Topic started by venkat (@ kraken.fw-sj.sony.com) on Tue Aug 15 11:36:04 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

I came across this discussion on NY Times Asian Literature forum. Any thoughts.

"I was trying to think of an Indian novel that is not a "problem" novel. I mean one that doesn't concern itself mainly with religious, gender or cultural clashes of one kind or the other. I can't think of a one. Even Narayan's gentle narratives tend to highlight some social ill that needs changing or the older Indians' bafflement in the face of globalization. Is it that Third World cultures can't afford the luxury of personal crisis and the search for the inner child? The tumultous history of India does not encourage the writing of problem free novels. I was only noticing that few Indian novels deal with "innermosties" of the sort that obsess Western writers."

Responses:

• From: R.Revathi (@ ppp-178-115.bng.vsnl.net.in) on: Fri Aug 25 09:23:05 EDT 2000
  
  In India , in any field , you tend to see whatever appears on the surface(I think this is genetic - Exclusive to Indians?). These problems(gender/Religion/caste based injustice) are identified immediately by any body and it is easier for them to write about it, In western world , people do research to the core , as a result of which , they get more interesting topics to write about and their attitude(genetic) allows them to take certain risks (Financially)
  
  
• From: venkat (@ mollusk.fw-sj.sony.com) on: Fri Aug 25 13:35:44 EDT 2000
  
  I am not an avid non-English novel fan. There may be Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil .. authors who has written "Problem-Free" novels. But the issue is how many novels got translated in English.
  One of the problem-free novel by an Indian author I can think of is "A House for Mr.Biswas". But funny part is the story is based at Trinidad.:-)
  
  
• From: Bashuman Deb (@ ) on: Wed Oct 25 09:37:44
  
  The brand of novels that is being discussed here is probably the type of novels we know as 'Indian Literature written in English', and one has to admit that the 'problem' problem exists.
  These are a brand of novels I think do not aim to narrate a simple story. They aim to narrate an _Indian_ story. This results in the creation of a so called problem novel.
  The author shall try and make a novel which shall continue to attempt in every sentence to express an Indianism. This Indianism is what these authors believe is the only unique selling proposition for the novel that they are producing. What is sad is this Indianism at most times is a hackneyed and stereotyped, image of what the world percieves India to be. These authors seem to be repeatedly trying a bit too hard to prepare an-exotic-dish-that-is-India in their novels. In the process what they do is perpetrate the same old cliched Indian images which the rest of the world so eagerly lap up, since they already have acquired a taste for it.
  I know I might sound a bit to critical but I think that most of the so called _Indian Literature Written in English_ is pretentious.
  Let me tell you why I never read The God Of Small Things. I think it was 1997. The above mentioned novel was about to be released. They published a few excerpts of it in the India Today magazine. I clearly remember that in the excerpt, there was a mention of a pregnant woman, in labour being taken from Shillong to Guwahati, in a rickety bus to a hospital. And there was a description of how the woman was feeling as the bus was passing through some tea garden !! I have lived in Shillong all my life and trust me that there is not a single tea garden between Shillong and Guwahati. In all, the whole situation described was slightly fantastic if one takes the geography of the area into consideration. I know that this may sound like an extremely trivial detail but what really came through was that here was an author who was writing about a country,or a part of the country which she herself has not seen and does not know.
  It reeked of pretentiousness. All she seemed to be trying to do was to throw in a few Indianisms like Shillong, Guwahati, tea gardens and descriptions of rickety buses to create an _Indian ambience_. I thought it was rather dishonest. I decided that this was a book which I would not read. The above mentioned case I think is representative.
  I know that my comments might be a trifle vitriolic, and might invite a few flames. One is free to do so. If one has this urge to abuse me for what I have said is also free to do so but please, over personal mail :-) .
  
  
• From: Mani M. Manivannan (@ sji-ca-cache2.icg.net) on: Sun Oct 29 18:02:52 EST 2000
  
  Vikram Chandra chides "The Cult of Authenticity", where India’s cultural commissars worship "Indianness" instead of art.
  
  http://bostonreview.mit.edu/BR25.1/chandra.html
  
  
• From: Vishvesh Obla (@ www.gltg.com) on: Wed Nov 1 15:27:26 EST 2000
  
  Excellent, Mr. Deb. I think you got the crux of most of the stuff that one normally finds in the novels classified under "Indian writing in English" ! Yes, they harp on a few selling points about the many mis-perceptions of our country. Even R.K.Narayan doesnt escape it ; you see the sentiments flowing throughout his works. All these fashionable writers harp so much on these "Indianisms", that they become so disgusting to read.
  
  
• From: vj (@ moola.tcom.purdue.edu) on: Wed Nov 1 20:16:22 EST 2000
  
  Mani,
  Thanks for the article. This issue has been bothering me since I read The God of Small Things which I think almost every other American is reading or has read.. and when I saw her judging at Cannes as India's representative artist I was really shocked.
  
  Now, there are academicians trying to understand the "concepts" involved but I tend to agree with Borges with a little hesitation though.
  
  

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