Paper Details

The study explores the possibility of decolonizing of Indian English literature using the perspective of Indian Knowledge systems. In colonial education, the emphasis was placed on western literary models, European aesthetics and the colonial approach to the understanding of culture and as a result, English literary studies have grown in India to a large extent. This led to a neglect or marginalization of Indian philosophy, spiritual and oral traditions and ecology, and ethics. This study can be said to have called into question the idea that Indian English texts can be read only as a copy of the literary forms of the British. Rather, they are to be seen as creative expressions that take English as the language to create Indian cultural memories, indigenous knowledge, and local reality. The paper is focused on the three novels of Kanthapura by Raja Rao, The Guide by R. K. Narayan and The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. The following texts have been chosen as they cover various aspects of Indian life—village culture, spirituality, morality, caste, ecology, oral tradition and social change. The study examines these texts qualitatively, by looking at how they embody ideas of dharma, karma, spirituality, ecological consciousness, caste critique, and Indianized English. The paper also brings to focus the nature of Indian writers' assimilation of English for Indian rhythms, idioms, myths and cultural experiences. The study suggests Indian Knowledge Systems as a powerful alternative to a colonial and Eurocentric approach to the reading of Indian English literature, which renders literary studies more culturally grounded and intellectually open.

Decolonization, Indian Knowledge Systems, Indian English Literature, Postcolonialism, Indianized English, Dharma, Karma