Predicament of Indian writers to write in English : Based on , The anxiety of Indianness by Meenakshi Mukherjee

 It has been over two centuries since Indians first adopted a new language English as a medium of their creative expression. But it is only in the last few decades that this new writing or literature in English has witnessed a flourishing phase with a spurt in the number of publications .

The Anxiety of Indianness written by Meenakshi Mukherjee begins the essay with a reference to Raja Rao's preface in Kanthapura which was written in 1938, when he was in Paris. In the preface , Raja Rao tries to notify the puzzle between the language, dialect and culture in producing new work in India in English. 

 Raja Rao's Foreword in Kanthapura Raja Rao states that -

"Indian cannot write like British and they should not……English is language of Intellectual makeup not emotional makeup."

This puzzled circumstance is dominating and inflicting conflict in the minds of Indian English writers to write in English because , the language English is  acquired by us but not owned or inherited genealogically. 

In “The Anxiety of Indianness” Mukherjee concentrates on a trend symptomatic in the literary works, mainly novels, written by Indian writers in English. She diagnoses this symptom as ‘anxiety of Indianness.’ With the advent of colonisers in India, nothing has been devoid of the overt influence of colonialism. This was also felt in Indian Writing in English which was deeply patronised by the Western Literature. 

Mukherjee points out that Indian novels in English did not meet with the success that their regional counterparts in Bangla, Marathi, Hindi, Urdu, Tamil and Malayalam did, and asks, "Why did the Indian novel in English fail to generate that momentum in the early years of the emergence of the novel in the subcontinent?"

She tries to give answer with this essay which is divided in six parts. The first section of the essay speaks about the  novels written in the 19th century, and the second section is to an analysis of contemporary work.

 Throughout the book Mukherjee refers to regional novels in what she calls "bhasha" writing .

Alongside her examination of novels in English, to translations of these novels from one bhasha to another, and the translations of novels in English to other Indian languages and vice versa needs a great responsibility and caution. She also studies the implications of these translations for the reading public in terms of region, community, class and specially gender.

Meenakshi Mukherjee says that - "It's not easy to demarcate cultural categories in India, but it may be said that there tends to be an element of urban or moufussil divide in the matter of linguistic choice. That is of course language is at a matter of choice."

 Further , Meenakshi Mukherjee stepsforth to expose how English literature of India is different from the regional "basha " literature of India. That, when a writer, writes in any of the indigenous languages like Hindi, Marathi ,Bengali, Kannada or etcetera, that writer does not feel the heaviness of 'culture, tradition & celebrations' , because he knows about his roots, and through his native language he could be successful to make his readers understand about his thinking and writing,  but  as an Indian writer when he tries to write his ideologies in a foreign language like English and for international audience, it does impact on his writing invoking an anxiety to write.  

But still many writers of India like R K Narayan, Arundhati Roy, Vikram Seth,  Mulk Raj Anand, Amitav Ghosh and others used English language as their powerful tool to bring out their ideas to the world. 

 By doing so, these writers were able to pint out the cultural deficiencies prevalent in India which have been responsible for its disunity — class and caste inequalities in a hierarchical Hindu society, religious charlatanism and unending suffering of the Indian woman suffering from a lack of identity in a patriarchal society.

 A culture and its variations, a language and its dialects, centuries of oral tradition and written literature' which go in the making of a new text or a literary production. This is because, English language in India, from the days of colonial rule, has remained a language of power and officialdom. 

In a sense, the title of this essay is disturbing and in a way discouraging. However tempting, it might be to plunge into some passionate lament for the dissolution of the Indian novel in English, the fact is that explicatory footnotes of this kind are by no means new.

Due to the development of technology and mass media ,the world has become a global village and English language has become a key in connecting people around the world. 

But in India as Rushdie says that – "the ironic proposition that India's best writing since independence may have been done in the language of the departed imperialists is simply too much for some folks to bear" –. This statement created a lot of resentment among many writers, including writers in English of India.

 Indian texts in English, in their attempt to present the nuances of an unfamiliar culture to Western readers, will employ both strata gems depending on their particular aims.

One of the most valuable things about Mukherjee's reading of these texts and authors is the sensitivity with which she perceives and interprets their different cadences and tones and the compassion with which she interrogates the anxieties displayed by them in terms of region, nation, culture, imperialism, class, language and gender.

According to Meenakshi Mukherjee -, On the one hand, a writer should to be rooted in his indigenous culture; on the other hand, the writer should also to be part of the cosmopolitan crowd. It is to solve this conflict that the “anxiety of Indianness” affects the Indian English writers.