6 Outstanding Indian Literature books

India is popular for its “unity in diversity.” We have diverse cultures, traditions and languages. There are 22 languages listed in Eighth schedule of the Indian Constitution. But apart from these, there are several languages spoken in different states, regions and tribes.

I always want to learn lots of languages. But I think it would be little challenging for me. Apart from Hindi and English, I can understand little bit of Bengali and Punjabi. But how I wish I knew all these languages such as Malyalam, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, etc.

As there are many languages, Indian literature is also vast. There are acclaimed writers from various languages. But most of the times because of this language barrier, we are not able to read these gems of Indian Literature. Thanks to some of the translators, many of these books are translated into English.

In this post, I am sharing some of these outstanding books of Indian Literature which you must have in your reading list.

1. The Liberation of Sita by Volga

Volga, whose real name is P. Lalita Kumari, is a Telugu poet and writer. Volga was her sister. Lalita started using her sister’s name as her pen name after her death. She is well known for her feminist writing.

The Liberation of Sita has been translated from Telugu to English by T. Vijay Kumar and C. Vijayasree. This book presents the life of Sita while telling the stories of some other women in her life. Surpanakha, Urmila, Ahalya and Renuka are some of the women from Ramayana who has suffered injustice. But they understood this patriarchal world and set some other principles for themselves for liberation. The book shows how they impacted Sita’s journey. This book is a must read for everyone.

2. One Part Woman Trilogy by Perumal Murugan

Perumal Murugan is a Tamil author whose writings mainly exhibit the realistic picture of rural areas of South India and shows the reality of society.

One Part Woman shows the struggle of a childless couple living in poor village of Tamil Nadu. On a special occasion of a ritual in some temple, they were suggested to participate to have a child. But what happens afterwards has been explained in the other two books.

One part woman has ended on a cliffhanger and readers demanded for its sequel. So, he wrote two sequels “Trial by Silence” and “A lonely harvest” with two alternative possibilities.

3. Dopehri by Pankaj Kapoor

I discovered this book few days ago while going through Scribd app. It was short and it was in Hindi. I could not resist myself to read this book. I was done within an hour, but the impact it made is for long time.

Pankaj Kapoor is a famous theatre, television and film actor and director. It is based on his famous one-act play with the same name.

The story is very simple just like the people we see around in our neighborhood. An old lady living alone in a big haveli in Lucknow. Every afternoon, she hears some strange voices on her terrace. She gets terrified and asks her house help to live at her house. But he does not stay. Later on, a young girl comes to her house as a tenant. The way their relationship unfolds is so beautiful. It makes you stop and smile.

4. Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag

Ghachar Ghochar is a psychological fiction about a family. It is originally written in Kannada language. This book tells about how people’s morals and principles change with the power of money.

This book says lots of things without even mentioning in words. It is such a simplistic work of literature which is perfect for readers as well as non-readers.

5. On a Truck Alone, to McMahon by Nabaneeta Dev Sen

On a Truck Alone, to McMahon is a travelogue written by one of the prominent Bengali authors, i.e. Nabaneeta Dev Sen. She had spent her early days in Shantiniketan and her name as also been given by Rabindranath Tagore.

This book talks about her impulsive and unplanned journey to McMahon line which is on Tibet border. The book does not just talk about her journey, but also about people, nature, women and lots of other things. Her writing is so mesmerizing and inspiring. This book has some humor as well. I loved every bit of it.

6. Khooni Vaisakhi by Nanak Singh

Khooni Vaisakhi is a collection of poems which is originally written in Punjabi by Nanak Singh. This book describes the massacre happened in Jallianwala Bagh in 1919 on the day of Vaisakhi. The poems start from the time when Rowlatt act was passed and takes you to the aftermath of the massacre.

These poems have been translated by Nanak Singh’s grandson Navdeep Suri. It was a difficult task for him to translate these poems in English, but he has done a marvelous job here.

Every poem is firstly written in Punjabi, but it is in Devnagari Script. That is the reason I could read them in Punjabi and understand them. With each Punjabi version, there is its English translation. As I could comprehend both the languages, then I would say that the poems hold their meaning and impact even after getting translated.

If you want to know more about the massacre and understand the pain experienced by the people, you must pick this book.

Many other books can be included in this list, but for this post I have just selected these six titles. Have you read any of these books? Do you want to recommend some books to this list? Share in the comments.

I have written this post for #AtoZChallenge and my theme is “Love for the books”

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