9.Meenakshi Mukherjee, The Perishable Empire: Essays on Indian Writing in English (Oxford University Press, 2000).
10.Moveable Type: Book History in India, ed. Abhijit Gupta and Swapan Chakravorty (Permanent Black, 2008).
11.Rabindranath Tagore, Nashta Neer (1901-1902).
12.Johannes Ferdinand Fenger and Emil Francke, History of the Tranquebar Mission Worked Out From Original Papers (Tranquebar, Evangelical Lutheran Mission Press, 1864).
13.J.N. Dutt, The Life and Work of Romesh Dutt (JM Dent & Sons Ltd, 1911).
14.I. Allan Sealy, The Trotternama, (Knopf, 1988).
1857 And All That
1.Edward Money, The Wife and The Ward; or, A Life’s Error (Routledge, 1859).
2.James Grant, First Love and Last Love (Routledge, 1868).
3.Philip Meadows Taylor, Seeta (London: Henry S. King & Co, 1872).
4.Flora Annie Steel, On The Face Of The Waters, (New York: Macmillan, 1897).
5.G.A. Henty, In Times of Peril, (New York: The Mershon Company, 1900).
6.Jules Verne, The Steam House (Paris: Pierre-Jules Hetzel, 1880).
The Pioneers
1.City Improbable: An Anthology of Writings on Delhi, ed. Khushwant Singh (Penguin, 2004).
2.R.C. Dutt, Three Years in Europe: 1868-1871, (Kolkata, S.K. Lahiri & Co., 1896).
3.Behramji Merwanji Malabari, The Indian Eye on English Life, or, The Rambles of A Pilgrim Reformer (Bombay: Apollo Printing Works, 1895); The Indian Muse In English Garb (Bombay: Reporters’ Press, 1876); Gujarat and the Gujaratis (London: W.E. Allen & Co., 1882).
4.The Essential Rokeya: Selected Works of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880-1932), ed. Mohammad A. Quayum (Brill, 2013).
5.Sultana’s Dream and Selections from The Secluded Ones by Rokeya Begum, trans. Roushan Jahan, (The Feminist Press, 1988).
6.Rassundari Debi and Tanika Sarkar, Words To Win, The Making of ‘Amar Jiban’ (Kali For Women, 1999).
7.Mrinalini Sinha, Specters of Mother India: The Global Restructuring of an Empire (Duke University Press, 2006).
8.Rokeya Sakhawat Hossein, Sultana’s Dream and Padmarag (Penguin, 2005).
9.Manjula Padmanabhan, Escape (Picador India, 2008); The Island of Lost Girls (Hachette, 2015).
10.Suniti Namjoshi, Mothers of Mayadip (The Women’s Press, 1989).
11.Swami Nikhilananda and Dhan Gopal Mukerji, Sri Ramakrishna: The Face of Silence (Skylight Paths Publishing, first published in 1953).
12.Dhan Gopal Mukerji, Caste and Outcast, ed. Gordon Chang (Stanford University Press, 2002).
13.Dhan Gopal Mukerji, My Brother’s Face (Thornton Butterworth, 1935).
14.Dhan Gopal Mukherji, Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon (E.P. Dutton, 1927).
15.Raja Rao, Kanthapura (Orient Paperbacks, 1970 edition).
16.Raja Rao, The Meaning of India: Essays (Vision Books, 1996).
17.Rao Raja and Robert L. Hardgrave, Word as Mantra (Katha/Centre for Asian Studies, University of Texas, 1998).
18.G.V. Desani, All About H Hatterr, (NYRB Classics, 2007).
Angrezi Devi
1.Shankar Gopal Tulpule, ‘A History of Indian Literature’, Vol. 9, Part 4.
2.G.N. Devy, ‘The People’s Linguistic Survey of India’, http://www.peopleslinguisticsurvey.org/default.aspx.
3.Rajeshwari V. Pandharipande, ‘Minority Matters: Issues In Minority Languages in India’, International Journal on Multicultural Studies, Vol. 4, No. 2 (UNESCO, 2002).
4.Sisir Kumar Das, History of Indian Literature (Sahitya Akademi, 2002).
5.Dr M.G. Mali, Savitribai Phule: Samagra Wangmay (Navayan, 1988).
6.Savitribai Phule: First Memorial Lecture 2008, Dr T Sundararaman (NCERT).
7.Zareer Masani, Macaulay: Pioneer of Indian Modernization (Random House, 2013).
Coffee Break
1.Dom Moraes, A Variety of Absences (Penguin, 2003).
2.Dom Moraes, Typed With One Finger (Yeti Books, 2002).
3.Arun Kolatkar, Jejuri, (NYRB Classics, 2006).
4.60 Indian Poets: 1952–2007, (Penguin India, 2008)
5.Agha Shahid Ali, The Country Without a Post Office (Ravi Dayal Publishers, 1997; Penguin Modern Classics, 2013).
6.Kamala Das, My Story (Sterling Publishers, 1976).
7.I. Allan Sealy, Red: An Alphabet (Picador, 2006).
The Baba Yaga in the Back Garden
1.Arkady Gaidar, The School
2.Olga Perovskaya, Kids and Cubs
3.Yuri Olesha, The Three Fat Men
4.Victor Dragunsky, The Adventures of Dennis
5.Galina Demykina, The Lost Girl and the Scallywag
Hold Your Tongue
Many of the ideas and values in ‘Hold Your Tongue’ were developed over a period of time. Among the many books that have presented histories of censorship and free speech, a brief selection of some of the most influential:
1.Salman Rushdie, Step Across This Line: Collected Non-Fiction 1992-2002 (Modern Library, 2003).
2.Salil Tripathi, Offence: The Hindu Case (Seagull, 2009).
3.Free Expression Is No Offence, English PEN (Penguin 2005).
4.‘Censorship in South Africa’: J.M. Coetzee (English in Africa, Vol. 17, No. 1).
5.Girija Kumar, The Book on Trial: Fundamentalism and Censorship in India (Har-Anand, 1997).
6.Nick Cohen, You Can’t Read This Book: Censorship in an Age of Freedom (Fourth Estate, 2012).
7.The Guarded Tongue: Women’s Writing and Censorship in India, ed. Ritu Menon (Sage, 2002).
8.Dubravka Ugresic, The Culture of Lies (Penn State University Press, 1995).
Other references
1.‘Vac as a goddess of victory in the Veda and her relation to Durga’, Asko Parpola, (Zinbun: Annals of the Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University, 1999).
* Every effort has been made to credit sources and original texts; if any omissions are discovered, they will be corrected in the next edition.
Index
Abandon, by Iyer
Aikath-Gyaltsen, Indrani, accused of plagiarism
her mentor, Khushwant Singh
Ali, Agha Shahid
Alien of Extraordinary Ability, An, by Thayil
All About H Hatterr
Amar Chitra Katha
Anand, Mulk Raj
Ananda Math, by Chattopadhyay
Angrezi Devi
Anxiety of Indianness, by Mukherjee
Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere, The, by Iyer
assault on writers, artists and journalists
Axolotl Roadkill, by Hegeman
Babur in London, by Thayil
Banerjee, Surendranath
Bhattacharya, Lokenath
Blessed Word: A Prologue, The, by Ali
Bongobandhu (journal)
bookshops
bookstalls, pavement
Bose, Netaji Subhash Chandra
challenges in writing
Chandra, Vikram
skirmish with Prof Mukherjee
Chatterjee, Ramananda
Chattopadhyay, Bankimchandra
Chaudhuri, Nirad C.
Chauhan, Subhadrakumari
children and books
Chopra case, Sanjay and Geeta
Collected Poems, The, by Ali
Continents of Exile series, by Mehta
Country without a Post Office, The, by Ali
Crane’s Morning by Aikath-Gyaltsen
Cuckold, by Nagarkar
Dalit writing
Das, Kamala/Suraiyya
Das, Sisir Kumar
Daughters of the House by Aikath-Gyaltsen
Dayal, Ravi (publisher)
Death Row, by Ali
Delhi: A Novel, by Khushwant Singh
Desai, Anita
Desai, Kiran
Desani, G.V.
Devi, Mahasweta
Devy, G.N. (linguist)
Dutt, Kylas Chunder
Dutt, Romesh Chunder
Dutt, Shoshee Chunder
<
br /> Dutt, Toru
Economic History of India, An, by R.C. Dutt
Electric Feather, Joshi–editor of
Emergency
English: Poems, by Thayil
Escape, by Padmanabhan
Extras, The, by Nagarkar
Family Matters, by Mistry
Fine Balance, A, by Mistry
First Love and Last Love, by Grant
Fraser, George MacDonald
French, Patrick
Fulcrum, by Thayil
Gandhi, Indira
Gandhi, Mahatma
Gandhi, Sanjay
Gay-Neck, by Mukerji
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins
Giridharadas, Anand
Goa
writing in
God of Small Things, The, by Roy
Grant, James
Greene, Graham
Greer, Germaine
Guha, Ramachandra
Guin, Ursula K. Le
Hali, by Desani
Hare with Amber Eyes, The, by Waal
Harvest, by Padmanabhan
Hegemann, Helen (accused of plagiarism)
Henty, G.A.
Herland, by Gilman
History of the Sikhs, A, by Khushwant Singh
Hossein, Rokeya Sakhawat
How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got A Life, by Viswanathan
Hundred Encounters, A, by S. Lal
I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale, by Khushwant Singh
Illustrated Weekly, creation of Khushwant Singh
independence, India’s
India Calling, by Giridharadas
Indian Eye on English Life, The, by Malabari
Indian writing in English (IWE)
Inheritance of Loss, The, by K. Desai (won Booker Prize)
Island of Lost Girls, The, by Padmanabhan
Iyer, Pico
affinity with Graham Greene
Jaipur Literature Festival
Jejuri, by Kolatkar
Joshi, Ruchir, (filmmaker-writer)
documentary films by
Journal of Forty Eight Hours of the Year 1945, A, by K.C. Dutt
Journal of Postcolonial Writing, by Thayil
Kala Ghoda, by Kolatkar
Kanthapura, by Rao
Kipling, Rudyard
Kleptomania, by Padmanabhan
Kolatkar, Arun
poets and writers liked by
Kolkata Literary Festival
Kolkata
booklovers of
Lady Chatterley’s Lover
Lal, P. (the man behind Writer’s Workshop)
Mahabharata translated by
Lal, Sham, (editor of Biblio)
language, arguments over
Left Hand of Darkness, The, by Guin
Life and Work of Romesh Chunder Dutt, by Gupta, J.N.
Lights Out, by Padmanabhan
literature in
Bengali
English
Hindi
mother tongue
regional
tribal
London’s coffee houses
Macaulay, Thomas Babington
Macaulay: Pioneer of India’s Modernisation, by Masani
magazines see Mookerjee’s Magazine also
Mahomet, Sake Dean
Malabari, Behramji
Man Within My Head, The, by Iyer
Manto, Saadat Hasan
Masani, Zareer
Masque of Africa, by Naipaul
Master, John
Mehta, Ved
apprenticed with William Shawn
Midnight’s Children
Miscellaneous Poems, by S.C. Dutt
Mishra, Pankaj
Mistry, Rohinton
controversies about
lifetime achievement award
nominated for the Booker shortlist
Modern Review
Money, Edward
Mookerjee’s Magazine
Moraes, Dom
illness of
Mothers of Mayadip, by Namjoshi
Mouse Attack, by Padmanabhan
Mueller, Max
Mukerji, Dhan Gopal
Mukherjee, Prof Meenakshi (critic and author)
Sahitya Akademi Award for The Perishable Empire: Essays On Indian Writing In English
skirmish with Vikram Chandra
works of
My Son’s Father, by Moraes
My Story, by K. Das
Mystic Masseur, The, by Naipaul
Nagarkar, Kiran
Sahitya Akademy Award for Cuckold
works of
Naidu, Leela
Naidu, Sarojini
Naipaul, V.S.
biography by French, The World Is What It Is
novels of
Namjoshi, Suniti
Narayanan, V.N., plagiarism scandal of
weekly column, ‘Musings’
Narcopolis, by Thayil
Neemrana festival
authors at the
Nehru, Jawaharlal
Never at Home, by Moraes
New York
Nisbet, Hume
nostalgic remembrances
of Kolkata
On the Face of the Waters, by Steel
Out of Line: A Personal and Political Biography of Nayantara Sahgal by Ritu Menon
Padmanabhan, Manjula
impact of prize money
works of
Palanquin Bearer, The, by Sarojini Naidu
Pandharipande, Rajeshwari V. (on Indian languages)
Pandit, Vijaya Lakshmi
Perishable Empire: Essays on Indian Writing in English, The, by Mukherjee
Phule, Savitribai
plagiarism in writings
Poriborton: An Election Diary, by Joshi
printing press, impact of
prizes, impact of
prizes/awards
Booker Prize
Nobel Prize
Sahitya Akademi Award
protest at an art exhibition
Rajmohan’s Wife, by Chattopadhyay
Rao, Raja
works of
Ravan and Eddie: Rest in Peace, by Nagarkar
Ray, Satyajit
Recovery of Innocence: Literary Glimpses of the American Soul, The, by Iyer
Red Earth and Pouring Rain, by Chandra
Republic of Orissa, The, by S.C. Dutt
Rooms Are Never Finished, by Ali
Rosemary Tree, The, by Aikath-Gyaltsen
Roy, Archana, (grandmother of the author)
Roy, Arundhati
publications of
winner of Booker Prize for The God of Small Things
Rushdie, Salman
Russian books in India
Sacred Games, by Chandra
Sahgal, Nayantara
works of,
Sarpa Satra, by Kolatkar
Sealy, Allan
works of
selling old books
Seth, Leila
Seth, Vikram
works of
Sharma, Mihir
signed books by authors, collection of
Singh, K.D.
