravinder Can Love Happen Twice? 224pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs125.

Singh, Shivani Lonely Gods 324pp Hachette India (Gurgaon) Pb Rs299.

Singh, Vivek Kumar The Reverse Journey 124pp LeadStart (Mumbai) Pb Rs95.

Sridhar, K. Twice Written 243pp Popular Prakashan (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.

Srilata, K. Table for Four 192pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs250.

Srivastava, Ramesh K. Coils of the Serpent 318pp AuthorsPress (New Delhi) Rs350.

Subramanian, Ravi The Incredible Banker 308pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.

Subramony, R. Paramahamsa: A Vedantic Tale xiv+202pp D.K. Printworld (New Delhi) Rs295.

Sudarshan, Aditya Show Me a Hero 304pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.

Suman, Yateen Love in a Wooden Box 292pp LeadStart (Mumbai) Pb Rs145.

Suraiya, Bunny Calcutta Exile 249pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs299.

Taseer, Aatish Noon 248pp Fourth Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins (New Delhi) Rs499.

Tejpal, Tarun J. The Valley of Masks 330pp Fourth Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins (New Delhi) Rs499.

Thapa, Rabi Nothing to Declare 184pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs199.

Trivedi, Ira There Is No Love on Wall Street 272pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs199.

Vadukut, Sidin God Save the Dork 248pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs199.

Vaidya, Manasi No Deadline for Love 184pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs150.

Vasudevan, Priya Middle Time 305pp Niyogi Books (New Delhi) Rs395.

Verma, Akash Three Times Loser 264pp Srishti (New Delhi) Pb Rs100.

Verma, Sandy Kundra Burnt Toast 248pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs 195.

Viegas, Belinda The Cry of the Kingfisher 222pp Goa 1556 (Saligao, Goa) Pb Rs195.

Viegas, Savia Let Me Tell You about the Quinta 264pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs299.

Vikram, Sweta Srivastava Perfectly Untraditional 214pp Niyogi Books (New Delhi) Rs350.

Wajid, Andaleeb Blinkers Off 280pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs295.

Zaheer, Noor My God Is a Woman 314pp Vitasta Publishing (New Delhi) Pb Rs295; [first pub 2008].

Anthologies

A Collection of Indian English Poetry ed Radha Mohan Singh 146pp Orient Blackswan (Hyderabad) Pb Rs95.

India: A Traveller’s Literary Companion ed Chandrahas Choudhury foreword Anita Desai 256pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Rs399 [fourteen stories, first pub 2010].

India in Verse: Contemporary Poetry from 20 Indian Languages ed Antara Dev Sen 359pp Special Issue of The Little Magazine (New Delhi) Rs250.

Inside/Out: New Writing From Goa eds Helene Derkin Menezes and Jose Lourenco 236pp Goa 1556 in association with Goa Writers (Saligao, Goa) Pb Rs195.

Not Like Most Young Girls 150pp Aastha Parivar and Jaico Book House Rs250 [18 short stories written by students of Xavier’s Institute of Communication, Tata Institute of Social Sciences and Wilson College, Mumbai, based on the experiences of sex workers supported by Aastha Parivar, an NGO].

The Oxford Anthology of Bhakti Literature ed Andrew Schelling 352pp OUP (New Delhi) Rs695.

Oxford Anthology of Writings from North-East India: Fiction ed Tilottoma Misra 298pp OUP (New Delhi) Rs595.

Oxford Anthology of Writings from North-East India: Poetry and Essays ed Tilottoma Misra 332pp OUP (New Delhi) Rs595.

The Oxford India Anthology of Bengali Literature ed Kalpana Bardhan Volume 1: 1861-1941 496pp Volume II: 1941-1991 552pp OUP (New Delhi) Rs745 each vol.

Three Plays Abhishek Majumdar, Prashant Prakash and Kalki Koechlin, Neel Chaudhuri Foreword N. Ram 182pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs250 [2010].

Translations

Banker, Ashok K. “Krishna Coriolis Series”: Book 1 Slayer of Kamsa pub 2010; Book 2 Dance of Govinda 272pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs199; Book 3 Flute of Vrindavan 247pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs199.

Deshpande, Gauri Deliverance: A Novella trans from Marathi by Shashi Deshpande 134pp Women Unlimited (New Delhi) Rs225 [2010].

Dutt, Michael Madhusudan The Poem of the Killing of Meghnad trans from Bengali by William Radice 552pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs499.

Lal Ded I, Lalla: The Poems of Lal Ded trans from Kashmiri by Ranjit Hoskote 328pp Penguin (New Delhi) Hb Rs450.

Pillai, Thakazi Sivasankara Chemmeen trans from Malayalam by Anita Nair 276pp Harpercollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs299.

Rumi Rumi trans from Persian by Farrukh Dhondy 180pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Rs299.

Versaikar, Vishnu Bhatt Godshe 1857 The Real Story of the Great Uprising trans by Mrinal Pande 208pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Rs250.

Letters, Biography and Autobiography

Chaudhuri, Nirad C. Nirad C. Chaudhuri: Many Shades, Many Frames 180pp Dhruwa N. Chaudhuri 180pp Niyogi Books (New Delhi) Rs1250 [illustrated biography by his son].

