Indian English literature

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) This article is written like a personal reflection, personal essay, or argumentative essay that states a Wikipedia editor's personal feelings or presents an original argument about a topic. Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style. (February 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (February 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) Some of this article's listed sources may not be reliable. Please help improve this article by looking for better, more reliable sources. Unreliable citations may be challenged and removed. (February 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (March 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Indian English literature" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

History of modern literature
By decade
List of years in literature
Early modern by century
16th 17th
Mid-modern by century
18th 19th
20th–21st century
Modernism Structuralism Deconstruction Poststructuralism Postmodern Postcolonial Electronic Ergodic
By region
Africa Moroccan Nigerian South African Americas American Argentine Brazilian Canadian Colombian Cuban Jamaican Mexican Peruvian Asia Afghan Bengali Bangladeshi English Chinese Gujarati Hindi Indian Indian English Japanese Kannada Kashmiri Korean Malayalam Marathi Pakistani Pakistani English Pashto Punjabi Sindhi Tamil Telugu Urdu Vietnamese Australasia Australian New Zealand Europe
Related topics
History of science fiction Literature by country History of theater History of ideas Intellectual history
Literature portal
v t e

Indian English literature (IEL), also referred to as Indian Writing in English (IWE), is the body of work by writers in India who write in the English language but whose native or co-native language could be one of the numerous languages of India. Its early history began with the works of Henry Louis Vivian Derozio and Michael Madhusudan Dutt followed by Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo.^{[citation needed]} R. K. Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao contributed to the growth and popularity of Indian English fiction in the 1930s.^[1] It is also associated, in some cases, with the works of members of the Indian diaspora who subsequently compose works in English.

It is often referred to as Indo-Anglian literature^[2] (a writing specific term; not to be confused with Anglo-Indian). Although some works may be classified under the genre of postcolonial literature, Indian English literature, evolving since the late 18th century encompasses diverse themes and ideologies, making strict categorization challenging.