Arundhati Roy first drew attention to herself for criticizing the film Bandit Queen by Shekhar Kapur, which is based on Phoolan Devi’s life. She claimed that Devi was exploited and her life was misrepresented.

Arundhati Roy completed her first novel, The God of Small Things in 1996. The book is sort of an autobiography that tells of her experiences during her childhood. The book not only won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997, but was also listed as a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times that same year. The book landed the number four spot on the list of best sellers of independent fiction.

Arundhati Roy announced that a second novel was in the works in 2007.

Mulk Raj Anand attended Khalsa College in Amritsar before he moved to England where he was an undergraduate at the University College London. He later graduated from Cambridge University in 1929 with a PhD. During his time in school, he became friends with the members of Bloomsbury Group. Mulk Raj Anand spent time in Geneva, giving lectures a League of Nations’ School of Intellectual Cooperation.

The rigidity of the caste system instigated the family tragedy that led to the launch of Mulk Raj Anand’s career in literature. His first work was a response to his aunt’s suicide after she was exiled from the family for having a meal with a Muslim. His first novel, Untouchable was published in 1935. It is the story of a day in the life of a toilet cleaner that bumps into a member of high society.

Even though all of his younger brothers attended Aligarh, Shibli Nomani received an education in classic Islam. Maulana Muhammad Farooq Chirayakoti, an outspoken scholar and rival to Sir Syed, was his teacher. This could perhaps offer an explanation of his indecisive relationship with Sir Syed and Aligarh. The connection to Chirayakoti is considerable, giving Shibli Nomani reason to be both repelled and attracted to Aligarh.

In his works in theology, Shibli Nomani highlights both differences and similarities of Sir Sayed’s rationalism. Shibli Nomani believed that religion and science were two separate realms with nothing in common.

When she started kindergarten, her teacher began calling her Jhumpa because it was simpler to pronounce than her given name. The incongruity of her identity was the inspiration for the primary character in her novel The Namesake.

Jhumpa Lahiri is a graduate of South Kingstown High School and has a Bachelor’s degree in literature from Barnard College. Jhumpa Lahiri has also received several degrees from Boston University including a Master’s degree in English, a Master’s degree in Creative Writing, a Master’s degree in Comparative Literature as well as a Doctorate in Renaissance Studies. Jhumpa Lahiri also took up a two-year fellowship at the Provincetown’s Fine Arts Work Center. She also taught a creative writing class at Boston University and Rhode Island School of Design.

Anita Desai attended Queen Mary’s Higher Secondary School of Delhi. She received a Bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of Delhi Miranda House in 1957. In 1958, she wed a businessman by the name of Ashvin Desai. Together they raised four children. The family traveled on the weekends to Thal located near Alibaug, this became the set of Anita Desai’s novel Village by the Sea.

Her first novel, Cry The Peacock was published in 1963. Her most autobiographical piece, Clear Light of Day, published in 1980 was set in the same time and neighborhood of her childhood. Her most recent work, The Zigzag Way was published in 2004.