New Writing in India

Adil Jussawalla’s anthology of Indian writing was first published in 1974. Today, more than half a century later, it remains one of the landmarks of our literature, featuring writers from various Indian languages, including English, whose works have stood the test of time.

The book traces a map of what Jussawalla calls ‘literary and linguistic cross-currents’, through the writings of Nirmal Verma (Hindi), Sunil Gangopadhyay (Bengali), Bhalchandra Nemade (Marathi), P. Lankesh (Kannada) and Ashokamitran (Tamil), among other literary greats.

This anthology challenges the colonial notion of Indian literature as a collection of exotica as well as the terrible misconception that modern Indian writing is an inferior mimicry of Western forms. What we have here is a literary record that stands out for the originality of the voices it contains and yet underscores a set of shared themes and artistic concerns that galvanized these writers and brought them together.