Hindi literature includes literature in the various Hindi language which have writing systems. Earliest forms of hindi literature are attested in poetry of Apabhraṃśa like Awadhi, Magadhi, Ardhamagadhi and Marwari languages. Hindi literature is composed in three broad styles- गद्य (Gadya-prose), पद्य( Padya- poetry) and चम्प्पू In terms of historical development, it is broadly classified into five prominent forms (genres) based on the date of production. They are:
Mulk Raj Anand was an Indian writer in English, recognised for his depiction of the lives of the poorer castes in traditional Indian society. One of the pioneers of Indo-Anglian fiction, he, together with R. K. Narayan, Ahmad Ali and Raja Rao, was one of the first India-based writers in English to gain an International readership. Anand is admired for his novels and short stories, which have acquired the status of classics of modern Indian English literature; they are noted for their perceptive insight into the lives of the oppressed and for their analysis of impoverishment, exploitation and misfortune. He became known for his protest novel Untouchable (1935), followed by other works on the Indian poor such as Coolie (1936) and Two Leaves and a Bud (1937). He is also noted for being among the first writers to incorporate Punjabi and Hindustani idioms into English, and was a recipient of the civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan.
Paul Mark Scott was an English novelist, playwright and poet, best known for his tetralogy The Raj Quartet. His novel Staying On won the Booker Prize for 1977.
Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, alternatively spelt as Sarat Chandra Chatterjee, was a Bengali novelist and short story writer of the early 20th century. Most of his works deal with the lifestyle, tragedy and struggle of the village people and the contemporary social practices that prevailed in Bengal. He remains the most popular, translated, and adapted Indian author of all time.
Nanak Singh,, was an Indian poet, songwriter, and novelist of the Punjabi language. His literary works in support of India's independence movement led the British to arrest him. He published novels that won him literary acclaim.
Qurratulain Hyder was an Indian Urdu novelist and short story writer, an academic, and a journalist. One of the most outstanding and influential literary names in Urdu literature, she is best known for her magnum opus, Aag Ka Darya, a novel first published in Urdu in 1959, from Lahore, Pakistan, that stretches from the fourth century BC to post partition of India.
Indian English literature (IEL), also referred to as Indian Writing in English (IWE), is the body of work by writers in India who write in the English language and whose native or co-native language could be one of the numerous languages of India. Its early history began with the works of Henry Louis Vivian Derozio and Michael Madhusudan Dutt followed by Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo. R. K. Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao contributed to the growth and popularity of Indian English fiction in the 1930s. It is also associated, in some cases, with the works of members of the Indian diaspora who subsequently compose works in English.
Kiran Nagarkar was an Indian novelist, playwright and screenwriter. A noted drama and film critic, he was one of the most significant writers of post-colonial India.
Govind Mishra is an Indian novelist, who has written more than 53 books. He was also a civil servant with Indian Revenue Service (IRS) and retired as Chairperson, Central Board of Direct Taxes in 1997. Over the years, he has written 11 novels, 14 short story collections, five travelogues, five literary essays collection, a poem collection and 2 story books for children.
Upamanyu Chatterjee is an author and a retired Indian civil servant. His works include the novel English, August: An Indian story, The Last Burden, The Mammaries of the Welfare State and Weight Loss. In 2008, he was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contribution to literature.
Ram Sharma (1837–1918) was a nineteenth-century Indo-Anglian poet who alternately criticized and praised the government in his poems and newspaper articles. He began his literary career in the 1860s but pursued steady writing only after his retirement from a government post in 1878. He practiced Yoga for 40 years.
Attia Hosain was a British-Indian novelist, author, writer, broadcaster, journalist and actor. She was a woman of letters and a diasporic writer. She wrote in English although her mother tongue was Urdu. She wrote the semi-autobiographical Sunlight on a Broken Column and a collection of short stories named Phoenix Fled. Her career began in England in semi-exile making a contribution to post-colonial literature. Anita Desai, Vikram Seth, Aamer Hussein and Kamila Shamsie have acknowledged her influence.
Among the first published works of Fijian literature, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, were Vivekanand Sharma, Raymond Pillai's and Subramani's short stories and Pio Manoa's poetry. The emergence of Fiji's written literature coincides with the country's transition to independence in 1970.
Bazaar-e-Husn or Seva Sadan is a Hindustani novel by Munshi Premchand.
Shrilal Shukla was a Hindi writer, notable for his satire. He worked as a PCS officer for the state government of Uttar Pradesh, later inducted into the IAS. He has written over 25 books, including Raag Darbari, Makaan, Sooni Ghaati Ka Sooraj, Pehla Padaav and Bisrampur Ka Sant.
The Tailor's Needle (2009) is the debut novel of Indian writer Lakshmi Raj Sharma, who is a professor in the Department of English, University of Allahabad. It was first published in the UK in 2009 (ISBN 0956037046) by Picnic Publishing Limited, UK and then by Penguin Books India. It is a Raj novel covering the era from 1917 to the 1940s and ends a little before India gets its independence. The characters are Indians and Brits, including a fictional British Viceroy of India. Sir Saraswati is educated at Cambridge and employed with the Maharaja of Kashinagar. He must leave Kashinagar and settle down in Mirzapur after a debauched Maharaja is enthroned. The Viceroy and Sir Saraswati have a battle of wits and diplomacy. His wife and three children, and their problems, form the thrust of the novel.
Lakshmi Nandan Bora was an Indian novelist and short story writer in the Assamese language, known for over 60 books he has authored, including award winning novels, Patal Bhairavi and Kayakalpa. A recipient of Sahitya Academy Award and Saraswati Samman, Bora was honoured by the Government of India in 2015 with Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award. He died on 3 June 2021 from complications caused by COVID-19.
Neelum Saran Gour is an Indian English writer of fiction that depicts North India's small towns and their cultural histories. She is the author of five novels, four collections of short stories and one work of literary non-fiction. She has edited a pictorial volume on the history and culture of the city of Allahabad, where she lives and works, and has also translated one of her early novels into Hindi.
Razia Sajjad Zaheer was an Indian writer in the Urdu language, a translator, and a prominent member of the Progressive Writers Association. She won the Uttar Pradesh Sahitya Akademi Award as well as the Soviet Land Nehru Award.
