There are perhaps not even one thousand tertiary students of Australian Literature in Australia itself. In India there are at least forty times that, providing the basis for a strong off-shore culture of the study and criticism of Australian Literature.
Assembled at a time of high emotion in Indian/Australian relations, on and off the cricket-pitch, this issue of Southerly endeavours to give readers a glimpse of this intriguing literary development. From useful surveys of Indian-Australian literary relations by Paul Sharrad and Madhur Malati to a challenging appraisal by Patrick Bryson of the coverage of recent attacks on Indian students in Melbourne and elsewhere; from Ipsita Sengupta's resurrection of the Indian Mollie Skinner to Maria Preethi Srinivasan's ground-breaking comparison of life writings by Aboriginal and Dalit women, plus a haunting and absorbing array of short stories and poems from some of the most exciting contemporary Indian and Australian writers (Meena Kandasamy, Judith Beveridge, Arundhathi Subramaniam, Chris Raja, Priya Sarukkai Chabria, Bem Le Hunte, Aashish Kaul, Christopher Cyrill), India India not only presents a veritable feast from the subcontinent, but reflects just how deeply our cultures, literary and otherwise, are intertwined.
And, as ever, a selection from the best new Australian writing, whatever its subject, from Jennifer Maiden, Craig Powell, Richard Deutch, Christopher Edwards, John Kinsella, and many others.
