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ST. JOSEPH’S COLLEGE OF COMMERCE (AUTONOMOUS)
END SEMESTER EXAMINATION – APRIL 2014
B.COM – II SEMESTER
ADDITIONAL ENGLISH
Duration: 3 Hours Max. Marks: 100
SECTION – A
Indian English Literature pertains to that body of work by writers from India, who pen
strictly in the English language and whose native or co-native language could be one of the
numerous regional and indigenous languages of India. English literature in India is also
intimately linked with the works of associates of the Indian diaspora, especially with people
like Salman Rushdie who was born in Indian but presently resides elsewhere.
Development of Indian English Literature
Indian English literature precisely conforming to its gradual evolution had all begun in the
summers of 1608 when Emperor Jahangir, in the court of the Mughals, had welcomed
Captain William Hawkins, Commander of British Naval Expedition Hector, in a gallant
manner. Though India was under the British rule, still, English was adopted by the Indians
as a language of understanding and awareness, education and literary expression with an
important means of communication amongst various people of dissimilar religions.
Indian English literature, quite understandably, spurs attention from every quarter of the
country, making the genre admired in its own right. Creative writing in English is looked at
as an integral part of the literary traditions in the Indian perspective of fine arts. In early
times of British rule, the novelistic writing, indeed the Indian English dramas and Indian
English poetry, had tremendously arrested attention of the native masses. Every possible
regional author was dedicated in their intelligence to deliver in the `British mother tongue`,
highly erudite and learned as they were even in such periods. The man that comes to
surface more than once in all the genres of Indian English literature is Rabindranath Tagore,
who possibly was an unending ocean of knowledge and intellect, still researched as an
institution in him.
The truthfulness and honesty of the writers writing in English is often made a theme of
suspect in their own country and in other English-speaking countries they are indeed
addressed as `marginal` to the mainstream of English literature. Indian English literature
writers are sometimes incriminated of forsaking the national or regional language and
penning in a western, “alien” language; their dedication to the nation is considered in much
suspicion, a rather unfortunate sensibility for such intelligent and cultured wonders.
Indian literature in English dates back to the 1830s, to Kashiprasad Ghosh, who is
considered the first Indian poet writing in English. SocheeChunderDutt was the first writer
of fiction, thus bringing in the tremendous attraction and brilliancy of admiration of Indian
English novels. In the beginning, however, political writing in the novel or essay format
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was dominant, as can be seen in Raja Ram Mohan Roy and his extraordinary output. He
had written and dedicated pages about social reform and religion in India, solely in the
medium of English.
Style of Indian English Literature
`Stylistic influence` from the local languages appears to be an exceptional feature of much
of the Indian literature in English – the local language construction and system is very much
reflected in the illustrations, as is mirrored in the literal translation of local idioms. Yet one
more breathtaking and praiseworthy feature of these English Indian writers is that they
have not only `nativised` the `British mother tongue` in terms of stylistic features, but, they
have also acculturated English in terms of the `Indianised context`. A broad view that the
mother tongue is the primary means of literary creativity is still generally held across
cultural diversity. Creativeness in another tongue is often measured as a deviation from this
strict norm. The native language is considered `pure`, it is addressed as a standard model of
comparison. This however have caused difficulties for non-native writers of Indian English
literature and it is more than infrequently that they have to guard themselves writing again,
in English.
Writers of Indian English literature
Besides the legendary and hugely venerated Indian English literary personalities like
Rabindranath Tagore (Sadhana) or R K Narayan ( Malgudi days), later novelists like
Kamala Markandaya (Nectar in a Sieve, Some Inner Fury, A Silence of Desire, Two Virgins),
ManoharMalgaonkar (Distant Drum, Combat of Shadows, The Princes, A Bend in the
Ganges and The Devil`s Wind), Anita Desai (Clear Light of Day, The Accompanist, Fire on
the Mountain, Games at Twilight) and NayantaraSehgal, have ceaselessly captured the
spirit of an independent India struggling to break away from the British and traditional
Indian cultures and establish a distinct identity.
During the 1980`s and 90`s, India had emerged as a major literary nation. Salman Rushdie`s
`Midnight`s Children` had become a rage around the world, even winning the Booker
Prize. The worldwide success of Vikram Seth`s ` Midnight`s Children ` made him the first
writer of the Indian Diaspora to enter the sphere of elite international writers and leave an
indelible mark on the global literary scene. Other Indian English literature Novelists of
repute of the contemporary times include – V.S. Naipaul, Shobha De (Selective Memory),
G.V. Desani, M Ananthanarayanan, Bhadani Bhattacharya, Arun Joshi, Khushwant Singh,
O.V. Vijayan, Allan Sealy (The Trotternama), SashiTharoor (Show Business, The Great
Indian Novel), Amitav Ghosh (Circle of Reason, Shadow Lines) and others.
