ASSIGNMENT

NAME: Liza Akhter

SUBJECT: Indian Literature

ROLL NO.: ENG/20/135

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Ques.: Comment on the choice of English language by Indian English writers in your
course. Refer to any two writers in detail.

Answer:

The term "Indian Writing in English" has a broader meaning. This is a collection of works by
writers whose home tongue is one of the languages spoken in multilingual India. Many Indian
writers have chosen English as a medium of expression and have had a significant influence on
many genres of literature. For example R. K. Narayan, Raja Rao, Nissim Ezekiel, Anita Desai,
Bharati Mukherjee, Salman Rushdie, Shashi Deshpande, and many others. They've used
English to depict Indian culture and spirit. So, in this assignment of mine, I'll be covering 2
Indian writers who chose to write in English along with their English writing styles and were
much known for their works.

1. Anita Desai
Anita Desai was a novelist, short-story writer, and children's author who was born and raised in
India. Desai, who was born to a German mother and a Bengali father, grew up speaking
Bengali, German, Hindi, and English. She received a B.A. in English from the University of Delhi
in 1957. She wrote her first piece of writing in English at the age of seven. Later in her twenties,
she started writing novels. The suppression and oppression of Indian women were the subjects
of her first novel, Cry, the Peacock (1963). Being one of the Indian writers who chose to write in
English, Desai won many awards and recognition for her work. Her unusual writing style, unique
characters, and descriptive abilities with a personal touch made her an inspiration to many
aspiring authors. Though she grew up speaking German, Hindi, Bengali and English, the first
language she preferred in her writing and reading was English which later affected her living and
influenced her work of writing. As said by her, "English is rich and flexible, supple and
adaptable, varied and vital and is even capable of reflecting the Indian character and situation."
Impressed by the power of alphabets in English language and their nature of transforming
themselves to make a beautiful content, Desai decided to choose English as the medium of her
works."Nostalgia" was a narrative technique in her novels. Experimenting with Indian speech
rhythms in English as used by Ruth Jhabaala, Desai wrote 'In Custody' giving a touch of Indian
accent and tone making it bilingual. She undoubtedly became a remarkable English-language
Indian novelist.

2. Shashi Deshpande
Shashi Deshpande was born in 1938, in Karnataka, in South India. Sriranga, her father, was a
great dramatist, writer and Sanskrit scholar. There was a major influence of her father on her
writing. Her father was a Sanskrit scholar who taught Sanskrit at a college level, wrote in
Kannada, read English, and married a Marathi woman. Her house was a linguistic melting pot.
According to Shashi Deshpande, three events in her childhood influenced her as a writer: her
father was a writer, she was taught solely in English and she was born as a female. Grown up in
the upper middle class family, she was given typical education at a British Convent School,
further studying economics, political science and Law. Brewing through her educational
background gives an idea of why she chose English as the medium of her writing. Her creative
and unique way of writing depicts her feministic views in an excellent way. Her writing utters the
themes such as quest for self-identity, man-woman relationship and image of woman.
Deshpande was also known to different languages like Sanskrit, Marathi and Kannada but she
chose English over her native language. Two reasons of her language choice as said by
Deshpande was her comfort in using English for all her expressions and to not to deal with
internal culture. She used very simple English language. She used an average, middle class
English language. Her work utters her comfort with the English language. With her typical
education and her comfortness, she could express herself easily with English language which
also helped in conveying her feelings better. Her selective, different and creative content makes
her a spirited Indian woman writer.