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Thursday, January 15, 2015
The Indian Short Story in English as an e-Book
Saturday, January 10, 2015
TWENTY SEVEN YEARS TO WRITE A BOOK
The idea to write a critical and historical survey of the Indian short story in English was born when an impression and a thought came together.
The book The Modern Short Story by H.E. Bates made a lasting impression on me. In his book, H.E. Bates surveys the development of the short story in England, France, Russia, Ireland and America in a relaxed style that your everyday Joe can relate to.
The paradox of Indian life is that, because of tradition, there is outward social and cultural conformity. The richness and variety lies below the surface, in the dramatic, lyrical and tragic moments of individual lives. When we focus on the broader patterns, we get books like, to give a recent example, the series of novels about IIT life; when we try to capture the nuances below the broad pattern we get the richness of the stories edited by Shinie Antony in Why We Don’t Talk.
The fact that there existed a number of books of criticism on other genres of Indian writing in English – the novel, poetry, drama – and that there was little criticism of consequence on the short story presented both a problem and an opportunity. The problem: there was nothing that could serve as a standard to follow or to counter. The opportunity was to be a pathfinder. Interestingly, the character in Chinese for problem and opportunity is the same.
The Chinese character became my baton. I took on the ambitious task of reading and critiquing as many collections of short stories written in English by Indians as possible.
I started with what is claimed to be the first “work of Indian fiction in English”: A Journal of Forty Eight Hours on the Year 1945 by Kylash Chunder Dutt published in D.L. Richardson’s Calcutta Literary Gazette dated 6th June 1835.
My study was interrupted when I decided to make a mid-career change and move from Shillong to Taipei, Taiwan, to run an export company.
Taiwan was not classed as an “Asian Tiger” for nothing (one of four, along with Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea). The lifestyle in the charged commercial atmosphere can best be described as running to stay on the same spot. Business charts, figures and targets formed the staple of conversation and thought. I had fears of becoming one of those battery operated robots I exported.
What prevented the threatened robotisation was my decision to revive my study of the Indian short story in English. Taipei in those days had just one English book store that sold books mainly on how to learn and teach English.
I bought the books for my study, collections of short stories by Indian authors, when I made my annual trips to India.
These collections formed the diet that sustained me on a bookless island. There were a number of occasions when I ran out of reading material in my area of interest. I’d wait for friends travelling to India on business or for a vacation and give them lists of books to bring back.
I kept a work-book in which, along with my travel schedules, grocery lists and trips of inspection to factories, I jotted down notes about my impressions of the books I read.
I did this for the twenty five years I lived in Taiwan. Does two and a half decades seem like a long period of gestation for a book? Yes and no. Yes, at times when my business commitments seem to crowd my plate. No, when I saw it as the wonderful rejuvenating diversion it was. Let me put it this way, my commitment to my project was like a long marriage. In such a marriage there are ups and downs but the quality of the relationship remains unaffected.
When I moved to Dallas in 2007, I had the leisure to turn these notes into a book: Themes in the Indian Short Story in English: An Historical and a Critical Survey. The book was published in late 2009.
Although my study stops with collections published till 2008, the Indian short story in English continues to blossom, especially with the number publishers multiplying in recent times.
I had the common reader in mind when I chose to adopt a non-academic approach, without footnotes, cross references and other methodological features. The irony is that the book has appealed, instead, to students, teachers and research scholars in India. I’m fine with that. I’m also happy that the book has received heart-warming reviews in newspapers and journals.
My book may not make it even as a footnote in the history of literary criticism of Indian Writing in English, but I’m satisfied that the objective I set myself was endorsed by a respected literary journal founded in 1984. The reviewer in Wasafiri,The Magazine of Contemporary Writing, London, Vol. 24, No 2 commented: “Melwani’s distinction is clearing a trail on a road less travelled in Indian literary studies.”
First published in Indian Book Reviews, 2nd May 2012
Saturday, August 16, 2014
The Importance of the Indian Short Story to the World
(This post was first published by John Dean in Global Short Stories, Blogspot.com)
A lot of our blog readers (and a few entries into the Global Short Competition as well) come from India and, as I often do, I research the art form in the various countries from which we receive entries.
While doing that, I came across a terrific article by M. S. Nagarajan, published in 2010 in The Hindu and reviewing the book Themes in the Indian Short Story in English by Murli Das Melwani (Prakash Book Depot).
Charting the growth in the Indian short story since 1935, M S Nagarajan wrote about its growing importance on the world stage, saying: “There are more women writers now than at any time in the past. Altering perspectives in man-woman relationships, alienation in modern life and the impact of feminism and feminist theories on the academia have supplied meat and juice to a potential creative writer.
“As readership expanded across the world, Indian stories tended to get translated into foreign languages. The author is quite right in his assessment that the short story has covered a wider range of subjects with a larger gallery of characters and that the record of Indian life is more authentic in this genre than in the novel .. we need more — and yet more — of such narrative histories that can discuss changes in artistic trends, materials, techniques, et al. The scope for the Indian short story is indeed boundless.”
A classic case of writers responding to, and changing, the world around them.
The full text is on http://www.thehindu.com/books/historical-survey-of-indian-short-story/article103381.ece, which includes more about Themes in the Indian Short Story in English by Murli Das Melwani.
http://globalshortstories.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-importance-of-indian-short-story-to.html
A classic case of writers responding to, and changing, the world around them.
The full text is on http://www.thehindu.com/books/historical-survey-of-indian-short-story/article103381.ece, which includes more about Themes in the Indian Short Story in English by Murli Das Melwani.
http://globalshortstories.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-importance-of-indian-short-story-to.html
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Themes in the Indian Short Story in English
The Review in The Hindu newspaper, February 9, 2010
Aesop’s Fables, Ovid’s Metamorphosis, Boccaccio’s The Decameron and the Indian Jataka tales, the Panchatantra, Somadeva’s Katha-sarit-sagara are among the forerunners of the short story. The advent of its present form can be traced to the early 19th century and of its parent, the novel, to the 18th century. The brevity of its narrative, single action, and thematic focus naturally met with a wordwide reception and thus short fiction matured into an artistic genre, casting its net across the world. Murli Das Melwani’s book makes a historical survey right from the beginning to the present-day. Such a wide-ranging critical survey has hitherto not been attempted. He raises two weighty questions that merit our attention. First, has the Indian short story writer contributed anything of value to it? and second, has his work made the form more flexible, as say, Hemingway’s or Chekov’s did? Melwani subjects all short-story writers — 66 in all — from 1835 to 2008 to a close scrutiny. The stories are not discussed individually, though some specimens are close-read and locally analysed. But a writer’s entire collection is examined and evaluated, with conclusions drawn at the end.
Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan, and Raja Rao, who represent the first flowering (1935-45) of this genre, responded to the nationalist movement, each in his own way — Mulk Raj Anand, the social activist, presenting a true vision of Indian life; R.K. Narayan, with his perception of the average as positive, exploring the nature of life and reality; and Raja Rao experimenting with form. The second flowering (1960-70) looked for answers to the question often raised in academic circles: can the Indian sensibility be expressed in English? Ruth Prawar Jabwalla’s “detached involvement with the Indian situation,” and Bhabani Bhattacharya’s professionalism and the easy readability of his stories supply some answers to that question. The 1970s more than fulfil the expectations of the ‘60s. The decade is marked by an endless variety in the handling of themes and variations, coupled with varying modes and techniques of narration influenced by Russian and American short fiction.
