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The Book of Indian Essays: Two Hundred Years Of English Prose
Indians have been writing prose and poetry in English for the past two centuries. Anthologies of the country's poets and poems have appeared regularly, but it is difficult to come across a wide-ranging historical anthology of the Indian essay in English. This collection starts with Derozio in the 1820s and ends with writers admired for their prose in the twenty-first century.
This pioneering assemblage - of great Indian short prose within a single volume - is equally impressive for its range. The reflective essay, the luminous memoir, the essay disguised as a story, the memorable prefatory article, the newspaper column that transcends its humdrum origins, the gossip piece that oozes literariness, the forgotten flower in the long-dead magazine, the satirical putdown - all these find place here.
A literary anthology also works as an alternative history. This volume resembles a map of middleclass India's social life and aesthetic sensibilities from hybrid perspectives - Indian and Western, feminine and masculine, anti-colonial and antinationalist. To be found in it are diverse characters in scattered locations - including Victorian Calcutta, modern America, village Egypt, elevated Oxford, feudal Kerala, cosmopolitan Mumbai, bureaucratic Delhi, Buddhist Benares, Civil Lines Allahabad, and small-town India.
The essays amuse, surprise, edify. The feelings and ideas in them provoke thought, compassion, and a sense of the wonder that was India.
This pioneering assemblage - of great Indian short prose within a single volume - is equally impressive for its range. The reflective essay, the luminous memoir, the essay disguised as a story, the memorable prefatory article, the newspaper column that transcends its humdrum origins, the gossip piece that oozes literariness, the forgotten flower in the long-dead magazine, the satirical putdown - all these find place here.
A literary anthology also works as an alternative history. This volume resembles a map of middleclass India's social life and aesthetic sensibilities from hybrid perspectives - Indian and Western, feminine and masculine, anti-colonial and antinationalist. To be found in it are diverse characters in scattered locations - including Victorian Calcutta, modern America, village Egypt, elevated Oxford, feudal Kerala, cosmopolitan Mumbai, bureaucratic Delhi, Buddhist Benares, Civil Lines Allahabad, and small-town India.
The essays amuse, surprise, edify. The feelings and ideas in them provoke thought, compassion, and a sense of the wonder that was India.
462 pages, Hardcover
Published November 12, 2020
10 people are currently reading
132 people want to read
About the author
Arvind Krishna Mehrotra
38 books21 followersArvind Krishna Mehrotra was born in Lahore in 1947. He has published six collections of poetry in English and two of translation — a volume of Prakrit love poems, The Absent Traveller, recently reissued in Penguin Classics, and Songs of Kabir (NYRB Classics). His Oxford India Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian Poets (1992) has been very influential. He has edited several books, including History of Indian Literature in English (Columbia University Press, 2003) and Collected Poems in English by Arun Kolatkar (Bloodaxe Books, 2010). His collection of essays Partial Recall: Essays on Literature and Literary History was published by Permanent Black in 2012. A second book of essays, Translating the Indian Past (Permanent Black), appeared in 2019.
Mehrotra was nominated for the post of Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford in 2009. He came second behind Ruth Padel, who later resigned over allegations of a smear campaign against Trinidadian poet Derek Walcott (who had himself earlier withdrawn from the election process).
Mehrotra has translated more than 200 literary works from ancient Prakrit language, and from Hindi, Bengali and Gujarati.
Mehrotra was nominated for the post of Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford in 2009. He came second behind Ruth Padel, who later resigned over allegations of a smear campaign against Trinidadian poet Derek Walcott (who had himself earlier withdrawn from the election process).
Mehrotra has translated more than 200 literary works from ancient Prakrit language, and from Hindi, Bengali and Gujarati.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 14, 2024
This is an eclectic collection of essays from Indian subcontinent for the past 200 years. The voices are diverse - some are translated pieces from published books, some essays are from famous Indian poets and literary figures, there is also an anonymous entry that was published in newspaper and some are from women. The diversity also comes from essayists coming from different parts of the country and the geographical differences makes the collection (personally!) quite a fascinating read.
One of my favorite of the collection is an anonymous entry - "The Colonization of India" written in 1830. This is the time when books by Byron, Shelly, Jane Austen were popular and on the other side, India was being looted en mass - at first because of trade and later "to civilize the planet". The writer details out the colonization that has taken place in Europe and Asian minor, and how the boundaries of colonies expanded from neighboring lands to lands that were several thousand miles away. Writing predicts that loss of autonomy of trade, land and religions if the expansion of the British Empire continued.
"The Nation" by Tagore is a well thought out essay that was and has been popular in curriculum across the country. It was nostalgic to read this essay as an adult and the way Tagore could articulate the ideology in a way that's accessible easily.
