''Indian Literature'' is an English language literary journal published bi-monthly by the
Sahitya Akademi
The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of the Indian government. Its off ...
, India's National Academy of Letters. It was first launched in 1957, and is currently edited by British-Indian journalist
Antara Dev Sen
Antara Dev Sen (born 1963) is a British-born Indian journalist based in Delhi.
Early life and education
Antara was born in Cambridge, England and did her schooling in Delhi and later in Kolkata and higher education in India (Kolkata) and United ...
.
History
The
Sahitya Akademi
The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of the Indian government. Its off ...
first launched ''Indian Literature'' in 1957 as an annual publication in English. In an editorial note published in the first issue, in October 1957, the editors noted that since the inception of the Sahitya Akademi in March 1954, there had been demands at every General Council meeting that a journal should be established to disseminate information about literary developments in India. The purpose of ''Indian Literature,'' therefore, was initially established as a platform to help Indian writers and readers to become better acquainted with new literary works, particularly in translating and making accessible works of Indian literature. The editorial note also recorded that ''Indian Literature'' would document the work of the Sahitya Akademi. At the time of its launch, an annual subscription to ''Indian Literature'' cost Rs. 2.5.
The first editorial board of the journal consisted of three members; S. Radhakrishnan, the first vice-president of India, politician and author, Humayun Kabir, and K.R. Kripalani, with the latter acting as the editor. From 1965 onwards, in addition to the editorial board, the journal had a designated editor, starting with Bengali author and translator, Lokenath Bhattacharya. The current editor of the journal is
Antara Dev Sen
Antara Dev Sen (born 1963) is a British-born Indian journalist based in Delhi.
Early life and education
Antara was born in Cambridge, England and did her schooling in Delhi and later in Kolkata and higher education in India (Kolkata) and United ...
. Previous editors include A. J. Thomas, K. Satchidanandan, and H.S. Shivaprakash.
Issues of ''Indian Literature'' did not initially contain editorials, although from 1973, Keshav Malik began his tenure as editor with a prefatory note to each issue, containing general reflections on the state of Indian literature. In 1974, S. Balu Rao took over as editor from Keshav Malik, and in an editorial note, redefined the scope of ''Indian Literature,'' focusing more on translations to and from Indian languages. Editorial notes from S. Balu Rao became a regular feature, introducing the contents of each issue, and all editors since have continued to introduce each issue with an editorial note.
From 1959 ''Indian Literature'' was published bi-annually, instead of just annually, and from 1966 onwards, it became a quarterly publication. From 1979 onwards, it has been published on a bi-monthly basis.
The journal completed its 50th year in 2007. On this occasion Sahitya Akademi awarded the Indian Literature Golden Jubilee Translation Awards to the following poets:-
* Rana Nayar, for his translation of the verses of the Sikh saint
Baba Farid
Farīduddīn Masūd Ganjshakar ( – 16 Oct 1265), commonly known as Bābā Farīd or Sheikh Farīd (also in Anglicised spelling Fareed, Fareed ud-Deen, Masood, etc.), was a 13th-century Punjabi Muslim mystic, poet and preacher. Revered by ...
Suniti Kumar Chatterji
Suniti Kumar Chatterji (26 November 1890 – 29 May 1977) was an Indian linguist, educationist and litterateur. He was a recipient of the second highest Indian civilian honour of Padma Vibhushan.
Life Childhood
Chatterji was born on 26 Novem ...
Umashankar Joshi
Umashankar Jethalal Joshi () (21 July 1911 – 19 December 1988) was an Indian poet, scholar and writer known for his contributions to Gujarati literature. He wrote most of his works in Gujarati.
Biography
Early years
Umashankar Joshi was b ...
Sunil Gangopadhyay
Sunil Gangopadhyay or Sunil Ganguly (September 7, 1934 – October 23, 2012) was an Indian poet, novelist, short story writer, and critic. He played a key role in modernizing Bengali poetry and co-founded the 1953 Avant-garde, avant-gra ...
. Apart from the editorial board, the journal has also had editors, listed below.
Contents and features
In addition to documenting the activities and publications of the Sahitya Akademi, ''Indian Literature'' also carries original works and translations of short fiction, poetry, plays, as well as literary criticism and reviews. In addition to Indian languages and literature, the journal periodically carries content about literature from other countries, as well as translations from foreign languages. From 1957 onwards, ''Indian Literature'' has featured a regular section titled, "A Review of Current Writing" which consisted of individual reports on new publications in multiple Indian languages. In 1965, this was renamed the "Annual Review of Indian Writing".
Sections such as "Bengali Literature" or "Urdu Literature" note new books, poetry, and reviews published in those languages. Frequent features also included similar sections documenting developments in other forms of literature, such as "Indian Drama and Stage Today", which contained a review of plays in Indian languages. Another regular feature is 'Authors on their Books', featuring commentary and notes by authors on recent publications, particularly those that won Sahitya Akademi Awards. From 1985, ''Indian Literature'' introduced an annual feature titled, 'Indian Literature in English': a bibliography of translations from Indian languages as well as critical works on Indian literatures, to be published in the first issue of each year.