Galaxy of writers
We have a galaxy of writers — Keki Daruwalla, Anita Desai, Shashi Deshpande, Arun Joshi, Kamala Das and a host of others — participating in the ongoing process of openness in form, reliable and unreliable narration with multiple points of view, and shifting focalisation. The period between 1980 and 2008 reflects, in the words of Melwani, a “burgeoning creativity.” There are more women writers now than at any time in the past. Altering perspectives in man-woman relationships, alienation in modern life, and the impact of feminism and feminist theories on the academia have supplied meat and juice to a potential creative writer. As readership expanded across the world, Indian stories tended to get translated into foreign languages. The author is quite right in his assessment that the short story has covered a wider range of subjects with a larger gallery of characters and that the record of Indian life is more authentic in this genre than in the novel. The ‘little’ magazine that is most selective in choosing the material for publication — getting a story published in it is considered highly prestigious — has done much to improve the quality of this genre. Paperback print editions and online literary magazines too have helped a great deal in popularising this form. He suggests that instituting literary prizes and bringing out a collection of the best short stories every year will encourage new talent.
Melwani adroitly integrates his critical comments on the works with the short introductory remarks of each section on the evolving political and social mores of the times. On the whole, the book is absorbing and well-researched. It is a convincing, lively narrative history of the short story that still remains a developing literary form. We need more — and yet more — of such narrative histories that can discuss changes in artistic trends, materials, techniques, et al. The scope for the Indian short story is indeed boundless
Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan, and Raja Rao, who represent the first flowering (1935-45) of this genre, responded to the nationalist movement, each in his own way — Mulk Raj Anand, the social activist, presenting a true vision of Indian life; R.K. Narayan, with his perception of the average as positive, exploring the nature of life and reality; and Raja Rao experimenting with form. The second flowering (1960-70) looked for answers to the question often raised in academic circles: can the Indian sensibility be expressed in English? Ruth Prawar Jabwalla’s “detached involvement with the Indian situation,” and Bhabani Bhattacharya’s professionalism and the easy readability of his stories supply some answers to that question. The 1970s more than fulfil the expectations of the ‘60s. The decade is marked by an endless variety in the handling of themes and variations, coupled with varying modes and techniques of narration influenced by Russian and American short fiction.
Galaxy of writers
We have a galaxy of writers — Keki Daruwalla, Anita Desai, Shashi Deshpande, Arun Joshi, Kamala Das and a host of others — participating in the ongoing process of openness in form, reliable and unreliable narration with multiple points of view, and shifting focalisation. The period between 1980 and 2008 reflects, in the words of Melwani, a “burgeoning creativity.” There are more women writers now than at any time in the past. Altering perspectives in man-woman relationships, alienation in modern life, and the impact of feminism and feminist theories on the academia have supplied meat and juice to a potential creative writer. As readership expanded across the world, Indian stories tended to get translated into foreign languages. The author is quite right in his assessment that the short story has covered a wider range of subjects with a larger gallery of characters and that the record of Indian life is more authentic in this genre than in the novel. The ‘little’ magazine that is most selective in choosing the material for publication — getting a story published in it is considered highly prestigious — has done much to improve the quality of this genre. Paperback print editions and online literary magazines too have helped a great deal in popularising this form. He suggests that instituting literary prizes and bringing out a collection of the best short stories every year will encourage new talent.
Melwani adroitly integrates his critical comments on the works with the short introductory remarks of each section on the evolving political and social mores of the times. On the whole, the book is absorbing and well-researched. It is a convincing, lively narrative history of the short story that still remains a developing literary form. We need more — and yet more — of such narrative histories that can discuss changes in artistic trends, materials, techniques, et al. The scope for the Indian short story is indeed boundless
Dr. Suroopa Mukherjee's Review in World Literature Today
Dr Suroopa Mukherjee's review in World Literature Today,
Oklahoma, Sept-Oct 2008 issue
Murli
Melwani's *Indian Short Stories: From Colonial Beginnings toPost-modern Tales*
is a historical overview of what he describes as the"step child of
literature", the Indian short story in English. As a genre short stories
are neglected by both publishers and critics, though authors,including
mainstream novelists have experimented with the form, mainly because of its
brevity, and the free play it allows with themes, style and characterization.A
short story can be philosophical, political, lyrical and subversive.
What Melwani suggests is striking; as a literary form it is especially suitable to deal with the wide range of Indian experiences, so that thematically it is more expansive and faithful to the nuances of a multicultural, diverse nation like India than the Indian novel in English.
At a time when the Indian novel in English is being noticed in the literary scenario, winning both awards and accolades, this seems a timely critical interjection.Melwani makes it very clear that he is not discussing individual stories, so that each chapter is period based and gives us brief pen portrait of authors and their works, ranging from established writers, to lesser known names, to those whom we discover for the first time.
To that extent there is nothing predictable in the choice of works and the way they have been placed in thehistorical, socio-political context. The analysis never palls because each author, and the list is comprehensive and wide ranging, is accompanied by sharp, insightful comments on different aspects of writing and reading.Normally this sort of capsule presentation of a particular period, covering a decade, can give a sense of sampling rather than providing an in-depth literary analysis; it is to Melwani's credit that he is both astute and incisive in his commentary, however brief they might be.
At times why he includes a writer can be a trifle whimsical, but his individual author analysis is rarely sketchy. Thus we get an interesting analysis of why Melwani feels Ruth Pawar Jhabvala is a better short story writer than a novelist. Sometimes he provides startling juxtapositions such as Jhabvala'suse of satire as compared to Kushwant Singh's satirical writing.We also get to know about Keki Daruwala's short stories, a lesser known aspect of the poet. The space that is given to authors can vary. So Anita Desai gets as much space as Hamdi Bey or Jug Suraiya. Some authors are barely mentioned in a catalogue style, which can be frustrating and can take away from the flow of the argument.
At times one gets the sense that key themes such as the politics of Indian writing in English is given too little space, though here again the analysis is sharp and insightful.Melwani's contention is that the question of Indian writing in English is asked 2 decades later, so that when Ruskin Bond and Bunny Rueben are writing short stories in English the question of authenticity is no longer a key issue.
However it is in the postmodern tales that Melwani becomes a little too predictable, and one begins to feel the absence of a more contemporary treatment of modern literature in relation to complex times. Many a time the analysis becomes too cursory, almost superficial, and the book ends up endorsing what it had claimed to challenge.
In the final analysis it would seem that the step motherly treatment given to short stories is largelybecause key writers, mostly novelists and poets, merely experiment with short stories so that it remains a side activity. A pity that a neglected literary form with enormous potential, which Melwani suggests in away that is often tantalizing and intriguing, can only arouse luke warm interest in the reader. The portrait gallery suggests mediocrity rather than real genius.This aspect has been brought into the argument but only with reference to individual writing rather than as a matter of critical contention. However Melwani successfully draws our attention to works that are less known, and to authors whom we tend to neglect. I for one would be tempted to pick up the works of Attia Hosain and Padma Hejmadi.
Reviewed by Suroopa Mukerjee, author of *Across the Mystic Shore*,Macmillan New Writing, 2006
What Melwani suggests is striking; as a literary form it is especially suitable to deal with the wide range of Indian experiences, so that thematically it is more expansive and faithful to the nuances of a multicultural, diverse nation like India than the Indian novel in English.
At a time when the Indian novel in English is being noticed in the literary scenario, winning both awards and accolades, this seems a timely critical interjection.Melwani makes it very clear that he is not discussing individual stories, so that each chapter is period based and gives us brief pen portrait of authors and their works, ranging from established writers, to lesser known names, to those whom we discover for the first time.
To that extent there is nothing predictable in the choice of works and the way they have been placed in thehistorical, socio-political context. The analysis never palls because each author, and the list is comprehensive and wide ranging, is accompanied by sharp, insightful comments on different aspects of writing and reading.Normally this sort of capsule presentation of a particular period, covering a decade, can give a sense of sampling rather than providing an in-depth literary analysis; it is to Melwani's credit that he is both astute and incisive in his commentary, however brief they might be.
