Review of A DICTIONARY OF INDIAN ENGLISH LITTERATEURS

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Mahendra S. Rana (Comp. and ed.). Assisted by Rekha Rana. A Dictionary of Indian English Litterateurs: 1794-2010. 2 vols set.  New Delhi: Sarup Books Publishers Pvt Ltd., 2012. Size—Crwn. ISBN  978-81-7625-809-8 (Set). Pages Vol. I, 566+Appendix+23  and Vol. II, 573+Appendix+ 7, Price Rs.6500/- (Set).

M.S. Rana, an alumnus of the universities of Allahabad and Delhi, has been a distinguished librarian, who worked in the universities of Kurukshetra, Delhi, Meerut, and Roorkee with credit.  The compilation of the 2-volume Dictionary under review bespeaks his editorial skills, scholarly interests and professional commitment.

It is also his labour of love, and well-rewarded, in that Rana spent about a decade in developing an authentic, systematic bio-bibliographical critical source book on over 4000 creative writers of Indian English.  He includes the biographical sketches with bibliographies and critical articles on both well-known and less known poets, fiction and non-fiction writers,  playwrights, and other creative personalities, male and female, of the last 220 years.  Besides Indian men of letters, he also includes other writers of the diaspora, whose roots are in India and who deal with Indian life and culture.

In the making of his massive Dictionary of  Litterateurs, Rana takes help from literary advisors such as G.S. Balarama Gupta, Prema Nandakumar, R.K. Singh, C.S. Singh, A.P. Trivedi, Rajiv Verma, Badri N. Raina, Arun Kumar, and S.C. Dwivedi who also contribute critical articles and/or comments about various poets and authors’ lives and work. He also takes assistance from Rekha Rana, though  it is not clear what her specific contribution is.

The compiler also makes use of several scholarly journals, magazines, dailies and fortnightly that include The Hindu, India Today, Outlook, Biblio, Creative Forum, Language Forum, Indian Literature, Journal of Commonwealth Literature, Journal of Indian Writing i English, Kavya Bharati, Litcrit, Mawaheb International, Metverse Muse, Poet, Poecrit, Triveni, Cyber Literature, Commonwealth Quarterly etc. Some o these journals have ceased publication now.

 

The layout of the alphabetically arranged entries typically includes personal information, career history, including academics and honours, literary output – poetry, drama , fiction, prose, travelogue, letters, diaries, narratives, transcreation, and other works.  The critical bibliography appears in the form of major books and Ph.D. theses. Then,  there is a note of appraisal on the literary endeavours of the author.  Where available, the compiler provides the contact or email address at the end of the entry.

Needless to say,  Rana tries to place the writers in the larger perspective of Indian English literary history just as he seeks to empower the interested researchers and scholars to decide about their areas of specialization  and/or understanding of the topics of research (for MPhil or PhD dissertation) via the information provided in the Dictionary.

The appendices reflect upon the status of Indian English at home and abroad even as it is encouraging to know that besides Indian universities, 89 foreign universities promote researches in Indian English literature. 

At a time when study of literature is losing importance among our students, A Dictionary of Indian English Litterateurs should help promote Indian English Literature to study the humanities. It should also prove indispensible in effective study of and research in Indian English Writing to enhance critical understanding and human values.  

Despite printing errors in several articles and comments culled from various books and journals, I find the Dictionary fascinating  and significant, and recommend it to all English Departments and libraries in the country and abroad.

--R.K. SINGH