Dhar, Sheila Raga’n Josh: Stories from a Musical Life 310pp Orient Blackswan (Hyderabad) Pb Rs295.

Merchant, Hoshang The Man Who Would Be Queen: Autobiographical Fictions 200pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs250.

Sen, Ashna The Rusted Trunk: Memoirs of a Forgotten Civil Servant 153pp Writers Workshop (Kolkata) Rs200 [based on letters and diaries related to Syed Manzur Murshed, Sen’s maternal grandfather].

Suraiya, Jug JS & The Times of My Life: A Worm’s-Eye View of Journalism 360pp Tranquebar (New Delhi) Rs495.

Criticism

General Studies

A Novelist’s Response to Literature Shantinath K. Desai ed G.N.Devy 190pp Padmagandha Prakashan (Pune) Pb Rs190.

“A Review of Select Contemporary Indian Women’s Writing in English with Special Emphasis on Fiction” H. Kalpana The Literary Criterion 46 (3&4) pp87–101.

“Achievers, Clones and Pirates: Indian Graphic Novels” D. Weimann Proceedings of the Annual English Studies Conference ed J. Frank, L. Steveker WTV (Trier, Germany) pp157–169.

Alienation and Beyond—Recent Indian Fiction Sarita Veerangana 176pp Prestige Books (New Delhi) Rs500.

Altered Destinations: Self, Society, and Nation in India Makarand R. Paranjape xv+196pp Anthem Press (New Delhi) Rs595 [reprint 2010, first pub 2009].

Another Canon: Indian Texts and Traditions in English Makarand R. Paranjape xiii+180pp Anthem Press (New Delhi) Rs595 [reprint 2010, first pub 2009].

Body Poetics: Modern Women’s Poetry Kalyani Thiru 108pp Writers Workshop (Kolkata) Rs200.

“Colonial Encounter and the Development of Literary Forms in India” Rajnath The Critical Endeavour 17 pp 1–7.

Colonialism, Modernity, and Literature: A View from India Satya P. Mohanty 272pp Orient Blackswan (Hyderabad) Rs695.

“Contemporary Indian English Poetry: A Critique” R.W.Desai The Critical Endeavour 17 pp45–55.

“Cooking India, the Fusion Trend: Reflecting on Indian Fiction in English Today” G.K. Das The Literary Criterion 46 (3&4)pp5–12.

“Cuisine in Indian Literature” Kameshwari Ayyagari Muse India 37.

Criticism and Culture Rajnath 194pp Doaba Publications (Delhi) Pb Rs150.

“Decolonize English: Teach Englishes” G.S. Das The Critical Endeavour 17 pp25–30.

“Diasporic Identity: Gender(ed) Representation in the Diasporic Indian English Women’s Fiction” Ashalata Kulkarni The Literary Criterion 46 (3&4) pp164–175.

Discourses on Five Indian Poets in English K.V. Dominic 311pp Authorspress (New Delhi) Rs825.

“Does the Indian English Woman Novelist Write from the Margin?” Bijay Kumar Das The Literary Criterion 46 (3&4) pp13–28.

“Ethnicity, Identity, Literary Imagination, and the Indian English Novel” Tej N. Dhar Journal of Indian Writing in English 39 (1) pp57–74.

Feminism and Contemporary Indian Women’s Writing Elizabeth Jackson ix+200pp Palgrave Macmillan (Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire) £52.50 [2010].

“Feminist Criticism and Indian Tradition” K.V. Raghupathi The Literary Criterion 46 (1) pp62–76.

“Gastro-Cultural Conflicts” Debasree Basu Muse India 37.

“Gender as an Issue in Young Adult Literature” Devika Rangachari Muse India 39.

“Globalisation and English Language” M.Q Khan The Critical Endeavour 17 pp225–236.

“History and Evolution of Comic Art in India” Aju Aravind The Quest 25 (1) pp90–97.

“Home and Abroad: Some Aspects of the Indian Diaspora” Mohan Ramanan The Critical Endeavour 17 pp113–122.

“Identity and the Domestic” Geetha P.G. and C.P.Ravichandra Journal of Indian Writing in English 39 (2) pp 78–87 [on recent Indian-English Fiction].

“Indian and Western Aesthetic Thinking: A Comparative Study” Shrawan K. Sharma Indian Ethos 1 (1) pp1–25.

“Indian English—An Emergent Epicentre? A Pilot Study on Light Verbs in Web-derived Corpora on South Asian Englishes” J. Mukherjee, S. Hoffmann and M. Hundt Anglia 129 3&4 pp258–280.

Indian English and ‘Vernacular’ India eds Makarand K. Paranjape and G.J.V. Prasad xv+165pp Pearson Educational (New Delhi) Rs725.

“Indian English Fiction in New Young Adult Age” Jojo Joy N and Merin Simi Raj Muse India 39.

Indian Fiction in English: Recent Criticism Chhote Lal Khatri 241pp Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors (New Delhi) Rs695 [2010].

Indian Poetry in English: A Comprehensive Study ed Vijay Kumar Roy 171pp Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors (New Delhi) Rs495.

“Indian Popular Cinema: A Historical Perspective” Indu Rajasekharan The Quest 25 (1) pp84–89.

“Indian Women Writers Writing for Youngsters” Pranav Mehta Muse India 36.

