The Evolutionary Influence of English Literature on Indian Society

 Every part of world Literature more or less reflects the society. There is clear reflection of ancient social history of countries in Italian, Greek, , German, English or Indian Epics. Contents of Beowulf, the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Ramayan, and the Mahabharat revels the the picture of ancient society. Essayists like Charles Lamb, Huxley, Stevenson, Carlyle, Churchil etc have reflected much about the literature. It is Literature that gives the wide History of present, past and Future perspectives. It presents the ideals of the past heroes, work of freedom fighters and detrails of the tradition and culture that is common in India. Through Literature, one can predict the outcomes for future. “Post-independence Literature reveals that there has been the women’s quest for her identity and self which provides the society a better look. The indigenous contributing factors like Western Civilizational Development, the Indian Freedom Struggle, and Indian Constituitional Rights of Women tyend the women poets to write freely and openly for the bold issue like realistic attitude to sex, lust, and frank autobiographical expression.

Birth of English Language in India is said to be emerged with the arrival of East India Company in 17th century. East India used English Language as official Document with Government Bodies. Gradually it spread among the masses. It came in the form of both as written and verbal. It then came in Academics. It spread with the start of first newspaper, Hickey’s Bengal Gazette. It spread more widely coming it in academics. Gradually, it became the part of syllabus and thus English Language turned into English Literature.Literature comes from Latin ‘Literatura’ or ‘litteratura’ a word meaning publish, writing in a particular style on a particular subject. It is an umbrella term that includes everything we see, hear, talk, read, touch and taste. It is the thing to express ideas in printed form or as colour, sound or in any other form for the welfare of all ages of generation covering a wide range of all spheres of lives; animate or inanimate in the whole universe. It involves exploitation, humiliation, or degradation of a particular group, may be related to a particular caste, creed, colour, gender, and religion. It explores certain bonds: patriarchal, caste and religion etc. It expresses culture, tradition: locally, state, and country-wise. It gives the true and real picture of the society. It shows the belief of the people in certain gods or deities. It is a record in ‘vast bookish forms’, ‘painted designs’, and ‘code forms’ stored in different shapes like hard and soft, symbolically and any other one. It contains different styles and forms in different languages. It contains all what we believe, think, work, imagine and what happens every moment. Sources of literature are immense. It may come through medias: electronically and print, from different literary scholars and within a group of a certain field. Definition of English Literature as mentioned in Oxford Dictionary, “Literature is taken to include oral, dramatic, and broadcast composition that may not have been published in written form, but which have been (or deserve…)

Literature as the Image of Society:

Tagore has depicted Culture and Tradition of India so vividly and widely through his work.Tagore has been humanist in every approach. Tool for Women Empowerment: Literature is a great tool for the empowerment of women. It gives the knowledge of Indian Epics like Ramayana, and Mahabharat. It presents ideals of Rama and Laxman to develop brotherhood feelings and respect of Laxman to Sita to inculcate such feelings in youth to respect women in the way. It is Literature that describes how women were treated in different Yugas: Satya Yuga (Golden Age), Treta Yuga (Silver Age), Dwapara Yuga (Bronge Age), Kali Yuga (Iron Age). Indian Hindu great Epic, Ramayana depicts about Treta Yuga in which Purushottam Ramchandra ideals are presented. It also depicts how Sita faces Fire Ordeal. Sita declares before the huge public in the presence of Valmiki rishi that she never thinks of anybody else besides Ram, touching any one is rather more thing. If I am really true in what I am saying or absolutely sacred, Prathvi devi (earth mother) should engulf me so as to take me in her lap. She again repeats and emphasizes that if she worships Ram with mind, soul and heart, Bhagawati devi (earth mother) should engulf her to take her in her lap.In Ramayana Uttar Kand, Valmiki narrates Sita’s another ‘fire ordeal’. “Yathaham Raghavadanyam mansapi na chintaye, Tatha me madhavi devi viveram datumarati…vivaram datumarati,” . Draupadi uttered, “ Pandavas You had courage to protect me agaundt the small gust of wind. You!, bear this calmly and the wicked pulling me violently before the whole assembly. ..but this Dusasan is causing me unbearable pain staining the glory of Kauravas with sin. You!, tell me clearly, if I am not of yours and then I will decide what to do.”

Literature in Middle Age (Medieval Indian Literature): Medieval Indian literature was dominated by Hindu and Muslim Religions or it was influenced by Hinduism and Islamic beliefs. It was the period of beliefs, customs, practices, and life styles. During this period, Bhakti Movement emerged in which Kabir spoke Casteism, and narrow mindedness of Religions. It also includes Mughal Era that shows how Orthodoxy was rampant. This age is also known as recurrence of Classics that is the striking feature of early medieval Indian Literature. Ramayana, Mahabharata, Panchatantra and numerous other Purans came into existance. This age also depicts Indian sacred rivers: Ganga, Yamun, Brahmputra, Godavari, Kaveri, and Sutlej. 