"My Aunt Gracie" by Qurratulain Hyder is an autobiographical piece that's bittersweet, slice of life and a mirror to her life. This essay masks as a story where she weaves displacement and the associated politics into story that's resonant even today.
"The ugliness of the Indian Male" by Mukul Kesavan is a rant. Its funny, and I can somewhat understand where he is coming from but with things that are happening online (particularly on X) where the hatred and bigotry comes in just because someone posts something quite innocuous, essays like these offer an unapologetic harsher look without respite.
"A secret connivance" by Anita Desai is a poignant look into women writers in India. Both historically and in contemporary literary world, women writers have different kind of imprisonments - education, religion and economics. The standards are set impossibly high and driven harshly through critiquing or many times just asking - why you, and educated woman, writing fiction instead of teaching begging children. A thought provoking read.
"Naipul's India and mine" by Nissim Ezekiel is a well written critique of Naipul's crap.
"Art as politics" by Gautam Bhatia is a summary of the insanity that is politicians aggressively wasting time, money and resources on statues to enter records or show power and whatnot. New hospitals? nah. Research grants? do some jugaad. but, tall statues for and by politicians in power? yes please.
"Another booker flop" by Sanjay Subrahmanyam is a critique of Aravind Adiga's "White Tiger". He ends his essay with "This book adds another brick to the patronizing edifice it wants to tear down." Yeah.
This was an interesting collection with different voices and themes. However, less than a dozen of these essays have really stood out and the rest provided a decent stream of thought.
For the sheer exposure to these essays itself is a credit to the editor who definitely deserves appreciation. Discovering new writers is always a pleasure and some of the critiques in the collection alone deserves the rating.
One of my favorite of the collection is an anonymous entry - "The Colonization of India" written in 1830. This is the time when books by Byron, Shelly, Jane Austen were popular and on the other side, India was being looted en mass - at first because of trade and later "to civilize the planet". The writer details out the colonization that has taken place in Europe and Asian minor, and how the boundaries of colonies expanded from neighboring lands to lands that were several thousand miles away. Writing predicts that loss of autonomy of trade, land and religions if the expansion of the British Empire continued.
"The Nation" by Tagore is a well thought out essay that was and has been popular in curriculum across the country. It was nostalgic to read this essay as an adult and the way Tagore could articulate the ideology in a way that's accessible easily.
"My Aunt Gracie" by Qurratulain Hyder is an autobiographical piece that's bittersweet, slice of life and a mirror to her life. This essay masks as a story where she weaves displacement and the associated politics into story that's resonant even today.
"The ugliness of the Indian Male" by Mukul Kesavan is a rant. Its funny, and I can somewhat understand where he is coming from but with things that are happening online (particularly on X) where the hatred and bigotry comes in just because someone posts something quite innocuous, essays like these offer an unapologetic harsher look without respite.
"A secret connivance" by Anita Desai is a poignant look into women writers in India. Both historically and in contemporary literary world, women writers have different kind of imprisonments - education, religion and economics. The standards are set impossibly high and driven harshly through critiquing or many times just asking - why you, and educated woman, writing fiction instead of teaching begging children. A thought provoking read.
"Naipul's India and mine" by Nissim Ezekiel is a well written critique of Naipul's crap.
"Art as politics" by Gautam Bhatia is a summary of the insanity that is politicians aggressively wasting time, money and resources on statues to enter records or show power and whatnot. New hospitals? nah. Research grants? do some jugaad. but, tall statues for and by politicians in power? yes please.
"Another booker flop" by Sanjay Subrahmanyam is a critique of Aravind Adiga's "White Tiger". He ends his essay with "This book adds another brick to the patronizing edifice it wants to tear down." Yeah.
This was an interesting collection with different voices and themes. However, less than a dozen of these essays have really stood out and the rest provided a decent stream of thought.
For the sheer exposure to these essays itself is a credit to the editor who definitely deserves appreciation. Discovering new writers is always a pleasure and some of the critiques in the collection alone deserves the rating.
May 1, 2023
It’s a pioneering assemblage anthology of great Indian essays and short prose in a single volume. The stories easily transcend their humdrum origins, gossip pieces, and long-lost flowers in the book. It’s an anthology that's destined to become a classic.
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August 1, 2021An amazing book that gives a glimpse into the life and times through the ages.
November 30, 2025
Everytime I read an essay or turned a few pages in this book, I felt I was seated in a corner in a big library, with a huge pile of newspapers from different years stacked in front of me, that I was sifting through the contents, picking/reading features articles by different authors - some eminent ones, some lesser known & hitherto unknown ones.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews