A panel discussion on ‘Indian Writing in English’ was organised by Belletristic, the literature society of Shoolini University. The main speaker of the session titled ‘How Indian is Indian English?’ was Prof. Kalpana Purohit, Department of English, Jodhpur University.
Other discussants were Dr. Komil Tyagi, MCM DAV College for Women, Chandigarh, and Ms. Tanvi Garg, Ph.D. Scholar, GGS IPU, Dwarka, Delhi. The host team that participated in the discussion comprised Purnima Bali, Neeraj Pizar, Sakshi Sundaram, and the Head of the Dept, Manju Jaidka.
The session highlighted how English came into India and how Indian writing in English gradually evolved over the years so that now it has made a niche for itself in world literature. The speakers discussed the
contribution of the pioneers of Indian English In India – Raja Rao, Mulk Raj Anand and R. K. Narayan – and other early writers such as Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, Sarojini Naidu, Mahatma Gandhi, and Jawaharlal Nehru. The main speaker’s talk was followed by a discussion on Indian English drama, fictional works and poetry written in the second half of the twentieth century.
The session was followed by a lively interaction and a brief question-answer round.
Belletristic organises a virtual meeting every week and will continue to hold such interesting events that have a wide reach in the cyber world, through Facebook, Blog, Instagram and, YouTube. There is no doubt that, despite the Covid lockdown, Shoolini University has become a vibrant hub of literary activities.
