English education was introduced in India by the British as part of their policy to train a class of Indian clerks. Early creative writing in English, while influenced by 19th century British novels, was already breaking literary conventions. However, early writers like Raja Rao struggled with trying to express in 'a language that is not one's own, the spirit that is one's own.' It is not until Salman Rushdie wrote 'Midnight's Children' (1981) that Indian writing in English could claim for itself a voice and a spirit completely unique and different. Writers like Amitav Ghosh, Allan Sealy, Vikram Seth, V. S. Naipaul, Upamanyu Chatterjee, Kiran Desai, Arundhati Roy are only a few outstanding examples of Indian writers in English. 'The Empire Writes Back' traces the history of Indian writing in English from the early part of the 20th century till the late 1990s.

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