Babyji
Encyclopedia
Babyji is a novel by Abha Dawesar first published in 2005
. Set in 1980s Delhi
, India
, it recounts the coming of age
and the sexual adventures and fantasies
of a 16-year-old bespectacled schoolgirl, the only child of a Brahmin
family. The three simultaneous "affair
s" she has in the course of the novel are all secret, and all with members of her own gender: two with older women and one with a classmate.
The title of the book points to the old custom of venerating
an elder by referring to them with the suffix
-ji
added to their name (cf. "Gandhiji"). Ironically, in the novel it is the family servant
who, though she is older than the daughter of the house, out of deference
toward the latter's higher caste
addresses her as "Babyji". ("Was I a baby or a Didi
? Babyji was such a contradiction in terms, conveying too much respect
that the age of a child doesn't warrant.")
Babyji is the winner of the 2005 Lambda Literary Award
for Lesbian Fiction
and of the 2006 Stonewall Book Award
for Fiction.
, is a bright young student aware of her privileged position within Indian society. Head Prefect at her school, she aspires to graduate with excellent grades so as to be able to go on to college in the United States
to study physics. Anamika is confident that she will be able to get in, but feels conflicted about contributing to the country's brain drain; ultimately, she concludes that it would be best to return to her native country after the completion of her studies to contribute to the modernization of traditional Indian society and breaking down the rigid caste system
.
The novel is set against the backdrop of the protests against the recommendations of the Mandal commission
, which trigger several acts of self-immolation
, and for high school students all this means a disruption of the normal school routine. In particular, classes are suspended for weeks on end, and although students are obliged to form self-study groups at their homes Anamika finds more time than usual to pursue her private interests.
She spends much of her time with Tripta Adhikari, a free-thinking
divorce
d lady about twice her age whom she calls "India". India is a wealthy academic who lives in Anamika's neighbourhood, and occasionally Anamika sneaks out of the house when her parents have already gone to bed to spend the night with her new-found friend. Mr and Mrs Sharma know about Tripta Adhikari but naturally assume that the latter has a maternal relationship with their daughter, while India herself knows very well that what she is doing amounts to statutory rape
. Anamika's parents even let her go on a short holiday to Kasauli
with India and two of her friends.
Also in Kasauli, Anamika is horrified to see that she is expected to drink beer
—which she does—and that one evening the grown-ups with whom she is travelling not only gather together to smoke a joint but also offer her one as well. In the end Anamika politely refuses. ("The love of my parents, my education, every moral lesson I had learned was being challenged.")
Anamika's second "liaison
" is with Rani, the family's live-in servant. Illiterate
, only able to speak Hindi
, and regularly beaten up by her alcoholic husband, 23 year-old Rani is rescued from a jhuggi by the Sharmas. However, as their apartment does not have a servant's bedroom, Rani is ordered to sleep on the floor of Anamika's room. This, of course, provides the girl with ample opportunity to explore submissive Rani's perfect body, in spite of the servant's occasional tentative protestations that "Babyji", for her own good, should seek the love of a boy her own age. Anamika, however, sticks with her choice, rejects male advances, and, despite the danger of being stigmatised
as someone who associates with a person from a much lower caste, is even prepared to teach Rani some English
.
Finally, she makes several passes at Sheela, one of the girls in her class. Although their male classmates' consider Sheela much prettier than Anamika, Sheela herself is quite unaware of her budding beauty and the boyfriends she could have if she wanted to. She does question whether her intimacies with another girl are morally okay but does not recognize the seriousness of Anamika's endeavours. When Anamika asks her if she will be her "mistress
" when they grow up she replies with a non-committal "Maybe". Only when Anamika goes too far and forces herself on Sheela does the latter reject her, at least for the time being.
"Divorced woman, servant woman, underage woman, I was pursuing them all," Anamika says about herself. Though she likens herself to a playboy, she always makes sure that none of her lovers suspects anything out of the ordinary, that each of them believes she is the only one for her.
