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Abstract

In this paper, I shall study the interaction of tradition and modernity in U.R. AnanthaMurty’s novel: Samskara. The inquiry will be aimed at showing the distinctiveness of the Indian novel as a category. The discussion of Indian novel as caught between the conflicting claims of tradition and modernity is informed by the recognition and acceptance that the novel form was imported from the West. But the discussion does not end with this acceptance, but rather begins at this juncture; otherwise we would end up seeing the Indian novel as a servile copy of, and as such, inferior to its Western counterparts. To look at the Indian novel as a distinct category is really a project of Postcolonial Cultural Criticism. The endeavor is to view the Indian novel as a form born of a distinct and different cultural experience. But as the colonial experience is also a part of this experience; Indian novel inevitably involves a negotiation between East and West; tradition and modernity. This is a very complex relationship and both the elements act upon each other.