The New Manifesto

Raja Rao had no way of knowing that his brief foreword to Kanthapura would become a manifesto for the next generation of writers. The importance of Kanthapura lay in that it was one of the first books written by an Indian to focus on specifically Indian themes using a brand of English that was far more common than the rarefied accents bequeathed to us by the British.

Over the years, Rao went on to write several collections of short stories and five other novels, including The Serpent and The Rope and The Chessmaster and His Moves. The Meaning of India is an essential primer for anybody who wants to understand his concerns and follow the growth of his ideology over the years. The only piece written specifically for this collection is