, backwardness
, residual colonialism, domestic violence
, and arranged marriage
s, a city where promising young people often see their only option as going to the United States
, thus contributing to the brain drain
and setting in motion a vicious circle
. In contrast to this scenario is Animika herself, a budding intellectual who devours books—among other authors, she has read Dostoevsky
, Sartre
, Kundera
and Bradbury
and reads Nabokov
's Lolita
during her trip to Kasauli—and at school excels at maths
and physics
. At the same time her moral relativism
is of a youthful kind, where every new experience she has is likely to trigger a change in her outlook on the human condition
.
Her lesbianism is a foil
for traditional Indian thought and values. Anamika resists all advances by men, in particular those by her classmate Vidur's father, who, at their first encounter, asks that she call him Adit rather than Uncleji and wants to meet her again, alone. India teaches her that being gay
is a "Western construct," that sexuality
is a continuum rather than a binary phenomenon. Anamika's mind, however, seems already set. She prefers "Sheela's smoothness to Vidur's hairiness," sees herself as predator Humbert Humbert
and all-too-willing victim rolled into one, and as a grown-up wants to have "a big harem
full of women".
She also realizes that feminism
in India still has a long way to go in order to catch up with developments in the West. People like Rani have been led to believe that "women are not meant to enjoy," and when Adit talks about his wife he calls her a "power woman" because she works for American Express
. The dark side of growing up female in India is further demonstrated in the episode where Anamika and Sheela, having missed the school bus
, have to take a crowded public bus to get home from school and fall prey to frotteurs
.
2005 in literature
The year 2005 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*February 25 - Canada Reads selects Rockbound by Frank Parker Day as the novel to be read across the nation....
. Set in 1980s Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, it recounts the coming of age
Coming of age
Coming of age is a young person's transition from childhood to adulthood. The age at which this transition takes place varies in society, as does the nature of the transition. It can be a simple legal convention or can be part of a ritual, as practiced by many societies...
and the sexual adventures and fantasies
Fantasy (psychology)
Fantasy in a psychological sense is broadly used to cover two different senses, conscious and unconscious. In the unconscious sense, it is sometimes spelled "phantasy".-Conscious fantasy:...
of a 16-year-old bespectacled schoolgirl, the only child of a Brahmin
Brahmin
Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...
family. The three simultaneous "affair
Affair
Affair may refer to professional, personal, or public business matters or to a particular business or private activity of a temporary duration, as in family affair, a private affair, or a romantic affair.-Political affair:...
s" she has in the course of the novel are all secret, and all with members of her own gender: two with older women and one with a classmate.
The title of the book points to the old custom of venerating
Veneration
Veneration , or veneration of saints, is a special act of honoring a saint: an angel, or a dead person who has been identified by a church committee as singular in the traditions of the religion. It is practiced by the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic, and Eastern Catholic Churches...
an elder by referring to them with the suffix
Suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...
-ji
Ji
JI or Ji or ji may refer to:*-ji A suffix or postposition used with name or title to show respect in the Indian subcontinent* Ji , a Chinese surname used by kings in the Zhou Dynasty* Ji , from Zhou Dynasty, etc...
added to their name (cf. "Gandhiji"). Ironically, in the novel it is the family servant
Domestic worker
A domestic worker is a man, woman or child who works within the employer's household. Domestic workers perform a variety of household services for an individual or a family, from providing care for children and elderly dependents to cleaning and household maintenance, known as housekeeping...
who, though she is older than the daughter of the house, out of deference
Deference
Deference is the condition of submitting to the espoused, legitimate influence of one's superior or superiors. Deference implies a yielding or submitting to the judgment of a recognized superior out of respect or reverence...
toward the latter's higher caste
Caste
Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...
addresses her as "Babyji". ("Was I a baby or a Didi
Didi
Didi may refer to:People:*Ibrahim Didi, Maldivian politician*Didi Benami, American singer/songwriter*Didi Conn, American actress*Didi Petet, Indonesian actor*Dietmar "Didi" Hamann, German football player...
? Babyji was such a contradiction in terms, conveying too much respect
Respect
Respect denotes both a positive feeling of esteem for a person or other entity , and also specific actions and conduct representative of that esteem. Respect can be a specific feeling of regard for the actual qualities of the one respected...
that the age of a child doesn't warrant.")