“Indian Women’s Short Fiction in English: Exploring the Neglected Form” Priyanka Tripathi and H. S. Komalesha Indian Journal of World Literature and Culture 5&6pp [with a comprehensive bibliography].

“Indianising English: Strategies of Nativisation in Indian Writing in English” K. Satchidanandan The Critical Endeavour 17 pp8–24.

Indigenous Roots of Feminism: Culture, Subjectivity and Agency Jasbir Jain 341pp Sage Publications (New Delhi) Rs695.

Intertextuality and Comparative Method: Three Essays Charu Sheel Singh 223pp Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors (New Delhi) Rs695 [2010].

“Lesbianism in Novels by Indian Women” Shivangi Dikshit Muse India 38.

“Literature as Resistance: Partition Narratives and the Violation of Human Rights” Baisali Hui The Critical Endeavour 17 pp142–152.

Literature of the Indian Diaspora ed O.P. Dwivedi 200pp Pencraft International (New Delhi) Rs550.

Locating Indian Literature: Texts, Traditions, Translations E.V.Ramakrishnan 228pp Orient Blackswan (Hyderabad) Rs395.

Matrix of Redemption: Contemporary Multi-Ethnic English Literature from Northeast India Nigamananda Das 367pp Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors (New Delhi) Rs895.

New Readings in Indian English Literature ed Bijay Kumar Das 251pp Prakash Book Depot (Bareilly) Rs220.

“On Reviewers and Reviewing” S.K. Sharma Journal of Indian Writing in English 39 (1) pp1–6.

“On Theorizing Romanticism” Haladhar Panda The Critical Endeavour 17 pp56–80.

“Once Again to the Sacred Wood” V.M. Madge Journal of Indian Writing in English 39 (2) pp25–34 [on Indian English Poetry].

Partial Recall: Essays on Literature and Literary History Arvind Krishna Mehrotra 298pp Orient Blackswan (Hyderabad) Rs650.

“Poetry, Translatable or Untranslatable: Theoretical Frameworks Reviewed” Hanegave Satyawan S. Rao and Sudhir Nikam The Quest 25 (1) pp76–83.

Post-1947 Indian English Novel: Major Concerns O.P. Mathur 181pp Sarup Publishers (New Delhi) Rs600 [2010].

Postcolonial Indian English Fiction: Critical Understanding N.D.R. Chandra 256pp Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors (New Delhi) Rs795 [2010].

Postmodern Gandhi in Life and Literature Muniba Sami 176p Satyam Publishing House (Delhi) Rs500 [2010].

Quest for Identity in Contemporary Indian English Drama A.J.Sebastian 162pp Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors (New Delhi) Rs425.

Quest for Identity in Contemporary Indian English Fiction and Poetry A.J.Sebastian 290pp Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors (New Delhi) Rs750.

Reading Literature Today Tabish Khair, Sebastien Doubensky 180pp Sage (New Delhi) Rs295.

Recent Indian English Fiction: Winners All the Way N. Sharada Iyer 242pp Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors (New Delhi) Rs725.

“Samskara: The Passing of the Brahman Tradition” R. Parthasarathy The Critical Endeavour 17 pp31–44.

Spindle and the Wheel: Re-living Text and Context in Translation Studies Binod Mishra 290pp Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors (New Delhi) Rs795.

States of Sentiment: Exploring the Cultures of Emotion Pramod K. Nayar 291pp Orient Blackswan (Hyderabad) Rs595.

Symphony of Desire: Myth in the Mainstream Indian English Novel Nalini Shyam Kamil 157pp Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors (New Delhi) Rs450 [2010].

Tales in the Indian Narrative Tradition Dhananjay Singh 208pp D.K.Printworld (New Delhi) Rs520.

“The Changing Culture of Eating” Anwesha Chakaraborty Muse India 37.

“The Influence of Psychological Novel on Indian Fiction” M.Q. Khan Journal of Indian Writing in English 39 (2) pp46–59

“The Influence of Virginia Woolf on Women Novelists in Indian Fiction” M.Q. Khan The Literary Criterion 46 (3&4) pp29–46.

The Indian Postcolonial: A Critical Reader eds Elleke Boehmer and Rosinka Chaudhuri 366pp Taylor & Francis £76; Kindle £25.

“The Politics of Identity: The Emigrants Write Back” Bijay Kumar Das The Literary Criterion 46 (1) pp5–17.

“The Spectacle of Violence in Partition Fiction: Women, Voyeurs and Witnesses” Shumona Dasgupta Journal of Postcolonial Writing 47 (1) pp30–41.

The Writer’s Feast: Food and the Cultures of Representation eds Supriya Chaudhuri and Rimi B. Chatterjee 256pp Orient Blackswan (Hyderabad) Rs525.

“Translation: Problems and Strategies” Sharmila Jajodia The Quest 25 (1) pp68–75.

“Translation: The Art of the Possible” Mahajiteswar Das The Critical Endeavour 17 pp237–247.

“Translation: Theories, Problems and Limitations” Sadique Mansuri The Quest 25 (2) pp108–114.

“Two Indian Booker Winners: Interrogation of a Political Ideology” B. Parvathi The Critical Endeavour 17 pp163–171 [on Arundhati Roy’ The God of Small Things and Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss].

