Raj Gaurav Verma

This paper argues that not only fairy tales, but also myths are subversive in nature and the recent genres of mythological fiction and graphic/ mythological picture books are able to exploit this aspect of myths through their innovative narrative. Writers of these genres exploit the subversive potential of myths and the great epics and this has gained momentum in the last two decades. Resorting to myths, legends and history might reinstate cultural values, but it also brings into question the linearity, singularity, and the authority of the “grand text.” There is re-invention of myths and fresh interpretation to suit the times of present generation. Therefore, values and worldliness, insight and adherence, virtuosity and practicality, sensitivity and intellect, traditional frame and modern understanding are not only juxtaposed, but also brought into terms with one another. Devdatt Pattanaik is one of the leading exponents in this group who has retold epics for children and invented modern
mythology, allusions and allegories to discuss the issues of identity, gender, inequality, balance in life, decision-making and spiritual conflicts. Pattanaik’s A Secret River, Kama-v/s-Yama and The Girl Who Chose and The Boys Who Fought raise questions on the limited human perceptions and narrow understanding of the world. Sometimes questioning the
wrongs, other times asserting new values and judgments, he attempts to submit to or subvert the established cultural myths provoking the readers for a revival, to give a second thought and to think how the normative or mythic reality merely occurs as a social construct.

Mahatma Gandhi is a Yugpurush, the man who marked the epoch leading to India's Independence. India has a lot to be grateful to him for, hence his elevation as a Mahatma, yet India's hands are stained with his blood as well. This paper proposes that this paradox of his life and death closely resembles his personal and political vision which was a play of the dialectics of the opposing values of honesty on one hand and disobedience on the other. Where is Gandhi Today? Gandhi lies between tradition and the individual talent. Gandhi lies between the followers and unbelievers. Gandhi lies between praise and criticism. Gandhi lies between theory and practice. Gandhi lies between Indianness and UnIndianness. Gandhi lies between revolutions and reforms. Gandhi lies between empowering men and emancipating women. Gandhi lies between parents and children. Gandhi lies in the pockets of our purses and wallets.

This paper argues that Suniti Namjoshi’s poetry and fables by their association with nonhumans, birds, plants and flowers generate “poetics of anthropocene” indicating the human turn marked by ‘Great Acceleration’ and in doing so she exquisitely conveys the human-nonhuman encounter. On the one hand, Namjoshi makes use of mythic characters and animals to represent the repressed. On the other hand, she confronts the means of representing the real (which is not ‘normal’), communicating the alternate experience. The ‘nonhuman turn’ becomes apparent in her Poems (1967), Sycorax: New Fables and Poems (2006), and The Fabulous Feminist (2012). Namjoshi meditates over the human-nonhuman relationship, the anthropocentric approach, anthropormorphous representations and the ‘othering’ as it takes place of the nonhuman that occurs in the human world.

This paper argues that Suniti Namjoshi's poetry makes use of
mythic characters and animals to represent the repressed or Id, to
speak in Freudian terminology. Her poems "Sycorax" and "Unicorn"
present two discordant incidents of how she expresses the repressed
desires through these characters. Her revisiting of the character of
Sycorax and the mythical figure of Unicorn gives her space for
exploration of identities which otherwise are suppressed, repressed
or remain hidden under the traditional, conventional and conservative
norms of society which are essentially patriarchal and heteronormative.
The reality which Namjoshi confronts deprives her of the means of
representing the real (which is not 'normal'). The alternate experience
is explored by her in a fabulist and mythic manner. Therefore, she
creates an objective-correlative, to use the phrase of T.S Eliot, to
express this state of sexual, gender or racial otherness.

