Post-Millennial Indian Writing in English

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Theoretical Overview: New Developments in Indian English Writing
2.1 A Short Introduction to Indian English Writing
2.1.1 Postcolonial Literature?
2.1.2 Indian Writing and the English language
2.1.3 “Notions of Indianness”
2.2 Post-Millennial Indian Writing in English
2.2.1 Re-Imagining the Nation in the Writing of Arundhati Roy
2.2.2 “The Graphic Turn in Indian Writing in English”

3. Expanding the Canon of IWE: Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness and Vishwajyoti Ghosh’s Delhi Calm
3.1 The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: Seeing India from the Perspective of the Marginalized
3.2 Delhi Calm: Painting the Picture of the State
3.3 “How does one narrate a fragmenting nation?”
3.3.1 Re-Writing History from a Marginal Perspective
3.3.2 Literary Realism in Post-Millennial Indian English Writing

4. Outlook: Developments of Indian English Writing in Other Media

5. Conclusion

Works Cited

Appendix

1. Introduction

In his video installation finalforest.exe, Indian artist Sahej Rahal shows the viewer a strange, virtual land inhabited by an animated creature. An unknown speaker tells the viewer about the state of Indian society while this creature, controlled by multiple independent artificial intelligences, wanders through a mythical, tropical forest. Through code and gaming technologies, Rahal creates his own mythology, which counters, as he sees it, the myth-building the Indian government uses to establish its ideology (cf. Rahal, Radical World-building). By mixing myths, history, science fiction, and new technologies, Rahal comments on and questions Hindu nationalism and the caste system in India. He does so by incorporating elements of traditional narration and new digital media.

This glimpse into contemporary art was chosen to illustrate how current artists are trying to tell their stories through new genres and media. Sahej Rahal’s art shows how specifically artists with an Indian background are implementing new ways of narration to explore their culture, society, and history. This connects to a general trend within contemporary Indian Writing in English (IWE) post-millennium, which has seen numerous artists and writers experimenting with new forms and genres. While some of these developments happen within the novel, other artists implement new media into their work, such as graphic novels (or graphic narratives¹ ), film, or even videogames.

Arundhati Roy’s novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness and Vishwajyoti Ghosh’s graphic novel Delhi Calm are two seemingly very disparate narratives due to their differences in themes, genre, and media. However, as this thesis argues, despite their differences, both are part of the same literary development and, therefore, highlight the innovative potential and variety of contemporary Indian English Writing. Moreover, as this thesis further argues, both narratives can be read as significant and innovative contributions to this growing body of post-millennial Indian Writing in English and the overall canon of IWE, as they show different and unique ways of depicting and critiquing the Indian nation and offer new approaches to literary realism.

In The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Arundhati Roy shows new developments within the medium of the novel. The Indian nation is depicted through a myriad of characters and their involvement in Indian history and political events while expanding her critique of the Indian nation to present issues, such as gender, capitalism, and precarity, thus, introducing new themes to Indian English literature. Moreover, the novel also asks how literature can even portray such violent stories, questioning the medium's limits and establishing a new kind of literary realism. Likewise, Delhi Calm, essentially a satirical retelling of the Emergency period in India, also examines the Indian nation's current state by showing an unfavorable view of Indian history and society, which parallels many of India's current issues. Furthermore, by combining visual and textual modes of narration, Delhi Calm enables a different representation of this traumatic period of Indian history, creating what will be identified as a ‘traumatic realism.’ It, therefore, exemplifies how other media besides the novel are used to narrate stories in current IWE.

This thesis connects to two different areas of study. First, it relates to research on current developments in Indian English Writing. Central resources for this thesis, among others, were Dawson Varughese (2013), Sen and Roy (2013), and the texts by Ashcroft (2014) and Sadana (2012). Second, this thesis connects to a growing academic interest to look at developments in new media from a postcolonial, and more specifically, an Indian literature perspective. Particularly in the field of comic studies, the works of Nayar (2016), Dawson Varughese (2018), and B. Mehta (2015) were of great importance.

