Babu Fictions: Alienation in Contemporary Indian English Novels

This book successfully addresses Indian English fiction without trying to fit it into a ‘postcolonial’ mould. Working with a redefined, Marxian concept—that of ‘alienation’. Khair presents a reading of contemporary Indian fiction in English that sets out to study whether it is possible to write in English about people who often speak little or no English. Employing the concept of ‘discourse’ and formulating class divisions in emblematic ‘Babu-Coolie’ terms, the book presents thorough—and at times surprising—readings of authors like Raja Rao, Anita Desai, R.K. Narayan, Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh, and others. Chapters on specific writers are combined with essays on general themes like the industrial landscape, caste and gender. Khair’s concern with the issues of power and hegemony add philosophical depth to his reading of literature as literature. This book will be of interest to students and researchers of Indian English fiction, sociologists, literature critics as well as general readers.