Dubai: English writing from India is evincing keen interest worldwide, a fact that is reflected by the encouraging response these writers have been receiving for their works.
The interest mainly comes from the wide Indian diaspora and, this time, noticeably from the younger generation that views these books as a window to Indian culture, something that has captured global attention.
"I had not quite expected the huge response I received from readers here. Youngsters are quite keen to know more about India," Chetan Bhagat, a former banker turned writer, who hit it off with young readers right from his first book Five Point Someone and has emerged as a hot favourite, told Gulf News.
Recently in Dubai to attend the Sharjah International Book Fair, Bhagat was welcomed by hundreds of young readers from the UAE waiting for an interaction with him in a jam packed hall. Even as critics disapprove of his colloquial language, his books that revolve around life in modern-day India and its issues, continue topping sales charts.
Bhagat has not just earned loyal fans worldwide, he has also been covered extensively by international media. Politician and author of over a dozen books, Shashi Tharoor, feels Indians living abroad see his books as a good entry point to understand India.
‘Tremendous feedback'
"Certainly the diaspora gives me a tremendous feedback. During my visit to Sharjah, I was deeply moved to see almost 1,000 people waiting for me. The feedback I get is that they are touched by my books and they have shown their appreciation both for fiction as well as non-fiction.
"Indians living abroad often tend to see my books as a good entry point to understanding India," said the author whose literary works revolve around Indian themes," Tharoor said.
A significant rise in the number of English readers in India is creating a strong market for Indian English writing, feel the writers.
Ruskin Bond, an icon among Indian authors and a top novelist, agrees that many times writers vie for international acclaim. "The thing is that up to ten years ago a writer who wanted some sort of international recognition had to publish abroad. But now he can gain that kind of recognition while he is publishing in India itself."
The number of readers in India too has grown enormously and that has created a strong market for English writing, including fiction.
Focus on youth
"The number of young people who can read now has grown enormously. All of them may not be fond of reading though. But even a small percentage in terms of readers creates a huge difference and a market for English writing. One of the beneficiaries is literature," the writer says.
India's best-selling woman author Shobhaa De, who has authored 17 books, opines that the country's emergence as a strong economic power is one of the obvious reasons that is generating high readership for Indian English writers.
Contemporary history
"The scenario is very upbeat, the world is quite obviously looking at India and China and the phenomenon is inevitable. Indian writers who are chronicling contemporary history would be noticed," she said.
"They are finally coming to their own very strongly and establishing a specific identity for themselves," said the author, who will soon be coming out with a fiction titled Sethji, revolving around Indian politics."
Their international acclaim notwithstanding, Indian authors continue to stay focused on catering to the Indian readers. In the world's second most populous country, which now also has the most number of English-speaking people, this focus makes quite a convincing commercial sense as well.
"I am more interested in India right now, one-sixth of the globe resides here. As a writer, it is the story and writing that I think about first.
Subjects related to India are close to my heart and it is not the global platform that I really think of when I write. I am happy in India, the market is so huge, every book is double the sales of previous book," Bhagat added.
See tabloid! on Saturday for Shobhaa De's interview
International recognition
- Four writers of Indian origin have won the Man Booker Prize
- 198: Salman Rushdie for Midnight's Children
- 1997: Arundhati Roy for God of Small Things
- 2006: Kiran Desai for The Inheritance of Loss
- 2008: Aravind Adiga for The White Tiger