The writer in the genre of Indian English literature, who took the world with a storm, was
Arundhati Roy, whose `The God of Small Things` won the 1997 Booker Prize and became
an international best-seller overnight. Rohinton Mistry, Firdaus Kanga, Kiran Desai
(Strange Happenings in the Guava Orchard), SudhirKakar (The Ascetic of Desire),
ArdeshirVakil (Beach Boy) and JhumpaLahiri (Interpreter of Maladies) are some other
renowned writers of Indian origin. Former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao`s The
Insider; Satish Gujral`s A Brush with Life; R.K. Laxman`s The Tunnel of Time, Prof. Bipin
Chandra`s India After Independence, Sunil Khilnani`s The Idea of India, J.N. Dixit`s Fifty
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Years of India`s Foreign Policy, Yogesh Chadha`s Rediscovering Gandhi and Pavan
K.Varma`s The Great Indian Middle Class, are also outstanding works of the recent times.
The mid-20th century Indian literature in English had witnessed the emergence of poets
such as Nissim Ezekiel (The Unfurnished Man), P Lal, A K Ramanujan (The Striders,
Relations, Second Sight, Selected Poems), Dom Moraes (A Beginning), Keki .N . Daruwalla,
Geive Patel were profoundly influenced by literary movements taking place in the West,
like Symbolism, Surrealism, Existentialism, Absurdism and Confessional Poetry. These
authors heavily had made use of Indian phrases alongside English words and had tried to
reproduce a blend of the Indian and the Western cultures.
Indian English literature is an honest enterprise to demonstrate the ever rare gems of Indian
writing in English. From being a singular and exceptional, rather gradual native flare-up of
geniuses, Indian English has turned out to be a new form of Indian culture and voice in
which India converses regularly. While Indian authors – poets, novelists, essayists,
dramatists – have been making momentous and considerable contributions to world
literature since the pre-Independence era, the past few years have witnessed a gigantic
prospering and thriving of Indian English writing in the global market. Not only are the
works of Indian authors writing in English surging on the best-seller list, they are also
incurring and earning an immense amount of critical acclamation. Commencing from Mulk
Raj Anand, R. K. Narayan, Anita Desai, Sarojini Naidu, ToruDutt to Salman Rushdie,
Vikram Seth, Allan Sealy, Amitav Ghosh, JhumpaLahiri, Chitra Banerjee, Arundhati Roy,
Vikram Chandra – the panache of fine Indian writers is long and much augmented.
I) Answer the following questions in about a paragraph each. (3×5=15)
1. Comment on the influence of native essence on the core concept of Indian writings in
English.
2. What do you have to say about the influence of English Writers on Indian Writing in
English?
3. Track the way in which India emerged as a Literary Nation?
II) Answer the following questions in about 2 – 3 paragraphs each. (2×10=20)
4. “English literature in India is also intimately linked with the works of associates of the
Indian diaspora, especially with people like Salman Rushdie who was born in Indian but
presently resides elsewhere.” Comment on the idea of writers living abroad and writing
about India. How can their writings be different from those who are living here?
5. What are the major changes over the years in the world of Indian Writing in English?
Comment on those changes.
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SECTION – B
III) Answer any THREE of the following questions in about 200 words each. (3×15=45)
6. Examine the village life in the stories of Mohammad Basheer and P. Lankesh.
7. What is your opinion on the element of supernatural in the short story – The Overcoat? Do
you think such stories could influence your belief in spirits/the supernatural?
8. Critically comment on the caste system mentioned in P. Lankesh’sClassmate. Support
your opinion with the references from the text.
9. Do you think Akakiy Akakievitch failed to get social justice? Whom do you consider to
be responsible for his death: society or the authority who could nothear an ordinary
man’s plea? Justify your stand.
SECTION – C
IV) Answer any TWO of the following questions in about 200 words each. (2×10=20)
10. How does Charles Baudelaire portraythe Philanthropist in his poem Let’s beat up the
Poor?
11. Comment on the concepts of conflict of mind and body in the poems you have read.
12. Interpret the followingVachana of Basavanna, Keeping in mind its implications for the
present world.
Do not steal, do not kill
Do not lie, do not lose your temper
Do not hate, other people
Do not praise yourself
Do not blame the enemy
This purity inner and outer
This is the way to please God KudalaSangama.
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