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UNIT – 6 : INDIAN WRITING IN ENGLISH – ALL PREVIOUS YEAR QUESTIONS
1. Who among the following bought and renovated the house of the Anglican poet, George Herbert, near Salisbury, England, in 1996?
Options:
(1) Daljit Nagra
(2) Vikram Seth
(3) Amitava Kumar
(4) Arundhati Roy
✔ Correct Answer: (2) Vikram Seth
J-30-16-III _English
Explanation:
This is based on a real-life biographical fact: Vikram Seth, author of A Suitable Boy, purchased and restored George Herbert’s house in Bemerton. He is known for his keen interest in poetry, music, and heritage preservation.
2. Which pair of novels by Anita Desai take as their subject the suppression and oppression of Indian women?
List:
I. Where Shall We Go This Summer?
II. The Zigzag Way
III. Cry, the Peacock
IV. Baumgartner’s Bombay
Options:
(1) I and II
(2) I and III
(3) II and III
(4) III and IV
✔ Correct Answer: (2) I and III
J-30-16-III _English
Explanation:
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Where Shall We Go This Summer? → A woman suffocated by patriarchal expectations.
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Cry, the Peacock → Explores psychological turmoil and gender oppression.
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The Zigzag Way and Baumgartner’s Bombay do not centrally address female oppression.
3. From among the following identify the two Indian English authors who received appreciation and encouragement from their British counterparts:
Pairs:
I. R.K. Narayan – Graham Greene
II. Nirad C. Chaudhuri – Evelyn Waugh
III. Mulk Raj Anand – E.M. Forster
IV. Raja Rao – Iris Murdoch
Options:
(1) I and II
(2) II and IV
(3) I and III
(4) III and IV
✔ Correct Answer: (3) I and III
J-30-16-III _English
Explanation:
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R.K. Narayan was championed by Graham Greene, who helped publish Swami and Friends.
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Mulk Raj Anand received strong support from E.M. Forster, who wrote the preface to Untouchable.
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The other pairs are not historically documented as “mentors.”
4. Two of the following plays won the Sultan Padamsee Prize for Indian Plays in English:
List:
I. Princes
II. Where There’s a Will
III. Larins Sahib
IV. Doongaji House
Options:
(A) III and IV
(B) I and III
(C) II and III
(D) I and IV
✔ Correct Answer: (C) II and III
D-30-3
Explanation:
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“Where There’s a Will” (Mahesh Dattani) → Winner.
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“Larins Sahib” (Gurucharan Das) → Winner.
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Princes and Doongaji House did not win this award.
5. After Independence, Mulk Raj Anand wrote a number of semi-autobiographical works to narrate chunks of his own life through a fictional persona. The name he gave this persona is _______.
Options:
(1) Lal Singh
(2) Krishan Chander
(3) Puran Singh
(4) Rahul Singh
✔ Correct Answer: (3) Puran Singh
D-30-3
Explanation:
Anand’s Seven Summers, Morning Face, etc., use Puran Singh as his alter ego.
It forms part of his autobiographical cycle.
Q6. In the following series, which one has all the poets correctly matched with their poems?
- Ezekiel – “Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher”; Ramanujan – “Small-scale Reflections on a Great House”; Dutt – “Our Casuarina Tree”; Mahapatra – “Sunset at Puri”.
- Ezekiel – “Sunset at Puri”; Ramanujan – “Small-scale Reflections on a Great House”; Dutt – “Our Casuarina Tree”; Mahapatra – “Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher”.
- Ezekiel – “Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher”; Ramanujan – “Sunset at Puri”; Dutt – “Our Casuarina Tree”; Mahapatra – “Small-scale Reflections on a Great House”.
- Ezekiel – “Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher”; Ramanujan – “Small-scale Reflections on a Great House”; Dutt – “Our Casuarina Tree”; Mahapatra – “Small-scale Reflections on a Great House”.
✔ Correct Answer: (1)
Explanation:
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Nissim Ezekiel → Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher
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A.K. Ramanujan → Small-scale Reflections on a Great House
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Toru Dutt → Our Casuarina Tree
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Jayanta Mahapatra → Sunset at Puri
Only option (1) correctly matches all poets with their poems.
Q7. Who among the following bought and renovated the house of the Anglican poet George Herbert, near Salisbury, England, in 1996?
(1) Daljit Nagra
(2) Vikram Seth
(3) Amitava Kumar
(4) Arundhati Roy
✔ Correct Answer: (2) Vikram Seth
Explanation:
Vikram Seth, author of A Suitable Boy and The Golden Gate, purchased and restored George Herbert’s home in Bemerton. Seth has written extensively about poets and classical music, which aligns with his interest in Herbert’s heritage.
Q8. Identify the INCORRECT observation regarding Ferdinand de Saussure’s distinction between langue and parole.
(J 03018 Paper II English)
- Parole is the particular language-system, the elements of which we learn as children and which are codified in our grammars and dictionaries, whereas langue is the language-occasion (what A says to B).
- A language consists in the interrelationship between langue and parole.
- Saussure made this crucial distinction in A Course in General Linguistics (1916).
- Langue is the particular language-system, the elements of which we learn as children and which are codified in our grammars and dictionaries, whereas parole is the language-occasion (what A says to B).
