ABSTRACT:
The "traditional," folk-oriented approach will serve as the best way into The Thief of Nagarahalli and Other Stories, the collection published in 1999 by Basavaraj Naikar of Karnataka state (India) and shortlisted in 2000 for the Commonwealth Writers' Fiction Prize (Best First Book, Eurasia section). This volume consists of ten stories which, the author explains in his preface, he has selected from twenty years' production in the genre. Though all written in English, they are intended as specifically Indian, in both subject-matter and expression: "I believe in the view that we Indians must write in our native branch of English and should not ape the British 'masters'. Our imagery and style should be redolent of our cultural ethos." They are also clearly intended as useful, in something like Walter Benjamin's sense: "The ten stories … represent various aspects of human relationships in our life. They range from the elemental to the social to the mythical dimensions of life." That which is typical and representative, that which signifies one or other of the "dimensions of life," may be considered to offer some tangible use-value to the Indian reader.
**
MB: this article was earlier published in the 2006 issue of the journal IJOWLAC - see separate gectited entry. Full text is on-line at URL above.