From 1959 onwards, ''Indian Literature'' also began carrying reviews of books that had won
Sahitya Akademi Award
The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...
s in that year and occasionally also carried profiles of Sahitya Akademi Award winners. The Sahitya Akademi also uses the journal to publicize recent books published by the Akademi, which are often listed in the journal's front and back matter.
''Indian Literature'' has also carried occasional special issues, dedicated to specific authors or themes, including an issue dedicated to Rabindranath Tagore in 1960, an issue dedicated to Shakespeare in India in 1964, an issue dedicated to Aurobindo in 1972; an issue dedicated to the Urdu short story in 1976; an issue dedicated to Oriya literature in 1979, etc.
Notable contributors
''Indian Literature'' primarily publishes Indian writers, although it has published works of other writers from other countries, from time to time. The first issue of ''Indian Literature'', for instance, featured an essay by Philip Young on American poetry in the twentieth century, as well as works b Čedomir Minderović and Seijiro Yoshizawa. Notable contributors include:
*
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...
Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, author, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligraphy, calligrapher, and composer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influ ...
*
Umashankar Joshi
Umashankar Jethalal Joshi () (21 July 1911 – 19 December 1988) was an Indian poet, scholar and writer known for his contributions to Gujarati literature. He wrote most of his works in Gujarati.
Biography
Early years
Umashankar Joshi was b ...
*
Khushwant Singh
Khushwant Singh FKC (born Khushal Singh, 2 February 1915 – 20 March 2014) was an Indian author, lawyer, diplomat, journalist and politician. His experience in the 1947 Partition of India inspired him to write '' Train to Pakistan'' in 1956 ( ...
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a pr ...
*
Umashankar Joshi
Umashankar Jethalal Joshi () (21 July 1911 – 19 December 1988) was an Indian poet, scholar and writer known for his contributions to Gujarati literature. He wrote most of his works in Gujarati.
Biography
Early years
Umashankar Joshi was b ...
*
Suniti Kumar Chatterji
Suniti Kumar Chatterji (26 November 1890 – 29 May 1977) was an Indian linguist, educationist and litterateur. He was a recipient of the second highest Indian civilian honour of Padma Vibhushan.
Life Childhood
Chatterji was born on 26 Novem ...
Balwant Gargi
Balwant Gargi (4 December 1916 – 21 April 2003) was an Indian Punjabi language dramatist, theatre director, novelist, short story writer, and academic.
Early life
On 4 December 1916, in Canal House in Sehna, Barnala (Punjab (India), Punj ...
Ruskin Bond
Ruskin Bond (born 19 May 1934) is an Indian author. His first novel, ''The Room on the Roof'', published in 1956, received the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. Bond has authored more than 500 short stories, essays, and novels which includes 69 books ...
Vijay Tendulkar
Vijay Dhondopant Tendulkar (6 January 1928 – 19 May 2008) was an Indian playwright, movie and television writer, literary essayist, political journalist, and social commentator primarily in Marathi. His Marathi plays established him as a writ ...
*
Firaq Gorakhpuri
Raghupati Sahay (28 August 1896 – 3 March 1982), also known by his pen name Firaq Gorakhpuri, was an Indian writer, critic, and, according to one commentator, one of the most noted contemporary Urdu poets from India. He established himself ...
C. Rajagopalachari
Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (10 December 1878 – 25 December 1972), popularly known as Rajaji or C.R., also known as Mootharignar Rajaji (Rajaji'', the Scholar Emeritus''), was an Indian statesman, writer, lawyer, and Indian independence ...
*
O. N. V. Kurup
Ottaplakkal Neelakandan Velu Kurup (known as O. N. V. Kurup; 27 May 1931 – 13 February 2016) was a Malayalam poet and lyricist from Kerala, India, who won the Jnanpith Award, the highest literary award in India for the year 2007. He received ...
Harivansh Rai Bachchan
Harivansh Rai Bachchan (; 27 November 1907 18 January 2003) was an Indian poet and writer of the Nayi Kavita literary movement (romantic upsurge) of early 20th century Hindi literature. He was also a poet of the Hindi Kavi Sammelan. He is be ...
*
Ashokamitran
Ashokamitran (22 September 1931 – 23 March 2017) was the pen name of Jagadisa Thyagarajan, an Indian writer regarded as one of the most influential figures in post-independent Tamil literature. He began his prolific literary career with the p ...
*
Premchand
Dhanpat Rai Srivastava (31 July 1880 – 8 October 1936), better known as Munshi Premchand based on his pen name Premchand (), was an Indian writer famous for his modern Hindustani language, Hindustani literature.
Premchand was a pioneer ...
Nissim Ezekiel
Nissim Ezekiel (16 December 1924 – 9 January 2004) was an Indian poet, actor, playwright, editor, and art critic. He was a foundational figure in postcolonial India's literary history, specifically for Indian poetry in English.
He was awar ...
