Contents: Acknowledgements. Editor's note. Introduction. 1. Defining political novel. 2. The shaping influences. 3. Novels of political awakening. 4. The novel of freedom as trauma, displacement and dispossession. 5. Novels on the tragedy of Partition of India. 6. The novel of disillusionment and reenchantment. 7. The emerging perspective. Bibliography. Index.

"While there are divergent critical views on the issue of the novel being political and on the scope of an interaction between politics and novel in a creative way, the argument that life awareness includes whatever surrounds and affects it cannot be totally ignored. Viewed in this light Indian Political Novel in English has to be evaluated against the logic of its own political history and growth. That exactly is what this book is all about. Exploring into the mode of interaction between Indian novel in English and political events in this country, it conducts a thorough scrutiny of the various phases of evolution of the Indian Political Novels in English in terms of thematic concern, artistic posture and narrative strategy. Special attention is focused on the role played by Gandhi and Gandhian values in the making of the pre and post-independence novels in English.

The last of the contributions of Dr. O.P. Bhatnagar-- a leading Indian English Poet and Critic--it makes itself indispensable for the research scholars and enlightening to the general reader." (jacket)