Call for Papers

Decolonial Imaginations in Indian Writings in English: Indigenous Knowledge, Memory, and Resistance

Deadline for submissions: August 31, 2026

Publisher: Authorspress, New Delhi, India

Editors:

Dr. Ashutosh Singh, Assistant Professor, Department of English and Foreign Language, Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya (A Central University), Chhattisgarh, India

Dr. Sahabuddin Ahamed, Assistant Professor (GF), Department of English, Pandit Sundarlal Sharma (Open) University, Chhattisgarh, India

Praveen Toppo, Assistant Professor and Head, Department of English, Pandit Sundarlal Sharma (Open) University, Chhattisgarh, India 

Concept Note:  

The twenty-first century has witnessed a significant shift in Indian writing in English towards decolonial modes of literary imagination that interrogate colonial epistemologies, Eurocentric historiography, nationalist homogenization, and dominant structures of representation. Contemporary Indian literary texts increasingly foreground indigenous knowledge systems, vernacular aesthetics, oral traditions, ecological consciousness, caste realities, tribal cosmologies, marginalized histories, and subaltern memories as alternative epistemic frameworks that challenge the continuing legacies of colonial modernity.

While earlier postcolonial criticism largely emphasized hybridity, nationalism, mimicry, and identity politics, recent literary scholarship has increasingly turned towards decolonial approaches that foreground epistemic justice, indigenous ontologies, counter-memory, ecological ethics, and local modes of knowledge production. Decoloniality, as Walter D. Mignolo argues, demands an act of “epistemic disobedience” against the hegemonic structures of Western modernity “in order to open up decolonial options–a vision of life and society that requires decolonial subjects, decolonial knowledges, and decolonial institutions” (9). Similarly, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o foregrounds the necessity of reclaiming indigenous linguistic and cultural traditions in the process of decolonizing literary imagination (28). Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak interrogates whether the marginalized subaltern can truly speak within structures shaped by colonial discourse (285). Within the Indian context, G. N. Devy’s interventions on indigenous languages and oral traditions remain foundational to discussions of literary decolonization, cultural plurality, and knowledge recovery.

Indian writing in English has increasingly become a crucial literary site for negotiating caste oppression, tribal displacement, ecological exploitation, gendered violence, linguistic erasure, migration, border politics, and the continuing afterlives of coloniality. Contemporary Indian authors transform English from a colonial language into a medium of resistance through multilinguality, vernacular textures, oral storytelling traditions, indigenous cosmologies, community-centered narratives, and subaltern perspectives. Such literary interventions recover marginalized histories and challenge dominant nationalist, colonial, patriarchal, and caste-based epistemologies.

Contributors may engage with literary works such as Raja Rao’s Kanthapura, which incorporates oral storytelling traditions and Gandhian philosophy into the English novel form; Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable, which interrogates caste oppression and colonial modernity; and Omprakash Valmiki’s Joothan, which foregrounds Dalit experience, humiliation, and epistemic resistance through autobiographical narration.

Recent Indian literary texts have further expanded the scope of decolonial literary discourse. Perumal Murugan’s Pyre critiques caste violence, social exclusion, and rural marginality through vernacular realism and regional consciousness. Meena Kandasamy’s When I Hit You and The Gypsy Goddess interrogate caste patriarchy, gendered violence, and silenced histories through radical narrative strategies and resistant feminist voices. Anand Neelakantan’s Asura: Tale of the Vanquished reinterprets mythological narratives from marginalized perspectives and destabilizes hegemonic cultural historiography.

Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island, The Great Derangement, and The Nutmeg’s Curse connect climate crisis with colonial violence and foreground indigenous ecological consciousness as an alternative to capitalist modernity. His writings recover local ecological knowledge systems marginalized within imperial discourse and critique extractive histories of empire and globalization. Similarly, Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness challenges state violence, militarization, caste oppression, and nationalist exclusion by centering fractured histories and marginalized communities.

