"This critical study of the work of Kamala Markandaya is a comprehensive assessment of her entire canon-an output that spans ten novels produced over a period of three decades. With emphasis upon the presence or absence of the quality of 'Indianness' in her fiction, this analysis examines those aspects of her writing that reflect dependence upon western genres and styles of literary creativity as well as those that reveal indigenously Indian sources of inspiration. In particular, this critique dissects the influence of her upbringing and early experiences in India together with those gleaned following her emigration to England. Drawing liberally upon Markandaya's own comments on her life and work gathered from personal conversations with the novelist, this book explores every facet of Markandaya's creativity-from theme and character to language and setting. Using a form of close textual analysis, the author discovers that where Markandaya utilizes her imagination to flesh out her novels, she often distorts reality; where, however, she relies on personal observation and individual experience, she both enlightens and delights. Invaluable to both the causal reader and the serious scholar of early Indo-English literature, this book makes an original and important contribution to Kamala Markandaya scholarship, in particular, and to the body of Indian post-colonial literary criticism, in general."

The Nowhere Man is an intricate, perceptive tragedy of alienation centered around the violent racism sparked by Britain's post-war immigration drive. Srinivas, an elderly Brahmin, has been living in south London suburb for 30 years. After the death of his son, and later his wife, this lonely man is befriended by an Englishwoman in her sixties, whom he takes into his home. The two form a deep and abiding relationship. But the haven they have created for themselves proves to be a fragile one. Racist violence enters their world and Srinivas's life changes irrevocably--as does his dream of England as a country of tolerance and equality. First published in 1972, The Nowhere Man depicts a London convulsed by fear and bitterness. Truly shocking, The Nowhere Man is as relevant today as when it was first published almost 50 years ago.

“This Is a Novel to Retain in Your Heart and Library” —Milwaukee Journal In the sun-baked fields of rural India, Rukmani and Nathan toil side by side, their love woven into the very fabric of the land. Their days are marked by the rhythm of seasons—the planting of rice saplings, the monsoon rains that breathe life into parched soil, and the harvest that sustains their family. But life is not idyllic. Famine stalks the village, and hunger gnaws at their bellies. Rukmani clings to hope, her spirit unyielding even as the world shifts around her. She witnesses the encroachment of modernity—the distant hum of factories, the allure of city lights—and wonders if progress will bring salvation or destruction. As Rukmani’s children grow, so do their dreams. Selvam, the eldest, seeks education beyond the village; Irawaddy, the daughter, yearns for love and security. Through it all, Rukmani remains the heart of their home, her hands stained with the colors of life—earth, blood, and sweat. Nectar in a Sieve is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. Kamala Markandaya’s prose weaves a tapestry of love, loss, and endurance. Amidst the harsh realities of poverty and change, Rukmani’s unwavering love for Nathan becomes a beacon—a nectar that sustains them through hardship. “An elemental book. It has something better than power, the truth of distilled experience.” —New York Herald Tribune “Unique in poetic beauty, in classically restrained and controlled tragedy.”—Dorothy Canfield Fisher, noted author and critic “Will wring your hearts.”—Associated Press “A superb job in telling her story.”—Christian Science Monitor

The planet had two unique elements. One was that it produced the galaxy's most desirable hallucinatory drug. The other was that it was a stock broker's paradise. The world was split into rich men's holdings - and every hour, every minute these were being traded on a continuous stock-market. Up and down went values as men conspired to seize others' properties, to push prices down and costs up. Their money game controlled everything else - the common people, workers, farmers, homes, lives, poverty and luxury . . . Earl Dumarest went there to find his next stake. Find the drug-gem or manipulate the market - two possibilities. But behind the scenes stood the advisors of the inhuman Cyclan, determined to fix the odds against Dumarest . . . (First published 1981)

Prince Rabi, the fiercely proud heir to the throne of Devapur, and Sophie, the headstrong daughter of the British Resident, have known each other from childhood. Growing up in a world fraught with political intrigue and divided loyalties, both were aware of the troubled alliance that existed between the British and the Indians—and of the boundary between them that they were forbidden to cross. But all this changes one night when, during the revelries of a village festival, the two find themselves passionately drawn to each other. Realizing what is at stake, the lovers dare to defy every rule of class and race—only to find themselves torn apart on the crossroads of desire and destiny. Panoramic in its sweep and intimate in its portrayal of human relationships, The Golden Honeycomb is an epic love story set against the splendour and turbulence of the British Raj and the growing struggle for Indian independence.

This is a provocative piece of scholarship, and it engages an intriguing aspect of postcolonial writing.-Choice "Fawzia Afzal-Khan's excellent book could stand as a reply to those hostile critics who today attack 'multiculturalism' for reductively politicizing literature. In her trenchant discussion, Afzal-Khan shows just how complex the politics of 'liberation' can be for colonial and postcolonial novelists." -Gerald Graff, University of Chicago"Afzal-Khan's study is a major new contribution to the related fields of Indian writing in English and post-colonial literatures. Focused primarily on four Indian novelists, its arguments and conclusions are of vital importance to our understanding of the many new literatures from the former British colonies. Through her judicious use of the theoretical constructs of Frantz Fanon, Fredric Jameson, Edward Said, and others, Afzal-Khan has produced a fresh and compelling interpretation of the Indian-English novel."-Amritjit Singh, Rhode Island CollegeCultural Imperialism and the Indo-English Novel focuses on the novels of R. K. Narayan, Anita Desai, Kamala Markandaya, and Salman Rushdie and explores the tension in these novels between ideology and the generic fictive strategies that shape ideology or are shaped by it. Fawzia Afzal-Khan raises the important question of how much the usage of certain ideological strategies actually helps the ex-colonized writer deal effectively with post-colonial and post-independence trauma and whether or not the choice of a particular genre or mode employed by a writer presupposes the extent to which that writer will be successful in challenging the ideological strategies of "containment" perpetuated by most Western "orientalist" texts and writers. She argues that the formal or generic choices of the four writers studied here reveal that they are using genre as an ideological "strategy of liberation" to help free their peoples and cultures from the hegemonic strategies of "containment" imposed upon them. She concludes that the works studied here constitute an ideological rebuttal of Western writers' denigrating "containment" of non-Western cultures. She also notes that self-criticism, as implied in Rushdie's works, is not be confused with self-hatred, a theme found in Naipaul's work.

