Contents: 1. The Question of Nationalism: An Indian Response/P. Mallikarjuna Rao. 2. Indian English Fiction and the Question of Indianness: A General Assessment/Syed Mujeebuddin. 3. NRI Writers versus RNI Critics/P. Shiv Kumar. 4. Recent Indian Novel in English: Some Animadversions/M. Rajagopalachary. 5. Tradition, Caste and Raja Rao/G. Thirupathi Kumar. 6. Interrogating Tradition: A Study of Mulk Raj Anand's Gauri/G. Thirupathi Kumar. 7. Gendering Indian Fiction in English: Mapping Masculinity/Mittapalli Rajeshwar. 8. Arun Joshi's The Last Labyrinth and a 'Secret Curiosity'/J. Yellaiah. 9. The Hidden Layers of the World of Haroun/Roshin George. 10. From Bombay to Bharat: Bollywood and India in I. Allan Sealy's Hero: A Fable/G. Sujatha. 11. What the Nation Meant to Them: Nationalism and the Quest for Meaning in Attia Hosain's Sunlight on a Broken Column/Arash P. Fazli. 12. Male Constructs and Female Choices in Githa Hariharan's The Thousand Faces of Night/J. Yellaiah and G. Pratima. 13. Not for a Season Only: Re-Narrating History in Looking Through Glass and A Fine Balance/Alessandro Monti. 14. 'Honour' Killings and the Dalits in Fiction and Films: Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things and Priyadarshan's Aakrosh/Mittapalli Rajeshwar. 15. Reflections on the Crystal Palace: The Glass Palace as a Postcolonial Text/T. Vinoda. 16. Language and Silence in Amitav Ghosh's The Hungry Tide/S. Latha. 17. Crossovers and Makeovers: A Study of Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake/T. Vinoda. 18. The Human Incompatibility and the Inside of Interpretation: A Study of Jhumpa Lahiri's Short Fiction/B. Gopal Rao. 19. The Story-teller in the Information Age: Vikram Chandra's Entwining Narratives/Christopher Rollason. 20. The Image of Contemporary India in Rukun Advani's Beethoven Among the Cows: A Reading/B. Krishnaiah. 21. Shattered Lives and Scarred Souls: Women in Partition Stories/P. Mallikarjuna Rao and Radhika Purohit. 22. From Oppression to Assertion: A Note on Baby Kamble's The Prisons We Broke/K.V. Ramana Chary. 23. Charting Alter'native' Terrain: Class, Culture, Gender Resistance in Mahasweta Devi's “Draupadi”/K. Damodar Rao and B. Vijaya. 24. The Struggle for Social Justice in Paraja/M. Prabhakar and D. Vijaya Prakash. 25. Tribulations and Marginality of Dalits in Omprakash Valmiki's Joothan/B. Krishnaiah and A. Komuraiah. 26. Gendered Articulations: A Reading of Select Telugu Short Fiction in English Translation/Palakurthy Dinakar. India is a construct that defies rigid definitions, classifications and strict categorizations. It cherishes centuries-old values of diversity and cultural pluralism. Its unifying principles of sense of belonging and dialogic co-existence have been recognised for long, but the intriguing aspect of how these multiple cultures and conflicting ideologies could co-exist for so many centuries is a question that attracted the attention of scholars, thinkers and leaders. In the process, the ‘idea of India’ or ‘what constitutes Indianness’ has been visited and revisited by many. The concepts of multiculturalism and Indianness have also been debated for long which, in fact, constitute the subjects of scrutiny in this anthology, in the light of Indian Fiction scene. Since the whole ethic is based on different identities, it enables every segment to make a meaning of itself. In a mutually beneficial manner, the whole offers space to its parts and the mini nations sustain the whole, strengthening the idea of India and the spirit of multiculturalism. This anthology presents the question of Indianness from multiple perspectives. It offers a rich mosaic of essays dealing with fiction vis-à-vis contested issues of plurality, multiple identities, and the supposed in authenticity or otherwise of Nationalism as well as NRI writers. Besides, the articles on different fictional works attempt to focus on issues of violence, migration, class, gender and caste distinctions. In addition, an attempt has been made to show that the concerns of Indian English writers mostly centered around macro issues such as freedom movement, political developments, alienation, middle-class mores, familial trauma, re-presentation of history while the regional fiction writers concentrated on micro issues, the ground realities. The inclusion of Bhasha fiction in the anthology is aimed at driving home the point that Regional Fiction in English is complementary to Indian English Fiction with proliferation of good translations of classics from Indian languages.