In Transition Indian English Fiction Evolved A Great Deal.

Abstract

In the transition from the nationalist to the post Independence phase, Indian English Fiction evolved a great deal, alongside non-fictional prose. M.K.Naik in his  A History of Indian English Literature (New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1982) has chosen to entitle an entire chapter “The Gandhian Whirlwind- 1920-1947”.  The withdrawal from the political sphere of both Balagangadhar Tilak and Sri Aurobindo, in the first decade of the twentieth century set the arena ready for the entry of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi fresh from his satyagraha triumph in South Africa.  Political writing drew immense strength from the Gandhian philosophy of nonviolence and soul-force, and Gandhi himself wrote in a deceptively simple English which had begun by then to achieve a national character.