The politics of nation formation in twentieth-century English-Indian fiction : Kipling, Forster, Rao, Narayan, Anand, and Rushdie / Uke Maxharraj ; with a foreword by Mohit K. Ray
Aggressive nationalism in Rudyard Kipling's Kim and E.M. Forster's A passage to India -- What is aggressive nationalism? -- Rudyard Kipling's imperial stance of seeing the white man as a colonial ruler -- E.M. Forster's contradictory stance toward the colonial rule -- The effect of aggressive nationalism -- Defensive nationalism in Raja Rao's Kanthapura and R.K. Narayan's waiting for the Mahatma -- What is defensive nationalism? -- the construction of Gandhian nationalistic thought in fiction -- Urban and rural nationalisms -- The natives' attitude toward the British -- The issues of religion and language in Mulk Raj Anand's Untouchable -- The role of religion in the process of nation formation -- The merciless form of religion fictionalized in Anand's Untouchable -- The role of language in the process of nation formation -- Anand's writing of Untouchable in a language that was not his own -- The obstacles of the new nation in Salman Rushdie's Midnight's children -- Is the process of nation formation fully accomplished with independence? -- The consequences of nationalism in Rushdie's Midnight's children -- The irresponsibility of political leaders as a threat to the nation -- Rushdie's vision of how the nation could be stable and prosperous -- Conclusion
Summary
The book addresses the intersection of politics and fiction in the process of nation formation in English-Indian fiction during the twentieth century. It does this by explain-ing the position of a writer in the process of decolonization. The central question of this project is the construction in fic-tion, of political developments during the processes of nation formation in India, and how an English-Indian novelist re-flects upon these issues. The conflict between colonizers and colonized in India has produced two extremes; the colonial aggressive stance and the native defensive position of f
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 361-370) and index
