Written in the memory of Professor G.K. Das and divided into three sections, this book takes on special significance as India reflects on the ever-changing prospects ahead of the first seventy-five years of independence.

The subject matter in this book outlines the relationship between texts and the larger cultural context that they shape (and that, in turn, shapes them). It also presents a comparison of the relationship between events and the written word, or between lines of inquiry and the various kinds of writing that articulate them. The first section discusses British and Indian writers of the precolonial and colonial periods. The essays in the second section reflect on the question: Does the emergent nation-state seem at all like the visions that presaged it, or does it increasingly resemble the imperialistic nightmare that it seeks to replace? Finally, the last section explores the relationship between literature and human nature and also discusses the framing discourse on literature and the environment. The collection closes with a previously unpublished essay by Professor Das that brings to the forefront one of the most urgent global issues of today – the troubling relationship between humanity and an ecologically fragile environment within which it functions.

Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan or Bhutan)