Indian Trio

Indian Trio

Indian trio

Raja Rao

Raja Rao (1908-2006) was born in Hassan (Karnataka) and had his education in Madras, and later in France. He has divided his time among India, Europe (mainly France) and the USA.

He is considered one of the trio (along with Mulk Raj Anand and R. K. Narayan) that forms the precursor to Indian Writing in English as it is known today.

Raja Rao’s works are steeped in Indian spiritualism, and often the theme is metaphysical. Based on his experiences in Europe, his novels are also about the interplay between Indian and Western culture. The influence of the Indian nationalist movement and Gandhi on Raja Rao is evident in his early books.

He received the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1988 and the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1963. He passed away in Texas, Austin.

Works

• Kanthapura
• The Cow of the Barricades, and Other Stories
• The Serpent and the Rope
• The Cat and Shakespeare
• Comrade Kirilov
• The Policeman and the Rose
• The Chessmaster and His Moves
• On the Ganga Ghat
• The Meaning of India
• Great Indian Way: A Life of Mahatma Gandhi

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The Serpent and the Rope

The Serpent and the Rope is a Sahitya Akademi-winning novel, highly acclaimed by both critics and writers. It portrays the meeting of the East and the West on the most intimate plane through the story of Rama, an Indian, and Madeleine, a French girl, who meet at a French university shortly after World War II. Their union is the central theme of the book, and it is in tellng this story that Rama reveals—with more profundity than most writers are able to suggest in a lifetime—the meaning of love.

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The Chessmaster and His Moves

The Chessmaster and His Moves is a most ambitious novel, and like most of Raja Rao’s writing, rooted in Indian tradition, thought and sensibility. At one level, it is the story of an impossible love between Sivarama Sastri, an Indian mathematician working in Paris, and a married woman which can only end in sorrow and despair. To come to terms with its impossibility, the protagonists turn inward in their search for answers and meaning, transforming the book into a metaphysical exploration.

Amidst this search, each and every act, big or seemingly small, gets imbued with special meaning. Sastri’s love for the French actress Suzanne Chantereux, or her beguiling, effervescent compatriot Mireille, for instance, serves to underline the differences between the East and the West; while the latter seeks happiness in the world, Sastri is looking for freedom from the world itself.

The Chessmaster and His Moves is rich: in language, plot, in complexity, too, it is rich. And rich in locale and in its large cast of memorable characters; Indian, European, African and Jewish. By turns tender, tragic, sensuous—or filled with laughter and delight—the book nevertheless remains utterly serious, concerned with the author’s abstract search for the Absolute.

Grand in sweep and range, and functioning at multiple levels, the story moves from France to London, and on to the Himalayas and Bengal and contains, perhaps for the first time in a literary work, a dialogue between a Brahmin and a Rabbi: an exploration of reasons for the Holocaust and an attempt to expiate it.

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The Cat and Shakespeare

The Cat and Shakespeare is a gentle, almost teasing, fable of two friends: Govindan Nair, an astute, down-to-earth philosopher and clerk, who tackles the problems of routine living with extraordinary commonsense and gusto, and whose refreshing and unorthodox conclusions continually panic Ramakrishna Pai, Nair’s friend, neighbour and narrator of the story.

Descriptions of daily concerns are compassionate and evocative. The raw texture of Indian life is seen in this plainspoken and humorous tale by a brilliant craftsman.

 Indian trio

Mulk Raj Anand

Mulk Raj Anand (1905-2004) was born in Peshawar and had his education in Punjab, and later in England. He began his career as a writer in England.

He is considered one of the trio (along with R. K. Narayan and Raja Rao) that forms the precursor to Indian Writing in English as we know it today.

Mulk Raj Anand’s earlier works—which also brought him fame—explore Indian society and examine its cruelty and social injustices. The influence of his involvement with the Left in England is evident in the concern he shows for the lower strata of Indian society.

He won the Padma Bhushan and the Sahitya Akademi Award.

The list below is not exhaustive. Mulk Raj Anand also wrote books on diverse subjects such as Gandhi, Nehru, Tagore, Marx and Engels, the Kama Sutra, Indian sculpture and ivories, painting.

Works

• Untouchable
• Coolie
• Two Leaves and a Bud
• The Village
• Across the Black Waters
• Seven Summers
• The Sword and the Sickle
• The Private Life of an Indian Prince
• Morning Face
• Confessions of a Lover
• The Bubble

• Indian Trio

• R. K. Narayan

  Rasipuram Krishnaswami Ayyar Naranayanaswami (1906-2001) was born in Madras and had his initial education there, and later in Mysore.
  He is considered one of the trio (along with Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao) that forms the precursor to Indian Writing in English as we know it today.
  His books in general are lightly humorous, but the unexpected touch of pathos is undeniable. The most popular of his creations is the fictitious town of Malgudi with its unforgettable denizens. His friendship with Graham Greene was instrumental in his becoming known to the world.
  He was awarded the Padma Bhushan and the Sahitya Akademi Award.
  

  Works

  • Swami and Friends
  • The Bachelor of Arts
  • The Dark Room
  • The English Teacher
  • An Astrologer’s Day and Other Short Stories
  • Mr. Sampath
  • The Financial Expert
  • Waiting for the Mahatma
  • Lawley Road
  • The Guide
  • Next Sunday
  • The Man-Eater of Malgudi
  • My Dateless Diary
  • Gods, Demons and Others
  • The Vendor of Sweets
  • A Horse and Two Goats
  • The Ramayana
  • My Days
  • Reluctant Guru
  • The Painter of Signs
  • The Mahabharata
  • The Emerald Route
  • Malgudi Days
  • A Tiger for Malgudi
  • Under the Banyan Tree
  • Talkative Man
  • A Writer’s Nightmare
  • The World of Nagaraj
  • Salt and Sawdust
  • Grandmother’s Tales

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  The Guide

  The Guide is the tale of Railway Raju, a disarmingly corrupt tourist guide, who lives by his wits and falls in love with a beautiful dancer. More by chance than skill, he seduces her away from her husband, a lonely writer obsessed with local rock-carvings, and transforms her into a celebrity courted by wealthy and influential dignitaries wherever she performs. Raju makes and loses a fortune, finds himself in jail, and—through a series of hilarious, ironic circumstances—becomes one of India’s great holy men.
• (Source: http://www.paritoshuttam.com/)