When under the foreign rule, every aspect of life in India was influenced by the British dominion – be it political, economic, social or cultural. Inspite of all other things the introduction of English language has been t he most enduring influences. The issue of language arose because of necessity of communication between the natives of Europe and the Indian inhabitants.
The mastery of the colonizer’s language by the Indians was one important consequence of the change taking place in India due to colonialism. By the 1820s they began to adopt English as their medium of expression. Another important consequence has been the influence of English language in bringing about a transformation in Indian English literature. Among the early influences had been the introduction of the medium of prose, a medium somewhat unknown to them. In the coming years there ensued a battle over the preference of language.
The first Indian novel showed up in 1864. It was Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya’s ‘Rajmohan’s Wife’, which was serialized in ‘The Indian Field’.
Mulk Raj Anand wrote ‘Untouchable’ in 1935 after having been influenced by Gandhi’s description of his encounter with a sweeper boy in ‘Young India’.
Ever since those times before independence, there has been no looking back till the time of R.P. Jhabwala’s ‘Heat and Dust’ winning Booker Prize in 1975 and Arundhati Roy’s success with the Booker Prize winning ‘God of Small Things’ (1990).
The mastery of the colonizer’s language by the Indians was one important consequence of the change taking place in India due to colonialism. By the 1820s they began to adopt English as their medium of expression. Another important consequence has been the influence of English language in bringing about a transformation in Indian English literature. Among the early influences had been the introduction of the medium of prose, a medium somewhat unknown to them. In the coming years there ensued a battle over the preference of language.
The first Indian novel showed up in 1864. It was Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya’s ‘Rajmohan’s Wife’, which was serialized in ‘The Indian Field’.
Mulk Raj Anand wrote ‘Untouchable’ in 1935 after having been influenced by Gandhi’s description of his encounter with a sweeper boy in ‘Young India’.
Ever since those times before independence, there has been no looking back till the time of R.P. Jhabwala’s ‘Heat and Dust’ winning Booker Prize in 1975 and Arundhati Roy’s success with the Booker Prize winning ‘God of Small Things’ (1990).
1 comment:
Took me time to read all the comments, but I enjoyed the article. Very helpful article! Makes total sense. It's always nice when you can not only be informed, but also entertained! I'm sure you had fun writing this article.
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