History of Indian English Prose:

➢ The use of English for the description of Indian views has opened up new gateways of the
interpretation of Indian scenario.
➢ Raja Ram Mohan Roy an advocate of English education was the first Indian to write
prose in English.
➢ Mahatma Gandhi’s “My Experiments with Truth” (1940) is a great prose work.
➢ His writings were marked by simplicity, pointedness, and clarity of thought, which are
the essential attributes of a good prose.
➢ Jawaharlal Nehru’s principal works include
• “Glimpses of World History” (1934),
• Autobiography: Towards Freedom (1936) and
• Discovery of India (1946).
➢ Dr. Radhakrishnan, a great writer and philosopher expressed philosophical thoughts.
➢ Swami Vivekananda’s speeches and writing spread over the volumes.
➢ Other legendary thinkers like Keshab Chunder Sen, Madan Mohan Malaviya, Bankim
Chandra Chatterjee, Ravindranath Tagore and Dayanand Saraswati, the founder of the
Arya Samaj have contributed for social, educational and religious reform through their
works.
➢ The new generation of Indian authors, who wrote almost exclusively in English, hit the
bookshelves, beginning with R.K. Narayan Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao
➢ What made these authors writings different from the Indian authors before them was that
their stories were about the contemporary man on the street, there was also Indianness in
their work, in terms of the words they used and their style of writing.
➢ Their works were the forerunners to the magnificent diversity of Indian writing in
English that we see today.
➢ Indian Writing has turned out to be a new form of Indian culture and voice in which India
communicate regularly.
➢ Indian Writers – poets, novelists, essayists, and dramatists have been making significant
and considerable contributions to world’s literature since pre – Independence era.
➢ Indian English Literature has attained an independent status in the realm of world
Literature.
➢ Wide ranges of themes are dealt with in Indian Writing in English and this literature
continues to reflect Indian culture, tradition, social values and even Indian history
through the depiction of life in India and Indians living elsewhere.
➢ Their works contemplated and deliberated on diverse series of issues like nationalism,
freedom struggle, social realism, individual consciousness etc.
➢ This literary movement has been achieved by novelists who sought to prove their inner
creative urges in English language, which is indeed an alien tongue for them.