Modernity and the Vernacular -- The Construction of the Indian Novel in English -- A Note on the Selection -- THE BENGAL RENAISSANCE AND AFTER -- Michael Madhusudan Dutt (1824-73) -- from 'The Anglo-Saxon and the Hindu' -- Two Letters -- Bankimchandra Chatterjee (1838-94) -- 'A Popular Literature for Bengal' -- The Confession of a Young Bengal' -- from 'Rajani' -- Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) -- 'The Postmaster' -- Five Letters -- 'An Essay on Nursery Rhymes' -- from the Introduction to 'Thakurmar Jhuli' -- Sukumar Ray (1887-1923) -- 'A Topsy-Turvy Tale' -- Bibhuti Bhushan Banerjee (1894-1950) -- from 'Pather Panchali' -- Parashuram (Rajshekhar Basu) (1880-1960) -- 'Blue Star' -- 'The Jackal-Faced Tongs' -- Buddhadev Bose (1908-74) -- from 'Tithidore' -

From 'An Acre of Green Grass: A Review of Modern Bengali Literature' -- Mahashweta Devi (b. 1926) -- 'Arjun' -- HINDI -- Premdhand (Dhanpat Rai) (1880-1936) -- 'The Chess Players' -- Nirmal Verma (b. 1929) -- 'Terminal' -- Krishna Sobti (b. 1925) -- from 'Ai Ladki' -- URDU -- Sadat Hasan Manto (1912-55) -- 'Peerun' -- 'The Black Shalwar' -- Qurratulain Hyder (b. 1927) -- 'Memories of an Indian Childhood' -- Naiyer Masud (b. 1936) -- 'Sheesha Ghat' -- THE SOUTH -- U. R. Anantha Murthy (b. 1932) -- 'A Horse for the Sun' -- Vaikom Muhammad Basheer (c 1908-94) -- 'Walls' -- 0. V. Vijayan (b. 1930) -- 'The Rocks' -- Ambai (C. S. Lakshmi) (b. 1945) -- 'Gifts' -- PAGES FROM AUTOBIOGRAPHIES -- Fakir Mohan Senapati (1843-1918) -- from 'Story of My Life' -- Nirad C. Chaudhuri (1897-1998) -- from 'The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian' -

Aubrey Menen (1912-89) -- from 'Dead Man in the Silver Market' -- Pankaj Mishra (b. 1969) -- 'Edmund Wilson in Benares' -- ENGLISH -- R. K. Narayan (b. 1907) -- from 'The English Teacher' -- Raja Rao (b. 1908) -- from 'The Serpent and the Rope' -- Ruskin Bond (b. 1934) -- 'The Night Train at Deoli' -- A. K Ramanujan (1929-93) -- 'Is There an Indian Way of Thinking? An Informal Essay' -- Dom Moraes (b. 1938) -- from 'Answered by Flutes' -- Arvind Krishna Mehrotra (b. 1947) -- from 'The Emperor Has No Clothes' -- Adil Jussawalla (b. 1940) -- 'Make Mine Movies' -- Salman Rushdie (b. 1947) from 'Midnights Children' -- Vikram Seth (b. 1952) from 'The Golden Gate' -- Amitav Ghosh (b. 1956) 'Tibetan Dinner' -- 'Four Corners' -- Upamanyu Chatterjee (b. 1959) from 'English, August: An Indian Story' -- Vikram Chandra (b. 1961) -

'Siege in Kailashpada' from a novel in progress -- Sunetra Gupta (b. 1965) from 'Memories of Rain' -- Aamer Hussein (b. 1955) 'The Colour of a Loved Person's Eyes' -- Ashok Banker (b. 1964) from 'Vertigo' -- Rohit Manchanda (b. 1963) from 'In the Light of the Black Sun'