This book presents a reasonably comprehensive account of the development of the Indian English novel since Independence. The novel during the colonial period has a different outlook and was more concerned with the problems of the Indian people suffering under the British Yoke. After Independence the Indian writers looked at the Indian scene from the postcolonial point of view. There were new hopes, no doubt, but the problems-social, economic, religious, political and familial-that were submerged in the flood of the national movement emerged and drew attention of the creative writers. The partition, the communal riots after partition, the problem of casteism, the subjugation of women, the poverty of the illiterate masses became the focal points. Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao, R.K. Narayan, Nayantara Sahgal and Kamala Markandaya in the beginning wrote novels of social realism in the fifties. But after the sixties, new trends emerged. Writers like Anita Desai, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Bhabani Bhattacharya, G.V. Desani, Chaman Nahal, Manohar Malgonkar and B. Rajan portrayed the picture of the post-independence Indian society. The stream of the early fifties now turned into a broad river with new currents and cross currents. The old traditional method of novel writing gave way to modern techniques. The Indian English novel took further strides in the eighties and the decades that followed it. Salman Rushdie can be said to be the leader of the new trend. Shashi Deshpande and Arundhati Roy followed suit. This book divided into six chapters surveys and discusses the major trends in the post-independence Indian English novel. The major writers discussed apart from the trio, R.K. Narayan, Raja Rao and Mulk Raj Anand are Bhabani Bhattacharya, Nayantara Sahgal, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Anita Desai, Arundhati Roy and Kamala Markandaya. This book will be of immense help to the students of Indian English fiction and the general reader.
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