N.B:Since its impossible to include all works of tagore am listing only the ones mentioned in nobelprize.org -the official website for nobel prize

On his works:(points taken from Amartya sen’s essay on Tagore)

• Tagore was an immensely versatile poet;
• he was also a great short story writer, novelist, playwright, essayist, and composer of songs, as well as a talented painter
• His essays, ranged over literature, politics, culture, social change, religious beliefs, philosophical analysis, international relations etc
• His outlook was persistently non-sectarian, and his writings show the influence of different parts of the Indian cultural background as well as of the rest of the world.
• His works,even when influenced by spirituality and ancient texts is rooted in humanity.

Gandhi : “Tagore greatly admired Gandhi but he had many disagreements with him on a variety of subjects, including nationalism, patriotism, the importance of cultural exchange, the role of rationality and of science, and the nature of economic and social development. These differences, I shall argue, have a clear and consistent pattern, with Tagore pressing for more room for reasoning, and for a less traditionalist view, a greater interest in the rest of the world, and more respect for science and for objectivity generally.

Modern Hindi literature

Hindi language stated its modern phase in 18th century.Noteworthy people are:-

Bharatendu Harishchandra(1850-1885)

• Father of modern hindi literature.
• Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of India gives Bharatendu Harishchandra awards to encourage original and creative writing in Hindi on Mass Communication. 
• Tried to depict India’s poverty, sufferings, cruel exploitation & to deliver patriotic messages through his writings.

Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi 

• Dwivedi Yug(1893-1918)of hindi literature is named after him. 
• Poetry dedicated to nationalism and reforms were a feature of this phase.
• Maithili sharan gupt was another important writer of the same period.

Munshi Premchand (1880-1936)

• Towering giant in hindi fiction and nationalist literature.
• 3 novels : Karmabhumi, Rangbhumi and Godaan are extremely nationalistic and also has veiled criticism of politics of the period
• Godaan is one of the greatest novels of hindi and shows the exploitation of poor 
• Other major works,Novel: Sevasadan, Nirmala, kayakalp. Short stories: Pareeksha, Balidan, shatranj ke khiladi (made to film by ray)

Chhayavadi Yug:

• Part of modern hindi poetry, this phase is marked by increase in romantic content of poems.
• Jaishankar Prasad, Suryakant Tripathi ‘Nirala’, Mahadevi Varma and Sumitranandan Pant, are the four major Chhayavadi poets. 
• Prasad’s Kamayani (1935), Nirala’s Anamika (1923) Pant’s Vina (1927) etc are major works of the movement. 
• Mahadevi Varma highlighted the plight of women in our society in her classical work Shrinkhala ki kadiyaan. She is the first major Feminist writer in hindi.

Nakenwad movement is another major movement in hindi literature pioneered by Pandit Nalin Vilochan Sharma

Indian English literature

• Only about 150 years old.
• considerable contribution from writers of indian origin and indians abroad in the post independence period

Early writers in English in India include R.C.Dutt: Translated Indian epics into English and wrote The economic history of India Sarojini Naidu: One among first to write poems in English. Works include The Indian weavers, The feather of the dawn, In the bazaars of Hyderabad etc. Eurobond Ghosh Translated many Indian scriptures into English including Gita. He also wrote extensively on philosophy.

The three giants of early Indian English literature are Mulk raj anand, R.K.Narayan and Raja Rao

Mulk Raj anand (1905-2004)

• Famous for his work “The untouchable”(1935).It has an introduction by E.M. Forster The untouchable is story of Bakha-a manual scavenger. other novels: Coolie (1936),Across the black waters (1939),The Sword and the Sickle (1942)

R.K.Narayan (1906-2001)

• Most of his works are based in a fictional town named malgudi.
• Major works :Swami and his friends, The english teacher, The guide(won sahitya academy award), The world of Nagaraj, The mahabharata, The ramayana etc.

Raja Rao (1908-2006)

• Works deeply influenced by hinduism
• Won the Neustadt International Prize for Literature 1988
• Works: Kanthapura (1938),The Serpent and the Rope (1960,sahitya academy award),The Chessmaster and His Moves (1988),The Policeman and the Rose (1978),The Great Indian Way: A Life of Mahatma Gandhi, biography (1998) etc.

Ancient Indian Literature: 

• Vedas – Are essentially archetypal poetry of high literary value. They are mythical in nature and of symbolic language 
• Yajna – means worship of divine, co-ordination and giving (sacrifice) 
• Division of contexts of vedas are twofold – ritualistic injunction and discussions on meaning of vedic ritual and all that is related of it 
• Purana (that which renews the old) – illustrates and expound truth of the vedas
• No of puranas – 18

Classical Sanskrit Language –

• Kavya – more care on form, such as the style, figure of speech, conceits, descriptions, etc., and the story-theme is pushed to the background.

Pali Literature –

• Pali is the archaic Sanskrit – combination of various dialects 
• Buddha gave sermons in Pali and the ‘Tripitakas’ were written in Pali language
• Vinaya Pitaka – monastic rules of the Order of Buddhist monks
• Sutta Pitaka – collection of speeches and dialogues of Buddha
• Abhidamma Pitaka – deals with ethics, psychology or theory of knowledge.

