Introduction to Indian English Literature:
j. Middleclass Character of Indo-Anglian novel: Middleclass character of Indo-Anglian novel does not only become obvious through theme, plot structure and characterization but also through its emphasis on urban setting or background though we should not overlook works depicting life in the village (as in ‘Kanthapura’, ‘Two Leaves and a Bud’ or most or Bhattacharya novels). Yet even here conflicts are less than those of specifically rural community than of differences between Urban and Rural life (ed.in Music for Mohini’ or ‘So Many Hungers’). Accordingly, nature, as an intimate part of the villager and the peasant, plays a very subordinate role. If ever it has some concern for the author, it assumes a philosophical meaning (as in ‘All About H. Hatterr’) it is looked upon nostalgically (as in ‘Two Leaves and a Bud’) or sentimentally (as in ‘The Village’) but hardly ever in its existential importance for man (as in ‘Nectar in a Sieve’). So generally speaking, the Indo-English novelist reflects his own urban background. In doing so, he separates himself from the experiences of life of the majority of his countrymen. His concerns, then, must be understood as those of a very small minority in India. This, in itself, is a defect of his art but it does entail the need not to make more claim for the Indo-Anglian novel than what it intends to achieve.
k. Narrative Technique in Indo-Anglian fiction: A good number of works published