1) What CUET expects when it asks “History of Indian Writing in English”
CUET PG rarely wants a long narrative essay. It tests whether you can:
- Periodise Indian Writing in English (IWE) into meaningful phases,
- connect phases to historical forces (colonial education, nationalism, Partition, globalisation),
- identify turning points (post-1980s boom, postcolonial theory impact),
- and map authors + texts + stylistic features to those phases.
So “history” here means a conceptual timeline + key debates.
2) Before 1800s: conditions for IWE (background, not “IWE proper”)
Even before a robust IWE literature, colonial modernity creates:
- English education institutions,
- print culture,
- new public spheres,
- translation as knowledge and governance tool.
This matters because IWE emerges inside an unequal power structure:
- English as administrative/elite language,
- and later English as a language of literary self-fashioning.
Interlink: Postcolonialism + translation studies.
3) Phase I (c. 1820s–1900): Early emergence and colonial public sphere
Key historical drivers
- English education policy (e.g., Macaulay’s Minute, institutional expansion),
- reform movements and new modern subjectivities.
Literary forms
- early poetry, essays, travel writing, speeches,
- beginnings of Indian English prose identity.
Typical CUET angle
- names like Toru Dutt and Sarojini Naidu (poetry),
- early “national” imagination and cultural translation.
Conceptual point: early IWE often negotiates “India to the West” and “modernity at home.”
4) Phase II (c. 1900–1947): Nationalism, modernity, and the pre-independence novel
Key historical drivers
- anti-colonial nationalism,
- Gandhian movement,
- debates on tradition/modernity.
Key authors/texts (high-yield)
- Raja Rao – Kanthapura: Gandhian nationalism; Indianised English; oral narrative texture.
- Mulk Raj Anand – Untouchable: social realism; caste critique; humanist-Marxist influences.
- R.K. Narayan (early novels): everyday life, small-town modernity.