Structurally, this thesis will begin with an overview of Indian Writing in English, highlighting its past and current developments, situating The Ministry of Utmost Happiness and Delhi Calm within its larger context. After this theoretical overview, both narratives will be individually introduced, emphasizing how both exemplify current developments of IWE. Subsequently, both narratives will be analyzed more closely regarding specific themes, again highlighting how these seemingly very different stories are part of a common trend in IWE. Furthermore, the analysis will also show how other media, in this case, the graphic novel, offer a different perspective on questions of Indian English literature. Before its conclusion, this thesis will briefly depart to examine further developments within IWE in other media, specifically in film and videogames.

2. Theoretical Overview: New Developments in Indian English Writing

Indian Writing in English – or IWE - of the last few decades arguably has had “a greater impact on English Literature than writing from any other nation” (Ashcroft 6). Its writing has become a site where Indian identity, society, and nation are negotiated, but also one which has influenced international literary developments. To understand the context in which Arundhati Roy’s and Vishwajyoti Ghosh’s works are created and to enable a closer examination, it is essential to clarify and explain the theoretical terms relevant to this thesis and show the current state of research in the corresponding domains. Therefore, the context, history, and themes of Indian English Writing will be introduced in this section.

2.1 A Short Introduction to Indian English Writing

2.1.1 Postcolonial Literature?

While this paper is mainly interested in developments in contemporary Indian English Writing, IWE is nevertheless still inseparably connected to its postcolonial legacy. Often, literature of countries with a colonial history are still labeled and read as postcolonial literature. However, is this categorization still relevant or even fitting for today’s writing? Are authors not restricted if their writing is always subsumed under this term? On the other hand, in the context of IWE, questions of national identity and what it means to be Indian – questions relevant for the analysis of the narratives in this thesis– are still distinctly affected by the aftermath of colonialism. Moreover, the English language itself is a highly debatable issue, with English being the language of the former British colonizers. While these specific questions will be addressed in subsequent sections, addressing the terms ‘postcolonialism’ and ‘postcolonial literature’ seems vital. Furthermore, the field of postcolonial studies will be briefly introduced, as it may provide points of interest to topics discussed in this thesis.

Political scientists first deployed the term ‘postcolonialism’ to periodize a time after independence from colonial rule. In the case of India, ‘postcolonialism’ usually is considered to begin with the Indian independence after 1947, together with the Indian partition and the foundation of Pakistan. But the term can also be read differently, describing the lasting impact colonial rule has on these countries, from its first contact to the process of decolonization: “The post in postcolonial thus stresses continuities and departures” (Mullaney 5). Homi Bhabha, to take another example, describes postcolonialism as “less a name or a topic, and more a way of making connections or articulations across a range of topics and themes, a locus for theoretical and political reflection rather than a label” (Bhabha and Comaroff 30). Evidently, finding a universal definition for the term has become almost impossible. Critics have noted that the term ‘postcolonialism’ has become too overused and diluted with different meanings. For example, Shohat and Stam assert that the term “blurs the assignment of perspectives” (Shohat 14). Do we use the term to talk about the ex-colonized, the ex-colonizers, the situation in the former colonies, or the new hybrid cultures in the countries of former colonizers? “Since most of the world is now living ‘after’ colonialism, the post neutralizes significant differences between [different countries]” (ebd.). Indeed, critics of postcolonial studies are unsatisfied with the current state of the term and are trying to find new ways to define it.² Nevertheless, the term persists these arguments and is still widely used, with other critics likewise trying to revitalize the term again.³

As already stated, literature of countries with a colonial history is often categorized as ‘postcolonial literature.’ Julie Mullaney defines this literature as:

a various body of writing produced by individuals, communities, and nations with distinct histories of colonialism and which diversely treats its origins, and effects in the past and the present (3).

