alternative writing

Alternative Writing

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Not only mainstream, India has also been the global epicenter of parallel experimental and avant garde counter culture with the ongoing Prakalpana Movement for over the last four decades. Prakalpana Movement found its place in the world of literary movements by projecting its newly created forms and concepts of Prakalpana fiction and Sarbangin Poetry in its bilingual English-Bangla organs Kobisena and Prakalpana Sahitya/ Prakalpana Literature. The movement has been enriched with the works of today’s renowned avant garde and experimental writers and mail artists such as Richard Kostelanetz, John M. Bennett, Don Webb, Carla Bertola, Sheila Murphy and many others worldwide, with their Indian Counterparts like Dilip Gupta, Nikhil Bhaumik, Syamoli Mukherjee Bhattacharjee, Ramratan Mukhopadhyay, Bibhu Padhi, Boudhayan Mukhopadhyay, Utpal etc. as well as Vattacharja Chandan, who has been the artificer and architect of the movement.[1] A glimpse of the unique Prakalpana fiction form which is the fusion of prose-poetry-picture-play-essay all-in-one, is observable from (a chapter of the on-going bilingual Bangla-English Atiprithibi / Cosmosphere) e book By Vattacharja Chandan : Aurora On The River Gour.

HARINDRANATH CHATOPADYA

Some bilingual writers have also made significant and impressive contribution among whom the appearance of Paigham Afaqui's novel MAKAAN in 1989 later also appearing in English almost revived novel writing when it made waves in literary circles of Delhi and English press lauded it. Novels of Vikram Seth and Arundhati Roy were inspired by it's success. 

Indo-Nostalgic writing

 

do-Nostalgic writing is a somewhat loosely defined term encompassing writings, in the English language, wherein nostalgia regarding the Indian subcontinent, typically regarding India, represent a dominant theme or strong undercurrent. The writings may be memoirs, or quasi-fictionalized memoirs, travelogues, or inspired in part by real-life experiences and in part by the writer's imagination. This would include both mass-distributed "Indo-Anglian" literature put out by major publishing houses and also much shorter articles (e.g. feature pieces in mainstream or literary magazines) or poetry, including material published initially or solely in webzines.

AMITHAV GOSH

ARUNDATI-ROY

Certainly, Indo-Nostalgic writings have much overlap with post-colonial literature but are generally not about 'heavy' topics such as cultural identity, conflicted identities, multilingualism or rootlessness. The writings are often less self-conscious and more light-hearted, perhaps dealing with impressionistic memories of places, people, cuisines, Only-in-India situations, or simply vignettes of "the way things were". Of late, a few Indo-nostalgic writers are beginning to show signs of "long-distance nationalism", concomitant with the rise of nationalism within India against the backdrop of a booming economy.

Typically, the authors are either Western-based writers of Indian origin (e.g. Salman Rushdie, Rohinton Mistry, Vijay Singh, Suketu Mehta), or Western writers who have spent long periods of time in the subcontinent, possibly having been born or raised in India, perhaps as the children of British Raj-era European expatriates or missionaries (e.g. Jim Corbett, Stephen Alter). Or, they may even be Anglo-Indians who have emigrated from the subcontinent to the West. Third Culture Kids (TCKs) often grow up to produce Indo-Nostalgic writings that exhibit palpably deep (and perhaps somewhat romanticized) feelings for their childhoods in the subcontinent. Accordingly, another common theme in Indo-Nostalgic writing is "rediscovery" or its cousin, "reconnection".Of course, for mass-distributed authors, Indo-Nostalgic writings may not necessarily represent all of their literary output, but certainly would represent a high percentage. Finally, it is worth noting that the markets for such writers are almost entirely in the West; despite the rapid growth in the incomes of urban Indians, the sales of English-language literature within India (other than books required for educational degrees or professional purposes) are minuscule compared to sales in the West, even if one includes pirated copies.