The Book Shop of
Singh, Khushwant
on him by
Amit Chaudhuri
Bapsi Sidhwa
Manjula Padmanabhan
Pankaj Mishra
Suketu Mehta
Srivatsa, Sarayu
Steel, Flora Annie
storytelling
Such a Long Journey, by Mistry
Tagore, Jotindra Mohan
Tagore, Rabindranath
Taylor, Philip Meadows
Thayil, Jeet
works of
These Errors Are Correct, by Thayil
Toba Tek Singh (story by Manto)
Train to Pakistan, by Khushwant Singh
travelling in UK, author’s experience of
Travels, by Mahomet
Trotternama, The
Truth, Love & a Little Malice (autobiography), by
Khushwant Singh
Tulpule, Shankar Gopal
Typed With One Finger, by Moraes
Variety of Absences: Gone Away, A, by Moraes
Varma, Raja Ravi
Verne, Jules
Virgin Fish of Babughat, The by Bhattacharya,The
Viswanathan, Kaavya, (accused of plagiarism)
Waal, Edmund de
Wife and Ward, by Money
World Is What It Is, The, by French
Ziegenbalg, Bartholomäus
Acknowledgements
Many of these essays began as short columns for Business Standard, which is also where many of the short profiles were first published. My thanks to T.N. Ninan, Ashok Kumar Bhattacharya, Tony Joseph, Kanika Datta and other editors at the paper for generously granting permissions—and for creating so much space for books in a business newspaper. Many thanks to Brinda Datta at Biblio for permission to reproduce some essays and reviews from the magazine.
The first reading from The Girl Who Ate Books was held at the Bellagio Center—immense gratitude to Pilar Palacia, Rob Garris, Claudia Juech and others at the Rockefeller Foundation for the gift of that serene and stunningly beautiful space, where these essays finally started to come together. And to Beatrice Lamwaka, Ben Kiernan and Glenda Gilmore, David and Nancy Grant, Farah Mohamed, Glen MacDonald, Jean-Baptiste Kakoma, Jorge Tacla and Rajeevan Poyil for the gelato, encouragement and goodwill.
Love and gratitude to my parents, Sunanda and Tarun Roy, and my family, readers down to the youngest devourer of books: Tara, JT, Neel, Mia, Rudra, Antara and Arun.
To Kamini Karlekar, Meenakshi Ganguly, Peter Griffin, Prem Panicker, Rahul Bhatia, Ruchir Joshi, Salil Tripathi, Shefaly Yogendra, Sharmistha Roychowdhury; Arjun Nath, Akhil Bhardwaj, Dr Yusuf Merchant and Keshav Palita for reading and commenting on various essays in this book—and for surviving years of my absent-minded geekery. As ever, to David Godwin, for being such a fabulous agent and friend.
Margaret Mascarenhas: thank you for those laidback Goa months and the conversational kintsugi. Anjali Puri: thank you for the Bastora house, and its friendly sub-tenants.
To everyone at HarperCollins India: V.K. Karthika and Krishan Chopra for suggesting this book, and for their immense patience; editors Somak Ghoshal and Arcopol Chaudhuri for understanding how to shape the mess I handed them, for their astute editorial sense and for the style upgrades; art director Bonita Vaz-Shimray and my astonishingly talented friend, Kriti Monga, for the generous gift of the design for the book cover.
Devangshu Datta: as always, thank you for the care and feeding of high-strung authors, and for all the years of letting me steal your books.
About the Book
From Bankimchandra Chatterjee to G.V. Desani to Vikram Seth, Indian writing in English has come a long way over the last hundred years. And Nilanjana Roy – voracious eater of books and sharpest of critics – has taken stock of it all.
The Girl Who Ate Books Page 35