Moreover, this literature is concerned with cultural power relations, scrutinizing and resisting colonial structures and perspectives (cf. Dawson Varughese, Reading New India 9). However, while current literature of countries with a colonial history may still be described as postcolonial literature, authors such as Emma Dawson Varghese argue that “post-millennial fiction in English is less recognizable by the tropes and guises of the body of writing characterized [as postcolonial literature]” (Reading New India 9). She advocates for a distinction between postcolonial literature and current literature. Similarly, Krishna Sen and Rituparna Roy also assert that the recent wave of innovations within IWE cannot accurately be defined as “mere postcolonial ‘writing back’” (“Introduction” 9). While there has yet to be a new definition for the varied and diverging body of works within contemporary IWE, it might be more apt to talk about Indian English literature to be in a “post-postcolonial phase” (Sen and Roy, “Introduction” 14). What defines postcolonial literature seems to be as much contested as the term postcolonialism itself.

Postcolonial literature studies are part of postcolonial studies, which have become a vital part of human and cultural studies. Here, the term ‘postcolonialism’ is also used as a frame for critical theory and approaches, which look at colonialism and its aftermath from different perspectives. People such as Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, Stuart Hall, and Gayatri Spivak have contributed to a more critical understanding of the term ‘postcolonialism’ and how it affects societies.

Among these critical studies, one field relevant for this paper might be the emergent field of ‘postcolonial media studies.’ In their book, Postcolonial Studies Meets Media Studies: A Critical Encounter, Merten and Krämer acknowledge an over-representation of literature in postcolonial studies and advocate for a unification of postcolonial studies and media studies (cf. “Introduction,” 7). Through this interdisciplinary approach, they want to challenge established viewpoints in both domains while also producing new insights in each (cf. ebd.). Similarly, Ella Shohat and Robert Stam, in their book Multiculturalism, Postcoloniality, and Transnational Media, argue in favor of an interdisciplinary and transnational approach to media studies, encompassing postcolonial studies (cf. 1). These emerging studies show that there are new approaches within postcolonial studies that address the growing number of new genres and (digital) media that are not yet discussed in current postcolonial studies. Especially by conjoining cultural media studies and postcolonial studies, this interdisciplinary and transmedial viewpoint can offer new insights when approaching new genres, such as the graphic narrative.

2.1.2 Indian Writing and the English language

As the name suggests, Indian English Writing focuses on Indian writing, specifically in the English language. By only focusing on writing in English, the whole range of Indian writing is, of course, severely limited and excludes vernacular writing. Personally, this limitation was chosen because of language and cultural barriers. More importantly, however, this focus corresponds to a specific tradition in (Western) literature studies to look at global developments in Anglophone Writing. As already discussed, the lasting impact of colonialism has spread English as an international language, producing new developments beyond its ‘native’ origins. Often, countries with a colonial history have implemented the colonizers’ language into their own, creating fascinating dynamics. Hence, the use of English can also be read as a site of contest: It is used as a global language but also as a place to negotiate and challenge (post-)colonial power relations (cf. Neumann and Rippl 5–7). Indeed, especially Indian writers find themselves struggling between modernity and tradition, national and international audiences, and publishers’ expectations when writing in English. This section will briefly examine Indian literature’s long and complex history with the English language.

Before the Indian independence in 1947, English was used as a political and cultural language under British rule. It was the language of the colonizers and, otherwise, only learned and spoken by upper-class Indians. Bankimchandra Chatterjee's novel Rajmohan's Wife from 1864 is regarded as the first novel written and published in English by an Indian. During this time, the few Indian authors who wrote in English used the language as a tool for experimentation in their writing (cf. Sadana 126f.). After the independence, the role of English in the new Indian nation was an important question. While politicians tried to distance India from the English language and establish Hindi as the national language, English was already established in society, which is why it was declared the second official Indian language in 1967. Furthermore, through globalization and economic changes, English was also used by a new generation of Indians living in urban spaces or the diaspora (cf. ebd. 132).