At times why he includes a writer can be a trifle whimsical, but his individual author analysis is rarely sketchy. Thus we get an interesting analysis of why Melwani feels Ruth Pawar Jhabvala is a better short story writer than a novelist. Sometimes he provides startling juxtapositions such as Jhabvala'suse of satire as compared to Kushwant Singh's satirical writing.We also get to know about Keki Daruwala's short stories, a lesser known aspect of the poet. The space that is given to authors can vary. So Anita Desai gets as much space as Hamdi Bey or Jug Suraiya. Some authors are barely mentioned in a catalogue style, which can be frustrating and can take away from the flow of the argument.
At times one gets the sense that key themes such as the politics of Indian writing in English is given too little space, though here again the analysis is sharp and insightful.Melwani's contention is that the question of Indian writing in English is asked 2 decades later, so that when Ruskin Bond and Bunny Rueben are writing short stories in English the question of authenticity is no longer a key issue.
However it is in the postmodern tales that Melwani becomes a little too predictable, and one begins to feel the absence of a more contemporary treatment of modern literature in relation to complex times. Many a time the analysis becomes too cursory, almost superficial, and the book ends up endorsing what it had claimed to challenge.
In the final analysis it would seem that the step motherly treatment given to short stories is largelybecause key writers, mostly novelists and poets, merely experiment with short stories so that it remains a side activity. A pity that a neglected literary form with enormous potential, which Melwani suggests in away that is often tantalizing and intriguing, can only arouse luke warm interest in the reader. The portrait gallery suggests mediocrity rather than real genius.This aspect has been brought into the argument but only with reference to individual writing rather than as a matter of critical contention. However Melwani successfully draws our attention to works that are less known, and to authors whom we tend to neglect. I for one would be tempted to pick up the works of Attia Hosain and Padma Hejmadi.
Reviewed by Suroopa Mukerjee, author of *Across the Mystic Shore*,Macmillan New Writing, 2006
REVIEW IN Wasafiri, THE MAGAZINE OF iNTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY WRITING LONDON Wasaifri, Vol.24, No2 June 2009
“All things considered,
then, the chief attraction of Melwani’s work remains the portfolio of writers
and their short stories that his collection complies. This aspect of the
collection is both wide-ranging and painstaking, brining to notice, among
others, several obscure, forgotten or little-known works. In the process, it
does enough to spotlight the short story genre as an extant and expanding
archive deserving serious research. Ultimately, it is for this, that his book
win recommendation.
Where Melwani’s
distinction is clearing a trail on a road less travelled in Indian literary
studies, the challenge for Nation in
Imagination is quite the opposite.
Wasaifri,
Vol.24, No2 June 2009
Section I:THE BEGINNINGS. 1835- 1935
(a) Kylash Chunder Dutt
(b) Cornelia Sorabji(c) S.B.Banerjea
(d) Dhan Gopal Mukherjee,
(e) A.S. Panchpakesa Ayyar
(f) Shankar Ram
Section II:THE FIRST FLOWERING: 1935-1945
(a) Mulk Raj Anand
(b) R.K.Narayan
(c) Raja Rao
(d) Manjeri Isvaran
(e) Others(i) Khwaja Ahmad Abbas(ii) Ela Sen(iii) Louis Gracious
Section III:THE FIFTIES
(a) Attia Hosain
(b) Khushwant Singh
(c) Others(i) G.D.Khosla(ii) S.K.Chettur(iii) Sachindra Muzumdar(iv) N.S.Phadke
Section IV:THE SECOND FLOWERING: 1960 - 1970
(a) Ruth Prawar Jhabvala
(b) Bunny Reuben
(c) The Gentle Voices
(i) Ruskin Bond(ii) Kewlian Sio (iii) Murli Das Melwani
(d) Bhabani Bhattacharya
(e) Others(i) R.de L. Furtado(ii) Leslie de Noronha
Section V: BLOSSOMING: 1970 - 1980
(a) Padma Hejmadi
(b) Keki N. Daruwala
(c) Anita Desai
(d) Hamdi Bey
(e) The Voices of Youth(i) Jug Suraiya(ii) Vivek Adarkar
(f) Arun Joshi
(g) Kamala Das
(h) Manohar Malgonkar
(i) Shashi Deshpande
(j)Others(i) Sasthi Brata(ii) Jai Nimbkar(iii) Sujatha Bala Subrahmanian(iv) Raji Narasimhan(v) Juliette Banerjee(vi) S.B. Capoor(vii) Nergis Dalal
Section VI: AN EXTENDED SPRING: 1980 – 2006
(a) Vikram Chandra
(b) Nisha Da Cunha
(c) Lavanya Sankaran
(d) Radhika Jha
(e) Manjula Padmanabhan
(f) Shree Ghatage
(g) Diana Romany
(h) R.Raja Rao
(i) Temsula Ao
(j) Githa Hariharan
(k) Anita Nair
(l) Vijay Lakshmi
(m) Esther David
(n) Sangeeta Wadhwani
(o) Anjana Appachana
(p) Meher Pestonji
(q) Susan Visvanathan
(r) Amit Chaudhuri
(s) Sheela Jaywant
(t) Others(i) Anuradha Muralidharan(ii) Amardeep S. Dahiya(iii) D.V.S.R Murthy(iv) Deepa Agarwal
Section VII:PROSPECTS
The following is the “CONTENTS”page of the book
Preface
Foreword by Dr Suroopa Mukherjee
Section I:THE BEGINNINGS. 1835- 1935
(a) Kylash Chunder Dutt
(b) Cornelia Sorabji(c) S.B.Banerjea
(d) Dhan Gopal Mukherjee,
(e) A.S. Panchpakesa Ayyar
(f) Shankar Ram
Section II:THE FIRST FLOWERING: 1935-1945
(a) Mulk Raj Anand
(b) R.K.Narayan
(c) Raja Rao
(d) Manjeri Isvaran
(e) Others(i) Khwaja Ahmad Abbas(ii) Ela Sen(iii) Louis Gracious
Section III:THE FIFTIES
(a) Attia Hosain
(b) Khushwant Singh
(c) Others(i) G.D.Khosla(ii) S.K.Chettur(iii) Sachindra Muzumdar(iv) N.S.Phadke
Section IV:THE SECOND FLOWERING: 1960 - 1970
(a) Ruth Prawar Jhabvala
(b) Bunny Reuben
(c) The Gentle Voices
(i) Ruskin Bond(ii) Kewlian Sio (iii) Murli Das Melwani
(d) Bhabani Bhattacharya
(e) Others(i) R.de L. Furtado(ii) Leslie de Noronha
Section V: BLOSSOMING: 1970 - 1980
(a) Padma Hejmadi
(b) Keki N. Daruwala
(c) Anita Desai
(d) Hamdi Bey
(e) The Voices of Youth(i) Jug Suraiya(ii) Vivek Adarkar
(f) Arun Joshi
(g) Kamala Das
(h) Manohar Malgonkar
(i) Shashi Deshpande
(j)Others(i) Sasthi Brata(ii) Jai Nimbkar(iii) Sujatha Bala Subrahmanian(iv) Raji Narasimhan(v) Juliette Banerjee(vi) S.B. Capoor(vii) Nergis Dalal
Section VI: AN EXTENDED SPRING: 1980 – 2006
(a) Vikram Chandra
(b) Nisha Da Cunha
(c) Lavanya Sankaran
(d) Radhika Jha
(e) Manjula Padmanabhan
(f) Shree Ghatage
(g) Diana Romany
(h) R.Raja Rao
(i) Temsula Ao
(j) Githa Hariharan
(k) Anita Nair
(l) Vijay Lakshmi
(m) Esther David
(n) Sangeeta Wadhwani
(o) Anjana Appachana
(p) Meher Pestonji
(q) Susan Visvanathan
(r) Amit Chaudhuri
(s) Sheela Jaywant
(t) Others(i) Anuradha Muralidharan(ii) Amardeep S. Dahiya(iii) D.V.S.R Murthy(iv) Deepa Agarwal
Section VII:PROSPECTS
Select Bibliography
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Our Many Thanksgivings
For me Thanksgiving comes twice a year, once in July and again in November. I attribute this happy situation to my dual heritage, the Indian and the American.