Truth' as a socio-psychological structure itself has responded to its time and has undergone subsequent changes. Therefore, post-truth is nothing new. It has always existed in politics. Only the way of attempting it has changed. If we have transitioned from the 'age of industrialization' to the 'age of information,' truth has also been subjected to the same. The paper attempts to theorize and characterize the notion of post-truth referring to some of the theorists like Ken Wilber, James Ball, Ralph Keyes and Steve Fuller. It also considers the development of post-truth scenario resulting from the rise of conspiracy theory, misleading leadership, and blinded popular subjectivity. Postmodern writers have already made use of "multiple truths" as Foucault has suggested against the "single truth." In the contemporary times it just happed that journalism transferred this notion of multiple truth to the politicos who used it to win their game. In light of this, the paper attempts to look at Girish Karnad's Tughlaq as a post-truth play. Karnad's Tughlaq stands as an iconic text to convey various phases and strategies used in the post-truth phase.

This paper argues that the diasporic writings deal with the paradox of separation and connection with the homeland. While the diasporic connection with ‘past-home’ is revived by audio, visual, and verbal memories through photographs, albums, letters, videos, audios, and recordings, the connection with the ‘present-home’ is retained by a global communication network. Thus, modern communication and technology seem to bring diaspora nearer to home because of which they can retain their connections with the homeland in the host-land. However, it can be seen that modern technology and communication itself allure individuals in envisioning the idea of “would-be-homeland” resulting in their diasporic psychology. Consequently, the diasporic narrative can be divided into parts: In the first part, it is the ‘would-be host-land’ which becomes a place of attraction as it is represented in various media like television, cinema, magazines, internet, books, and anecdotes. An image of prosperity is created of “would-be-host land” which is filled with hope and opportunities for progress. The protagonist is thus already inclined to make a move to this new ‘host-land.’ The second half of the narrative deals with the experience of ‘the moved body.’ The person who migrates to a new place finds it difficult to adjust to a new identity and fails to assimilate in a new environment resulting in a nostalgia for the lost place. This paper attempts to deconstruct the causal aspect of media and means of communication.

This paper argues that writers of children’s literature in India make use of the “diachronic technique” to introduce to children the stories through myths, legends, and history. On the one hand, this enables them to expose children to past events, and on the other, they help them develop a practical approach to present problems based on the solutions from these stories. Thus, these stories help them in their socialization making them understand the difference between good and evil, helping them connect past and present, and developing their decision-making.
Keywords: Children’s Literature, Socialization, Historicity, Emplotment, Therapeutic Process,  Diachronic Technique

Tragedy is the least noticed and talked about in contemporary literature. Tragedy was born as a genre when Aristotle constructed the theoretical premises upon which Tragedy is based. Perhaps, as argued by some, the rise of novel marked the death of tragedy. However, it is found that tragedy did not die rather was re-born (Steiner, 45; Brockmann, 23) to suit the modern life. The paper traces the growth of the poetics of Tragedy from Plato to the contemporary period, and postulates that from Renaissance to the present day, the literature in English has shifted piecemeal and ultimately revolted against Aristotle's definition of tragedy.

Looking at the recent paradigms which are essentially based on giving voices to the marginal who are generally looked upon as ‘the other,’ this paper attempts to build upon the relationship between “the self,” “the other” and “the state.” Every society is based on certain norms, rules, customs and tradition. These social norms are based on the ‘politics of inclusion and exclusion.’ So if there are certain factions of peoples who are included in the social structures of a society, there are also certain sections of people who are excluded in those same social structures. Thus, we come across the ‘social divide.’ This ‘social divide’ is created, propagated and continued through generations. This paper attempts to delineate the origin of this ‘social divide’ which begins within a person as an individual develops social, cultural, religious, regional, gender, and political consciousness. The individual and civic consciousness is marred by these overlapping consciousness. Ambedkar tried to bridge this gap between “the self” and “the other,” between “civic consciousness” and other consciousness by offering a political solution for the “social divide” which he sought through the intervention of the state. The paper attempts to uncover the complex ties that exists between the individual and the state and which affects its relationship with the other.