An important turning point is the publication of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children in 1981 and its award of the Booker Prize. The novel marks an enormous shift in the perception of Indian English Writing. Rushdie’s work is seen as “having resurrected British fiction and as having broken through the colonizer-colonized paradigm” (Sadana 132). Moreover, suddenly, an international audience was made aware of Indian English Writing. Likewise, Indian writers started to accept English more readily as a language for their writing, using it more akin to the English actually spoken in India (cf. Mee 320f.).

Today, Indian literature is more likely to be written in English than in other Indian languages. Still, English remains the language of a cultural elite, disconnected from the life of many Indians. According to Rashmi Sadana, even today only 5 percent of Indians are fluent in English: Most Indians either speak their own language or Hindi, which is spoken by roughly 40 percent of the Indian population (cf. Sadana 134f.). Nevertheless, the relationship between India and the English language is ever-changing, and one can already see shifts in how English is becoming more common even outside the Indian upper- and middle-class (cf. ebd. 140).^[4]

2.1.3 “Notions of Indianness”

In her book Reading New India: Post-Millennial Indian Fiction in English, Emma Dawson Varughese points out that the question of ‘Indianness’ has long been an essential motif of Indian (English) literature (cf. 5). How ‘Indianness’ is portrayed in literature parallels the socio-political development of India as a country and how authors are engaging with their national identity. Therefore, by focusing on the motif of Indianness, the overall developments of IWE (and India as a country) can be understood. This section will first look at the developments of Indian English Writing in the past, with the following chapter shifting the focus to current developments.

As already described in the last section, before independence, English was the language of the elite and the colonizers. For the few Indian authors writing in English, India was used “as a subject or a muse” (Dawson Varughese, Reading New India 7) to portray a romanticized motherland and was less centered on a specific Indian experience, which we can see in writings, such as the poems by Sri Aurobindo (cf. ebd.).

At the turn of the 20th century, however, this literary relationship between India and its people changed. Bill Ashcroft divides the development of the image of the Indian nation during the last century into three stages, defined by particular literary ideas and visions (cf. Ashcroft 7): He sets the first period from the beginning of the 20th century to independence. It is marked by the search for an Indian national identity, fueled by anti-colonial sentiments and the wish for independence. Rabindranath Tagore envisioned a future of India that surpassed nationalism, and Mohandas Gandhi released his Hind Swaraj in English, in which he wrote down his vision of an independent India. Both were against the western idea of a nation-state. These conflicting visions defined this era. The second period, according to Ashcroft, begins with the Indian independence. A postcolonial literary canon started to form itself in the late 1930s and 40s with writers such as R. K. Narayan, Raja Rao, Anita Desai, and G.V. Desani and continued to develop itself long after the independence (cf. Dawson Varughese 8). Their writing focused on Indian identity and experience, resisting colonial rule. Simultaneously, with the independence, India as a whole also had to answer the question of what country it wanted to be. The Indian National Congress, led by Jawaharlal Nehru, tried to create a secular India. Nehru wanted an India that would encompass the diverseness of India, protecting different cultures and religions “rather than imposing a uniform ‘Indianness’” (Dawson Varughese, Reading New India 2). With Nehru’s death in 1964, politics turned nationalistic, and political tensions increased. Finally, Ashcroft sets the third period beginning with the rule of Indira Gandhi, who tried to create a single political vision for India. The reign of Indira Gandhi can be seen as the point at which the euphoria of the new nation turned into disappointment (cf. Ashcroft 6).