One of the moving festivals on the Indian cultural calendar is known as Guru Purnima. It falls on the day of the full moon in July.
An ancient text, the Katha Upanishad, likens one’s efforts to realize God to walking on a razor’s edge. (Somerset Maugham wrote a novel, The Razor’s Edge, on this theme; Bill Murray acted in the movie based on it). An aspirant needs a guide, one who has walked the path. The guide is called the guru
"Gu" in Sanskrit means darkness or ignorance. "Ru" stands for the remover of that darkness. The guru sets aspirants on the spiritual path, observes their practice, and teaches them to navigate and finally transcend the mind.
Guru Purnima is the day on which the aspirant takes stock of his progress and expresses his gratitude to his preceptor.
Since Hinduism is a way of life and not a dogma, the truth of a precept can only be validated by one’s own experience. Since I have the freedom to interpret tradition in my own way, I choose to make the bedrock of experience as broad as possible.
A guru for me is not only someone who has been my teacher, in both a scholarly and a spiritual sense, but also a person from whom I’ve learnt something.
On Guru Purnima day I sit quietly on waking up, as I do almost every morning, to go into myself, On this particular day, I remember everyone from my kindergarten teacher, who taught me to count, to the college professor, who initiated me into the joys of literature. I recall my associates, friends, buddies, all those who gave me something of themselves. I think of the speakers, from various religious traditions, that I have been privileged to hear. My mind calls up the faces of strangers, fellow passengers on planes and trains, whose casual remarks made an impact on me. I remember authors whose writing gave an insight or two into life. I express gratitude to my sisters and brother, my wife, my children and grandchildren for teaching me that love is infinitely more than an emotion. Finally, I thank the greatest guru of all, God, who, I think, in my vanity, created this lovely universe specially for me and who gave me the wisdom to understand and express gratitude.
Then I do what everyone does to express happiness: I gather my family and we have a great meal together and talk and laugh and want the present to last forever.
On the last Thursday of November, I sit quietly in the morning and think of the gifts I have been given: good health; the privilege of travelling and living in so many countries; the joy of meeting a fascinating gallery of people. I recall invitations to Chinese New Year dinners, Diwali feasts, Christmas dinners and Thanksgiving get togethers. I call up the faces of family and friends who are here. I think of my tennis buddies and editors in Texas, who in accepting me and my writing, saved me the problems and pangs of adjustment. I also remember the friends who are not here, living full lives in lands of their choice. I regard it as my good fortune to be the inheritor of two rich cultural traditions, the Indian and the American. I give thanks for the harmony, peace and freedoms that prevail in the community and the country I live in; my gratitude goes out to those who work hard to preserve them. My mind cannot but dwells on the beauty of the world and the Power and Imagination of the Architect who created it and set me in it.
Then I celebrate as everyone does: I gather my family. We have a great meal together and talk and laugh and want the present to last forever.
This peice appeared in The Dallas Morning News dated 22 Nov 2010
One of the moving festivals on the Indian cultural calendar is known as Guru Purnima. It falls on the day of the full moon in July.
An ancient text, the Katha Upanishad, likens one’s efforts to realize God to walking on a razor’s edge. (Somerset Maugham wrote a novel, The Razor’s Edge, on this theme; Bill Murray acted in the movie based on it). An aspirant needs a guide, one who has walked the path. The guide is called the guru
"Gu" in Sanskrit means darkness or ignorance. "Ru" stands for the remover of that darkness. The guru sets aspirants on the spiritual path, observes their practice, and teaches them to navigate and finally transcend the mind.
Guru Purnima is the day on which the aspirant takes stock of his progress and expresses his gratitude to his preceptor.
Since Hinduism is a way of life and not a dogma, the truth of a precept can only be validated by one’s own experience. Since I have the freedom to interpret tradition in my own way, I choose to make the bedrock of experience as broad as possible.
A guru for me is not only someone who has been my teacher, in both a scholarly and a spiritual sense, but also a person from whom I’ve learnt something.
On Guru Purnima day I sit quietly on waking up, as I do almost every morning, to go into myself, On this particular day, I remember everyone from my kindergarten teacher, who taught me to count, to the college professor, who initiated me into the joys of literature. I recall my associates, friends, buddies, all those who gave me something of themselves. I think of the speakers, from various religious traditions, that I have been privileged to hear. My mind calls up the faces of strangers, fellow passengers on planes and trains, whose casual remarks made an impact on me. I remember authors whose writing gave an insight or two into life. I express gratitude to my sisters and brother, my wife, my children and grandchildren for teaching me that love is infinitely more than an emotion. Finally, I thank the greatest guru of all, God, who, I think, in my vanity, created this lovely universe specially for me and who gave me the wisdom to understand and express gratitude.
Then I do what everyone does to express happiness: I gather my family and we have a great meal together and talk and laugh and want the present to last forever.
On the last Thursday of November, I sit quietly in the morning and think of the gifts I have been given: good health; the privilege of travelling and living in so many countries; the joy of meeting a fascinating gallery of people. I recall invitations to Chinese New Year dinners, Diwali feasts, Christmas dinners and Thanksgiving get togethers. I call up the faces of family and friends who are here. I think of my tennis buddies and editors in Texas, who in accepting me and my writing, saved me the problems and pangs of adjustment. I also remember the friends who are not here, living full lives in lands of their choice. I regard it as my good fortune to be the inheritor of two rich cultural traditions, the Indian and the American. I give thanks for the harmony, peace and freedoms that prevail in the community and the country I live in; my gratitude goes out to those who work hard to preserve them. My mind cannot but dwells on the beauty of the world and the Power and Imagination of the Architect who created it and set me in it.
Then I celebrate as everyone does: I gather my family. We have a great meal together and talk and laugh and want the present to last forever.
This peice appeared in The Dallas Morning News dated 22 Nov 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
A short story is a collaboration between a writer and a reader. An Interview In Indian Book Reviews
By Shana Susan Ninan
Murli Melwani is the perceptive author of Themes In The Indian Short Story In English: An Historical And A Critical Survey. Below is an email interview of his. Keen and crisp observations mark his answers.His remarks are insightful.
SSN: Besides Indian short stories in English being under-projected, what were your reasons to do a critical survey of the same?
MM: The reasons are both literary and personal. First, the literary. Look at all the cultures and sub-cultures we have in this huge country. You need flexible literary forms to convey the essence of these patterns of life. After poetry, the short story is the most flexible of literary forms. A short story can be anything the writer makes it. Something as fragile as Liam O’Flaherty’s sketch of the first flight of a black bird to something as heavily carpentered as Somerset Maugham’s plotted stories of atmosphere, interplay of motive and incisive characterisation. Conveying an unusual or a particular ethnic experience is best done by writing, to use Jane Austen’s phrase, on a “little bit – two inches wide –of ivory”. The short story is that two inches of ivory.
Also, collections of short stories have a tendency to disappear as easily from public memory as they do from library shelves. People are talking about Madhusree Mukherjee’s* portrayal of the Great Bengal Famine, but who remembers Ela Sen’s collection of short stories today?**. The famine occurred in 1943. Ela Sen’s book came out in 1944. Ela Sen’s portrayal is so very authentic. Almost as if she was walking among the starving skeletal figures.