“Two Kinds of Indo Chic: Fremdverstehen Meets Cultural Hybridity” M. Banerjee Beyond ‘Other’ Cultures: Transcultural Perspectives on Teaching in the New Literatures in English ed S. Doff and F. Schulze-Engler WTV (Trier, Germany) pp31–46.

Voice and Memory: Indigenous Imagination and Expression eds G.N.Devy, Geoffrey V. Davis and K.K. Chakravarty 368pp Orient Blackswan (Hyderabad) Pb Rs575.

“Wave of Experimentation: Post-Rushdie Indian Fiction in English” M.K. Choudhury The Critical Endeavour 17 pp113–122.

Writing India, Writing English: Literature, Language, Location G.J.V. Prasad xiii+176pp Routledge (New Delhi) Rs545.

“Young Adult Literature in India” Deepa Agarwal Muse India 39.

Studies on Individual Writers

Adiga, Aravind “Adiga’s Between Assassinations” Rositta Joseph Valiyamattam Muse India 35.

— Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger: A Freakish Booker Sudhir K. Arora vii+203pp Authorspress (New Delhi) Rs550.

— Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger: A Symposium of Cultural Responses ed R.K.Dhawan 271pp Prestige (New Delhi) Rs600.

— “New India? New Metropolis? Reading Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger as a ‘condition-of-India’ Novel” I. Detmers Journal of Postcolonial Writing 47 (5) pp535–545.

— “The White Tiger: Roar of Mankind” Shivani Vashist Indian Ethos 1 (1) pp112–119.

Ahmed Ali “Sufi Elements in Ahmed Ali’s Poetry” Ali Arian Mohaghegh Journal of Indian Writing in English 39 (2) pp1–8.

Alphonso-Karkala, John “Passion for the Other: Northern Otherness in John Alphonso-Karkala’s Novel Passions of the Nightless Night” Joel Kuortti Indian Journal of World Literature and Culture 5&6 pp

Anand, Mulk Raj “Exploring Reflections of Power/Knowledge Discourse in Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable” Journal of Indian Writing in English 39 (2) pp69–77.

— Mulk Raj Anand’s Novels: Delineation of the Disadvantaged Shruti Nath 200pp Har-Anand Publications (New Delhi) Rs595.

Badami, Anita Rau “History and Politics in Anita Rau Badami’s Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? Raj Sree M.S. The Literary Criterion 46 (1) pp26–34.

Badrinath, Tulsi “Tulsi Badrinath’s Meeting Lives: The ‘Unfinished Story’ of a ‘Twice-Born’ Mother” Ragini Ramachandra The Literary Criterion 46 (3&4) pp146–157.

Bajaj, Manjul “Manjul Bajaj’s Come, When Evening Falls” Shyamala A. Narayan The Critical Endeavour 17 pp286-290.

Baldwin, Shauna Singh “Re-constructing ‘Anima’ through Cultural Revivalism: Baldwin’s What the Body Remembers” Pooja Shama Parnassus 2&3 pp49–55; also Indian Journal of World Literature and Culture 5&6pp

Banerjee, Sarnath “Intermedial Fictions of the ‘New’ Metropolis: Calcutta, Delhi and Cairo in the Graphic Novels of Sarnath Banerjee and G. Willow Wilson” C. Sandten Journal of Postcolonial Writing 47 (5) pp510–522.

Bond, Ruskin Ruskin Bond: Interpreter of Human Relationships Ram Kulesh Thakur 69pp Prakash Book Depot (Bareilly) Rs80.

— Structures of Authenticity in Ruskin Bond’s Fiction: Children, Cognition and Truth-Telling Bandana Bal Chandnani 244pp Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors (New Delhi) Rs725.

Daruwalla, Keki N. Keki Daruwalla: A Study of His Poetry Bijay Kant Dubey 60pp privately pub (Chandrakona Town, Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal) Pb Rs60.

— Keki N. Daruwalla: The Poet and Novelist Asha Viswas 173pp Bahri Publications (New Delhi) Rs500.

Daruwalla, Keki N. “A Postcolonial Study of Daruwalla’s ‘Pestilence in Nineteenth-Century Calcutta’” Lalima Chakraverty The Quest 25 (2) pp27–33.

Das, Gurcharan “The Family and the Nation: Critiquing Gurcharan Das’s A Fine Family” Rositta Joseph Valiyamattam The Quest 25 (2) pp94–102.

Das, Kamala Kamala Das, The Indian Monroe: Feminist Perspective Hongsha Phomrong 161pp Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors (New Delhi) Rs425 [2010].

— Poetry of Kamala Das: The Aesthetic Dimension Dinesh K. Shukla 218pp Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors (New Delhi) Rs550.

Das, Manoj “Discovering the Self through the Other: A Study of Cultural Encounters in Manoj Das’s ‘The Crocodile’s Lady’ and Anurag Mathur’s The Inscrutable Americans” Amarjeeet Nayak Parnassus 2&3 pp24–29.

— “The Locale in the Short Stories of Manoj Das” Bhabaghari Moharana Journal of Indian Writing in English 39 (2) pp60–68.

Dattani, Mahesh “Interrogating the Pseudo-Civilised: Mahesh Dattani’s Seven Steps Around the Fire” Girija Sharma Journal of Drama Studies 5 (1) pp91–97.