This disillusionment led to an essential next step in the development of IWE and ‘Indianness’ in literature when the aforementioned Midnight’s Children was released in 1981. Bill Ashcroft sees the novel's publication as a crucial shift in Indian English Writing: “The three decades after 1981 have revealed a literature whose mobility and energy has had perhaps a greater impact on English literature than any other” (Ashcroft 5). Whereas pre-Rushdie, the language and form of Indian literature were very “unindian” (Dawson Varughese, Reading New India 13), Rushdie introduced new ways of expressing Indianness in literature by using a language and form more suitable to the content. Moreover, Ashcroft argues that Rushdie inaugurated a phase of Indian English Writing, particularly diasporic writing, marked by its skeptical view of nationalism and a focus on social and political injustice (cf. 6). Even though this only continues the past visions of Tagore and Gandhi, these writings introduced new trends and “regenerat[ed] a hidden tradition of anti-nationalist utopianism in Indian literature” (ebd.). Ashcroft sees the defining characteristics of these novels in their disapproval of class injustice, the idea of the nation, and the global mobility of writers (cf. Ashcroft 15f.), which will be looked at in the following sections.

2.2 Post-Millennial Indian Writing in English

Since the release of Midnight’s Children, more than 40 years have passed, and India has changed. Today, the Bharatiya Janata Party (or BJP), a Hindu nationalist party, guides India’s political vision. Their vision of ‘Indianness’ is one of a united Hindu India (cf. Dawson Varughese, Reading New India 2). The exclusion of other cultures and religions led to Hindu-Muslim tensions and conflicts, such as the destruction of the Babri Masjid mosque in 1992. Opposite to the political and religious tensions, India’s economy was booming, creating new levels of prosperity, and establishing the Indian nation as an important player in the global market. However, the economic growth brought its own social and cultural problems, such as a growing wealth disparity and deregulation of state welfare.

As India has changed, so has its literature. While the ripples of Rushdie’s writing are still felt, IWE has further evolved and innovated since then. Dawson Varughese sees a new wave of Indian Writing in English emerging at the turn of the millennium, which she labels “post-millennial Indian fiction in English” (Dawson Varughese, Reading New India 17). Likewise, in their collection of essays Writing India Anew. Indian English Fiction 2000-2010, Krishna Sen and Rituparna Roy also assert a new literature forming at the turn of the millennium, resulting from the drastically changed “socio-political landscape as compared even to the 1990s” (“Introduction” 13).

This post-millennial literature is characterized by their continuing critique of the nation-state but also the incorporation of the rapidly changing reality of being Indian in the 21st century. Dawson Varughese deems this as the uniting quality of this new body of works across genres (cf. Reading New India 145). This includes, for example, the new Indian middle-class and the influence of globalized capitalism, but also a departure into new genres and forms, such as films or graphic narratives (cf. Dawson Varughese, Reading New India 14f.). Furthermore, this literature of the new millennium differentiates itself further by the introduction of and experimentation with new themes:

The range of themes extended from re-mapping mythology and history to reassessing the globalized India of today, and technical experiments transited from re-inventing the epics of forays into science-fiction and the graphic novel (Sen and Roy, “Introduction” 9).

The specific literary developments and context connected to The Ministry of Utmost Happiness as well as to Delhi Calm will be described next.

2.2.1 Re-Imagining the Nation in the Writing of Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy’s writing can be grouped within general developments of IWE post-Rushdie. Her novel The God of Small Things, which won the Booker Prize in 1997, firmly established a new Indian English writing on the international literary scene. However, even within these developments, her writing stands as uniquely innovative, and it is no understatement to claim that her writing alone has influenced literary developments within IWE: “Roy's novel [ The God of Small Things ] has shaped both the Indian domestic literary scene as well as the Indian diasporic and international literary scenes” (Dawson Varughese, Reading New India 13). Despite the twenty-year gap between both novels, The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (MOUH) are significant points in a growing canon of works about ‘New India’ from the turn of the millennium, with the first novel paving the way for a new literature and the second one arguably continuing this development.

