“I moved here when I was 20 to go to college. After I moved here, I became much more aware of the importance of the culture and literature to my life. Sometimes when you're immersed in something, you just don't notice it very much. Moving away makes you appreciate your culture. Living here, I've thought more and more about India, and what being Indian-American means to me. And it's made me incorporate things from Indian literature into my own writing.” WritingMeanMadeSometimesMovingCultureLiteratureMy OwnCollegeAppreciateIndiaImportanceMovedIndianAmerican IndianMoving AwayAppreciate You Author:Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
“And if I were to ask myself from what literature we who have been nurtured almost exclusively on the thoughts of Greeks and Romans, and of the Semitic race, the Jewish, may draw the corrective which is most wanted in order to make our inner life more perfect, more comprehensive, more universal, in fact more truly human a life... again I should point to India.” IfsShouldHumansMayHas BeensFactsWantedOrderAsksLiteraturePerfectRaceDrawsUniversalIndiaGreekComprehensiveInner LifeRepublic DayMost Wanted Book:India: What Can it Teach Us? Source: India: What Can it Teach Us?
“If I was asked what is the greatest treasure which India possesses and what is her finest heritage, I would answer unhesitatingly that it is the Samskrit language and literature and all that it contains. This is a magnificent inheritance and so long as this endures and influences the life of our people, so long will the basic genius of India continue. If our race forgot the Buddha, the Upanishads and the great epics (Ramayana and Mahabharata), India would cease to be India .” PeopleIfsLongLiteratureLanguageAnswersRaceInfluenceGeniusIndiaEndureTreasureCeaseHeritageMagnificentEpicFinestInheritanceMahabharataGreatest Treasure Author:Jawaharlal Nehru
“The labours I devoted between 1888 to 1900 to the critical edition, translation and commentary of Kalhana's Rajatarangini, the only true historical text of Sanskrit literature, afforded me ample opportunities of gaining close contact with Sanskrit savants of Kashmir, the land where traditional learning of Hindu India had flourished in old times greatly and survived until recent years.” YearsLiteratureOpportunityLandIndiaHistoricalCriticalTraditionalContactLabourDevotedSurvivedTranslationsCommentaryOld TimeKashmirSanskritSavants Author:Aurel Stein
“India went through a dramatic revolution after the '90s when our economy started opening up for the first time and Indians were now experiencing the Western life, if you will. Drugs and sex and a lot of those influences came in as the economy stabilized, and we were growing up and experiencing that. The Indian writing market was very small at that time. Our literature was very attuned to what Western audiences were interested in, so everybody was writing about the slums in India and magic realism or stories about Hindus and Muslims and partition.” IfsWritingFirstsStoriesLiteratureSexAudienceEconomyGrowing UpGrowingMagicInfluenceRevolutionDrugFirst TimeIndiaWesternOpeningIndianDramaticRealismOpening UpSlumsPartitionMagic Realism Author:Karan Bajaj
“In India's distant past, when the population was low, the blessing given a woman was, 'May you have many children.' Most of our epics and literature stress this wish, and the idea that a woman should have many children hasn't declined.” ShouldMayChildrenIdeasPastLiteratureGivenWishBlessingLowsShould HaveIndiaStressPopulationEpic Author:Indira Gandhi
“There's a whole form of literature in India which talks about the quest for the perfect man by a woman, where every woman looks for a perfect man but only ends up with half that.” MenLooksEndsWholeFormLiteraturePerfectHalfIndiaQuestsPerfect Man Author:Shahrukh Khan
“I've loved 'Vanity Fair' since I was 16 years old. You know, we're all colonial hangovers in India, steeped in English literature. It is one of these novels that I read under the covers at my convent boarding school in Simla.” KnowsYearsSchoolLiteratureNovelFairsIndiaVanityHangoverOld YouEnglish LiteratureVanity Fair Author:Mira Nair
“Those who are acquainted with the literature of India will remember a beautiful old story about this extreme charity, how a whole family, as related in the Mahâbhârata, starved themselves to death and gave their last meal to a beggar. This is not an exaggeration, for such things still happen.” StillsWholeStoriesHappensLastsBeautifulRememberLiteratureIndiaCharityExtremesRelatedMealsBeggarExaggerationWhole Family Book:The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“India was China's teacher in religion and imaginative literature, and the world's teacher in trignometry, quandratic equations, grammar, phonetics, Arabian Nights, animal fables, chess, as well as in philosophy, and that she inspired Boccaccio, Goethe, Herder, Schopenhauer, Emerson, and probably also old Aesop.” WorldWellsPhilosophyNightLiteratureAnimalTeacherIndiaInspiredChinaChessEquationsGrammarImaginativeFablesArabianArabian NightsPhonetics Author:Lin Yutang