The book explores the betrayal of the Nehruvian idea of India and democracy by Indira Gandhi and analyses the political and cultural amnesia among the general populace in the decades following the Emergency. The author reads works by Salman Rushdie, Shashi Tharoor, Nayantara Sahgal and Rohinton Mistry in conjunction with government white papers, political speeches, memoirs, biographies and history. It discusses the Emergency as an event that prompted the writing of several notable novels attempting to preserve the silenced and fading memory of its human rights violations and suspension of democracy. Ralph Crane, Professor of English, University of Tasmania, Australia This book examines the cultural trauma of the Indian Emergency through a reading of five seminal novels. It persuaded me to rethink some of my ideas about a group of novels I thought I knew well. THE EMERGENCY AND THE INDIAN ENGLISH NOVEL Raita Merivirta’s The Emergency and the Indian English Novel is a significant contribution to the study of Indian English fiction. Table of contents : Cover Half Title Title Copyright Dedication Contents Acknowledgements 1 Introduction 2 Midnight’s Children: preserving memories for “the amnesiac nation” 3 Safeguarding democracy in The Great Indian Novel 4 Family ties: nepotism and corruption in Rich Like Us 5 The Repressive State Apparatus in Such a Long Journey and A Fine Balance 6 Conclusion Bibliography Index Citation preview
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