For anyone interested in the story of English in India, or in the finest English storytellers of India, this is the essential book.

A history of two hundred years of Indian literature in English, it starts by looking at the introduction of English into India’s complex language scenario around 1800. It then takes up the canonical poets, novelists, and dramatists, as well as unjustly forgotten figures who made significant contributions to Indian literature in English.

This new, expanded edition of a book established as the standard work on its subject, comprises twenty-nine chapters, each by an expert, and focused on either a single author (Kipling, Tagore, R.K. Narayan, D.D. Kosambi), or a group of authors (the Dutt family of Calcutta; diasporic writers; nature writers; ‘pulp’ novelists), or a genre (literary fiction; poetry since Independence).

This book is written for general readers. Biographical information is provided and each author is contextualized.