He Was Not Himself Because His Wife Was Not Herself, Because In Marriage You Acted And Reacted One Upon The Other, However Much You Wished It Otherwise, And Whether You Wanted To Or No. Dandekar Is A Routine-Bound Government Clerk Who Is Able To Provide His Family With A Comfortable Life. But His Ordered Existence Is Thrown Off Course When, One Day, He Comes Home From Work To Find His Wife, Sarojini, Missing. On Her Return She Gives Him An Excuse For Her Disappearance Which He Realizes Is A Lie, Further Rousing His Suspicions. Doubt And Mistrust Plague Him And He Puts His Career In Jeopardy When He Begins To Trail Sarojini In The Hope That He Might Find Her With Another Man. But When He Stumbles Across The Truth He Gets More Than He Bargained For. In A Silence Of Desire Kamala Markandaya Explores The Tension Between The East And The West Between Superstition And Science, Faith And Reason, Tradition And Progress In A Profound Manner.

The Coffer Dams Is An Absorbing Tale About Mechanical Strength And Spiritual Weakness, Physical Certainties And Moral Doubts. It Is Set In Modern India But The Conflict Of Values At Its Heart Is Universal John Masters Clinton, Founder And Head Of A Firm Of International Construction Engineers, Arrives In India To Build A Dam, Bringing With Him His Young Wife, Helen, And A Strong Team Of Aides And Skilled Men. They Are Faced With A Formidable Project, Which Involves Working In Daunting Mountain And Jungle Terrain, Within A Time Schedule Dictated By The Extreme Tropical Weather. Inevitable Setbacks Occur; Accidents And Friction Among The Mixed Labour Force Present Further Complications. But To Clinton The Building Of The Dam Is More Than A Challenge; It Is An Obsession Not, However, Shared By Helen. Appalled By Her Husband S Concern With Structures Rather Than With Men, She Turns To The Local Indian Tribesmen, Finding In Them The Human Values She Finds Lacking In The British Camp. With Relations Between The Clintons Becoming Increasingly Raw-Edged, The First Rains Fall And, As The Torrents Sweep The Valley And The Level Of The River Rises, So Does The Tension In The Beleaguered Camp. The Vital Question Looms: To Breach The Coffer Dams, Or Allow Them To Stand, Thereby Placing The Lives Of The Tribesmen In Jeopardy. It Is A Fundamental Question That Splits The Camp Exposing The Lingering Prejudices Of A Bygone Colonial Era. First Published In 1969, The Coffer Dams Is Vintage Kamala Markandaya, A Pioneer Who Influenced Many Indian Writers In English.

About the Book : - She tossed and turned, her body an alien creature full of strange, strong impulses beyond her control. Saroja lives in a village with her parents, aunt and beautiful elder sister Lalitha. Saroja s life is uncomplicated, and simple things give her joy like the birth of a calf or a taste of one of Chingleput s sweets. Lalitha, on the other hand, believes she is too good for the village. Ambitious and spoilt, she has dreams of being a movie star that are fulfilled when a film-maker casts her in his documentary on village life. Overnight Lalitha becomes the talk of the town; her latent sexuality manifests itself and she uses her elevated status to her advantage. Basking in Lalitha s reflected glory Saroja tries to imitate her womanly wiles, which results in confused ideas about sexuality and ambition. But when the family is faced with a scandal,Saroja emerges with a practical outlook on life. About the Author : - Kamala Markandaya (1924 2004) was born in Mysore. She studied history at Madras University and later worked for a small progressive magazine before moving to London in 1948 in pursuit of a career in journalism. There she began writing her novels; Nectar in a Sieve was the first of ten to be published in her lifetime. Nectar in a Sieve and A Handful of Rice continue to be taught in universities in India and abroad.

"Kamala Markandaya, whose Nectar in a Sieve (1955) was a miniature epic about India's poor, returns to the earlier concerns of that book in A Handful of Rice. Ravi is a village son who has left his desolate, destitute home for the promise of the city. There he falls into the company of similarly rootless young men, presided over by the wily city boy, Damodar, who appears fitfully through the book as a seducer to criminal and get-rich-quick schemes which Damodar is clever enough to survive and thrive by. By a chance misdeed, Ravi becomes acquainted with the tailor Apu and his family; Apu's daughter Nalini wins his heart and brings him from the streets into the already crowded household, first as Apu's apprentice, then his son-in-law. The author recreates the life of the respectable poor with moving fidelity as they face the problems of food, illness, unemployment. When Apu dies, the still rebellious but worn Ravi, now a father of three and head of the household, cannot keep his customers. After the death of his son, he reverts to the street, but Damodar now discards him as unfit for dangerous enterprises, and he ends storming the rice supplies with the mob. A portrait in poverty, which is part of the history of our times. It is less compelling than the earlier book as a novel while managing the same concerned compassion."--Kirkus