It has been over two centuries since Indians first adopted a new language English as a medium of their creative expression. But it is only in the last two decades that this new writing or literature in English has witnessed a flourishing phase with a spurt in the number of publications and some of its practitioners getting prestigious international literary awards. In this scenario, writers, readers, critics and the academia can no longer be indifferent, as they have been earlier, to this emerging and vibrant trend. This article raises some thought-provoking questions about the nomenclature in vogue for this body of literature, the authenticity of the Indianness of some of the practitioners and the legitimacy of the use of the term diaspora for all and sundry; and dispels some widely prevailing myths about the quality, status and validity of Indian Writing in English.

It is embarrassing but critically pertinent to raise a few fundamental issues about the flourishing genre of what is generally called "Indian Writing in English". The first question is a basic one. It is about the nomenclature of this area of study. After toying with various other designations including "Anglo-Indian literature", "Indo-Anglian literature", "Indo-Anglican literature" (through a printer's error), and "Indo-English Writing", Professor K R Srinivasa Iyengar finally settled on the term, "Indian Writing in English", some 40 years ago, and it has been generally accepted. I am bothered about why this is called `writing' while creative writing anywhere else is called `literature'. We don't say `Canadian Writing in English' or `West Indian Writing in English'. Are the terms, `literature' and `writing' synonymous? If that is so, why don't we say `American writing' instead of `American literature', etc.? Is there a gradation or a hierarchy showing one as superior to the other? If this is the case, is literature superior to writing? Or, is it the other way round? If, indeed, there is a prestige ranking, how does one distinguish literature from writing? If `writing' belongs to a lower rank or subspecies, when and how does it qualify to attain the higher status of literature? Can `Indian Writing in English' ever be rechristened `literature' at all?

Indian Writing in English: Some Issues, creative expression, practitioners, prestigious international literary awards, authenticity, fundamental issues, Anglo-Indian literature, Indo-Anglian literature, Indo-English Writing, literature, nomenclature, legitimacy.