EDITORIAL

Abstract

New Literatures in English are more or less synonymous of post colonial Literatures. These Literatures focus on colonial experience of the people who suffered physically and psychologically under the British or other European colonial powers in African countries, Australia, Canada, Carribean countries, India, Malaysia, Malta, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Singapore, South Pacific Island countries and Sri Lanka. Each of these colonized countries had their culture, civilization, Indigenous art forms and languages, the colonial powers not only ransacked their natural resources but also wrecked their culture by imposing their language (English) and systems for convenient form of Governance. It caused ‘hegemonic’ relations of the ruled and the ruler, and created the supremacy of the language of the ruler over the native languages of the ruled, furthering the process of alienation, marginalization and displacement. New Literatures in English not only portray the cultural dimensions of such political overtures but also expose how the domination of language and culture has more devastating and far-reaching influences than the political one. The works of Ngugi, Wole Soyinka, Derek Walcott, Patrick White, Margaret Laurence, V. S. Naipaul, Bapsi Sidhwa and many others from the former colonized countries make a plea for a world free from the biases of the race, class and the supremacy of a language and put to record the wreck of the psyche that a nation/community undergoes under a colonial rule.