The personal. I made a career change: from a college teacher in India to an exporter in Taiwan. In those days Taipei had only one English book store. Most of the books were on English as a second language! The conversation by and large centered round business charts, figures, targets. I needed to give myself an intellectual lifeline. H.E.Bates’s The Modern Short Story came to my rescue. This book gives us the author’s personal assessment of a number of great short story writers in England, Ireland, America and Russia. This book was my inspiration for a long-term project. I love short stories. I found there was very little critical work on Indian short stories in English. I asked myself, why not pioneer an historical and a critical survey? I got over collections of short stories from India. Made notes for the twenty five years I lived in Taiwan. I put the notes together when I moved to the U.S. The book came out in late 2009.
SSN: What gives short stories their richness? As in, when compared to other forms of writing.
MM; A number of qualities. Suggestiveness, for one. Brevity, for another. Compression, for a third. A short story is really a collaboration between a writer and a reader. The words are the code. The pages are the transmitter. The reader’s imagination is the transistor that receives the waves and reconstructs a whole. It is this elasticity of the short story that makes it such a great form.
SSN: Having been a short story writer yourself, was it easier to critically survey such a topic?
MM: Definitely. I could see how the short story writer was trying to create a character. Assume the author’s aim was to bring alive a character by means of her gestures: at one point he could show her smoothening back her hair with a casual brush of the palm; at another, using her hands to make a point. A skilful writer can suggest the atmosphere of a rainy day by indicating the dampness that permeated the walls. The point is I could read the writer’s intentions.
SSN: What was the inspiration for the cover of your book?
MM: When my publisher asked me what I’d like to emphasise on the cover, I told him to try to depict the traditional and the modern existing side by side. The co-existence of tradition and change are a fact of Indian life. How can short stories writers not tacitly or implicitly acknowledge them? The publisher’s artist did the rest.
SSN: What is the reception of Indian short stories in English abroad, not just the countries with a large Indian population?
MM: To be honest, collections of short stories sell less than novels. The American universities that offer Asian studies carry them. Mostly stories are eye openers for Americans. “There’s hardly anything about caste in this book.” This from a review of Vikram Chandra’s Love and Longing in Bombay. I would not know the situation in other countries.
SSN: Internet, social networking sites and ‘little’ publishers have given a renewed impetus to short stories. Do you think this’ll inspire up and coming writers?
MM: Without doubt. Just pull up e-zine sites. Look at these two online magazines Zoetrope and Narrative. In 2008, Penguin India brought a selection Blogprint: The Winners of the Sulekha.com-Penguin Online Writing Contest. I believe www.sulekha.com received over a thousand entries for the contest.
SSN: Qualities that a short story writer should possess.
MM: A very difficult question. I’ll try to answer it, anyway. He should compress language. He should suggest, rather than pencil in, character. He should hint at, rather than paint the setting. The theme should be self-evident, rather than stated. Raymond Carver’s stories are good models of a short story writer’s craft.
SSN: Any existing short story you think you should’ve written and why.
MM: I wish I could have written Padma Hejmadi’s The Uncles and the Mahatma. It’s a gem of a story. Why? Because it has richness of theme, a touch of comedy, finely etched characters, a deep understanding of Indian tradition.
SSN: Anything else you’d like to comment on.
MM: Two comments, if you will allow me. One, Women writers in India continue to amaze me with their unusual perspectives and experiences. A recent example: the stories by women in Shinie Antony’s anthology, Why We Don’t Talk. Two, I am pleased at the growth in the number of publishers in India in the last few years. This means more openings for writers.
Note:
*in her book, Churchill’s Secret War. Tranquebar
**Darkening Days. Sushil Gupta & Co
REVIEW IN THE JOURNAL OF INDIAN WRITING IN ENGLISH, July
2010 issue
Critical works on Indian Short
stories are very rare, although the genre of short story is practiced by a
large number of writers. Murli Das Melwani has done a great service to the
academic world by offering his valuable historical and critical survey of the
Indian short story from the earliest writer, K.C.Dutt (1835) to the latest one,
Nikika Laloo Tariang. Though the genre of short story is neglected as if it is
a step-child of literature, it provides a wealth of diversified material to the
researcher, who is sophisticated in his approach. As Melwani rightly suggests,
the vision of short fiction is diversified, mosaic, piecemeal and
kaleidoscopic. Hence it offers a challenge to the researcher, if not to a
common reader, to discern the hidden patterns of thought, behaviour and
culture. Far from parroting the Western critical concepts, Melwani rightly goes
to the Indian roots of the genre like the Jataka Tales and Kathasaritsagara and
juxtaposes them with the Western masters like Maupassant, Chekhov and others.
After offering a perceptive introduction to the theory of short story from a
global perspective, he traces the growth of it by briefly discussing all the
major Indian short story writers of different decades.
The chapter on the beginnings of the Indian short story during 1835-1935 is very valuable as it offers information on writers like Cornelia Sorabji, S. B.Bannerjea, A.S.P. Ayyar and Shankar Ram, who are not sufficiently known to modern scholars. The first flowering of the short story writers (1935-1945) is attributable to the celebrities like Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao and Manjeri Iswaran. The following chapters introduce the other short story writers, who are not easily visible in critical works, like Leslie Noronha, Nargis Dalal, Rishi Reddy and others. He has covered the works of writers published up to 2007. He must be congratulated for giving a legitimate place for these writers in the history of Indian English short fiction. But the present reviewer is surprised to notice that his own two short story collections like The Thief of Nagarahalli and Other Stories (1999, 2008, short listed for the Commonwealth Fiction Prize for the Best First Book from Eurasia in 2000), and The Rebellious Rani of Belavadi and Other Stories (2001) are conspicuously missing from Melwani’s otherwise excellent survey.
The greatness of Melwani’s survey is to be found in the fact that he has given the award of recognition to almost all the Indian English writers of short fiction; that he has made very insightful and candid remarks about the general qualities of each short story writer and particular features of important short stories of the same writer; and that he comments on the major concerns of each decade seen in the stories of the writers of that decade. On the whole, Melwani has shown how the short story has moved from fantasy to realism, from the supernatural to the social and from the religious to the secular and psychological dimension. He rightly pays homage to the little magazines and small publishers, who have nourished the genre of short story in India to a great extent. Similarly he deplores the absence of attractive literary awards and prizes in India exclusively meant for Indian English writers, especially short story writers.
Melwani’s book is happily free from the fashionable, trendy, stodgy, Western critical jargon and may be enjoyed by the academic scholar as well as by the common reader alike. He deserves our heart-felt congratulations for his hard won insights, which are a product of life-long dedication and cogitation and not of the hasty conclusions of a Ph.D. scholar. The book provides abundant material and direction to the M. Phil and Ph.D. scholars, who will be eagerly looking for fresh topics for fruitful research. One hopes that Melwani keeps on revising and updating his valuable book every year.
Reviewed by
Basavaraj Naikar
Professor & Chairman,Department of English
Karnatak University, Dharwad 580 00
The chapter on the beginnings of the Indian short story during 1835-1935 is very valuable as it offers information on writers like Cornelia Sorabji, S. B.Bannerjea, A.S.P. Ayyar and Shankar Ram, who are not sufficiently known to modern scholars. The first flowering of the short story writers (1935-1945) is attributable to the celebrities like Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao and Manjeri Iswaran. The following chapters introduce the other short story writers, who are not easily visible in critical works, like Leslie Noronha, Nargis Dalal, Rishi Reddy and others. He has covered the works of writers published up to 2007. He must be congratulated for giving a legitimate place for these writers in the history of Indian English short fiction. But the present reviewer is surprised to notice that his own two short story collections like The Thief of Nagarahalli and Other Stories (1999, 2008, short listed for the Commonwealth Fiction Prize for the Best First Book from Eurasia in 2000), and The Rebellious Rani of Belavadi and Other Stories (2001) are conspicuously missing from Melwani’s otherwise excellent survey.
