English Literature

The history of Indian drama is very old.  Its origin  can be traced back to the Vedic Period.  It is popular as the fifth  Veda .  The Indian English drama made genuine progress in the early post-independence period. Asif Currimbhoy made a significant contribution in its development. He liberated it from the static tradition of Tagore and Aurobindo and laid a strong foundation for Indian drama. Asif Currimbhoy is an Indian playwright. He is one of the most prolific playwrights of the Post-Independence period. As a playwright he has no equal. He is known as India's first authentic voice in the theatre. He is one modern Indian playwright who has shown great interest in producing drama. His love for Shakespearean drama has influenced his body of work. Asif Currimbhoy had a background of a reputed family of Khoja Muslims. His father was an industrialist and his mother was a dedicated social worker. His wife, Suraiya, called him a Karma Yogi. H...

R.K. Narayan, the winner of Sahitya Academy Award, is one of the most famous Indian writers in Indian English writing. He achieved international acclaim as a prolific and perfect storyteller. He wrote several stories which fascinated the readers throughout the world. An Astrologer’s Day is one of them. This is the first beautiful short story in Narayan's anthology called Malgudi Days. The narrator narrates the past story of the astrologer. Circumstances compel him to leave his small village stealthily without any previous plan. This creates curiosity in the minds of the reader. What has happened in his past? One day when the astrologer starts to pack up at the end of the day, an unusual client appears in the scene to consult the astrologer. The story takes a new turn when he compels the astrologer to answer his specific questions. The astrologer succeeds in bargaining and the interesting part of the story begins. The stranger is a smoker who uses the match stick to light his che...

Ibsen is one of the greatest dramatists of English literature. He is the first man to show that high tragedy can be written about ordinary people in ordinary everyday prose. His contribution to the theatre is memorable. His A Doll's House is a beautiful drama. A Doll's House is a problem play or thesis play. Here Ibsen presents the problem and leaves the solution to the readers. The problem is - what is the position of woman in relation to her husband and her home? The play focuses our attention on the conjugal life of a middle class couple. It shows the sad consequences of the subordination of a married woman to the control of her husband. It again shows the method to get out of that predicament. Thus marriage is the major theme of this play. Ibsen is in favour of Nora, the heroine of the play. She wins our sympathy also. Thus it can be said that A Doll's House is a feminist play.  Ibsen is popular as a dramatist of social realities.He was interested in women's inde...

Premchand: A Great Storyteller Munshi Premchand, the pioneer of modern Hindi and Urdu social fiction, has been the epitome of Hindi literature. He is always compared with Charles Dickens, Gorky and Tolstoy. He, the most renowned authors of the early 20th century in India, was a versatile writer of short stories, novels, dramas and essays. He translated a number of literary works of other languages into Hindi. Born at Lamahi near Banaras in a lower middle class family, Premchand learnt his early lessons in a madarsa. No doubt, his whole life was full of struggle. He made an active participation in the freedom movement of India. In response to Gandhi’s call he quit his job of Deputy Inspector and after that he devoted himself to writing. Premchand, a fantastic story writer, wrote more than three hundred stories. Experience of life is the soul of these stories and they are pure classic. These short stories mirror the society and encompass everything in the universe. Premchand’s first ...

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.