Indian Booker Prize Winners (A Critical Study of Their Works)

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Literary prizes form a fascinating interface between literature and society. Established in 1968, the Booker Prize has rapidly become one of the most prestigious and glamorous literary prizes in the English speaking world. Unlike the Nobel Prize, the Booker focuses on a particular novel rather than on a particular author. It seeks to confer literary recognition on novels that are winners and attend to the novel as a form and medium for new voices, styles and cultures.

The Man Booker Prize expresses a postcolonial response, and the prominence of India in its brief history is unquestionable. Besides V.S. Naipaul, the Indian Trinidadian, the prize has been awarded to four Indians—Salman Rushdie in 1981, Arundhati Roy in 1997, Kiran Desai in 2006 and most recently in 2008 to Aravind Adiga. In addition, diasporic Indian authors regularly appear on the shortlist that comes out several months before the prize is actually awarded. Thus, Indian writers have successfully created a niche of their own in English, leaving an indelible mark on the global scene.

Rich in scholarship, Indian Booker Prize Winners is a challenging collection of essays, which propels the field of Indian English writing forward and focuses on the emerging role of Indian English fiction in shaping the most significant annual international award in English letters. The book examines the key critical debates which provide a concise analysis of the Booker winning novels from India. A variety of subjects and viewpoints inform the close readings of these seminal novels, thereby making the book particularly useful for the teachers and students of Indian English literature.

Dr. Sunita Sinha, a gold medallist from the Patna University, Bihar, has been teaching English in Women’s College, Samastipur, LN. Mithila University, Bihar. She has authored two books, Graham Greene: A Study of His Major Novels and Post Colonial Women Writers: New Perspectives. She has edited three anthologies on Postcolonial! literature, viz. New Urges in Post Colonial Literature: Widening Horizons, Reconceiving Posicolonialism: Visions and Revisions and Postcolonial Imaginings: Fissions and Fusions. Critical Responses to Kiran Desai and New Perspectives in British Literature Vol. I and Il, have been recently published by the Atlantic Publishers & Distributors (P) Ltd. New Delhi.

Sunita Sinha has participated in many national and international seminars and conferences and has written many scholarly papers which have been published in various national and international journals. Her areas of interest are British, Indian, Australian, Canadian and Postcolonial literature. She is the Assistant Editor of The Atlantic Critical Review and the Honorary Editor/Director for Bihar, Atlantic Publishers & Distributors (P) Ltd.

The Man Booker is, by common consent, the most prestigious and the highest profile prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in English, by a citizen of the British Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. Unlike the Nobel Prize, the booker focuses on a particular novel rather than a particular author, and unlike the Pulitzer Prize, it is associated with England and the Commonwealth rather than with USA.

The Booker holds the key to both commercial and critical success, and is therefore construed as an effective weapon in the book marketer's armoury and as such, it is one of the mighty engines of the 21st-century book trade. Hence, the Booker Prize winner is considered "a signifier of marketplace success, a definition of literary value and a self-reflexive act in which the books Booker chooses actively construct what is meant by Bookers". It seeks to confer literary recognition on novels that are winners and attend to the novel as a form and medium for new voices, styles and cultures.

India has been consistently producing award-winning authors or inspiring others to base their works on Indian colours, themes and identity. As a matter of fact, India's prominence in the brief history of Booker fiction is unquestionable. Just two years after the first ever Booker Prize was conferred in 1969, V.S. Naipaul—the Indian Trinidadian writing about the displaced ethnic Indians—was awarded the Booker for In a Free State. As many as three of the winning novels in the next seven years—though authored by non-Indians—were based on Anglo-Indian Colonial experience, viz. The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrel (1973); Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1975); and Staying On by Paul Scott (1978). In the last 25 years, the prize has been bestowed on four Indians—Salman Rushdie in 1981 for Midnight's Children; Arundhati Roy in 1997 for The God of Small Things; Kiran Desai in 2006 for The Inheritance of Loss; and most recently, to Aravind Adiga in 2008 for The White Tiger. In addition, diasporic Indian authors appear regularly in the shortlist for Booker.

Such achievement of literary distinction has drawn attention of reviewers and critics all over the world to Indian writing in English. In fact, as Aravind Adiga the latest Indian star in the Booker's horizon—puts it:

India just teems with untold stories, and no one who is

alive to the poetry, the anger and the intelligence of

Indian society, will ever run out of stories to write.

Not only has the readership of novels of by Indian writers, particularly those experimenting with new ideas, themes and styles, swelled in Europe, India and elsewhere over the years, there is a new wave of enthusiasm in literary circles for research, critical analysis and academic pursuits pertinent to English literature. The book Indian Booker Prize Winners in two volumes, has been brought to sustain and to add to that fervour so that a ground is prepared for still higher achievements by Indian English writers. It will provide deeper insights into issues, emotions, themes and styles of the celebrated Indian Booker prize-winning novelists as exhibited in their works. It will immensely benefit students and teachers of English literature, particularly Indian English literature and the genre of fiction, and researchers in these fields.

Representing the combined efforts of erudite scholars in the field of English literature, the book is multivocal and inclusive. I am thankful to the legion of contributors who have worked hard to present their articles. I also wish to thank Dr. K.R. Gupta, Honorary Advisor, Atlantic Publishers and Distributors (P) Ltd. for the confidence evinced in me and for seeing the book through the press.

**Contents and Sample Pages**