The stellar contribution of western scholars, like William Jones to Sanskrit studies and C P Brown to Telugu literature, is commendable. It is owing to the selfless services of some of the dedicated civil servants that some of the rare classics and other works have survived. In the case of Telugu, it is essentially owing to the devoted work of Brown that several of Prabandhas have come out as critically edited, authoritative publications. Even a popular poet, like Vemana, would have remained unknown but for the painstaking collection and publication of thousands of poems of Vemana by Brown. While we may justly denounce the imperial designs of the British colonizers, it would be unfair to overlook their positive contributions. The complex problems faced by the second generation diaspora have been the source of inspiration for incisive explorations by writers, like Kiran Desai and Meera Syal. The radical changes one witnesses in English as a result of its increasing (ab-)use on the Internet has inevitably led to inevitable deviations. The crass exploitation of Dalits or Afro-Americans—especially, the women—has been a heart-wrenching saga of sorrow across cultures and the plight calls for urgent measures for redress.

This issue offers four studies of writings related to Indian literature in English. Fewzia Bedjaoui, in the paper, “The Pangs of the Diasporic: A Study of Meera Syal’s Anita and Me”, examines the presentation of the experiences of second generation Indians, who go through the pangs of hybridization through abrogation and appropriation by the dominant culture and the attempts at psychological adjustment and carving their own identities from the English cultural landscape by the protagonist Meena. Narrative technique is not a mere stylistic device but a part of the process of artistic discovery. Ritu R Agarwal, in the paper, “The Ideology of Modernism in Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines”, considers the novel as an interweaving of fact and fiction, which makes the artifact a realistic novel with roots in modernism. Examining the conviction of Rushdie that the differences between the occidental and the oriental are rather attitudinal than geographical, M Madhusudhana Rao, in his paper, “Rushdie, the Enchanter of Tales”, brings out the relationship between fact and myth, the sublime and the mundane, based on the portrayal of the enchantress-turned-antagonist, Qara Koz, using bifocal objective.

Three papers relating to English language teaching in the Indian context are offered here. The acquisition of language skills in English by second language learners depends on a variety of factors, like motivation—both integrative and instrumental—behavioristic attitudes, learning tools and social awareness. N V S N Lakshmi, in her paper, “Language Use in Bilinguals: A Case Study”, investigates the complexity of problems relating to language acquisition through the responses to a questionnaire and individual interviews with science research scholars. The determining factor for the success in the learning English is found to be positive attitude. In the second paper in this area, “Grammatical Deviations in e-English”, Naveen Kumar H C presents the increasing deviations from traditional grammar in the language used in the electronic media, like e-mail, SMS, chat and community messages. Among the deviations mentioned are omissions, as in the use: ‘There?’ for ‘Are you there?’ Substitution of one person for another, as in ‘me doing fine’ for ‘I am doing fine’ and sentence replacement by-ing form, as in ‘Orkutting’ for “Are you browsing through Orkut?” In the third paper in this area, “Firing the Canon: Radicalising the Goals of Undergraduate Literature Courses”, Kamalakar Bhat cautions against the possibility of the literature programs at the UG level becoming irrelevant and uninspiring, as a result of the unimaginative canons of the ‘prescribers’ of the syllabi. The author, drawing on his personal experience in the pedagogic context, argues that the syllabi ought to be made contemporaneous and functional, without overlooking its humanistic objectives. Apart from interdisciplinary areas, the syllabus could include selections from science fiction, detective fiction and even popular reads, like the works of Chethan Bhagat, James Headley Chase and even Harry Potter. There could also be a paper on soft skills. The suggestions appear to be reasonable and meritorious by all educational planners and users.

Extending the critical exploration to a wider, global context, the last two papers deal with the contribution of non-natives to oriental studies and the persistent exploitation of the underprivileged communities—women, in particular—across cultures and world. In the first paper in this area, “The Sublime and The Beautiful: William Jones on Ancient Arabian Poetry”, Jalal Uddin Khan brings out the admiration of William Jones for the natural emotions of the mind, plentiful in ancient Arabian poems like Maullakat, which inspired him to translate some of the memorable poems. The beginning of Jones’ engagement with oriental lore, which led him to translate Kalidasa’s Shakunthalam, actually started with his admiration for Arabian poetry, contends the author. In the second paper, “Images of Women in Hindi Dalit and African American Literatures: A Cross Cultural Survey”, Anurag Kumar and Nagendra Kumar critically survey the presentation of the plight of women of the Dalit community in India and the black women in Afro American literature, referring to the works of Sant Kabir and Premchand in the past and Om Prakash Valmiki’s Joothan and the works of Richard Wright and Ralph Elison, among the male writers, whose presentation is unsatisfactory, according to the author, and the works of women writers like Alice Walker and Toni Morrison. The authors bemoan the absence of women writers in Hindi, who could portray the plight of the thrice-marginalized women more objectively and authentically.

Finally, it offer a critical review of the Telugu classic of Peddana, Manusambhavam, transcreated and introduced by Prof. S S Prabhakar Rao, and published as a part of selfless service to Telugu literature and culture by C P Brown Academy, Hyderabad. In his review, “Insightful Introduction”, C Subba Rao analyzes the strengths of the epic by the poet, who could develop an enrapturing story based on a thin tale of little consequence by itself, through his imaginative faculty. The reviewer pays compliments to the translator for the quality of his effort, which provides a glimpse of the richness of the Telugu masterpiece to non-Telugu readers.

-- S S Prabhakar Rao
Consulting Editor