Babyji is the winner of the 2005 Lambda Literary Award
Lambda Literary Award
Lambda Literary Awards are awarded yearly by the US-based Lambda Literary Foundation to published works which celebrate or explore LGBT themes. Categories include Humor, Romance and Biography. To qualify, a book must have been published in the United States in the year current to the award...
for Lesbian Fiction
Lesbian literature
This is a list of books portraying sexual relations between female characters, who may include lesbians, bisexuals and WSWs.-Classic fiction and drama:*The Bachelor Girl – Victor Margueritte –...
and of the 2006 Stonewall Book Award
Stonewall Book Award
Sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Round Table of the American Library Association , the Stonewall Book Award is for LGBT books...
for Fiction.
Plot summary
Sixteen year-old Anamika Sharma, the first person narratorFirst-person narrative
First-person point of view is a narrative mode where a story is narrated by one character at a time, speaking for and about themselves. First-person narrative may be singular, plural or multiple as well as being an authoritative, reliable or deceptive "voice" and represents point of view in the...
, is a bright young student aware of her privileged position within Indian society. Head Prefect at her school, she aspires to graduate with excellent grades so as to be able to go on to college in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to study physics. Anamika is confident that she will be able to get in, but feels conflicted about contributing to the country's brain drain; ultimately, she concludes that it would be best to return to her native country after the completion of her studies to contribute to the modernization of traditional Indian society and breaking down the rigid caste system
Caste
Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...
.
The novel is set against the backdrop of the protests against the recommendations of the Mandal commission
Mandal commission
The Mandal Commission was established in India in 1979 by the Janata Party government under Prime Minister Morarji Desai with a mandate to "identify the socially or educationally backward." It was headed by Indian parliamentarian Bindheshwari Prasad Mandal to consider the question of seat...
, which trigger several acts of self-immolation
Self-immolation
Self-immolation refers to setting oneself on fire, often as a form of protest or for the purposes of martyrdom or suicide. It has centuries-long traditions in some cultures, while in modern times it has become a type of radical political protest...
, and for high school students all this means a disruption of the normal school routine. In particular, classes are suspended for weeks on end, and although students are obliged to form self-study groups at their homes Anamika finds more time than usual to pursue her private interests.
She spends much of her time with Tripta Adhikari, a free-thinking
Freethought
Freethought is a philosophical viewpoint that holds that opinions should be formed on the basis of science, logic, and reason, and should not be influenced by authority, tradition, or other dogmas...
divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
d lady about twice her age whom she calls "India". India is a wealthy academic who lives in Anamika's neighbourhood, and occasionally Anamika sneaks out of the house when her parents have already gone to bed to spend the night with her new-found friend. Mr and Mrs Sharma know about Tripta Adhikari but naturally assume that the latter has a maternal relationship with their daughter, while India herself knows very well that what she is doing amounts to statutory rape
Statutory rape
The phrase statutory rape is a term used in some legal jurisdictions to describe sexual activities where one participant is below the age required to legally consent to the behavior...
. Anamika's parents even let her go on a short holiday to Kasauli
Kasauli
Kasauli is a cantonment and town, located in Solan district in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. The cantonment was established by the British Raj in 1842 as a Colonial hill station, from Shimla, from Chandigarh, and from Panchkula, and lies at a height of .-Demographics:According to the...
with India and two of her friends.
[...] I noticed that my biting had caused her to start breathing heavily, so I replaced my teeth with my lips. I gathered different parts of her flesh between my lips and kissed her all over, in the opposite order in which I had bitten. In her breathless moans and her cries of pleasurePleasurePleasure describes the broad class of mental states that humans and other animals experience as positive, enjoyable, or worth seeking. It includes more specific mental states such as happiness, entertainment, enjoyment, ecstasy, and euphoria...
I owned her more than I owned myself and was immersed in her more than I had ever been immersed in my own self. Me, I had not yet discovered. I was an unknown quantity, a constantly unraveling mystery. But India was absolutely and completely known both carnally and otherwise. I rolled off of her with the sweet exhaustion of a man who has just hunted his dinner animal. (Chapter xix)
Also in Kasauli, Anamika is horrified to see that she is expected to drink beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
—which she does—and that one evening the grown-ups with whom she is travelling not only gather together to smoke a joint but also offer her one as well. In the end Anamika politely refuses. ("The love of my parents, my education, every moral lesson I had learned was being challenged.")
