The Rise of Modern Vernacular Literature | History Optional for UPSC (Notes) PDF Download

Introduction

• Diverse Literature of the Indian Sub-Continent: The literature of the Indian sub-continent has always been diverse, characterized by a variety of languages. This diversity is enriched by ongoing dialogues among these languages and the different regions and cultures they represent.
• Modern Indian Literature: Modern Indian literature began developing in the late 19th century through dialogues between English—a colonial language that became the medium of education—and over twenty regional languages, many of which have literary traditions over a thousand years old.
• 19th Century Writing: In the 19th century, some Indian writers wrote in English, but most adapted European genres like the novel and short story into regional languages. They wrote on modern themes, creating new literary languages and styles.
• English as a Major Literary Language: In the late 20th century, English became a significant language for Indian fiction. Since the 1980s, Indian and South Asian writers in English have gained prominence on the global literary stage, reflecting the diversity and vibrancy of modern India.
• Imaginative Commentary on Social and Political Realities: From its inception, Indian fiction has provided insightful commentary on social and political realities, often more effectively than documentary sources. It explores the interactions between India’s traditional cultures and the West, as well as the modern world.

The British Colonial Period to 1947 

Rise of Modern Indian Literature:

• Modern Indian literature emerged in the 19th century as a response to colonialism and the complex process of entering modernity.
• The British colonial government introduced English education in 1835 to train upper-class Indians for administrative roles.

Impact of British Education:

• The establishment of universities in 1857 in Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta expanded access to European thought.
• The British aimed to instill Western values through English education, hoping to distance Indians from traditional Indian texts.

Effects on Indian Literature:

• The creation of an English-educated upper middle class led to unexpected changes in Indian literary production.
• New education introduced European ideals of individualism, progress, and nationalism.
• Indian writers, influenced by British criticism and European Orientalist scholars, began writing in modern forms to represent new realities and advocate for social and political change.

Shift in Literary Forms:

• Prose fiction, characterized by realism,linear narrative, and a focus on the individual, replaced earlier modes like myth and poetry.
• The novel, linked to the rise of the middle class and the concept of the nation in Europe, became the dominant genre in late 19th century India.

Adaptation of Western Forms:

• Indian writers adapted Western literary forms to Indian linguistic and cultural contexts, drawing from diverse literary traditions.

Role of the Bengal Renaissance:

• The Bengal Renaissance in Calcutta was a key force in new literary and cultural movements.
• Bankim Chandra Chatterji, a pioneering writer, addressed social reform and resistance to colonial rule in his Bengali novels.

Focus on Social Issues:

• Early Indian novelists often tackled social issues, particularly the treatment of women, which was a point of criticism from Europeans.
• Novels highlighted the oppression of middle and upper-class Indian women and their struggles for personal freedom,education, and economic autonomy.

Exploration of Women’s Issues:

• Writers were deeply engaged with the challenges faced by women entering the modern nation and public life.
• Chatterji’s The Poison Tree, Baba Padmanji’s Yamuna Paryatan, and Tagore’s Chokher Bali are examples of novels focusing on widows’ conditions.

Portrayal of Modernity:

• In Indulekhā, the first Malayalam novel, Chandu Menon depicted the ideal “modern” woman.
• Tagore’s Ghare Bāire criticized fanatic nationalism while exploring women’s dilemmas between tradition and modernity.
• Tagore also introduced the short story genre to Bengali literature, sensitively depicting the lives of ordinary villagers.

Poetry and Other Genres

• Rabindranath Tagore, moving away from the traditional Bengali verse of Michael Madhusudan Dutt, introduced modern poetry to the Bengali language.
• In 1913, Tagore received the Nobel Prize for his collection of poems,Gītānjali(translated as Song Offering), which he had translated into English at the suggestion of W. B. Yeats.
• Tagore's musical dramas, such as Dāk-ghar(The Post Office), were performed at Santiniketan, the school he established to promote Indian culture and arts.
• Like Toru Dutt, Sarojini Naidu, a Bengali poet writing in English, made significant contributions to poetry and later became a prominent figure in India’s freedom movement.
• Modern poetry emerged and matured in various Indian languages during the mid-20th century.
• Tamil poet Subramania Bharati was among the early modern writers in Tamil, advocating for freedom from British rule.
• Other notable poets include Hindi writers Sachidananda H. Vatsyayan(“Agyeya”), Suryakant Tripathi(“Nirala”), and Mahadevi Varma, who focused on introspective and personal themes.
• In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, women from the Indian middle class began writing fiction and non-fiction, particularly on women’s issues and social change.
• Examples include Pandita Ramabai with her book The High-Caste Hindu Woman, Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain with her essays on purdah, and Krupabai Satthianadhan with her autobiographical novel Saguna.
• Tarabai Shinde advocated for women in her essay Stripurush tulna, and Rokeya Hossain imagined a utopian world in Sultana’s Dream.

