Indian Literature for High School World Lit Course

I volunteered to research, read, and review literature from South Asia (India, Pakistan, Nepal, etc.) for consideration in a new world literature course for 10th graders.


Reading Now: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Listening to Now: The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga


My "To Read" List:
Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
A Fine Balance or Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry
Midnight's Children or The Moor's Last Sign by Salman Rushdie
Cracking India / 1947 by Bapsi Sidhwa
Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
In Antique Land by Amitav Ghosh
poetry by Vikram Seth
Brick Lane by Monica Ali
In Custody by Anita Desai
short stories by Tahira Naqvi
The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrel
The Ramayana: Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic by R.K Narayan
Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand

Have Read:
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
     While this is a classic text and a superb example of allegory, I'm afraid that its focus on self-actualization and spirituality will cause it to miss the mark with most high school students. Perhaps this text  should be read by Honors students or those who may consider majoring in English, since this book is literally on the syllabus of every high school and college world literature course.

  Interpreter of Maladies and Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
     As a contemporary Pulitzer Prize winning author, Lahiri should certainly be included in  secondary English curricula today. Both of the aforementioned short story collections  focus primarily on children or adults raised in the United States by Indian parents who adhere to Indian cultural traditions. The theme of identity and feeling caught between two cultures permeate her work.  I didn't find any of the stories to be "inappropriate" for high schoolers, although several had adult themes to which a teen might have trouble relating (ie. A character who has married an American man and embraced American culture must decide whether or not to participate in the traditional Indian custom of inviting her aging father to live with her, her husband, and young child.)   Which stories would be meaningful to high school students?  From Interpreter: "Interpreter of Maladies" and "Mrs. Sen's." From Unaccustomed: "Unaccustomed Earth" and "Hema and Kaushik."

“By Any Other Name” essay by Santha Rama Rau published in The New Yorker March 17, 1951.  http://static.dpsk12.org/gems/montbello/SB9IdentifyingCulturalDifferences.pdf

     This is a short, five-page essay that could easily be read in class or for homework.  In it, Rama Rau describes the prejudices and cultural misconceptions she faced when she was forced to attend a Anglo-Indian school.