BOOK REVIEW: by Sudeshna Pandey* and R.K.

Singh**

Murli Das Melwani : Themes in the Indian Short Story in English:An Historical and A
Critical Survey. Bareilly: Prakash Book Depot, 2009.Pages 207. Price 175/-
ISBN-978-81-7977-323-9.

As Murli Das Melwani states in the Preface, the aim of the book is to draw attention to the
genre of Indian Short Stories in English by critically surveying its historical development
from 1835 to the present. He delineates the characteristic thematic features of various authors
in seven sections divided into several sub-sections. However, as the writer says in the
Preface, “The scope of this book is limited to stories collected and published in the book
form.” Neither the book includes uncollected published short stories, retold stories, fairytales
and long short stories, nor does it include translated short stories.

In the ‘Introduction’, Melwani traces the development of short story from Kathasaritsagar to
Raja Rao without excluding its development as a form in the West. He takes into account
early practitioners such as E.T.W. Hoffman, N. V. Gogol, Merimee, Balzac, Gautier, Edgar
Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, Stephen Crane, O’Henry, and H. G. Wells etc in the West and
Sudhin Ghosh, R. K. Narayan, Raja Rao and others in India.

The first section entitled ‘The Beginnings:1835-1935’ includes authors such as Pallab
Sengupta, Soshee Chunder Dutt, Cornelia Sorabjee, S. B. Banerjea, Dhan Gopal Mukerji, A.
S. Panchpakesa Ayyar, C. T. Ramabhai etc. These early Indian writers in English paved the
way for the great trio of Indian English Fiction, namely Mulk Raj Anand, R.K.Narayan, and
Raja Rao who are all discussed separately in Section II of the book. In ‘The First Flowering:
1935-1945’ Melwani includes such other writers as Manjeri S. Isvaran, Khwaja Ahmad
Abbas, Ela Sen, and Louis Gracious who enriched the nationalist movement of the period
with their writing.

Section III deals with several celebrated authors of 1950s such as Attia Hossain,
Khushwant Singh, G. D. Khosla, and others who reflected on human characters vis-à-vis
economic development in the early phase of Post-Independence India.

Section IV, ‘The Second Flowering: 1960-1970 ’ deals with some well known writers such
as R. P. Jhabvala, Bunny Reuben, Ruskin Bond, Bhabani Bhattacharya who are less moral
but more satirical and paradoxical in their treatment of themes.

Section V is aptly titled as ‘The Blossoming’ because it covers the plethora of short story
writers such as Padma Hejmadi, Keki N. Daruwalla, Anita Desai, Hamdi Bey, Kamala Das,
Arun Joshi, Manohar Malgaonkar, and others who flourished during the 1970s and 1980s.

They deal with a variety of themes such as changing ways of small town Indian life, human
psyche, parables, politics, the army etc.

The following chapter, Section VI ‘An Extended Spring’ takes into account contemporary
writers such as Vikram Chandra, Amit Chaudhuri, Githa Hariharan, Anita Nair, Uma
Parameswaran, Meher Pestonji, and others who contemplate on themes such as mystery,
fantasy, migration, homosexuality, tradition versus modernity etc.

The final section ‘The Prospect’ provides details about the history of publishing houses. It
also mentions the neglected women publishers such as Kali, Katha, Stree, Tara, Tulika,
Yoda, Karadi, Zubaan, Women Unlimited, and Biblio. It also talks about the future of Indian
Short Story in English. The section reflects on absence of literary prizes in India and
mentions positive developments such as Vodaphone Crossword Book Award, Indiaplaza
Golden Book Awards, Readerr’s Choice award etc for promoting short story writing and
reading.

One of the significant features of the book is that it includes details about the lesser known
writers along with well known writers. Critical surveys generally cover only the well known
names.

The Bibliography can be of great help to researchers because it provides detailed information
about anthologies of short stories from the time as early as 1908.

On the negative side, however, the book excludes mention of some well known
contemporary writers such as Jhumpa Lahiri, Arundhati Roy, Farrukh Dhondy, Chitra
Banerjee Divakaruni, Rohinton Mistry etc. The book would have been strengthened with
their discussion even if the motive of the writer may have been to acquaint the readers to
lesser known names which most books tend to ignore. Yet, it is a significant publication,
useful to every researcher and students of Indian English Writing.

__________________________________________________________________________

* Sudeshna Pandey: M.Phil Scholar. Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad. Jharkhand.

** R.K.Singh: Professor and Head, Dept of HSS, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad.