Table Of ContentC I S
C I S
ultural dentIty tudIeS Subjected Subcontinent
Sectarian and Sexual Lines
in Indian Writing in English
Eiko Ohira
This book offers a new, complex understanding of Indian writing in English
by focusing its analysis on both Indo-Pakistani Partition fiction and novels
E
written by women. The author gives a comprehensive outline of Partition ik
o
novels in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh written in English as well as an
O
overview of the challenges of studying Partition literature, particularly English
h
translations of Partition novels in regional languages. Featured works include i
r
a
Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice-Candy-Man,
Amitav Ghosh’s Shadow Lines, Meena Arora Nayak’s About Daddy, and S
u
Sujata Sabnis’s A Twist in Destiny. The book then moves on to a study of b
j
e
novels by women writers such as Githa Hariharan, Kiran Desai, Anita Desai, c
t
and Arundhati Roy, exploring their perspectives on sexuality, the body, and e
d
the diaspora.
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b
c
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Eiko Ohira is Professor of English and Advisor to the President at Tsuru
University in Japan. She is the author of A Study of Wuthering Heights (1993)
and has published essays on Rabindranath Tagore’s writing in English and
Japanese writing in English in the early twentieth century. She received her
MA and the Naruse Award from Japan Women’s University in Tokyo, Japan,
and a Certificate of Special Graduation Course with distinction from Mount CIS
Holyoke College in the United States in 1979. She has previously been a
visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge, UK, and the University of
Delhi, India.
P
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ISBN 978-3-0343-2206-5
P l
www.peterlang.com eter ang
C I S
C I S
ultural dentIty tudIeS Subjected Subcontinent
Sectarian and Sexual Lines
in Indian Writing in English
Eiko Ohira
This book offers a new, complex understanding of Indian writing in English
by focusing its analysis on both Indo-Pakistani Partition fiction and novels
E
written by women. The author gives a comprehensive outline of Partition ik
o
novels in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh written in English as well as an
O
overview of the challenges of studying Partition literature, particularly English
h
translations of Partition novels in regional languages. Featured works include i
r
a
Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice-Candy-Man,
Amitav Ghosh’s Shadow Lines, Meena Arora Nayak’s About Daddy, and S
u
Sujata Sabnis’s A Twist in Destiny. The book then moves on to a study of b
j
e
novels by women writers such as Githa Hariharan, Kiran Desai, Anita Desai, c
t
and Arundhati Roy, exploring their perspectives on sexuality, the body, and e
d
the diaspora.
S
u
b
c
o
n
t
i
n
e
n
t
Eiko Ohira is Professor of English and Advisor to the President at Tsuru
University in Japan. She is the author of A Study of Wuthering Heights (1993)
and has published essays on Rabindranath Tagore’s writing in English and
Japanese writing in English in the early twentieth century. She received her
MA and the Naruse Award from Japan Women’s University in Tokyo, Japan,
and a Certificate of Special Graduation Course with distinction from Mount CIS
Holyoke College in the United States in 1979. She has previously been a
visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge, UK, and the University of
Delhi, India.
P
e
te
r
L
a
n
g
P l
www.peterlang.com eter ang
Subjected Subcontinent
Cultural Identity Studies
Volume 30
Edited by
Helen Chambers
PETER LANG
Oxford • Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • New York • Wien
Eiko Ohira
Subjected Subcontinent
Sectarian and Sexual Lines
in Indian Writing in English
PETER LANG
Oxford • Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • New York • Wien
Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche National-
bibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at
http://dnb.d-nb.de.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ohira, Eiko, 1952- author.
Title: Subjected subcontinent : sectarian and sexual lines in Indian writing
in English / Eiko Ohira.
Other titles: Indo eigo bunkgaku kenkyu. English
Description: First edition. | Oxford ; New York : Peter Lang, 2016. | Series:
Cultural identity studies ; 30 | Includes bibliographical references and
index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016008960 | ISBN 9783034322065 (alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Indic fiction (English)--20th century--History and criticism.
| Partition, Territorial, in literature. | Women in literature. |
India--History--Partition, 1947--In literature.
Classification: LCC PR9492.6.P37 O35 2016 | DDC 823/.91409954--dc23 LC
record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016008960
This is a revised version of the Japanese-language book Indo Eigo Bungaku
Kenkyu: Inpa Bunri Dokuritsu Bungaku to Josei (Tokyo: Sairyusha, 2015). Printed
with permission from the publisher.
Cover image: Garuda by Ginko Nakamura. Reproduced with permission.
ISSN 1661-3252
ISBN 978-3-0343-2206-5 (print)
ISBN 978-3-0353-0823-5 (eBook)
© Peter Lang AG, International Academic Publishers, Bern 2016
Hochfeldstrasse 32, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland
[email protected], www.peterlang.com, www.peterlang.net
All rights reserved.
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright.
Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission
of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution.
This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage
and processing in electronic retrieval systems.
This publication has been peer reviewed.
For Una, my mother, and Hiroo who
supported me in trouble.
For my hometown people,
who survived the tsunami disaster
on 11 March 2011.
Contents
Preface xi
part i Indian Writing in English (IWE),
an Overview: Gender and Politics 1
Chapter 1
What is Indian Writing in English? 3
Chapter 2
The Characteristics and the Issues 11
part ii Indo-Pakistani Partition Novels:
Identity Fallen Apart 17
Chapter 3
The Overall Situation and the Issues 19
Chapter 4
Partition Novels before Midnight’s Children: An Overview 31
Chapter 5
Partition Novels after Midnight’s Children: An Overview 49
Chapter 6
Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice-Candy-Man: Gender and Conspiracy 73
Chapter 7
Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines: Enchantment, Fear, and
Hostility aroused by Border Lines and the World Beyond 87
Chapter 8
Midnight’s Children: A Narrative of Narcissist Failure 97
Chapter 9
Meena Arora Nayak’s About Daddy: The Diaspora
and Partition 111
Chapter 10
Azad’s Memoir and Sujata Sabnis’s A Twist in Destiny: The Myth
of the Founding of India/Pakistan 121
part iii Women in Indian Writing in English: Sexuality, the
Body, and the Diaspora 133
Chapter 11
The Isolated Female Body: Sita’s Daughters and
Anita Desai’s Fire on the Mountain and Fasting, Feasting, among
Other Novels 135
Chapter 12
Female Bodies in Revolt: Githa Hariharan’s Representation of
the Female Body 153
