English Literature

The post - independence Indian English fiction has seen quite a large crop of new and interesting writers. Their works are firmly based on social realism. Writers like Bhavani Bhattacharya, Manohar Malgonkar and Khushwant Singh appeared on the scene in the fifties of the last century. Quite a number of women novelists also emerged. Jhabvala, Kamala Markandaya, Nayantara Sahgal and Anita Desai are notable among them. This development has continued ever since and one can discover many new voices. The most striking among them is Kiran Desai, the third recipient of Man Booker Prize after Salman Rushdie and Arundhati Roy.  Kiran is a true achiever in the real sense of the term. Born in India in 1971, she shifted her base to England at the age of 14 before moving to the USA. She was educated in India, England and the US. Her mother, Anita Desai is a noted writer. Therefore, to enter the field of writing was very easy for her. Her first novel appeared as Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard ...

For many decades English has been taught in our schools and colleges. It occupies the position of a second language in the school curriculum and for higher education. Now English language teaching has gained the status of a new discipline. Teaching English to the Indian students is the biggest challenge. This is so because of the large population of the country, bleak economic conditions, the cultural and social diversities and insufficient men and material. One of the main reasons for the poor standard of English is the lack of a clear-cut policy. There have been frequent changes in the policy of the government towards the teaching and learning of English. The educationists and politicians differ on the role and status of English in India.  The majority of our students struggle a lot to acquire the language. Most of the Indian students are exposed to their mother tongues. They do not get adequate opportunities either to listen to or speak in English. They listen to English only in...

Last decade of the twentieth century marked the beginning of two eras in India-Computer Era and Mobile Era. Both computer and mobile have become part and parcel of our life. Like all other electronic equipments, Mobile was invented to make our life simpler. But what really happening is it is making life more complicated.  The most important effect of mobile in today’s world is attack on our privacy. For the first time in the history of civilization, humans have lost their privacy. It has started to become a fun for people to capture other person’s private videos and upload them on internet. But, those who take that pictures and videos, they should remember one thing that he same can happen even to their mothers, sisters, wives or daughters.  Let me add one more side effect of mobile. We can see people going to temples, churches and mosques for praying. Everyone wants some peace of mind. But even inside the holy place, a few won’t switch off phone. Even in prayers, half of thei...

The holy books of the Hindus explain that all the inhabitants of the earth emerged from the primordial sea. It means the earliest life forms appeared in water and the same is the source of all life. The entire universe is largely composed of water and that’s why it can’t exist without it. Leonardo da Vinci is of the view that ‘Water is the driving force in nature.’ According to Thoreau ‘Life in us is like the water in a river.’  Water has always fascinated humankind. As a result, it plays a very prominent and recurrent role in literature. It gives constant fuel to the fires of imagination. According to Githa Hariharan, ‘Water, the fountainhead of civilization as of life, flows through human expression through the ages.’ Given the importance of water to life, it is not surprising that as a potent symbol it flows through literature.  Water is often used to symbolize various things in literature. The use of it as a symbol clearly has no set rules. Authors use it in different ways...