— “Mahesh Dattani’s Thirty Days in September: A Study in Techniques” Jnan Ranjan Padhi The Critical Endeavour 17 pp189–197.

David, Esther “Esther David’s Book of Rachel” Anshu Kujur Muse India 37.

Derozio, Henry “Derozio’s ‘The Harp of India’” Sudeshna Karbarua Muse India 38.

Desai, Anita “A Meaning to the Meaningless: Anita Desai’s Baumgartner’s Bombay” T. Döring Beyond “Other” Cultures: Transcultural Perspectives on Teaching in the New Literatures in English ed S. Doff and F. Schulze-Engler WTV (Trier) pp193–207.

— “Anita Desai: Through an Ecocritical Lens” Baby Kumari Research: A Journal of English Studies 11 (1) pp77–90.

— Anita Desai’s Fiction: Themes and Techniques ed Arvind M. Nawale 225pp B.R.Publishing Corporation (New Delhi) Rs595.

— “Home Fiction”: Narrating Gendered Space in Anita Desai’s and Shashi Deshpande’s Novels Ellen Dengel-Janic 226pp Königshausen & Neumann (Würzburg) € 34,00.

Deshpande, Shashi “Deception and Revelation in Shashi Deshpande’s In the Counry of Deceit” M.S. Palaksha The Literary Criterion 46 (3&4) pp158–163.

— “Emergence of the New Woman: Contextualizing Feminism in Shashi Deshpande’s Novels” Anupama Chowdhury The Literary Criterion 46 (3&4) pp110–128.

— “Feminine Aspects in Shashi Deshpande’s In the Country of Deceit” Sweta Anand Cyber Literature 27 (1) pp75–80.

— Fiction and Society: Narrativisation of Realities in the Novels of Shashi Deshpande and Githa Hariharan Sarita Prabhakar 182pp Rawat Publications (Jaipur) Rs495.

— “Home Fiction”: Narrating Gendered Space in Anita Desai’s and Shashi Deshpande’s Novels Ellen Dengel-Janic 226pp Königshausen & Neumann (Würzburg) € 34,00.

— “Life beyond Relationships in Shashi Deshpande’s Moving On” Urvashi Kaushal and Babita Kar The Quest 25 (1) pp49–54.

— “Shashi Deshpande and the Question of Morality: A Critique” Jyotsna Prabhakar Indian Ethos 1 (1) pp141–157.

— “Shashi Deshpande’s A Matter of Time” Gurudarshan Singh Muse India 36.

— “Shashi Deshpande’s Alternative Image of Woman” Rekha Datta Journal of Indian Writing in English 39 (2) pp15–18.

— “The Gaze in Shashi Deshpande’s ‘The Stone Women’ (2003)” S.N.Kiran The Literary Criterion 46 (3&4) pp102–109.

— “Woman—An Inside Outsider? With Special Reference to Shashi Deshpande” Rekha Datta Journal of Indian Writing in English 39 (2) pp19–24.

Devi, Mahasweta Mahasweta Devi: Critical Perspectives ed Nandini Sen 224 pages Pencraft International (New Delhi) Rs650.

Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee “Assimilation: A Key Role in the Fiction of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni” S.P. Vanjulavalli The Quest 25 (2) pp87–90.

— “Chitra’s ‘Amazing’ Novel” Archana Srinath The Literary Criterion 46 (3&4) pp141–145.

— “Magic Realism as a Literary Device in Divakaruni’s Queen of Dreams” Rashmi Gaur Indian Ethos 1 (1) pp52–64.

— “Travelling across Time: A Critical Analysis of The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming and Shadowland” P.V.L. Sailaja and N. Ramakrishna The Quest 25 (2) pp20–26.

Dutt, Michael Madhusudan “The ‘English’ Madhusudan Dutt” Sukla Basu Sen Muse India 35.

Ghosh, Amitav “Amitav Ghosh’s Dancing in Cambodia, At Large in Burma” C.N. Srinath Journal of Indian Writing in English 39 (1) pp81–83.

— “Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies” Devyani Agrawal Muse India 38.

— “Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide” Samrat Laskar Muse India 35.

— “An Eco-Critical Reading of Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide” Gulrez Roshan Rahman Research: A Journal of English Studies 11 (1) pp91–103.

— “Calcutta in Amitav Ghosh’s The Calcutta Chromosome” S.D. Sharma and Suruchi Kalra Choudhary Indian Ethos 1 (1) pp120–128.

— “Multiculturalism in Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide” M. Saji The Quest 25 (2) pp103–107.

— “Outside in the Jungle: Narrating the Nation in Midnight’s Children and The Glass Palace” Soni Wadhwa Muse India 40.

— “Time Past in Time Future and the Unredeemability of Time in Antique Lands” K.M. Chander and K. Ravindranath Rai Journal of Indian Writing in English 39 (1) pp13–18.

Hariharan, Githa “Equating Mythology with Emotion: Marginalization of Women in Githa Hariharan’s The Thousand Faces of Night” Monika Gupta Indian Ethos 1 (1) pp86–99.

— Fiction and Society: Narrativisation of Realities in the Novels of Shashi Deshpande and Githa Hariharan Sarita Prabhakar 182pp Rawat Publications (Jaipur) Rs495.