The God of Small Things, published in 1997, is often included in the list of works created after the wake of Midnight’s Children in the 1980s and 1990s. These works are characterized by “the appearance of a certain post-modern playfulness, the turn to history, a new exuberance of language, the reinvention of allegory, the sexual frankness” (Mee 318). Especially the use of the English language was a striking development, particularly in the case of The God of Small Things. The language was more experimental, playful, and better fitting to writing from an Indian perspective. Moreover, as already stated earlier, the writing of authors after Rushdie looked at the nation from a critical, postcolonial perspective, subverting the grand narrative of the nation-state. Such is also the case in other important works of this era, such as Amitav Gosh’s The Shadow Lines from 1988, which opposes nationalism and national borders through its narrative. As Ashcroft points out, these novels are occupied with the “classic postcolonial critique” (11), meaning the disillusionment of the nation-state being a liberation from colonial past. In the case of The God of Small Things, this criticism is voiced by depicting the struggle between “the ‘Small God’ of individual lives and the ‘Big God’ of the nation” (Mee 335). Personal stories are interwoven with stories of the nation and history but are at odds with each other, showing the fragmented and shattered relationship between the two. The nation's official history has to be re-written to preserve the smaller stories of its people (cf. Ashcroft 12f.), a theme we will revisit later in this thesis.

More importantly, in many ways, The God of Small Things can be seen as inaugurating current developments in IWE by focusing on issues of ‘New India.’ The novel introduces themes of class disparity , caused to some degree by economic and subsequent societal changes of the 1990s (cf. Dawson Varughese, Reading New India 13) . The Small God represents the “impoverished and disenfranchised” (Ashcroft 16) people who do not fit the Big God's grand narrative. Thus, The God of Small Things can be read as a central work of “fiction from the turn of the millennium demonstrate[ing] new departures in writing in English, […] in genre, form, and voice” (Dawson Varughese, Reading New India 15).

This development continues in novels such as Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger from 2008, which tries to subvert India's narrative as a rising economic superpower by casting a member of the lower class as its protagonist. Here, the novel exploits imagery of a dark and exotic India to subvert the reader’s expectations in order to critique and attack the neoliberal status quo and the state of Indian society. Adiga’s novel disrupts established genre traditions by using elements of different genres, such as gothic horror and the Bildungsroman, satirically. It employs various narrative techniques, like staged authenticity and unreliable narration. Thus, the novel further exemplifies the established characteristics of post-millennial Indian English Writing.

The focus on the uneasy relationship between nation and individual, which The God of Small Things introduced, is even more pronounced in MOUH. Not only does the novel continue to experiment with language and to critique the Indian nation, but by focusing on the precarious lives of India’s marginalized groups, it also tries to speak and comment on living conditions in ‘New India.’ How The Ministry of Utmost Happiness fits into the development of post-millennial Indian Writing in English will be examined more closely at a later point.^[5]

2.2.2 “The Graphic Turn in Indian Writing in English”

Delhi Calm is part of the emerging genre of Indian English graphic narratives - a development, which Pramod K. Nayar argues,

[is] increasingly central to the canon of Indian Writing in English, […] adding to the existing corpus of texts in IWE a new representational mode that re-invigorates the canon, the form, and the themes (The Indian Graphic Novel 7).

Through its visual storytelling, the graphic narrative offers new modes of representing issues of IWE and a possible unique Indian mode of expression. As some of its proponents argue, graphic narratives have emerged into a medium “of critical engagement with all kinds of shortcomings in Indian society, often paired with overt stylistic innovations” (Wiemann 163). The following section will examine the history and research on the (Indian) graphic narrative.

Before continuing this overview, though, it seems necessary to first clarify the terminology. Graphic novels can be defined as:

a useful shorthand for either adult readership comic books or single-volume comics, the qualities (content or artwork) of which distinguish them as exceptional when compared to regularly serialized titles” (Baetens and Frey 3).