This paper argues that travel writing not only neglected women (at least in its initial stages) but also children in its critical idiom. One of the recent additions to travel writing can be seen in Bhakti Mathur’s Amma Take Me Series, which sets a landmark in adding the gendered and the childist perspective in travel writing. The ‘Amma Take Me’ Series: “Come Explore the Places Where We Worship” is published under Puffin Books by Penguin Random House India. This series introduces readers to the history of the major Indian faiths through their important places of worship like Shirdi, Golden Temple, Tirupati and the Dargah of Salim Chishti. So far there are four books in the series. They are written as travelogues of a mother and her two young children and are designed for children between eight to twelve years.  Mathur uses mythology, tradition and history associated with these places to unfold their story as they travel. While children’s literature shows the pattern of ‘Home’ and ‘Away’; travel writing is marked by an outside trip or journey. Amma Take Me Series conforms to the pattern of both the genres in its treatment of “outsiderness.” This series is different as it allows the children (in the text and the child-reader) an access to the outside world, especially to places of worship, guided by their mother who is both the narrator and a source of information. This adds another aspect to travel writing which is about learning one’s own culture through spaces of historical and religious significance. The ‘outsiderness’ is connected to a ‘sense of identity’ and ‘extension of self’ to these places which results in “spatial-socialization” for children. This paper attempts to read Amma, Take Me to the Golden Temple (2017) in the context of gender and children’s literature theory and criticism and the way they develop this socio-spatial and historical-personal relationship through their narrative. The study asserts the “transcendental nature” of travel writing and the ability of pilgrim narratives in particular, to offer solutions to the problems we face today.

In my research which extends almost over a decade I find significant development in the writings for children in India. When I started to review literature for my doctoral thesis on "Children's Fiction in India" in 2011, I could find very few writers and a limited variety of work that was available for children. The genre was first inaugurated in India mostly by men like Rabindranath Tagore and R. K. Narayan, and was later consolidated by the father of children's literature in India, Ruskin Bond. This group was joined by quite a few women writers, for instance Anita Desai and Shashi Deshpande. However, the present decade has shown a great impetus that this genre has received, especially by women writers. The children's literature theorist Peter Hunt points out the fact of children's literature being produced primarily by women writers (CLBGL 278-279). This genre in fact one area in which the women writers have outnumbered the male writers. This paper attempts to explore some of these women writers, who are a recent addition to this body of literature. It also attempts to generate an overall perspective over the kind of issues, themes and concerns that these writers have tried to bring to the forefront.

Travel writing, in today's time is a marginalized genre if not a neglected one. The paper attempts to look at travelling from various perspectives. In case of postcolonial and postmodern travel writers it can be seen that travel writing is no more an act of mere 'rhetoric or aesthetics.' The travel writing genre can be seen as one that includes geography, history, economics, culture and a privileging as masculine. Seth's From Heaven Lake and Ghosh's "Dancing in Cambodia" besides being travel accounts acquire socioeconomic and historical-political dynamics in a spatial sense that is Foucauldian. The paper attempts to look at the twin aspects of these texts where a traveller becomes a historian. Seth and Ghosh are able to write in a "third space," as theorised by Homi K. Bhabha and developed by Edward Soja, juxtaposing the images of the past and present; contrasting the attempts of destruction (political forces) and preservation (social forces) and conveying the conflict of cultures in the place of visit. Both can be seen as attempts to historically construct what has been obliterated by the totalitarian manoeuvres. These travel writings create a world mixing their individual journeys with the contemporary political scenario which make their works "heterotopias," of hybrid experience rather than conveying a single image of their utopia or feared dystopia.

This paper explores the transition from the theme of the “lost child” to that of “lost parent(s)” in children’s literature in
India. In the case of the “lost child,” the child is lost but the parents/family are together, and for the lost child it is s/he
who is alone and has lost his or her parents. Therefore, in traditional narratives, if a child is lost, a child is lost to his or
her parents, and so are the parents lost to the child. But in a strange reversal of this pattern in contemporary Indian
children’s literature, it is now common that the child is present but the parent or parents are missing. In this leap, the
writers of children’s literature have deviated from the established structure of “home-away-home” in which the child is
lost to a condition when either or both parents are missing. Children’s literature is traditionally embedded within the
paradoxical nature of the adult/child binary and it is common for writers of children’s literature to discard the adult and
centralize the child. However, despite the peripheral treatment of parents in children’s literature, this paper argues that
the absolute necessity of parental care still remains for the child “inside” and “outside” the text. The need for parents
still remains the same in contemporary times, yet children’s texts also show how a child is affected when either or both
parents are absent. Contemporary Indian children’s literature addresses this issue of “missing parents” by introducing
“alternate parenting” into the narrative.