The greatness of Melwani’s survey is to be found in the fact that he has given the award of recognition to almost all the Indian English writers of short fiction; that he has made very insightful and candid remarks about the general qualities of each short story writer and particular features of important short stories of the same writer; and that he comments on the major concerns of each decade seen in the stories of the writers of that decade. On the whole, Melwani has shown how the short story has moved from fantasy to realism, from the supernatural to the social and from the religious to the secular and psychological dimension. He rightly pays homage to the little magazines and small publishers, who have nourished the genre of short story in India to a great extent. Similarly he deplores the absence of attractive literary awards and prizes in India exclusively meant for Indian English writers, especially short story writers.
Melwani’s book is happily free from the fashionable, trendy, stodgy, Western critical jargon and may be enjoyed by the academic scholar as well as by the common reader alike. He deserves our heart-felt congratulations for his hard won insights, which are a product of life-long dedication and cogitation and not of the hasty conclusions of a Ph.D. scholar. The book provides abundant material and direction to the M. Phil and Ph.D. scholars, who will be eagerly looking for fresh topics for fruitful research. One hopes that Melwani keeps on revising and updating his valuable book every year.
Reviewed by
Basavaraj Naikar
Professor & Chairman,Department of English
Karnatak University, Dharwad 580 00
Documenting the Short Story. Reviewed published in The
Statesman dated June 8,2008
As the name suggests, the book
under review is about short stories written in English by Indian authors. Murli
Melwani has traced the growth of the short story in its historical and cultural
context. He feels this genre has been treated as a side activity by novelists
and hence neglected by critics. Melwani examines how much of the traditional
story telling is preserved and how much of the form, refined in the West, has been
accepted. According to him, this genre enjoys a few advantages over the novel.
The intellectual, isolated from the life of the masses, can record his isolation and unrelatedness better. A view, that may not be shared by others. While documenting the short story from early beginnings to post-modern times, Melwani's treatise features writers, inconsequential to the ordinary reader, but, who perhaps could throw some light on anecdotes of Indian life for students of literature and sociology. Thus, apart from a few others, Cornelia Sorabjee's The Love and Life behind the Purdah finds a place in the early section.
Translated stories have been excluded, so Tagore's work doesn't feature here, but Melwani pays obeisance to him, admitting his influence on Indian writers to be all-pervasive'. The freedom struggle, Gandhi and Gandhian way of life, fables, beliefs, the middle class, the rich and the poor, the Bengal famine form the backdrop for the stories, so, Melwani is perhaps right when he says this genre shows India in all its entirety.
The founders, Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan, Raja Rao are dealt with in some detail. He is frank in appreciating as well as disapproving. He condemns Anand's verbosity and pompous diction. Of adapting English to express vernacular idioms, he says, it is a successful means of conveying the flavour of regional speech when used moderately. R.K. Narayan's repeating situations and characters in different combinations, irksome to some, is appreciated by Melwani. He also praises Narayan for remaining detached in all his stories. Raja Rao's experiments with form interest him.Numerous writers, both men and women from the South, whom one doesn't normally encounter, are covered by Melwani.
One agrees with this author when he says, more women are writing short stories now, than at any other time. He features a great many of them. Ruth Prawar Jhabavala, Attia Hossain, Ela Sen, Padma Hejmadi, Kamala Das, Sujatha Bala Subramanian, Raji Narisimhan, Juliette Banerjee, Nergis Dalal, Susan Viswanathan, Shashi Deshpande, Jai Nimbkar, Anita Desai and a host of others are presented by Melwani. He shows us how these writers brought renewed life and extended subject matter to the Indian English story. Their work is of a remarkable standard and variety, and they contribute to the modern consciousness, both Indian experience of a changing social structure and the pattern of daily living. Both exotic and common place.This study of women writers provides a useful guidance to further reading.
Melwani is among those very few who realise the importance of anthologies. This is the only way little known writers, whose stories may not be inferior in any way to that of their better known counter parts, can draw the attention of readers. Along with popular writers, lesser known, too, find a place in this treatise which is in keeping with the true spirit of a historical survey. Writers of Indian origin who live abroad are mentioned in passing, for this book deals only with Indian writers of this subcontinent, both living and dead. In the closing chapters of this book, Melwani seems to be in a mighty hurry.—
Reviewed by Neeta Sen Samarth The Stateman.
(The reviewer is a freelance contributor)
The intellectual, isolated from the life of the masses, can record his isolation and unrelatedness better. A view, that may not be shared by others. While documenting the short story from early beginnings to post-modern times, Melwani's treatise features writers, inconsequential to the ordinary reader, but, who perhaps could throw some light on anecdotes of Indian life for students of literature and sociology. Thus, apart from a few others, Cornelia Sorabjee's The Love and Life behind the Purdah finds a place in the early section.
Translated stories have been excluded, so Tagore's work doesn't feature here, but Melwani pays obeisance to him, admitting his influence on Indian writers to be all-pervasive'. The freedom struggle, Gandhi and Gandhian way of life, fables, beliefs, the middle class, the rich and the poor, the Bengal famine form the backdrop for the stories, so, Melwani is perhaps right when he says this genre shows India in all its entirety.
The founders, Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan, Raja Rao are dealt with in some detail. He is frank in appreciating as well as disapproving. He condemns Anand's verbosity and pompous diction. Of adapting English to express vernacular idioms, he says, it is a successful means of conveying the flavour of regional speech when used moderately. R.K. Narayan's repeating situations and characters in different combinations, irksome to some, is appreciated by Melwani. He also praises Narayan for remaining detached in all his stories. Raja Rao's experiments with form interest him.Numerous writers, both men and women from the South, whom one doesn't normally encounter, are covered by Melwani.
One agrees with this author when he says, more women are writing short stories now, than at any other time. He features a great many of them. Ruth Prawar Jhabavala, Attia Hossain, Ela Sen, Padma Hejmadi, Kamala Das, Sujatha Bala Subramanian, Raji Narisimhan, Juliette Banerjee, Nergis Dalal, Susan Viswanathan, Shashi Deshpande, Jai Nimbkar, Anita Desai and a host of others are presented by Melwani. He shows us how these writers brought renewed life and extended subject matter to the Indian English story. Their work is of a remarkable standard and variety, and they contribute to the modern consciousness, both Indian experience of a changing social structure and the pattern of daily living. Both exotic and common place.This study of women writers provides a useful guidance to further reading.
Melwani is among those very few who realise the importance of anthologies. This is the only way little known writers, whose stories may not be inferior in any way to that of their better known counter parts, can draw the attention of readers. Along with popular writers, lesser known, too, find a place in this treatise which is in keeping with the true spirit of a historical survey. Writers of Indian origin who live abroad are mentioned in passing, for this book deals only with Indian writers of this subcontinent, both living and dead. In the closing chapters of this book, Melwani seems to be in a mighty hurry.—
Reviewed by Neeta Sen Samarth The Stateman.
(The reviewer is a freelance contributor)
Review published in BR International, March 2008 issue.BR
Int'l is published in Hong Kong
Indian English Stories is a
critical and historical survey of the Indian short story in English. As a genre
the short story has generally been neglected by Indian writers, publishers and
critics. Murli Melwani makes an unconventional claim in his book and follows it
up with very cogent arguments. He claims that the short story form is more
flexible than the longer form of the novel and therefore capable of reflecting
a broader spectrum of Indian experience than the novel. Considering that India
is a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic society, I find merit in that argument,
especially at a time when India is emerging as a powerful player on the world
stage. With greater interaction between Indians and foreigners, the area of
experience is bound to widen, thus providing newer themes for writers. The
plasticity of the short story form will be able to capture and convey the new
experiences.