✔ Correct Answer: (1)
Explanation:
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Langue = the system of language (shared, abstract, stored in the collective mind of a speech community; grammar, conventions).
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Parole = the individual speech act, actual utterances produced by speakers.
Option (1) is incorrect because it reverses the true definitions:
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It mistakenly defines parole as the system and langue as the speech-event.
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Option (4) correctly states the definitions and proves that (1) is the false one.
Therefore, (1) is the incorrect observation.
Q9. From the following list of Indian English poems, identify the one written by Jayanta Mahapatra.
(1) Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher
(2) Small-scale Reflections on a Great House
(3) Our Casuarina Tree
(4) Sunset at Puri
✔ Correct Answer: (4) Sunset at Puri
Explanation:
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Jayanta Mahapatra is one of India’s leading modernist poets. His most anthologised poem is “Sunset at Puri”, set on the Puri beach and filled with images of ritual, faith, and mortality.
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The other poems belong to:
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Nissim Ezekiel → Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher
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A.K. Ramanujan → Small-scale Reflections on a Great House
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Toru Dutt → Our Casuarina Tree
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Thus only option (4) is correct.
J-30-16-III _English
Q10. Which pair of Anita Desai’s novels deals with the theme of the suppression and oppression of Indian women?
List of works:
I. Where Shall We Go This Summer?
II. The Zigzag Way
III. Cry, the Peacock
IV. Baumgartner’s Bombay
Options:
(1) I and II
(2) I and III
(3) II and III
(4) III and IV
✔ Correct Answer: (2) I and III
Explanation:
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“Where Shall We Go This Summer?” — explores a woman trapped within patriarchal expectations and domestic suffocation.
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“Cry, the Peacock” — a psychological exploration of a woman oppressed by marriage, loneliness, and societal norms.
The other works do not centrally deal with female oppression:
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The Zigzag Way — focuses on Mexico, mining history, migration.
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Baumgartner’s Bombay — Holocaust trauma, exile, identity; not a feminist narrative.
Thus option (2) I and III is the ONLY correct pairing.
Q11. Identify the INCORRECT observation about Raja Rao’s narrative style in Kanthapura.
(1) It employs an Indianised English heavily influenced by the cadences of oral tradition.
(2) It blends Gandhian politics with village mythology and folklore.
(3) It strictly follows European realist conventions without deviation.
(4) It uses a communal female narrator to recreate the rhythm of sthala-purāna.
✔ Correct Answer: (3)
Explanation:
Kanthapura is famous precisely because Raja Rao rejects European realism and shapes an English that mimics Indian oral narrative traditions, mythic structure, and Gandhian ideology.
Option (3) is false because the novel breaks Western realism instead of following it.
Q12. Which one of the following pairs is correctly matched in terms of writer and predominant theme?
(1) K. Narayan – psychological stream of consciousness
(2) Mulk Raj Anand – depiction of the oppressed and marginalized
(3) Anita Desai – nationalist historical epics
(4) Amitav Ghosh – domestic middle-class realism
✔ Correct Answer: (2)
Explanation:
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Mulk Raj Anand → known for his portrayal of the subaltern, untouchability, labour-class suffering (Untouchable, Coolie).
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R.K. Narayan → focuses on middle-class life and humour, not stream of consciousness.
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Anita Desai → psychological, interior, not nationalist epics.
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Amitav Ghosh → transnational history, maritime worlds, colonial encounters, not domestic realism.
Q13. In Kamala Das’s autobiographical writing, particularly in My Story, which of the following is a central feature?
(1) Celebration of Vedic tradition and ritual purity
(2) A detached, academic tone focusing on linguistics
(3) Confessional exposure of female desire and emotional vulnerability
(4) A strict adherence to formalist impersonality
✔ Correct Answer: (3)
Explanation:
Kamala Das’s prose (like her poetry) is confessional, foregrounding:
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womanhood
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desire
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pain
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relationships
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rebellion against patriarchy
Options (1), (2), (4) oppose the spirit of her writing.
Q14. Which of the following novels by Amitav Ghosh forms part of the Ibis Trilogy and deals with the opium trade and migration across the Indian Ocean?
(1) The Hungry Tide
(2) The Calcutta Chromosome
(3) Sea of Poppies
(4) Gun Island
✔ Correct Answer: (3) Sea of Poppies
Explanation:
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Sea of Poppies (2008) is Volume I of the Ibis Trilogy and addresses:
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indenture
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colonial capitalism
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opium trade
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diaspora
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The others are stand-alone novels with unrelated themes.
Q15. Which of the following novels by Arundhati Roy employs a non-linear, fractured narrative structure to reveal caste violence and traumatic memory?
(1) The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
(2) The Algebra of Infinite Justice
(3) The God of Small Things
(4) Listening to Grasshoppers
✔ Correct Answer: (3) The God of Small Things
Explanation:
Roy’s Booker-winning novel uses:
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non-linear narration
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fractured timelines
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shifts in focalization
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linguistic innovation
All of these help expose caste oppression, forbidden love, and childhood trauma.
Options (2) and (4) are essays; (1) is a later novel with different concerns.