This article focuses on Anglophone writing of a British postcolonial legacy as opposed to writing of a Lusophone, Francophone, Belgian, Dutch, or German legacy. Moreover, this specific phrase of ‘Anglophone writing of a British postcolonial legacy’ is employed in recognition of a move away from the label ‘postcolonial writing’. The article will suggest that recently published texts are engaged in new departures which seemingly appear to be taking us away from the classic ‘postcolonial’ text. Thus, in recognition of these new departures, the terminology used in this article will attempt to better encapsulate the sense of the provenance of the writing and yet at the same time move the terminology ‘forward’, away from the label of the ‘postcolonial’.
This article examines a particular body of post-millennial fiction in English from India whose narratives draw significantly on Hindu epics and the historical contexts of early Bharat. This body of fiction includes works by Amish Tripathi, Nilanjan P. Choudhury, Ashwin Sanghi amongst others, and I refer to this writing as 'Bharati Fantasy' (my term). The article deals with how this new body of fiction might be received in the global literary market as well as how it is received in the domestic market given that some of these novels are 'for sale in India only'. The article postulates how genre categorisation might affect an Indian writer's presence in the global literary market. Furthermore, it looks at how important it is to be present in such global markets, and considers how the domestic market of India provides a readership and marketing arena which are significantly self-sustaining and independent of the global literary markets. The popularity of ventures in India such as the Jaipur and Bangalore literature festivals, the recent launch of Doordarshan's 'Kitaabnama' and hunger for 'popular' literature by a readership with enhanced disposable income suggest that home-grown talent is increasingly well celebrated and appreciated at home.Established 'receptions', genre and literary prizes Significant changes to Indian lifestyle, consumption and leisure activities have taken place in the post-liberalisation period, and even more so in the post-millennium period. This time period has revealed a more economically minded India, an India which has concentrated on its domestic market, on consumption more than investment, on service industry and on high-tech manufacturing. A generation of IIT graduates has contributed to this growth and these young professionals, alongside a growing middle-class of entrepreneurs and other professional workers are, for a large part, the readers (and authors) of post-millennial Indian fiction in English. Gulab (2007) writes of these young readers:Generation 3 speaks English their own way. They have experiences that are unique to them and come of age in ways that are different from their age group in other countries. Naturally Generation 3 wants books that make sense to them -books by Indian writers set in India.The identity of Indian writing in English has changed considerably and also relatively quickly in the last 15 years (see Dawson Varughese 2013), and this is due significantly
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