Cultural Narratives of Maharashtra in Contemporary Indian English Literature

Abstract

Contemporary Indian literature in English: A representation and mediation of Maharashtrian narratives. Based on a large corpus of fiction, memoirs and poetry written between the 1980s and the present, this study examines how authors of Maharashtrian origin or affiliation, such as Rohinton Mistry, Kiran Nagarkar, Sachin Kundalkar, Nayantara Sahgal, et al., negotiate, contest and reconfigure Marathi cultural heritage in English’s globalising idiom. This paper connects these literary works to postcolonial theory, subaltern studies and regional identity formation and argues that Maharashtra’s cultural specificity the Warkari bhakti traditions of the region, Ambedkarite social reform in Dalit villages, Maratha historical memory and cosmopolitanism in Mumbai, as well as the rural landscapes of Vidarbha and Marathwada appears on stage not as a static ethnographic backdrop but rather emerges through those writings as a dynamic, contested narrative terrain infused politically. The paper goes on to examine how caste, gender, language, politics, and urbanization structure thematic concerns across this body of literature. It finds that Maharashtrian writing in English occupies a unique, intermediary and underexplored space within the larger body of Indian writing in English, a space that invites sustained critical attention.