10 INDIAN CLASSICS YOU MUST READ
Our nominations for the greatest Indian classics. We know there are many, many more: Godaan: Translated into English (from Hindi) as The Gift of the Cow, this Premchand novel is about Hori Mahato’s yearning to own a cow, the dream asset of most of India’s peasants.
A Desertful of Roses: Two of Ghalib’s classics are Deewan-e-Ghalib (his poetry collection) and Ood-e-Hindi (his letters). A Desert…, a work in English translation, is based on his 234 Urdu ghazals.
Gora: This is a Tagore classic of India’s nationalist awakening, seen through the eyes of a conflicted young man. Gora is a staunch Hindu who tries to ‘find himself’ through religion. The irony: he is of English blood.
The Story of my Experiments with Truth: Mahatma Gandhi does a tell-all on his own life – his experiments with eating meat, smoking, the repentance; his activism in South Africa and his family life; his political campaigns in India till 1921.
The Discovery of India: Nehru was imprisoned at the Ahmednagar Fort for his participation in the Quit India movement. During this period, he started to write this book weaving in his knowledge of the Upanishads, the Vedas, and the development of India from the Indus Valley civilisation up to an India under British rule. This is considered one of the finest of modern history writings on India.
The Legends of Khasak: OV Vijayan’s first novel, originally in Malayalam, is said to be India’s first magical-realist novel. Khasak, like Marquez’s Macondo, is a place where reality and dreams co-exist. It has a great cast of characters such as Ravi, the village outsider, and the parrot, Appu-Kili, who had the freedom to be “Hindu, Muslim and Parrot”. Malgudi Days: This short story collection by RK Narayan is set in the fictional town of Malgudi. Raja Rao and Mulk Raj Anand may have had their readers in English, but it is Narayan’s book that is considered the first classic of Indian writing in English.
All About H. Hatterr: This laugh-riot by GV Desani is based on H. Hatter, the son of a European merchant officer and a lady who has been schooled by the missionaries of Calcutta. TS Eliot was an admirer of this comic masterpiece.
Ramayana: Traditionally ascribed to the sage Valmiki, the epic is about the life and exile of the legendary prince Rama and his rescue of his wife, Sita, from the clutches of the king, Ravana.
Mahabharata: Indians first learnt to face the ambiguities that exist in family relationships, power and powerlessness, in this epic tale of the Kauravas and the Pandavas, said to be the work of sage Vyasa. Don’t miss the Shakuntala episode in the Mahabharata by Kalidasa, the great Sanskrit poet. (Also do read Meghduta, another famous Kalidasa work).