The term ‘graphic novel’ was established to distinguish more serious, often novel-length work in comics from the more ‘cartoony’ comics (even though these stories can also be political, serious, and important forms of literature). While the term ‘graphic novel’ is widely used, it is not uncontested. Other terms, such as ‘graphic narrative’ or ‘graphic literature,’ are also used. Pramod K. Nayar, for example, argues for the use of the term ‘graphic narrative’ as it encompasses the variety of stories beyond fiction and stresses the autonomy of the medium (cf. The Indian Graphic Novel 4f.). Other critics, such as Dirk Wiemann, also opt for the term ‘graphic narrative’ for these reasons (cf. Wiemann 157), and he adds that the term ‘novel’ can be seen critically as it can be understood as an “imported/imposed genre” (Wiemann 158). Still, similar to the term ‘postcolonialism,’ the term ‘graphic novel’ remains relevant and widely used as a label⁶ for these specific stories, despite being challenged.

In general, comics and graphic novels have already been the subject of a moderately large amount of academic research. Comic scholarships have flourished in the last few decades, having created different branches within and developing a wide array of critical approaches and methods (Heer and Worcester 11; B. Mehta 4f.). Still, in the context of South Asian and postcolonial literary studies, or more specifically, regarding Indian English fiction, these kinds of stories have only recently been recognized as works of scholarly interest: “Current comic-book area studies remain firmly situated within the ‘US-European and manga paradigms’ and their reading publics” (B. Mehta 4). While there have been movements to also look at marginalized narratives – Art Siegelman’s Maus being a vital catalyst for a wave of important studies into different fields within comic studies – a transnational, global view is still a blind spot within comic scholarships (B. Mehta 5f.). Nevertheless, in recent years one could witness a growing number of works focusing precisely on this issue, such as Transnational Perspectives on Graphic Narratives: Comics At The Crossroads, edited by Shane Denson, Christina Meyer, and Daniel Stein, Postcolonial Comics: Texts, Events, Identities, edited Binita Mehta and Pia Mukherji, or more specifically in the context of Indian English Writing, E. Dawson Varughese’s Visuality and Identity in Post-millennial Indian Graphic Narratives, and Pramod K. Nayar’s The Indian Graphic Novel: Nation, history and critique. This thesis connects to this growing body of comic scholarship, which is taking a global view on comic production and is interested in engaging with themes of colonialism, representing minorities, and issues of multiculturalism.

The arrival of the first Indian graphic narrative is sometimes attributed to Sarnath Bannerjee's Corridor, published in 2005, or The River of Stories by Orijit Sen, published in 1994. However, visual storytelling has been part of India’s culture for much longer. In the past, stories of legends and gods were communicated orally through songs, chants, and performances, which were later expanded to also use visual modes of narration (cf. Junik-Łuniewska 150-153). Especially images played an important role in accompanying these stories. For example, there is the traditional Indian storytelling tradition kāvad bãcānā, in which pictures are being painted on portable shrines (cf. ebd. 154). Graphic narratives, thus, “correspond […] with the whole visual tradition of storytelling in India” (Junik-Łuniewska 153) and continue an Indian literary tradition to “employ other ‘media’ into their storytelling” (ebd. 150).

[...]

¹ After this chapter, this thesis will opt to use the term ‘graphic narrative’ instead of the term ‘graphic novel’. The reasons for this change can be found in chapter 2.2.2. However, as the term ‘graphic novel’ is arguably still more widely-used and understood, it will be used in certain contexts.

² For example, Shankar proposes to distinguish “between a transnational postcolonialism and a vernacular postcolonialism” (Shankar 83), to emphasize the importance of diverse postcolonial identities.

³ For an overview of arguments for the use of postcolonial as a term for critique and theory, see Merten and Krämer (Postcolonial studies meets media studies) 8-10.

⁴ (Dawson Varughese, Reading New India 1).

⁵ Nayar (The Indian Graphic Novel 11).

⁶ „For the Indian market and specifically with regard to the legacy of the Amar Chitra Katha series, the labelling of a work as a ‘graphic novel' has been instrumental in forging a new identity of text-image production within the Indian (literary) marker” (Dawson Varughese Visuality and Identity 18).