Deconstructing the Grand Narrative: Postmodernism and the Re- Imagination of India in English Fiction

Abstract Postmodernism in Indian English Literature manifests not as a mere imitation of Western theoretical paradigms but as a complex, indigenized engagement with the nation’s postcolonial reality. This paper argues that authors employ characteristic postmodern techniques—including historiographic metafiction, magic realism, fragmentation, parody, and intertextuality—to deconstruct grand narratives of history, nationalism, and identity. Through the destabilization of linear time, the blending of myth with contemporary critique, and the subversion of language itself, writers like Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh, and Arundhati Roy articulate plural, hybrid, and contested visions of Indianness. Their works foreground the multiplicity of truth and the constructed nature of cultural memory, positioning the literature as a vital site for negotiating the discontinuities and paradoxes of a rapidly globalizing yet traditionally rooted society. Ultimately, Indian postmodernism emerges as a critical, aesthetic response to the complexities of post-Independence India, challenging monolithic discourses while forging new forms of storytelling.