Iyengar, K.R. Srinivasa “Leaves from a Memoir: Srinivasa Iyengar in Bagalkot” Prema Nandakumar Journal of Indian Writing in English 39 (1) pp 41–47.

Jhabvala, Ruth Prawer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s Fiction: Existential Modes and Stylistic Patterns A.A. Khan and Ashish Sharma 281pp Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors (New Delhi) Rs700.

Joshi, Arun “A Primitive View of the Tribal World: Arun Joshi’s The Strange Case of Billy Biswas” Ivy Imogen Hansdak The Quest 25 (2) pp34–41.

— V.S. Naipaul and Arun Joshi: A Comparative Study A.K. Muthusamy and J S Kirubhakar 182pp Authorspress (New Delhi) Rs475.

Kapur, Manju “A Critique of Manju Kapur’s Novel The Immigrant” Tapati Talukdar The Literary Criterion 46 (3&4) p61–69.

— “Modernity vs. Tradition: An Insight into Manju Kapur’s Difficult Daughters” Subhashree Mukherjee Cyber Literature 27 (1) pp40–54.

— “The Journey of Dislocation in Nasreen’s French Lover and Kapur’s The Immigrant” Lalima Chakravarthy Muse India 40.

Karnad, Girish Girish Karnad: History and Folklore O.P. Budholia vii+206pp B.R. Publishing Corporation (New Delhi) Rs595.

— Girish Karnad: Poetics and Aesthetics O.P. Budholia vii+206pp B.R. Publishing Corporation (New Delhi) Rs595.

— Girish Karnad’s Plays: Archetypal and Aesthetical Presentations Bhagabat Nayak 290pp Authorspress (New Delhi) Rs725

— “Reality and Myth: A Study of Girish Karnad’s Naga-Mandala” Tanushree Nayak The Critical Endeavour 17 pp225–236.

— “The Use of Myth in Karnad’s Yayati” Wale N.G. The Quest 25 (1) pp42–48.

— “Triangular Relationships in Girish Karnad’s Two Monologues: Flowers and Broken Images” R.T. Bedre and J.G. Mete The Literary Criterion 46 (1) pp50–61.

Lahiri, Jhumpa “Generational Differences: Migrant Women in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth, Hell-Heaven and Only Goodness” Phurailatpam Jayalaxmi The Quest 25 (2) pp13–19.

— “Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake” Barnali Dutta Muse India 37.

— “Russian Influence on Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake” Christina Maria Gamez-Fernandez Parnassus 2&3 pp16–23.

Lal, P. “P. Lal (1929–2010): Critic and Scholar-Extraordinary” Subhendu Mund Parnassus 2&3 pp7–15.

— “P. Lal: A Tribute” Subhendu Mund Indian Journal of World Literature and Culture 5&6 pp

Lal, Ranjit “Ranjit Lal’s Survival Fiction” Nandini Nayar Muse India 39.

Madhaviah, A. “The Poetry of A. Madhavaiah” Shyamala A. Narayan Journal of Indian Writing in English 39 (1) pp25–40.

Mahapatra, Jayanta “A Deconstructive Reading of Jayanta Mahapatra’s ‘Dawn at Puri’” Pradip Kumar Patra The Critical Endeavour 17 pp181–188.

— Jayanta Mahapatra: His Mind and Art A.A. Khan and Rahul Mene 200pp Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors (New Delhi) Rs550.

— Jayanta Mahapatra the Poet and the Visionary: A Study in Imagery 86pp privately pub (Chandrakona Town, Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal) Pb Rs60 [2010].

Malgonkar, Manohar “War Within and Without: Patterns of Conflict in Manohar Malgonkar’s A Bend in the Ganges” Seema Miglani Parnassus 2&3 pp30–37.

Markandaya, Kamala Multiculturalism and Diasporic Dilemmas: The Fiction of Kamala Markandaya Gauri Shankar Jha 167pp Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors (New Delhi) Rs495.

Mathur, Anurag “Discovering the Self through the Other: A Study of Cultural Encounters in Manoj Das’s ‘The Crocodile’s Lady’ and Anurag Mathur’s The Inscrutable Americans” Amarjeeet Nayak Parnassus 2&3 pp24–29.

Misra, Jaishree “Between the Reel and the Real: A Reading of Jaishree Misra’s Secrets and Lies (2009) and Secrets and Sins (2010)” Vijay Sheshadri The Literary Criterion 46 (3&4) pp79–86.

— “In a Brief Chat with Pratibha Umashankar” Muse India 36.

— “Jaishree Misra’s Ancient Promises” Pratibha Umashankar Muse India 36.

Mistry, Rohinton “History from the Bottom Up: The Indomitable Dalit Spirit in Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance” S. Christina Rebecca The Quest 25 (1) pp109–115.

— “Indian Society Politics: An Analysis of Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance” C. Bharathi The Literary Criterion 46 (2) pp26–49.

— “Parsi Food in the Fiction of Rohinton Mistry” Vetri Selvi P. Muse India 37.

— “Rohinton Mistry: Positioning Parsi Identity in the Liminal Space of Inclusion and Exclusion” Hardeep Singh Mann Indian Journal of World Literature and Culture 5&6pp

Mohanty, Niranjan Festivals of Fire: A Study of the Poetry of Niranjan Mohanty Binod Mishra and Sudhir K. Arora 258pp Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors (New Delhi) Rs695 [2010].

