Focussed on the occidental/diasporic constructions of India by Rudyard Kipling, E M Forster and V S Naipaul, this volume examines the uncanny similarities and marked contrasts in their India-related works. It critiques these writers’ perceptions of the Indian socio-cultural and historical contexts through a close reading of their well-known texts including Kim, A Passage to India and An Area of Darkness. The study, ranging from the colonial and partly ambivalent outlook of Kipling to the postcolonial strains in Forster and the diminishing presence of a colonial’s bias in Naipaul, makes for an absorbing and insightful reading.

In equal measure, the volume investigates the interface between travel writings and fictional constructs of these writers. It works on and across the boundaries between these two genres, and illumines the often illusive terrain of their ‘crossover point’ in terms of people, situations and events. This pioneering work discerningly dismisses ‘the rhetoric of Empire,’ draws attention to Edward Said’s discourse on Orientalism, and identifies an authentic and thought-provoking positioning of India-related writings.

Purabi Panwar (b. 1946) holds a Ph D degree in English from Delhi University, and lives and teaches in Delhi. Author of several scholarly publications, she has contributed articles, literary interviews and book reviews to a large number of national dailies and journals.

Dr Panwar is also a fine and known translator. She has published translations of a number of poems by the Hindi poet Nagarjuna into English. She is currently engaged in translating some fiction and poetry from Hindi into English for the Sahitya Akademi (National Academy of Letters, New Delhi). India in the Works of Kipling, Forster and Naipaul: Postcolonial Revaluations is her first book-length study. .