Desai, whose novels might represent the absolute zenith of the Indian-English genre, made a passionate appeal on behalf of her chosen language.
"English was an immigrant in a country already rich in languages and literature. Being the youngest and newest immigrant in an ancient land, it would not have been given a place at the table at all if it had not shown typical immigrant tenacity and enterprise, making itself indispensable in the bureaucracy and administration and law courts. It became the neutral language of babus all over the country," she said.
She went on to describe her initial experiences as an English author, and how her chosen medium led others to castigate her work, or even worse, dismiss her without thought.
"It is true that in my early days as a writer of English, I and my colleagues were constantly having to apologise for using it rather than Hindi or Tamil or Bengali or Marathi. We were the leftovers of the colonial age. In those years, it was practically a matter for jokes, as academics argued over what to call this language that refused to go away and remained inexplicably in existence: Indo-English? Indo-Anglian? Indish? I don't hear those discussions any more. Instead, English has established itself to the point that no one wastes time in questioning its presence any more."
Also read: 'It hurt to think my own country was not giving me attention'
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