I find Melwani’s approach to his subject matter in this book refreshing. He does not merely study individual stories or writers. He studies the short stories of well known as well as lesser known writers against the political, social and cultural background of the times. He examines how the political, social and cultural events influence particular writers and how the contemporary events are reflected in the writers’ work.
The foregoing sentence may give the impression that this book is a social tract. It is not, because the main focus in the book is the literary quality of a particular short story writer’s work. Melwani studies a writer’s approach to characterization, atmosphere, theme, dialogue and style in the context of the larger events.
The first short story in English was written in 1835, shortly after Lord Macaulay’s bill introduced English as the medium of instruction in India. The book divides the era from 1835 to the present day into different periods: 1835-1935, 1935-1950, 50-60, 60-70, 1980-2006.The author uses this method of classification to blend a historical survey with a critical study.
Between 1835 and 1935, the writers proudly documented the customs and traditions of Indian life. These writers prepared the way for the giants who between 1935 and 1950 corrected the impression of India and its inhabitants created by the colonial writers and portrayed India as it really is.
The emphasis shifted in the fifties to other subjects with satire being the predominant approach. In the sixties, seventies and eighties the themes expanded exponentially and every aspect of Indian life and nuance of experience provided themes for the short stories.
The language in which such analysis is presented is anything but bookish. Melwani has an easy, conversational style, which draws the reader into the narration.
Murli Melwani writes in the Preface,” Reading the stories I have discussed in my book gave me hours of pleasure. If my book can convince the reader to turn to the stories themselves, my pleasure would be increased manifold.” Indian English Stories is a virtual story-tasting fest. The fest will whet the palates of a legion of readers; there is no reason why Murli Melwani’s “pleasure” should not” be increased manifold.”
Reviewed by Amar Vaswani, Atlanta,USA
I find Melwani’s approach to his subject matter in this book refreshing. He does not merely study individual stories or writers. He studies the short stories of well known as well as lesser known writers against the political, social and cultural background of the times. He examines how the political, social and cultural events influence particular writers and how the contemporary events are reflected in the writers’ work.
The foregoing sentence may give the impression that this book is a social tract. It is not, because the main focus in the book is the literary quality of a particular short story writer’s work. Melwani studies a writer’s approach to characterization, atmosphere, theme, dialogue and style in the context of the larger events.
The first short story in English was written in 1835, shortly after Lord Macaulay’s bill introduced English as the medium of instruction in India. The book divides the era from 1835 to the present day into different periods: 1835-1935, 1935-1950, 50-60, 60-70, 1980-2006.The author uses this method of classification to blend a historical survey with a critical study.
Between 1835 and 1935, the writers proudly documented the customs and traditions of Indian life. These writers prepared the way for the giants who between 1935 and 1950 corrected the impression of India and its inhabitants created by the colonial writers and portrayed India as it really is.
The emphasis shifted in the fifties to other subjects with satire being the predominant approach. In the sixties, seventies and eighties the themes expanded exponentially and every aspect of Indian life and nuance of experience provided themes for the short stories.
The language in which such analysis is presented is anything but bookish. Melwani has an easy, conversational style, which draws the reader into the narration.
Murli Melwani writes in the Preface,” Reading the stories I have discussed in my book gave me hours of pleasure. If my book can convince the reader to turn to the stories themselves, my pleasure would be increased manifold.” Indian English Stories is a virtual story-tasting fest. The fest will whet the palates of a legion of readers; there is no reason why Murli Melwani’s “pleasure” should not” be increased manifold.”
Reviewed by Amar Vaswani, Atlanta,USA
Review published in The Indian, September 2007 issue. The
Indian is published in Hong Kong
Murli Melwani, in his book, Indian
English Stories, reverses some commonly held perceptions about the Indian short
story in English.
The Indian novel in English has long been held as the preeminent mirror to Indian life. Fine, Melwani says, that is true so far as certain broad themes, like the colonial experience, the place of faith in Indian life and two or three others, are concerned. What about the nuances of everyday living, the little dramas that are enacted in the privacy of our thoughts and relationships, especially since Indians are expected to, outwardly, conform to certain norms and patterns of behaviour. Indians basically enjoy inner freedom; to think, feel and act as we like in the privacy of our lives. Only the short story, with its brevity, its concentration and sensitiveness, can capture these moments. The short story form thus has dealt with a wider area of experience than the novel.
By the time Murli Melwani has finished surveying the themes, the backgrounds,the characters and approaches of the dozens of writers who practiced this form between 1835 to the present day, the reader, certainly the present reviewer, accepts this truth.
Indian English Stories is the first comprehensive study of the Indian short story in English, from both a historical and critical perspective. Melwani’s approach to the study of the short story form differs from the conventional one. The usual approach is to discuss a few individual stories of a particular author. What Melwani does is to take the whole body of an author’s work and look for patterns in it. If he finds one, he points it out; if not, he does not impose one.
The author, to use a cliché, begins at the beginning. He starts with the first ever story written in English by an Indian, way back in 1835. He comments briefly on the work of most of the writers who wrote for the next 100 years. Most of the writers of that period wanted to show off India, documentary-style, to their Western readers.
The big names came in the 1930s- Mulk Raj Anand with his social concern, R.K. Narayan discovering comedy in the round of daily life, and Raja Rao with his experiments with language and form.
In the fifties Khushwant Singh made his appearance; his stamina remains undiminished today. His contemporary, Attia Hosain, captured the poignancy of Partition in finely chiseled stories.
The sixties boast of writers like Ruth Jhabvala, Bunny Reuben, Ruskin Bond( prolific even now) and Bhabani Bhattacharya.
In the seventies there was a sudden burst of creativity. Authors like Anita Desai, Keki Daruwalla, Padma Hejmadi, Kamala Das, Manohar Malgonkar, Shahsi Despande and others explored new themes.
The young writers of today have continued this trend. Prominent among them are Vikram Chandra, Nisha Da Cunha, Lavanya Sankaran, Shree Ghagate, Githa Hariharan, Anjana Appachana, Meher Pestonji, and Susan Visvnathan, to mention a few among a talented gallery.
Melwani’s manner of writing is easy and informal, conversational almost. His approach differs from author to author. He allows the stories to make their impact on him; he records the impressions these made on him. This is in contrast to the conventional practice of judging a story with certain established literary princples
Indian English Stories is a great introduction to a genre of writing which is largely ignored. Murli Melwani’s enthusiasm for its practitioners is bound to be infectious. It has certainly led this reviewer to make a resolution: to certainly read the authors discussed in the book. I believe it will affect other readers in a similar manner.
The Indian novel in English has long been held as the preeminent mirror to Indian life. Fine, Melwani says, that is true so far as certain broad themes, like the colonial experience, the place of faith in Indian life and two or three others, are concerned. What about the nuances of everyday living, the little dramas that are enacted in the privacy of our thoughts and relationships, especially since Indians are expected to, outwardly, conform to certain norms and patterns of behaviour. Indians basically enjoy inner freedom; to think, feel and act as we like in the privacy of our lives. Only the short story, with its brevity, its concentration and sensitiveness, can capture these moments. The short story form thus has dealt with a wider area of experience than the novel.
By the time Murli Melwani has finished surveying the themes, the backgrounds,the characters and approaches of the dozens of writers who practiced this form between 1835 to the present day, the reader, certainly the present reviewer, accepts this truth.
Indian English Stories is the first comprehensive study of the Indian short story in English, from both a historical and critical perspective. Melwani’s approach to the study of the short story form differs from the conventional one. The usual approach is to discuss a few individual stories of a particular author. What Melwani does is to take the whole body of an author’s work and look for patterns in it. If he finds one, he points it out; if not, he does not impose one.
The author, to use a cliché, begins at the beginning. He starts with the first ever story written in English by an Indian, way back in 1835. He comments briefly on the work of most of the writers who wrote for the next 100 years. Most of the writers of that period wanted to show off India, documentary-style, to their Western readers.