Indian Writing from World War I to 1947

• Two key movements influenced Indian writing between the World Wars:
• Mahatma Gandhi's nonviolent struggle for India's freedom
• International Marxist-socialist movements advocating social justice for laborers, peasants, and the masses.
• In 1936, two significant novels of social realism and social critique were published:
• Godān(translated as The Gift of a Cow, 1968), by Hindi writer Premchand, depicting peasant life in North India.
• Putul nācher itikathā(translated as The Puppet’s Tale, 1968), by Bengali novelist Manik Bandyopadhyay, focusing on rural Bengal.
• By the 1930s and early 1940s, the short story emerged as a prominent genre in Indian literature. Writers like Premchand gained recognition for their classic short stories on themes of social injustice. Notable works include Bibhuti Bhushan Banerjee’sPather pānchālī(1929, in Bengali; translated as Song of the Road, 1968), a poignant portrayal of rural childhood in the humanistic tradition of Tagore.
• The 1930s also marked the rise of the Indian novel in English. Raja Rao’s Kanthapura(1938) was groundbreaking in theme, focusing on the involvement of Indian villagers in the Gandhian freedom movement, and in style, reflecting the Kannada language and storytelling traditions.
• Rao aimed to write in an English shaped by Kannada and influenced by the Sanskrit Purāṇas and women’s folktales.
• Mulk Raj Anand's English novels Untouchable(1935) and Coolie(1936) addressed caste injustice and labor exploitation, representing the progressive stream in Indian writing. R.K. Narayan, who began his literary career with Swami and His Friends(1935), focused on character and human life rather than broader social and political issues.
• The genre of autobiography gained popularity during this period. Mahatma Gandhi’s An Autobiography: Or, The Story of My Experiments with Truth(1929) was swiftly translated from Gujarati to English. Jawaharlal Nehru, Gandhi’s disciple and future Prime Minister of India, published his autobiography in 1936. Nirad C. Chaudhuri’s The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian(1951, in English) is renowned, second only to Gandhi’s autobiography.

Modern Indian Literature from Independence to the Twenty-first Century 

Major themes and trends, 1947–1980s:

• 1947: A Turning Point
• Post-Colonial Challenges: Independence spurred writers to explore the complexities of nationhood.
• The Euphoria of Freedom: There was joy in gaining independence.
• The Agony of Partition: The division into India and Pakistan led to immense suffering and violence.
• Communal Violence: The partition fueled deep communal rifts, particularly between Hindus and Muslims, leading to horrific violence, especially in Punjab and Bengal.
• Uprooted Lives: Many people were displaced, families were torn apart, and the trauma of partition became a lasting memory for those in both countries.
• Literary Exploration: Fiction from 1947 onward reflects on India’s past, both its positives and negatives,  addresses the social and political issues of independent India.
• Globalization and Migration: Writers comment on the changing society in an era of globalization and the migration of South Asians to Western countries.
• Continuing Humanistic Trends: In the years after independence, the humanistic and progressive themes seen in earlier writers continued to thrive.
• Regional Diversity: Fiction from various regions in India continued to address social issues and critique societal norms.
• Modern Drama: Indian drama often critiques societal and political issues, with playwrights like Vijay Tendulkar using satire to address social flaws.
• Feminist Voices: From the 1970s onwards, women writers, especially those focusing on feminist themes, emerged as significant voices in Indian literature.
• Dalit Literature: The rise of Dalit writing, where authors from marginalized communities share their experiences and perspectives, became a notable trend.
• Partition as a Central Theme: Since 1947, the partition has been a dominant theme in both Indian and Pakistani fiction, explored by various writers.
• Khushwant Singh: His novel "Train to Pakistan" (1956) vividly portrays the violence of partition.
• Saadat Hasan Manto: A renowned Urdu writer, Manto’s stories capture the personal and societal impacts of partition. His story "Tobā Tek Singh" reflects the absurdity of the dislocation caused by partition.
• Bhisham Sahni: Sahni’s Hindi novel "Tamas," later adapted into a film, chronicles the events of partition.
• Bapsi Sidhwa: In her novel "Cracking India" (originally "Ice-Candy Man," 1988), Sidhwa narrates the partition experience through the eyes of a child.

Tamil

Origins and Early Literature:

• Tamil, the oldest Dravidian language, has a history dating back to before the common era.
• The earliest surviving Tamil literature, known as the poetry of the Caṅkam or “academy” of Madurai, dates from the seventh century.
• Caṅkam poetry, organized into anthologies, is thematically divided into akam (interior love poems) and puram (exterior poetry on war and praise of kings).
• It relies on a complex system of seasons, times, and landscapes to convey different moods.
• The Tolkāppiyam, the earliest grammar of Tamil, outlines these conventions and was likely composed in the early centuries of the common era.

Transition to Agrarian Society:

• After the Caṅkam age, Tamil society transitioned to a more established agrarian system.
• This period saw the emergence of settled kingdoms between the third and sixth centuries A.D.
• Longer poems and didactic works were composed during this time.
• Notable works include Iṭaṅkō Aṭikaṉ's Cilappatikāram and Tiruvaḻḻuvar's Tirukkural.
• These works were influenced by Jainism and Buddhism.
• Later Hindu cults like Shaivism and Vaishnavism gained prominence.
• The prominence of these cults was aided by the songs of wandering saint devotees.

Medieval Period and Literary Innovations:

• In the medieval period, especially during the Chola kingdom (c. a.d. 950–1250), Tamil literature saw significant innovations, heavily influenced by Sanskrit kāvya.
• Famous poems like Kampan’s Irāmavatāram and Cayaṅkoṇṭar’s Kaliṅkattupparaṇi emerged during this time, contributing to new genres such as prapantam.
• Prapantam literature became a staple of literary accomplishment until the nineteenth century, encompassing various folk and courtly genres.

Commentarial and Scholastic Literature:

• From the late Chola period, rich commentarial and scholastic literature in grammar, poetics, and theology emerged.
• Under the Nāyaka kings of Madurai, Senji, and Tañjavur in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, northern languages like Telugu, Marathi, Urdu, and Sanskrit were often patronized by the elites, while the study of Tamil literature was largely confined to Shaiva monasteries.

Modern Developments:

• European missionary activity in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries led to the proliferation of indigenous printing presses from 1835, fostering new developments in Tamil literature.
• Modern genres such as novels, autobiographies, essays, and newspaper writing became widespread in the nineteenth century.
• By the early twentieth century, various writers sparked renewed public interest in Tamil literature and history, intertwining it with the anti-Brahman movement and organized Dravidian nationalism.