India's first English Novel: Kanthapura

We are living in times when it is not easy to go back in time and find out how the modern Indian English Literature has reached here, as we know it today. Do you know how novel writing in English began in India? Do you know who wrote the first novel and what was its name? 

India's first English Novel was 'Kanthapura' written by Raja Rao. Published in 1938, Kanthapura is a beautiful representation of how Gandhi's nonviolent movement for independence from the British came to a typical village in South India. Shown in a miniature form the novel takes us through the challenges of those times and their impact on the social and political atmosphere of that time. It was a notable first novel in English that set the trend for future authors.

For readers who want to understand what Indian English Fiction is all about, it is important they start with Kanthapura. It will take them through the roots. However, Kanthapura is just the beginning, the evolution of the Indian novel brings us more voices in Indian fiction which cannot be ignored. 

Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children is a classical fictional work which resounds all over the world in the literary world. This is the novel which has won the most number of prizes in the world. Despite many other controversial novels he has written, Midnight's Children is the one which has fetched him most accolades. 

Likewise, Arundhoti's God of Small Things is a critical work to go through. Although this is the only work she has penned in fiction, it plays a crucial role in Indian fiction today. The mention of the Indian English novel without it seems incomplete. 


To read what all novels you should read to get a sense of Indo-Anglican Fiction, click  here.

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