Dravidian Literature – 

• Indian languages speak four different speech families – Austric, Dravidian, Sino-Tibetan and IndoEuropean 
• Austric –
• Dravidian Literature – Telugu, Tamil (oldest), Malayalam, Kannada 
• Sino-Tibetan –
• Indo-European –

Medieval Literature – 

• The powerful trend of medieval indian literature (1000 to 1800CE) is devotional (Bhakti) 
• Basavanna, Allam Prabhu are bhakti poets of Kannada language
• Gyaneswar (Dhyaneswar) – first and foremost bhakti poet in Marathi 
• Eknath, Tukaram are other poets who cast their spell all over Maharashtra
• Kabir(Hindi), Namdev(Marathi), Guru Nanak(Punjabi) – other famous poets 
• Tulsidas, Surdas, Meera bhai belong to same period – 15th to 16th century

Women poets of Bhakti –

• Ghosha, Lopamudra, Viswawara, Gargi, Maitreyi, Apala, Romasha – wrote few texts in vedas – called as ‘Brahmavadini’ (expounder of veda) 
• Medieval Lit. by women –
• Songs of Buddhist Nuns – Mutta, Ubiri, Mettika (Pali Lang)
• Alwar like Andal – gave expression to their love for divine
• Lal ded (Muslim Poetess, Kashmiri) – represented sant tradition of bakti 
• They all wrote small lyrics or poems of devotional fervour, metaphysical depth, and with a spirit of dedication and utmost sincerity

Other Trends –

• Heroic poetry in Punjabi known as – Kissa and Var
• Najabat’s Var – Nadir Shah 
• Love ballads – Hir Ranjha – Warris Shah (Muslim poet, Punjabi) 
• Amir Khusro – Sufi Poet – exp. with Persian & Hindi (Hindavi) mix. poetry – Urdu

Modern Indian Literature – 

Emergence of Nationalism –

• Bankim Chandra chatterjee – Durgesh Nandini, Anand Math 
• Revivalism and reformism were natural corollaries of the newly emerging idea of nationalism 
• Tagore made Federalism as important part of his concept of national ideology
• Mod Indian pluralism is multi-lingual, multi-cultural, secular, national-state conc

Literature of Nationalism, Revivalism, Reformism – 

• Rangalal in Bengali, Mirza Ghalib in Urdu and Bharatendu Harishchandra in Hindi expressed themselves as the patriotic voice of that era 
• MM Dutt wrote first modern epic in Indian language, and naturalized blank verse in Bengali 
• First Tamil Novel(Pratap Mudaliyar Charitam – Samuel Pillai), Telugu(Sri Rangaraja Charitra – Krishnama Chetty), Malayalam(Indulekha – Chandu menon

Progressive Literature – 

• Chhayavad was challenged by a progressive school that came to be known as Pragativad (progressivism) 
• Nagarjun was undisputedly the most powerful and noted Hindi poet of the progressive group
• The critical norms of progressive literature were established by the pioneer of this phase in Punjabi by Sant Singh Sekhon
• The progressive writers’ movement attracted the attention of eminent poets of Urdu, like Josh Malihabadi and Faiz Ahmad Faiz

Dalit Literature –

• Dalit movement was started in literature by Marathi, Gujarati and Kannada writes under the leadership of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar
• It came into the limelight because of progressive literature moving nearer to the downtrodden
• literature of militant protest against upper caste literature upholding Brahmanical values 
• It challenges the tone and context of existing literary canons and decentralises the whole process of a literary movement
• It creates an alternative aesthetics and extends the linguistic and generic possibilities of literature

The present-day crisis in India is the conflict between expediency and universality, and as a result, a large number of writers are in the process of identifying a pattern of problem-solving within the traditional system, vigorous enough to generate and sustain an indigenous process of modernization, which does not need readymade external solutions, and is in accord with indigenous needs and attitudes

Some famous books: 

• Natyashastra – Bharata Muni (2nd century BC – 2nd century AD) 
• the date of the work is between the 2nd century B.C.E- 2nd century C.E 
• Natyashastra is also known as the fifth veda 
• he has evolved this veda by taking words from the Rigveda, music from the Samaveda, gestures from the Yajurveda and emotions from the Atharvaveda
• Sangeeta Ratnakara – SarangaDeva (13th century AD) 
• Kamasutra – Vatsayana
• Malavikagnimitram, Vikramorvasiam, Abhigyana Shakuntalam – Kalidasa 
• Mricchakatika – Sudraka
• Uttara-Ramacharitam – Bhavabhuti
• Gitagovida – Jayadeva 
• Panchatantra – Vishnu Sharma
• Hitopadesha – Narayan Pandit 
• Buddhacharita – Aswagosha 
• Gathasaptasathi – Hala
• Ramcharitamanas – Tulsidas
• Naurasnama – Ibrahim II
• Advent of Printing Press in India – William Carey – at Serampore, Bengal