— Niranjan Mohanty: The Man and His Poetry Sudhir K. Arora xii+136pp Prakash Book Depot (Bareilly) Rs80.

Moudgil, Reema “Conflicting Memories: Reema Moudgil’s Perfect Eight” K. Yeshoda Nanjappa The Literary Criterion 46 (3&4) pp70–78.

Mukherjee, Bharati “Crossing Borders of Time and Space: Bharati Mukherjee’s The Holder of the World and the Global Novel” C. Birkle Riding/Writing Across Borders in North American Travelogues and Fiction ed W. Zacharasiewicz ÖAW (Wien) pp351–358.

— “Immigrant Identity in Bharati Mukherjee’s Novels” Aparajita Ray Muse India 35

— “In Conversation with Marilyn Clark” Muse India 36.

Mukherjee, Meenakshi “Emerging Nationalism in Meenakshi Mukherjee’s An Indian for All Seasons: The Many Lives of R.C. Dutt” Sushila Singh The Critical Endeavour 17 pp198–211.

Nambisan, Kavery “The Truth (Almost) about Bharat” Chitra S. Muse India 36.

Narayan, R.K. “‘Cosmopolitanism Within’: The Case of R.K. Narayan’s Fictional Malgudi” P. Malreddy Journal of Postcolonial Writing 47 (5) pp 558–570.

— “Narayan’s Swami and Friends” Neerja Sharma Muse India 39.

Nimbkar, Jai “Jai Nimbkar’s Fictional World of Transience” A.P. Dani Journal of Indian Writing in English 39 (1) pp19–24.

Padmanabhan, Manjula “Ecofeminism in India: Disappearing Daughters in Padmanabhan’s Escape” Rupali P. Palodkar The Quest 25 (1) pp55–61

Parameswaran, Uma “Negotiating Identity between India and Canada: A Reading of the Select Plays of Uma Parameswaran” Harbir Singh Randhawa and Sangeeta Aggarwal Indian Ethos pp76–85.

Rao, Raja Raja Rao: An Introduction Letizia Alterno xii+220pp Foundation Books (New Delhi) Pb Rs195 [Contemporary Indian Writers in English Series].

— “Vedanta and Raja Rao’s The Serpent and the Rope” Sunita Siroha Indian Ethos 1 (1) pp129–140.

Ray, Acharya P.C. “Acharya P.C. Ray’s Writings on Food” Amrit Sen Muse India 37.

Roy, Arundhati “Arundhati Roy’s Political Consciousness” Darkhasha Azhar Cyber Literature 27 (1) pp11–20.

— “Can the Subaltern be Spoken for? A Critique of Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things” Sonali Das The Literary Criterion 46 (3&4) pp129–140.

— “Narrating the Nation: Subalternity in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things” Sonali Das The Critical Endeavour 17 pp153–162.

— “Postmodernist Parable of Survival: Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things” Shalini Saxena The Quest 25 (2) pp63–69.

— “Roy’s The God of Small Things” Debarati Bandyopadhyay Muse India 37.

— “The God of Small Things: A Gynocritical Reading” A.R. Chitra The Quest 25 (1) pp62–67.

Rushdie, Salman “Magic Realism in Midnight’s Children” Jitendra Narayan Patnaik Journal of Indian Writing in English 39 (2) pp39–45.

— “Metaphors of Rain and Fire in Salman Rushdie’s Story ‘The Firebird’s Nest’” Prabhat K. Singh The Critical Endeavour 17 pp123–128.

— “Outside in the Jungle: Narrating the Nation in Midnight’s Children and The Glass Palace” Soni Wadhwa Muse India 40.

— “Salman Rushdie’s East, West – ‘And Never the Twain Shall Meet’?” H. Novak Beyond ‘Other’ Cultures: Transcultural Perspectives on Teaching in the New Literatures in English ed S. Doff and F. Schulze-Engler WTV (Trier, Germany) pp223–237.

Sarma, Siddhartha “Siddhartha Sarma: In Discussion with Sunita Baveja” Muse India 39.

Singh, R.K. R.K. Singh’s Mind and Art: A Symphony of Expressions ed Rajni Singh 243pp Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors (New Delhi) Rs725.

Swarup, Vikas “Medialisiertes Erzählen in Vikas Swarups Roman Q&A and Danny Boyle’s Filmadaptation Slumdog Millionaire” R. Vogt Medialisierung des Erzählens im englischsprachigen Roman der Gegenwart: Theoretischer Bezugsrahmen, Genres und Modellinterpretationen ed A. Nünning, J. Rupp WTV (Trier, Germany) pp271–286.

Tejpal, Tarun “Tarun Tejpal’s The Story of My Assassins: Making Sense of Contemporary India” Rositta Joseph Valiyamattam The Quest 25 (1) pp116–122.

Tharoor, Shashi “Priscilla Hart’s Search for Identities in Riot” Amrendra Sharma The Literary Criterion 46 (2) pp50–63.

— “The Great Indian Novel: Recreating History of Modern India” Geetanjali Bhagat Parnassus 2&3 pp38–48.

Umrigar, Thrity “If Memories Be Sweet: Thrity Umrigar’s Parsi-Imaging of Contemporary India” A.S. Dasan The Literary Criterion 46 (3&4) pp47–60.