The big names came in the 1930s- Mulk Raj Anand with his social concern, R.K. Narayan discovering comedy in the round of daily life, and Raja Rao with his experiments with language and form.
In the fifties Khushwant Singh made his appearance; his stamina remains undiminished today. His contemporary, Attia Hosain, captured the poignancy of Partition in finely chiseled stories.
The sixties boast of writers like Ruth Jhabvala, Bunny Reuben, Ruskin Bond( prolific even now) and Bhabani Bhattacharya.
In the seventies there was a sudden burst of creativity. Authors like Anita Desai, Keki Daruwalla, Padma Hejmadi, Kamala Das, Manohar Malgonkar, Shahsi Despande and others explored new themes.
The young writers of today have continued this trend. Prominent among them are Vikram Chandra, Nisha Da Cunha, Lavanya Sankaran, Shree Ghagate, Githa Hariharan, Anjana Appachana, Meher Pestonji, and Susan Visvnathan, to mention a few among a talented gallery.
Melwani’s manner of writing is easy and informal, conversational almost. His approach differs from author to author. He allows the stories to make their impact on him; he records the impressions these made on him. This is in contrast to the conventional practice of judging a story with certain established literary princples
Indian English Stories is a great introduction to a genre of writing which is largely ignored. Murli Melwani’s enthusiasm for its practitioners is bound to be infectious. It has certainly led this reviewer to make a resolution: to certainly read the authors discussed in the book. I believe it will affect other readers in a similar manner.
Review published in Muse India, Issue # 21,Sept-Oct 2008
Review by
By Shaleen Kumar Singh, Jul 26, 2008Budaun, India, drshaleen111@yahoo.co.in
Indian English Stories — A review
Though we have seen in past few years innumerable books of criticism on Indian English Poetry and Fiction being published, there has remained a dearth of books of criticism on short fiction. Murli Melwani’s critical and historical survey of Indian English stories, covering a broad spectrum from colonial beginning to Post-modern times, addresses this dearth. Indeed it is the first comprehensive study of this genre.
India has been the land of stories. The Jataka Tales and the Panchatantrastories continue to be read even today. The Katha Sarita Sagara, the largest collections of stories in the world, has been the inspiration for the Arabian Nights and others tales which traveled to Europe via the Middle East.
In the beginning the writers proudly documented the customs and traditions of Indian life. Between 1835 and 1935 we have a succession of writers with this aim. Cornelia Sorabji, Dhan Gopal Mukherjee, A.S. Panchpakesha Ayyar, Shankar Ram, among others, prepared the way for the giants who wrote between 1935 and 1950.
Among the giants, Mulk Raj Anand corrected the impression of India and its inhabitants created by Kipling and other Western writers. R.K. Narayan highlighted the drama of everyday life. Raja Rao incorporated elements of Indian folk tales in his stories.
In the fifties, Khushwant Singh observed Indian life with a satirical eye and Attia Hosian conveyed the horrors of Partition in restrained prose.
In the sixties, Ruth Jhabvala captured the foibles of Indians with a foreigner’s objectivity. Bunny Reuben introduced cinematic techniques to the short story. Ruskin Bond found moving moments in common lives. Bhabani Bhattacharya captured exotic aspects of Indian life.
In the Seventies Anita Desai brought the intensity of her novels to her stories. Keki Daruwalla set his stories in unusual locales. Padma Hejmadi wrote about life in South India. Jug Suraiya and Vivek Adarkar were the voices of youth at the time. Arun Joshi wrote parables of Indian life. The subject of Manohar Malgonkar’s stories was the army. Kamala Das brought the sensitivity of her poetry to her stories. Shashi Deshpande dealt with the questions of a woman’s lot and place in Indian society.
The writers who came in the eighties, and continue to write today, have branched out into newer territory. Life in the city - Bombay in the case of Vikram Chandra, Bangalore in that of Lavanya Sankaran, Calcutta in the case of Amit Chaudhuri - is very much the subject of scrutiny. Nisha Da Cunha writes about the states of women’s minds. Shree Ghatage examines the demands of tradition, family obligations and personal freedom on an individual. Gay life is the subject of R. Raja Rao’s stories. The exploration of new areas of India and the heart goes on in the stories of Githa Haiharan, Anita Nair, Sangeeta Wadhwani, Anjana Appachana, Meher Pestonji, Susan Visvanathan, and others.
Melwani is optimistic about the future of Indian English short stories. The richness of ideas and themes will provide more and more opportunities for story writers to pen stories of significance, beauty and power. Melwani’s book is a seminal work which will, in future, guide the critics to give the short story the same respect and study as they do to Indian English Poetry and Fiction.
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By Shaleen Kumar Singh, Jul 26, 2008Budaun, India, drshaleen111@yahoo.co.in
Indian English Stories — A review
Though we have seen in past few years innumerable books of criticism on Indian English Poetry and Fiction being published, there has remained a dearth of books of criticism on short fiction. Murli Melwani’s critical and historical survey of Indian English stories, covering a broad spectrum from colonial beginning to Post-modern times, addresses this dearth. Indeed it is the first comprehensive study of this genre.
India has been the land of stories. The Jataka Tales and the Panchatantrastories continue to be read even today. The Katha Sarita Sagara, the largest collections of stories in the world, has been the inspiration for the Arabian Nights and others tales which traveled to Europe via the Middle East.
In the beginning the writers proudly documented the customs and traditions of Indian life. Between 1835 and 1935 we have a succession of writers with this aim. Cornelia Sorabji, Dhan Gopal Mukherjee, A.S. Panchpakesha Ayyar, Shankar Ram, among others, prepared the way for the giants who wrote between 1935 and 1950.
Among the giants, Mulk Raj Anand corrected the impression of India and its inhabitants created by Kipling and other Western writers. R.K. Narayan highlighted the drama of everyday life. Raja Rao incorporated elements of Indian folk tales in his stories.
In the fifties, Khushwant Singh observed Indian life with a satirical eye and Attia Hosian conveyed the horrors of Partition in restrained prose.
In the sixties, Ruth Jhabvala captured the foibles of Indians with a foreigner’s objectivity. Bunny Reuben introduced cinematic techniques to the short story. Ruskin Bond found moving moments in common lives. Bhabani Bhattacharya captured exotic aspects of Indian life.
In the Seventies Anita Desai brought the intensity of her novels to her stories. Keki Daruwalla set his stories in unusual locales. Padma Hejmadi wrote about life in South India. Jug Suraiya and Vivek Adarkar were the voices of youth at the time. Arun Joshi wrote parables of Indian life. The subject of Manohar Malgonkar’s stories was the army. Kamala Das brought the sensitivity of her poetry to her stories. Shashi Deshpande dealt with the questions of a woman’s lot and place in Indian society.
The writers who came in the eighties, and continue to write today, have branched out into newer territory. Life in the city - Bombay in the case of Vikram Chandra, Bangalore in that of Lavanya Sankaran, Calcutta in the case of Amit Chaudhuri - is very much the subject of scrutiny. Nisha Da Cunha writes about the states of women’s minds. Shree Ghatage examines the demands of tradition, family obligations and personal freedom on an individual. Gay life is the subject of R. Raja Rao’s stories. The exploration of new areas of India and the heart goes on in the stories of Githa Haiharan, Anita Nair, Sangeeta Wadhwani, Anjana Appachana, Meher Pestonji, Susan Visvanathan, and others.
Melwani is optimistic about the future of Indian English short stories. The richness of ideas and themes will provide more and more opportunities for story writers to pen stories of significance, beauty and power. Melwani’s book is a seminal work which will, in future, guide the critics to give the short story the same respect and study as they do to Indian English Poetry and Fiction.
_______________________________________________________________
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