Anamika's second "liaison
Affair
Affair may refer to professional, personal, or public business matters or to a particular business or private activity of a temporary duration, as in family affair, a private affair, or a romantic affair.-Political affair:...
" is with Rani, the family's live-in servant. Illiterate
Literacy
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...
, only able to speak Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
, and regularly beaten up by her alcoholic husband, 23 year-old Rani is rescued from a jhuggi by the Sharmas. However, as their apartment does not have a servant's bedroom, Rani is ordered to sleep on the floor of Anamika's room. This, of course, provides the girl with ample opportunity to explore submissive Rani's perfect body, in spite of the servant's occasional tentative protestations that "Babyji", for her own good, should seek the love of a boy her own age. Anamika, however, sticks with her choice, rejects male advances, and, despite the danger of being stigmatised
Social stigma
Social stigma is the severe disapproval of or discontent with a person on the grounds of characteristics that distinguish them from other members of a society.Almost all stigma is based on a person differing from social or cultural norms...
as someone who associates with a person from a much lower caste, is even prepared to teach Rani some English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
.
Finally, she makes several passes at Sheela, one of the girls in her class. Although their male classmates' consider Sheela much prettier than Anamika, Sheela herself is quite unaware of her budding beauty and the boyfriends she could have if she wanted to. She does question whether her intimacies with another girl are morally okay but does not recognize the seriousness of Anamika's endeavours. When Anamika asks her if she will be her "mistress
Mistress (lover)
A mistress is a long-term female lover and companion who is not married to her partner; the term is used especially when her partner is married. The relationship generally is stable and at least semi-permanent; however, the couple does not live together openly. Also the relationship is usually,...
" when they grow up she replies with a non-committal "Maybe". Only when Anamika goes too far and forces herself on Sheela does the latter reject her, at least for the time being.
"Anamika, please stop," she whispered urgently.
If she really didn't want me to she could scream or move away or kick me. "You're beautiful," I said as I slid my hand between her thighs where her bloomersBloomers (clothing)Bloomers is a word which has been applied to several types of divided women's garments for the lower body at various times.-Fashion bloomers :...
should have been. She closed her eyes again, but this time I couldn't tell if she was enjoying it or not. I pushed with my finger. I wasn't slow, the way I had been with India and Rani. I was afraid if I was too gentle she would use it to move away. I used all the force I could muster.
She let out a howl. "Stop, it hurts."
I pulled back and said, "I just fuckFuck"Fuck" is an English word that is generally considered obscene which, in its most literal meaning, refers to the act of sexual intercourse. By extension it may be used to negatively characterize anything that can be dismissed, disdained, defiled, or destroyed."Fuck" can be used as a verb, adverb,...
ed you." There was blood on my finger. (Chapter xviii)
"Divorced woman, servant woman, underage woman, I was pursuing them all," Anamika says about herself. Though she likens herself to a playboy, she always makes sure that none of her lovers suspects anything out of the ordinary, that each of them believes she is the only one for her.
The presentation of Indian society in Babyji
In Babyji, Dawesar paints a Delhi of crime, rape, dirt, blackoutsPower outage
A power outage is a short- or long-term loss of the electric power to an area.There are many causes of power failures in an electricity network...
, backwardness
Backwardness
An economically backward economy is defined as one which makes less progress than normal. USSR leader Gorbachev once said “If you don’t move forward, sooner or later you begin to move backward.” The backwardness model is a theory of economic growth created by Alexander Gerschenkron...
, residual colonialism, domestic violence
Domestic violence
Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...
, and arranged marriage
Arranged marriage
An arranged marriage is a practice in which someone other than the couple getting married makes the selection of the persons to be wed, meanwhile curtailing or avoiding the process of courtship. Such marriages had deep roots in royal and aristocratic families around the world...
s, a city where promising young people often see their only option as going to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, thus contributing to the brain drain
Brain drain
Human capital flight, more commonly referred to as "brain drain", is the large-scale emigration of a large group of individuals with technical skills or knowledge. The reasons usually include two aspects which respectively come from countries and individuals...
and setting in motion a vicious circle
Virtuous circle and vicious circle
A virtuous circle and a vicious circle are economic terms. They refer to a complex of events that reinforces itself through a feedback loop. A virtuous circle has favorable results, while a vicious circle has detrimental results...
