ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Indian literary fiction in English, and considers differences and similarities across the production of this body of work. It describes the differences between novels written by authors from diasporic or transnational backgrounds and novels by authors who have resided all or most of their life in India. The chapter suggests that the novels written by those authors who have remained in India are less characterised by the tropes and guises of ‘postcolonial literature’. It argues that the diasporic or transnational texts that engage with ‘New India’ in various ways, have a tendency to propagate India as ‘the Other’ as they play towards the established mores of the western market and result in work that resonates more with a postcolonial framework. Increased personal spending, the proliferation of literary festivals in India and greater publishing activity have all contributed to the rise of Indian fiction in English.
