Indian Writing in English

By Prof. Umasankar Patra | IIT Madras

Learners enrolled: 853 | Exam registration: 189

ABOUT THE COURSE:

This course provides an overview of Indian Writing in English from the late eighteenth century to the early twenty-first century. It examines the growth of literature in English in India through genres of novel, short story, poetry, drama, and graphic novel to examine the concepts of nation, language, identity, and belonging. It also seeks to familiarize learners not only with representative texts and writers of Indian Writing in English but also with various debates surrounding the use of English in India and questions of postcoloniality

INTENDED AUDIENCE: UG, PG and Faculty members

Summary

Course Status :	Ongoing
Course Type :	Core
Language for course content :	English
Duration :	12 weeks
Category :	Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit Points :	3
Level :	Undergraduate/Postgraduate
Start Date :	19 Jan 2026
End Date :	10 Apr 2026
Enrollment Ends :	02 Feb 2026
Exam Registration Ends :	20 Feb 2026
Exam Date :	19 Apr 2026 IST
NCrF Level	4.5 — 8.0

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.

Page Visits

Course layout

Week 1: Context and Debates surrounding the introduction of English in India, Macaulay’s “Minutes on Education”

Week 2: Historical Formations of Indian Writing in English, Din Muhammed's The Travels of Dean Mahomet

Week 3: Novel in India: Its transformation in the regional languages of India and the Indian English Novel

Week 4: Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s Rajmohan’s Wife

Week 5: R.K. Narayan and the "Indian" way of thinking

Week 6: Indian English Poetry: from its colonial roots to the Bombay Poets

Week 7: Post-Independence Indian English Poetry: Arun Kolatkar, Jayanta Mahapatra, Kamala Das

Week 8: Indian English Drama: Mahesh Dattani’s Dance Like a Man

Week 9: Imaginary Homelands: Rohinton Mistry’s “The Ghosts of Firozsha Baag”, Jhumpa Lahiri’s “When Mr Pirzada Came to Dine”

Week 10: Nation and its Fragments: Durgabai Vyam and Subhash Vyam et al., Bhimayana

Week 11: Nation and its Fragments: selections from Hansda Sowvendra Sekhar’s Adivasi Will Not Dance

Week 12: The Contemporary Indian Writing in English: Anuja Chouhan’s Those Pricey Thakur Girls

Books and references

1. Priyamvada Gopal, The Indian English Novel: Nation, History and Narration, OUP, 2009.
2. Meenakshi Mukherjee, The Perishable Empire: Essays on Indian Writing in English, OUP, 2003.

3. Priya Joshi, selections from In Another Country: Colonialism, Culture, and the English Novel in India, Columbia UP, 2002

4. Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, An Illustrated History of Indian Writing in English, Permanent Black, 2003.

Instructor bio

Prof. Umasankar Patra

IIT Madras

Prof. Umasankar Patra is Assistant Professor of English in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India. He is a recipient of the Thomas W. Wilkins Fellowship and the Christopher Isherwood Foundation Fellowship. His research interests includeModernism, Modernity in India, Life Writing, Queer Studies, and Indian Writing in English.

Course certificate

The course is free to enroll and learn from. But if you want a certificate, you have to register and write the proctored exam conducted by us in person at any of the designated exam centres.

The exam is optional for a fee of Rs 1000/- (Rupees one thousand only).

Date and Time of Exams: April 19, 2026 Morning session 9am to 12 noon; Afternoon Session 2pm to 5pm.

Registration url: Announcements will be made when the registration form is open for registrations.

The online registration form has to be filled and the certification exam fee needs to be paid. More details will be made available when the exam registration form is published. If there are any changes, it will be mentioned then.

Please check the form for more details on the cities where the exams will be held, the conditions you agree to when you fill the form etc.

CRITERIA TO GET A CERTIFICATE

Average assignment score = 25% of average of best 8 assignments out of the total 12 assignments given in the course.
Exam score = 75% of the proctored certification exam score out of 100

Final score = Average assignment score + Exam score

Please note that assignments encompass all types (including quizzes, programming tasks, and essay submissions) available in the specific week.

YOU WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR A CERTIFICATE ONLY IF AVERAGE ASSIGNMENT SCORE >=10/25 AND EXAM SCORE >= 30/75. If one of the 2 criteria is not met, you will not get the certificate even if the Final score >= 40/100.

Certificate will have your name, photograph and the score in the final exam with the breakup.It will have the logos of NPTEL and IIT Madras .It will be e-verifiable at nptel.ac.in/noc.

Only the e-certificate will be made available. Hard copies will not be dispatched.

Once again, thanks for your interest in our online courses and certification. Happy learning.

- NPTEL team

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