. In contrast to this scenario is Animika herself, a budding intellectual who devours books—among other authors, she has read Dostoevsky
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky was a Russian writer of novels, short stories and essays. He is best known for his novels Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov....
, Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...
, Kundera
Milan Kundera
Milan Kundera , born 1 April 1929, is a writer of Czech origin who has lived in exile in France since 1975, where he became a naturalized citizen in 1981. He is best known as the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, and The Joke. Kundera has written in...
and Bradbury
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
and reads Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist...
's Lolita
Lolita
Lolita is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, first written in English and published in 1955 in Paris and 1958 in New York, and later translated by the author into Russian...
during her trip to Kasauli—and at school excels at maths
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
and physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
. At the same time her moral relativism
Moral relativism
Moral relativism may be any of several descriptive, meta-ethical, or normative positions. Each of them is concerned with the differences in moral judgments across different people and cultures:...
is of a youthful kind, where every new experience she has is likely to trigger a change in her outlook on the human condition
Human condition
The human condition encompasses the experiences of being human in a social, cultural, and personal context. It can be described as the irreducible part of humanity that is inherent and not connected to gender, race, class, etc. — a search for purpose, sense of curiosity, the inevitability of...
.
Science had told us this century that nothing was certain. The universe was chaotic and relative; these aspects measurable. There were few hard facts on which one could base a way of living one's life. I'd always scoffed at religion [i.e. HinduismHinduismHinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
] as a crutch for the masses, so it wasn't even a consideration. We'd spent two thousand years only to find out that we didn't know. That moment, sprawled on my bed, changed my whole life. I was free all of a sudden. Free of the burden of knowledge and therefore of any morality that proceeds from knowledge. Only feelings counted. And sensations. (Chapter iii)
Her lesbianism is a foil
Foil (literature)
In fiction, a foil is a character who contrasts with another character in order to highlight particular qualities of another character....
for traditional Indian thought and values. Anamika resists all advances by men, in particular those by her classmate Vidur's father, who, at their first encounter, asks that she call him Adit rather than Uncleji and wants to meet her again, alone. India teaches her that being gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
is a "Western construct," that sexuality
Human sexuality
Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...
is a continuum rather than a binary phenomenon. Anamika's mind, however, seems already set. She prefers "Sheela's smoothness to Vidur's hairiness," sees herself as predator Humbert Humbert
Lolita
Lolita is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, first written in English and published in 1955 in Paris and 1958 in New York, and later translated by the author into Russian...
and all-too-willing victim rolled into one, and as a grown-up wants to have "a big harem
Harem
Harem refers to the sphere of women in what is usually a polygynous household and their enclosed quarters which are forbidden to men...
full of women".
She also realizes that feminism
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
in India still has a long way to go in order to catch up with developments in the West. People like Rani have been led to believe that "women are not meant to enjoy," and when Adit talks about his wife he calls her a "power woman" because she works for American Express
American Express
American Express Company or AmEx, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best...
. The dark side of growing up female in India is further demonstrated in the episode where Anamika and Sheela, having missed the school bus
School bus
A school bus is a type of bus designed and manufactured for student transport: carrying children and teenagers to and from school and school events...
, have to take a crowded public bus to get home from school and fall prey to frotteurs
Frotteurism
Frotteurism refers to a paraphilic interest in rubbing, usually one's pelvis or erect penis, against a non-consenting person for sexual gratification. It may involve touching any part of the body including the genital area. A person who practices frotteurism is known as a frotteur...
.
See also
- BildungsromanBildungsromanIn literary criticism, bildungsroman or coming-of-age story is a literary genre which focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood , and in which character change is thus extremely important...
- Indian English literatureIndian English literatureIndian English literature refers to 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. It is also associated with the works of members of the Indian diaspora, such as V.S...
- Indian diasporaNon-resident Indian and Person of Indian OriginA Non-Resident Indian is an Indian citizen who has migrated to another country, a person of Indian origin who is born outside India, or a person of Indian origin who resides permanently outside India. Other terms with the same meaning are overseas Indian and expatriate Indian...