The book Novel as History: a Study of Post Colonial Indian Novels had its genesis when I was on a UGC Fellowship struggling to complete my thesis on history writing and novel writing at Sambalpur University during the years 1999-2001. The work almost theoretical in its nature posed problems in its course. To add to the hurdles. I found a paucity of any monograph not on the technical aspects of writing history and novel but on historical novels in Indian writing. The latter aggravated my problems for which I had to fall back on the textual analysis of the books taken for my PhD work. No doubt the textual analysis is a kind of blessing in disguise as it enhances the analytical ability to penetrate into the different nuances of a text. However those academic hurdles generated the desire and resolve in me to work for a book/books on Indian historical fiction not only in English but also in other languages. But again thanks to UGC and my research activities my exposure to the vast field of history fiction symbiotic study impelled me not write an informative introductory and chronicling sort of book but a book in the novels from different angles not to write a book on only historical novels but on the history oriented novels. As a result of this one can think of not only fictions like The Last Mughal The Sword of Tipu Sultan but also the works like Midnights children a suitable boy clear light of the day. The motive behind this is to show how novels act like history from a postcolonial point of view. Besides to prove my point I have stremlined my study to the post colonial period only.
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