Vakil, Ardashir “Vignettes of London in Ardashir Vakil’s One Day: A Personal View” S. Ramaswamy Journal of Indian Writing in English 39 (1) pp52–56.

Non-Fiction

Ahluwalia, H.P.S. Tracing Marco Polo’s Journey: The Silk Route illus with photographs 236pp Niyogi Books (New Delhi) Rs1995.

Anand, Mulk Raj Conversations in Bloomsbury New revised edition ed and intro Saros Cowasjee 191pp Vision Books (New Delhi) Rs395 [first pub 1981].

Balachandran, Indu Don’t Go Away. We’ll Be Right Back: The Oops and Downs of Advertising 192pp Tranquebar (New Delhi) Rs250.

Desai, Santosh Mother Pious Lady: Making Sense of Everyday India 400p HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs299 [2010; selection of articles from Desai’s column “City City Bang Bang” in The Times of India].

Gantzer, Hugh and Colleen Gantzer Intriguing India: The Alluring North 172pp Niyogi Books (New Delhi) Rs595.

Jalil, Rakshanda Invisible City: The Hidden Monuments of Delhi 342pp Niyogi Books (New Delhi) Rs795.

Malhotra, Rajiv Being Different: An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism 488pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Rs599.

Singh, Ram Bhagwan Leisure Pleasure (Scripts in Lighter Vein) 100pp Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors (New Delhi) Rs300

Sorabji, Cornelia An Indian Portia: Selected Writings of Cornelia Sorabji 1866 to 1954 ed Kusoom Vadgama 702pp Zubaan (New Delhi) Rs1200.

Journals

The Critical Endeavour eds M.Q.Khan and Bijay Kumar Das. Researchers’ Association, D 221, Sector 7, C.D.A. Cuttack 753014. e-mail: [e-mail]. Annual sub Rs200; annual.

Cyber Literature: A Bi-Annual Journal of English Studies eds Chhote Lal Khatri, Mishradeep, Saketpuri, Road No.1, Hanuman Nagar, Patna 800026. e-mail: [e-mail]. Annual sub Rs400 for individuals, Rs600 for institutions; bi-annual.

Indian Journal of World Literature and Culture ed Subhendu Mund. ‘Prabhamayee’ VI-M-37 Sailashree Vihar, Bhubaneswar 751021. e-mail: [e-mail]. Annual sub Rs300 for individuals, Rs350 for institutions; bi-annual.

Journal of Indian Writing in English ed G.S. Balarama Gupta, NIRIEL, 4-29, Jayanagar, Gulbarga 585105. Annual sub Rs600; bi-annual.

Journal of Drama Studies: An International Journal of Research on World Drama in English [including translation] ed Bhim S. Dahiya, 173, Sector 2, Urban Estate, Kurukshetra 136131, Haryana. email: [e-mail]. Annual sub Rs200 for individuals, Rs500 for institutions; bi-annual.

Journal of Postcolonial Writing eds Chris Ringrose and Janet Wilson. Taylor & Francis. Annual sub print $132 online $93/€73 for EACLALS & PSA members, online $432 print and online $480 for institutions; 5 issues per annum.

The Literary Criterion ed C.N. Srinath. Dhvanyaloka, Mysore 570006. e-mail: [e-mail]. Annual sub Rs300 for individuals, Rs500 for institutions; quarterly.

The Little Magazine ed Antara Dev Sen. A 708 Anand Lok, Mayur Vihar Phase I, Delhi 110091. email: [e-mail]. Annual sub Rs400 for individuals, Rs900 for institutions; bi-monthly.

Muse India the literary ejournal Managing ed G.S.P. Rao. www.museindia.com. E-mail: [e-mail]. Address for sending documents: Muse India, 38, Malani Enclave, Trimulgherry, Secunderabad 500015, Andhra Pradesh. Annual sub: free; bi-monthly.

Parnassus: An Innovative Journal of Literary Criticism ed Nilanshu Kumar Agarwal. A 111, Aawas Vikas Colony, Indira Nagar, Rae Bareli 229001, Uttar Pradesh. email: [e-mail]. Annual sub Rs200 for individuals, Rs250 for institutions; annual.

The Quest ed Ravi Nandan Sinha. 202, Preeti Enclave, Chandni Chowk, Kanke Road, Ranchi 834008. e-mail: [e-mail]. Annual sub Rs400.00; bi-annual.

Research: A Journal of English Studies ed Vandana Datta. 14 Bailey Road, Patna 800001. Annual sub Rs300 for individuals, Rs600 for institutions; bi-annual.

Special Issues

Journal of Postcolonial Writing Vol.47 No.5 is a special issue on “Tracing the Urban Imaginary in the Postcolonial Metropolis and the ‘New’ Metropolis”

The Little Magazine Vol. 8 No.6 is a special issue on “India in Verse” [contemporary poetry from 20 Indian languages, including English].

Muse India: The Literary Ejournal Issue 35, Jan-Feb 2011 has a focus on Indian Writing in English and Indian Diasporic Writing.

New Journals

Indian Ethos ed S.D. Sharma 74 Sector-7, Urban Estate, Karnal 132001 Haryana. E-mail: [e-mail]. Annual sub Rs750 for individuals, Rs1500 for institutions; bi-annual.