Different Periods of English Literature in India: It is Literature that gives wide view of different periods like Maurya Period, Mughal Period, British Period. Detail description of different Periods is given below. Chandragupta Maurya was the first king of Maurya Period. He made Chankya or Kautilya the primeminister and cchief adviser who introduce a book named ‘Arathashastra’ that contains several rules and regulation of his state: (i) Different type marriages were prevalent in Maurya Period like Asura Marriage in which a huge amount was to donate to the boy front. (ii) In case of not having any children till eight years, a husband had right for a second marriage. (iii) In case of producing only girl children, a husband had right after ten years for a second marriage. (iv) For having a son, a husband had right for a number of marriages. (v) Only high caste or upper caste women or girls were to study and participation in public activities. (vi) Widow Remarriages were also permitted in this period. (vii) Drinking was totally restricted to women and their participation in public places was not permitted. (Viii) Women were allowed to choose their groom themselves.Under Mughal Period, Muslims ruled over India. Position of woman was not satisfactory in this period. It has the following characteristics: (i) Parda System was prevalent (ii) Monogamy was also prevalentbin society. (iii) Widow could not remarry, they had to be Sati in the funeral pyre of their husbands or they had to pass the whole life as hermit. (iv) Only Home Education was allowed, so girls of poor families remained uneducated (v) Higher Education was limited to only rich women. Mughal Period, Early Classical Age (800- 200 BC) is also beginning of the Age. It is the period symbolizes decline in religious practice. It includes Medieval Period (500- 1500) marked by ‘dark Age’, Black Death’ or ‘Ice Age’ and the ‘Age of Renaissance’. Great Play Wright like Shakespeare, Kalidas, Tulsidas, and Surdas also appeared in this age.

 In British Period ‘education of Women ‘took a good start. Hunter commission emphasized upon Girls Education. With regard to necessity of Girls education, Declaration says, “The importance of female education in India cannot be over rated…we have already observed that schools for females are included among those to which grant-in-aid may be given…Government ought to give the native fmale education in India: its frank and cordial support.

Impact and Reaction in society to English NovelsLiterature allows a person to step back in time and learn about life on Earth from the ones who walked before us. We can gather a better understanding of culture and have a greater appreciation of them. We learn through the ways history is recorded, in the forms of manuscripts and through speech itself.R. K. Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao contributed to the growth and popularity of Indian English fiction in the 1930s. It is also associated, in some cases, with the works of members of the Indian diaspora who subsequently compose works in English. It is frequently referred to as Indo-Anglian literature.

Chetan Bhagat’s second novel One Night at Call Center is based on a group of people working at a call center and they have a chance encounter with God.Shyam,Priyanka,Vrom,Esha,Radhika and Military Uncle are colleagues in a call center. A one of the salient features of this novel is that all the characters experience a dramatic event during the night when they receive a call from God and all use this movement to re-examine their lives.Importance of English Literature English is the most generally utilized dialect on the planet. It is talked by around four hundred million individual. Alongside its pleased status as the best first dialect over the globe. The commence the being talked about is not the honourable nature, or the worldwide expansion of English, the current inquiries are the explanation behind contemplating it further can centrale the writing of the English dialect of decent story perusers remain to pick up empathy for an extensive variety of individuals crosswise over socienties and eras Mulk Raj Anand took the Anglo-Indian novel into the heart of the freedom struggle and simultaneously attempted a brutal exposure of Indian poverty and social injustice. Anand’s Untouchable depicts the presence of Hindu caste system, which would only be eradicated by equality in the society. Raja Rao, one of the most interesting of contemporary Indian writers in English wrote Kanthapura as a brilliant complex narrative of the Indian struggle for freedom under Gandhi in the nineteen thirties. Rao’s subsequent writings have confirmed the impression that he was a political novelist only in the sense that most Indian writers except Narayan were overtly political (and nationalist) before the Second World.Kanthapura  was an epic novel about India itself, an India striving for self-realization, for re-discovery.

In Kanthapura  it is the peasantry and Gandhi’s ‘satyagrahis’, who are central and their battle is against history, Nature and the British. After an interval of some years, Raja Rao produced even more ambitious novels on India (Rao 163). R K Narayan, although not being political, depicted the people of India in his mythical place “Malgudi” in his novels. His novels like Waiting for the Mahatma looks at the people of real India and how they reacted to the nationalistic movements.

Indian English writers, whether living in our country, living abroad or dividing their time between the west and the homeland, write about the country and society for the benefit of a double audience – both at home and abroad. In the colonial era we used to read British literature in our country, and now our writers have a foreign readership abroad. In some of the novels, characters move through both worlds – India and abroad. That establishes our national identity, and makes it intelligible to outsiders.

Thus, Literature has been crucial to communities since language was tailored and used by people as a form of communication. Literature takes the reader out of their world and brings them into the author’s world. When people relate through a piece of literature, it really makes you think that you’re not alone and that someone else has been through what you are going through. Literature can also cultivate empathy and Theory of Mind, or the capacity to read the minds of others, by encouraging readers to assume the perspective of fictional characters. From a realist perspective, literature also helps to enact social change by revealing the truths of society.It makes people think outside their normal box if you will. Literature can bring people of different backgrounds, cultures, and ways life together.