According to Desai, English had and still has an inherent dynamism that allowed it to ascend to prominence.
"There were Indian authors who found it a wonderfully elastic, flexible and rewarding instrument of creativity. We were enjoying the challenges of making the language our own, bending and twisting and manipulating it to express our own ways of living, thinking and speaking. It was experimental and that made it exhilarating."
Though initially scorned by the elite, established literati, Desai pointed out that English carried its own history, tradition and intrinsic value; it was primed for success.
"The truth is that [English] brought with it an incredibly old and rich literature of its own. Also, it is openly acknowledged that some of the most lively and vital writing in English now comes from the erstwhile colonies, a situation echoed by the French language and the former French colonies; and Spanish and Portuguese in the erstwhile colonies of Spain and Portugal. [Today] bookshops are full of the works of Indian writers of English, there is a large and thriving readership for them not only in India but in other parts of the world as well. Instead of engaging in polemics about the legitimacy of the language, writers can now devote themselves to writing it with confidence, with originality and imagination."
Also read: Relative values -- Kiran and Anita
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