Contemporary literary works such as Geetanjali Shree’s International Booker Prize-winning Tomb of Sand interrogate borders, Partition memory, gender, and nationhood through vernacular consciousness and alternative historiography. Avni Doshi’s Burnt Sugar explores intergenerational trauma, fractured memory, and postcolonial subjectivity beyond dominant nationalist frameworks. Anuk Arudpragasam’s A Passage North foregrounds memory, grief, violence, and Tamil subjectivity through meditative narrative forms resistant to state-centered histories.

The volume also seeks to foreground writings from Northeast India and Adivasi literary traditions that remain marginalized within mainstream literary discourse. Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar’s The Adivasi Will Not Dance foregrounds Santhal identity, oral traditions, labor exploitation, and tribal resistance against cultural erasure and developmental displacement. Mamang Dai’s The Black Hill reclaims indigenous cosmology, tribal memory, and Northeast cultural traditions through oral narrative structures and ecological imagination. Easterine Kire’s Sky Is My Father recovers Naga spirituality, indigenous community knowledge, and oral culture erased by colonial modernity and missionary histories. Temsula Ao’s Laburnum for My Head preserves indigenous memory, everyday violence, and lived histories neglected within dominant nationalist narratives.

The volume also welcomes engagements with recent literary texts such as Anees Salim’s The Blind Lady’s Descendants, Akil Kumarasamy’s Meet Us by the Roaring Sea, Manu Joseph’s Miss Laila, Armed and Dangerous, Kavery Nambisan’s A Town Like Ours, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Last Queen, Manoranjan Byapari’s Interrogating My Chandal Life, and Bama’s Karukku and Sangati, which variously address caste realities, migration, border politics, indigeneity, memory, subaltern identity, ecological crisis, and cultural resistance.

This proposed volume seeks to explore how Indian writings in English articulate decolonial consciousness through narrative form, memory, ecology, language politics, caste, gender, indigeneity, migration, and alternative historiography. It invites scholarly contributions that critically examine how literary texts engage with indigenous epistemologies and reimagine literary modernity beyond Eurocentric frameworks.

Suggested Research Questions:  

1. How do Indian writings in English articulate decolonial consciousness and indigenous epistemologies?
2. In what ways do Dalit, tribal, and subaltern texts reconstruct marginalized histories and challenge dominant nationalist discourses?
3. How are oral traditions, folklore, memory, and vernacularity employed as forms of epistemic resistance?
4. How do literary texts foreground indigenous ecological consciousness and environmental ethics?
5. How do contemporary Indian literary texts reinterpret caste, gender, ecology, and nationhood from decolonial perspectives?
6. How does multilingualism transform English into a decolonial literary medium?
7. How can decolonial theory reshape the reading and teaching of Indian writings in English?
8. How do literary texts negotiate tensions between globalization and indigenous knowledge systems?
9. In what ways do Indian literary texts contribute to broader global discourses on decoloniality and epistemic justice?

Suggested Themes (but not limited to):

• Decoloniality and Indian Writing in English
• Indigenous Epistemologies and Literary Representation
• Dalit, Tribal, and Subaltern Narratives
• Oral Traditions, Folklore, and Cultural Memory
• Counter-Histories and Alternative Historiography
• Ecocriticism, Indigenous Ecologies, and Environmental Justice
• Climate Crisis and Decolonial Environmental Humanities
• Gender, Caste, and Decolonial Feminism
• Tribal Cosmologies and Indigenous Identities
• Vernacularity, Multilingualism, and Linguistic Resistance
• Translation and Recovery of Regional Literatures
• Nation, Migration, Borders, and Partition Memory
• Decolonizing Literary Form and Narrative Aesthetics
• Indian Knowledge Systems and Decolonial Education
• Re-reading Canon and Curriculum
• Globalization, Neo-colonialism, and Cultural Resistance
• Contemporary Indian Fiction and Decolonial Thought

Submission Guidelines:

Abstract: 250-300 words

Brief bio-note with institutional affiliation and email ID: 100-150 words

Keywords: 5-6

Chapter length: 4,500–6,000 words

Citation style: MLA 9th edition

Language: English

Formatting guidelines:  font: Times New Roman; font size: 12 pt, justified; line spacing: 1.5; no footnotes; title of the chapter: bold, 14 pt, centre aligned; subsections: bold, 12 pt; margins:1 inch on all sides; and chapter in Microsoft Word format (.doc/.docx)

Full chapter submission: August 31, 2026

Notification of acceptance: September 30, 2026

Expected publication:  December 2026

Publisher: Authorspress, New Delhi, India   

Submissions must follow MLA 9th edition guidelines and demonstrate theoretically informed, textually grounded analyses.

All manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review. 

Authors are required to submit their manuscripts along with a plagiarism report below 10% generated through DrillBit, iThenticate, or Turnitin.

They are also required to submit a self-declaration confirming that the manuscript is original, unpublished, and not under consideration elsewhere.

Submissions should be sent to: ashutoshbhu2002@gmail.com; amar.amaranthus123@gmail.com;  praveentoppo1@gmail.com.

Works Cited

Devy, G. N. After Amnesia: Tradition and Change in Indian Literary Criticism. Orient BlackSwan, 2010.

Mignolo, Walter D. The Darker Side of Western Modernity: Global Futures, Decolonial Options. Duke University Press, 2011. 

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature. James Currey, 1986.

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. “Can the Subaltern Speak?” Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, edited by Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg, University of Illinois Press, 1988, pp. 271-313.

Editors:

Dr. Ashutosh Singh is an Assistant Professor of English in the Department of English and Foreign Language at Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya (A Central University), Chhattisgarh, India. His expertise spans diaspora studies, postcolonial studies, contemporary fiction, gender studies, and Indian writing in English. He has presented numerous papers at national and international conferences and seminars. He has also published numerous research articles and book chapters in national and international journals and edited books. Dr. Singh serves as the co-editor of the book Influence of Indian Philosophers on Indian Writings in English: A Socio-cultural Perspective. He is actively engaged in project works and research supervision.

Dr. Sahabuddin Ahamed is currently serving as an Assistant Professor (Guest Faculty) of English at Pandit Sundarlal Sharma (Open) University, Chhattisgarh, India. He obtained his M.A. in English Literature and a PhD in Postcolonial Literature from Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya (A Central University), Chhattisgarh, India in 2016 and 2024 respectively. He cleared the West Bengal SET in English in 2019 and the Chhattisgarh SET in English in 2020. His research interests include postcolonial studies, cultural studies, ecocriticism, gender studies, contemporary fiction, and Indian literature in English. Dr. Ahamed has published numerous research papers in journals and edited volumes, contributing actively to contemporary literary discourse. Besides academia, he is also a passionate poet. He has also authored two poetry collections: In All Seasons: A Haiku Journey (2025) and Wings of Poesy (2025) that reflect his deep engagement with creative expression. He serves as the co-editor of the book Influence of Indian Philosophers on Indian Writings in English: A Socio-cultural Perspective. A dedicated scholar and literary enthusiast, Dr. Ahamed remains committed to both critical inquiry and creative pursuits in the field of literature.

Praveen Toppo is an Assistant Professor and Head of the Department of English at Pt. Sundarlal Sharma Open University, Chhattisgarh. He holds a Master’s degree in English and a Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching English from the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, and is qualified for the National Eligibility Test and Junior Research Fellowship in English. His academic work is situated at the intersection of postcolonial studies, tribal discourse, human rights, and emerging digital cultures. Praveen has presented extensively at national and international conferences on themes including identity, resistance, and narrative authority. His research has appeared in peer-reviewed and UGC-CARE listed journals, alongside contributions to edited volumes. In addition to his teaching, he undertakes significant academic and administrative responsibilities, contributing to curriculum development, policy initiatives, and quality assurance processes within the university system.