Exploring Modernism as Reflected in Post-partition Hindi/Urdu Fiction

Abstract

‘Modernism’ is an elusive concept; while it describes the new dynamics of human consciousness, the term also designates a distinctive kind of imagination expressed in specific themes and literary forms in the first half of the 20th century. The rise of literary modernism in both Hindi and Urdu short story is evidenced through a conceptual grasp of the new shift in the writer’s sensibility grown out of the changing social and cultural contexts. For a conceptual grasp of ‘literary modernism’ the questions to be raised while examining literary texts are: does literary modernism project indigenous Indian concerns? Since modernism perhaps implies a kind of disinheritance, does the vacuum get filled with alien concepts and values? How much does the experiential quality of modern Indian fiction smack of western influence? Can we evolve a definition of modernism which is strictly and convincingly descriptive of the Indian reality?