Wanderings in India: Australian Perceptions

Description

This book, sharing its title with a curious and entertaining travel book written by Australian-born writer John Lang, is a collection of essays about diverse encounters between Australians and Indians in both South Asia and the Antipodes. The chapter's - creative, reflective and academic - meet the objectives of a volume that provides snapshots of the wide range of interests and issues that Australians have shown towards India. Taken as a whole, the chapters represent a range of responses, reactions and experiences that chart the course of the ongoing engagement between Australia and India, between Australians and Indians. While there is something of an emphasis on literary responses, charting the ebb and flow of writers' reactions to India from the 1850s onwards, this volume also includes historical, political, sporting and other writings about the complex magnetic amalgams that link Australia and India. The basic idea is to encourage on-going research and other kinds of writing about cross-cultural engagements between India and Australia; it is hoped that this volume will contribute to discussions about Australia-India relations in the coming century.

Associate Professor Rick Hosking has recently retired from Flinders University in South Australia, where he taught in Literatures in English, Creative Writing and Australian Studies. He has had a long association with Australian Studies in India, teaching Australian Literature at JNU in 1989. He has research interests in Indigenous history, travel writing, historical fiction and Australian-Indian cultural exchange. Dr Amit Sarwal is Assistant Professor in the Department of English, Rajdhani College, University of Delhi and Founding Convenor, Australia-India Interdisciplinary Research Network (AIIRN), New Delhi, India. He was an Honorary Visiting Scholar at Monash University as an Endeavour Asia Award winner (2006-2007). He has co-edited a number of books on Australian studies, latest being: Sold by the Millions: Australias Bestsellers (2012).