How Good is the Indian Muse?

By Murthy, BS

Book Id: WPLBN0100750887
Format Type: PDF (eBook)
File Size: 390.15 KB.
Reproduction Date: 10/29/2025

Title:	How Good is the Indian Muse?
Author:	Murthy, BS
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Non Fiction, Bibliography
Collections:	Authors Community, Literature
Historic Publication Date:	2025
Publisher:	Self Imprint

Member Page:	BS Murthy
Citation APA MLA Chicago Murthy, B. (2025). How Good is the Indian Muse?. Retrieved from http://www.self.gutenberg.org/

Description
Where to look for the soul of India in print, or now in digital mode? Is it in the writings of those for whom the muse is their mother tongue or those who happen to muse in the alien English? Where to savour the flavour of Indian life in fictional form? Is it in that ‘stronger and more important body of work of Indian writers working in English’ as trumpeted by Salman Rushdie or in the supposedly ‘true to life’ depictions (not the same thing as the examination of the human condition) on the variegate canvas of regional languages penned by the vernacular writers? And certainly, it is an overkill on the part of the bhasha writers to suggest, as was done, that ‘any Tamil writer would have put more life into his novels than Narayan did’. An Achilles-like abuse of Hector’s body and literally it’s like saying; “I would have written your novel better had you given me the plot and all, soul included.”

Summary
The problem is writing has come to be regarded as a means to acquire name and fame, if not money, and it does not matter as long as the writer is in the news, never mind whether someone really comes to read to enjoy or tends to be provoked by the book. Unfortunately for literature, the greater rewards of writing lost their relevance and the lesser benefits came to mean everything. Till this is understood, unkind cuts would continue to be inflicted in the arena of Indian writing. That’s for sure.

Excerpt
That the human condition of the Indian society in their domain is still governed by archaic thinking, insulated from the nuances of human psychology, would expose their collective failure to modernize the mind-set of their readership and contribute to social change. It can be said with a measure of assurance that modernity of thought in our society wherever it is prevalent is owing to the exposure to the writings in English, not necessarily the Indian writing in English. That being the case, what benefit the English translation of the bhasha writings is going to have is anybody’s guess. It’s nobody’s case either that the Indians writing in English have made any profound difference, themselves being victims of a split personality what with their heart in here and the mind on the western market, and the soul missing altogether.