As the title suggests this paper aims at exploring the two corollaries in Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner in the context of diaspora. Firstly, diaspora find their " home nowhere " when once they have left their homeland. The idea of prior home keeps them engaged in their present home so that the new home does not appear as a real home. Secondly, the two parallel realities that run with a " home now here " in the " host " country and a " home there " in the home country. The home like the " home country " keeps on haunting as a ghost. Giving a brief description of the Afghan life style in America, Hosseini for most part of the novel has focused on the stay of the protagonist in Afghanistan in his childhood and then on revisiting of his homeland in mid-thirties. The novel deals with the psyche of the diaspora. Despite the prosperity and prospective in the host country the people who had settled in America are not able to do away with the idea of their home country. This paper aims at exploring this diasporic dilemma that occurs as a result of displacement. However, for a country like Afghanistan which has remained enmeshed in aggression from outside and internecine conflicts within the country, it becomes difficult to judge whether the intensity and severity of the plight of being " placed " is greater or the plight of being " displaced. "

The paper attempts to explore the diasporic sensibility by fusing it with the experience of the widowhood. JhumpaLahiri'sThe Lowland projects Gauri as a widow of Udayan. Later she marries his brother Subhash and goes to America. The loss of husband creates trauma in Gauri's life so that she is never able to accept any man in her life and she continues to live single. The novel communicates the intricacies of psychology of suffering loss: the loss of husband via the loss of homeland. Similarly, Khaled Hosseini'sThe Kite Runnerreveals a life of widower through one of its central character Baba. Baba never gets remarried. When Afghanistan is attacked by the Soviet Union, Baba has to go to America with his son. Once again, the loss of the homeland is compared with the loss of the wife. Loss of espouse creates " psychological fissures " in the life of the people. It becomes difficult to cope and communicate such an experience. At the same time, the loss of homeland turns out to be a more concrete loss. The loss of homeland thus can be seen through the lens of widowhood. This paper attempts to look at these texts from twin lens of being in a state of diaspora and widowhood. The argument of my paper is that the trauma of being in exile coincides/overlaps with the trauma of being a widow/widower.

The paper attempts to look at the problem of majority-minority conflict in South Asia particularly Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. It attempts to understand the political situation through Agamben's "Rule of Exception" and try to find its representation in literature of this region.

The paper explores some of the recent developments in the genre of children's fiction in India. The writers in the contemporary times have moved beyond the nostalgic perception about childhood in comparing their own childhood with the childhood in contemporary times. Instead they have come up with a newer perception about childhood which is being constructed against certain other factors like class, gender, race, caste, community, etc. The notion of 'child' who was considered as a minor, dependent, week and helpless has also changed. The children in present times are seen as independent entities and psychological beings and as a part of the society. The paper attempts to survey some of the representations of childhood that the contemporary writers have depicted in their works along with serious issues associated with children and society.

Gandhi believed in the basic human values that had a respect for mutual coexistence. He emphasized that all individuals shall fulfill their duties ascribed to them by the society. A society with responsible citizens will be able to look after the well being of the State. He believed that state should not be based on the conflict of power, but it should act as a “welfare state.” He is known as an “anarchic philosopher” because he opposed the modern idea of state, parliamentary democracy and the idea of majority government. His idea of a nation was not of a “union of states” but of “union of villages.” He spoke of decentralization of power in a Panchayati Raj. The magnitude of his influence on the Indian Constitution can be noticed by the provision of Directive Principles of State Policy in Part V which are largely based on his principles. Indian English Literature bears the stamp of his magnetic personality and thought. This book is a collection of essays dealing with some of the major aspects of Gandhi’s life, his philosophy and ideas and their relevance in the twenty-first century.

