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| Home > Regional Literature > Gujarati Literature > Prose in Gujarati Literature
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| | Prose in Gujarati Literature
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Gujarati literary prose in the real sense begins from the 19th century. Narmad was the leader in this field and began by writing essays meant to be read before an audience. His essays dealt mainly with social revolution, but he also wrote on literary, social, political and religious subjects.
Narmad coined new words and phrases, using them to explain his ideas. His contemporary was Dalpat, an essayist and dramatist. The era starting from Narmad is called the social reform era.Naval Ram of this age was a critic of distinction besides writing literary essays and book reviews.
Nand Shankar was the first novelist of his time and wrote Karanghelo a historical fiction. Govardhanram is another great novelist whose Saraswati Chandra is a classic not only in Gujarati literature but also in Indian literature.It was the first social novel, which mentioned contemporary problems and their solutions.
During this period, the Gujarat Vidyapith became the centre of all literary activities where new values emerged and more emphasis was given on Indianisation.
Novels, short stories, diaries, letters, plays, essays, criticisms, biographies, travel books and all kinds of prose began to flood Gujarati literature.
However, Kanhaiyalal Munshi was absolutely untouched by this change and made a mockery of the Gandhian principles, whereas Ramanlal Desai, novelist, dramatist, literary critic and short storywriter all rolled into one is the true representative of the Gandhian era.
His works include `Divya Chakshu` and `Bharelo Agni`. Kaka Kalelkar was a voluminous writer and subjects included travel, culture, nature, sociology and biography. Other pioneers of this era were Kishorelal Mashruwala (essayist), Ramnarayan Pathak (critic and short story writer), and Darshak (dramatist).
Post Independence Prose Literature
The post independence prose literature had two distinct trends that of traditional and modern.The former deals more with ethical values and its main writers were Gulabdas Broker, Mansukhlal Jhaveri, Vishnuprasad Trivedi and others. While existentialism, surrealism and symbolism have influenced the latter. The modernists want to do away with moral values and religious beliefs.
The eminent writers of this trend are Chandrakant Baxi, Suresh Joshi, Madhu Rai, Raghuvir Chowdhury, Saroj Pathak and others.Gujarati prose has recorded growth and literary feats quite rapidly in less than two hundred years and now can be counted among the front benchers in Indian literature.
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