Premendra Mitra
Premendra Mitra (4 September 1904 – 3 May 1988)Samsad Bengali Charitabhidhan Vol.II edited Anjali Bose, Published by Sagitta Samsad, Kolkata, Edition January,2019,Page-240 was an Indian poet, writer and film director in the Bengali language. ...
*
Subramania Bharathi
Subramania Bharati (Born Chinnaswami Subramaniyan; 11 December 1882 – 11 September 1921) was an Indian writer, poet, journalist, teacher, Indian independence activist, social reformer and polyglot. He was bestowed the title ''Bharati'' for hi ...
Kedarnath Singh
Kedarnath Singh (7 July 1934 – 19 March 2018) was an Indian poet who wrote in Hindi. He was also an eminent critic and essayist. He was awarded the Jnanpith Award (2013), Sahitya Akademi Award (1989) in Hindi for his poetry collection, ''Akaa ...
Saadat Hasan Manto
Saadat Hasan Manto (; Punjabi, , , ; 11 May 1912 – 18 January 1955) was a Pakistani writer, playwright and author who was active in British India and later, after the 1947 partition of India, in Pakistan.
Writing mainly in Urdu, he produc ...
Amrita Pritam
Amrita Pritam (; 31 August 1919 – 31 October 2005) was an Indian novelist, essayist and poet, who wrote in Punjabi and Hindi. A prominent figure in Punjabi literature, she is the recipient of the 1956 Sahitya Akademi Award. Her body o ...
*
Nayantara Sahgal
Nayantara Sahgal (née Pandit; born 10 May 1927) is an Indian writer who writes in English. She is a member of the Nehru–Gandhi family, the second of the three daughters born to Jawaharlal Nehru's sister, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit.
She was award ...
Ranjit Hoskote
Ranjit Hoskote (born 1969) is an Indian poet, art critic, cultural theorist and independent curator. He has been honoured by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, with the Sahitya Akademi Golden Jubilee Award and the Sah ...
Meena Alexander
Meena Alexander (17 February 1951 – 21 November 2018) was an Indian American poet, scholar, and writer. Born in Allahabad, India, and raised in India and Sudan, Alexander later lived and worked in New York City, where she was a Distinguished ...
Indira Devi Chaudhurani
Indira Devi Chaudhurani (29 December 1873 – 12 August 1960) was an Indian literary figure, author and musician. Born to the Tagore family, Indira was the younger child of Satyendranath Tagore and Jnanadanandini Devi and younger sister of Sur ...
Nabakanta Barua
Nabakanta Barua (29 December 1926 – 14 July 2002) was a prominent Assamese novelist and poet. He was also known as Ekhud Kokaideu. As Sima Dutta he wrote many poems in his early life.
Biography
Early life
Nabakanta Barua was born 29 Decembe ...
*
Jhaverchand Meghani
Jhaverchand or Zaverchand Kalidas Meghani ( – ) was an Indian poet, writer, social reformer and freedom fighter. He is a well-known name in the field of Gujarati literature. The writer of "''mor bani than ghat kare"'', the most popular Gujar ...
*
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley ( ; 26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction novel, non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives, and poems.
Born into the ...
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Boris Pasternak
Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (30 May 1960) was a Russian and Soviet poet, novelist, composer, and literary translator.
Composed in 1917, Pasternak's first book of poems, ''My Sister, Life'', was published in Berlin in 1922 and soon became an imp ...
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Halldór Laxness
Halldór Kiljan Laxness (; born Halldór Guðjónsson; 23 April 1902 – 8 February 1998) was an Icelandic writer and winner of the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature. He wrote novels, poetry, newspaper articles, essays, plays, travelogues and sh ...
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Per Hallström
Per August Leonard Hallström (29 September 1866 – 18 February 1960) was a Swedish author, short-story writer, dramatist, poet and member of the Swedish Academy. He joined the academy in 1908, and served as its Permanent Secretary from 1 ...
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Sándor Petőfi
Sándor Petőfi ( []; né Petrovics; ; ; 1 January 1823 – most likely 31 July 1849) was a Hungarian poet and Classical Liberalism, liberal revolutionary. He is considered Hungary's national poet, and was one of the key figures of the Hungari ...
Victoria Ocampo
Ramona Victoria Epifanía Rufina Ocampo (7 April 1890 – 27 January 1979) was an Argentine writer and intellectual. Best known as an advocate for others and as publisher of the literary magazine '' Sur'', she was also a writer and critic in he ...
David Daiches
David Daiches (2 September 1912 – 15 July 2005) was a Scottish literary historian and literary critic, scholar and writer. He wrote extensively on English literature, Scottish literature and Scottish culture.
Early life
He was born in Sunde ...
Endre Ady
Endre Ady (Hungarian: ''diósadi Ady András Endre,'' archaic English: Andrew Ady; 22 November 1877 – 27 January 1919) was a turn-of-the-century Hungarian poet and journalist. Regarded by many as the greatest Hungarian poet of the 20th centur ...
JSTOR
JSTOR ( ; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources founded in 1994. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary source ...