This book is a first of its kind, an attempt to bring into conversation the world of an old Indic civilization, with all its manifold homogeneities, diversities and the new India which is rising from a churning of Bharat, Hindustan and Vedic India. This churning is most visible in Indian Literatures in English and English translations of other  languages/ vernacular literatures. This is an academic exercise that is long overdue with regard to the literature that emerges from South Asia, particularly, the Indian subcontinent. The geopolitical convergences in the postcolonial world have created new dynamics of reimagining disrupted identities that is refracted through the literary scape of World Literature. The popular and
the literary appear to meet in the magical space of the novel in any language of the world. The rising popularity of the mythological in fiction is one of the consequences of this attempt to claim space for that which is struggling to be born out of the decay, the revival and the rejection of either the old or the new. It is this fascinating space where young
India is attempting to speak to their parents, elders and ancestors, and at the same time, their children and grandchildren, and generations to come. Of course all authors do not say the same thing, nor do the researchers,
and it appears to be “argumentative” to the conservative, but some things need to be said. This book is a tentative offering to start a line of thought so that the past and present can walk in companionship towards the future.

This book has taken shape as a series of musings regarding the relationship between life and its evaluation at the experiential level which is what art is about. The wind in the hills creates sounds of music, the river flowing gently over pebbles, the jaltarang, the beauty of the human form is felt and recreated in a Venus or Adonis, a burning Troy shows the despair of Helen and the triumph of the Greeks, and a wealth of abundant nature creates the vision of a New Eden. Similarly, the Indian idea of the aesthetic
emerges from the feelings associated with life and its unfolding. A hunted bird causes Valmiki to rethink life in terms of compassion while a thwarted ambition causes a bloody war among families. If Shiva performs a destructive dance unable to bear his wife’s death, the Devi Mahatyam
shows the masculine strengths of the woman. Each epoch of man and nature finds an answer in art and literature. What remains for the receiver of such a wealth of experiential richness is to marvel at the times they evoke and wonder at the ways of their particular worlds. Inevitably, the critic is born.

Diasporic Writings: Narratives across Space and Time explores the area of Diasporic Studies which is still  being theorized and shaped. Not only is this writing creating a new genre, it is also rewriting standard history as it gives personalized accounts of the impact of political manoeuvring. The sheer volume of major works by diasporic authors testifies to the unbounded possibilities and variation in these experiences. V.S. Naipaul, Rohinton Mistry, Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh and M.G. Vassanji are well-known diasporic authors from India, yet some aspects of their work have not heretofore been written about. There are some emerging diasporic voices such as Siddhartha Gigoo who has been forced into exile from Kashmir and Tenzin Tsundue, a rising voice among the Tibetan diaspora. They provide fresh insight into the diasporic condition of Kahmiris and Tibetans, respectively. The diasporic experiences of women are projected through papers on Taslima Nasreen, Meera Syal and Shauna Singh Baldwin. The essays in this collection will help the reader understand, in human terms, the impact of global movement of populations because the subject is contemporary and relevant. Diasporic writing is concerned with approximately 30 million Indian diaspora residing outside India to whom India is the homeland, which also includes people who may be displaced internally. It is also a politically sensitive area of study
as some of the diaspora are migrants who lost their homes due to colonization, violence, wars or natural calamities. The political aspect affects both homeland and host-land in terms of citizenship and the system of duties and rights affect policies of governments as some papers in this book are able to insinuate.
This book seeks to understand the diasporic  experiences of these people. Displacement is a traumatic experience and creates either a myth of return to homeland or the determination to make the host country one’s own. The essays in this collection show the pain of the diaspora who are in a permanent state of exile; the changing fabric of relationships due to technology; or the diasporic author using memory to retain his or her past. People are carriers of culture and language and this research on specific diasporic authors may help to understand the soft power generated by the  Indian diaspora.