Write a detailed note to show how the literatures in English, emerging from South Asia, reflect the colonial encounter.

South Asiain literature is the literature that is composed by authors in the Indian Subcontinent and its diaspora. South Asian literature has an extensive history with some of the earliest known pieces of literature. South Asia has many different languages that have been spoken due to its size and how long people have been inhabiting it.

This has caused South Asia to be the most linguistically diverse region in the planet, and as well as having four language families (Dravidian, IndoEuropean, Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman), hundreds of languages and thousands of dialects. Many modern pieces of South Asian literature are written in English for a global audience. Many of the ancient texts of South Asia have been lost due to the inability to preserve verbally transmitted literature. South Asia has many significant authors that shaped the postcolonial period and response to British establishment in South Asia. Modern South Asian literature has a deep focus toward independence from Britain, mainly expressed in prose, this literature commonly discusses the partition of India and how different South Asian nations, religions and cultures interact with each other. Countries to which South Asian literature's writers are linked include India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Works from Bhutan, Myanmar, Tibet, and the Maldives are sometimes also included.

South Asian literature is written in English as well as the many national and regional languages of the region. South Asian literature has a long history, having some of the oldest recorded pieces of literature, dating back to the later stages of the Bronze Age. Transmitted in Sanskrit, ‘Rig veda’, is an ancient and sacred collection of Hindu texts. Rig Veda was originally composed between 1500 BCE and 1200 BCE, composed in Sanskrit, Rig Veda was created by Indo-Aryan tribes that were travelling from modern Afghanistan to Northern India. When migrating, these Indo-Arayan tribes encountered the aboriginal nations of South Asia, these tribes had their own languages and their own literature, some of these languages understood to be of Dravidian origin and other languages called Munda. Literature was not written down but it was transmitted verbally in these times, the first evidence of written language in South Asia was in Prakrit in the 3rd century BCE. These were the religious Ashokan edicts that were inscribed on pillars.

The Aboriginal tribes had their own forms of literature, though, due to language only being communicated verbally for a long period of time, many ancient pieces of literature were lost. Punjabi literature developed later than most as the first writings of Punjabi was only written in 1324, written by Amir Khusro through a war ballad of the battle between Tughlaq and Khurso. Though the first identifiable Punjabi was written in the 16th century, known as Janam-Sakhi, it is written by Bhai Bala, and is intended to be a biography of his companion Guru Nanak. From then on, Punjabi literature expanded significantly, though literacy in these times was very uncommon and only the noble born were able to have a significant hold on language. This was dependent on social status and the caste of those individuals. In the 17th century, a writer known as Abdullah, created a work called Bara Anva. This work was a disquisition on Islam, and because of this many Sufi works of literature were composed. Poets such as Bulleh Shah, Farid Shakarganj and Shah Hussain were Sufi poets whereby many of their ideas were a significant stimulus to Punjabi literature during the mediaeval periods.

Bengali literature is divided into three different parts: Ancient, Mediaeval and Modern. Bengali literature began with the mystic hymns of Charyapada, written between the 8th and 12th century, It is composed of 47 hymns and was written by Buddhist monks. During this ancient period (600 AD - 1200 AD), most of the literature pertained to religious texts, as a result, Bengali texts are only partly able to be deciphered and are called the twilight language. The mediaeval period (1200 AD - 1800 AD) of Bengali literature is split into three phases: Early, High and Late. The early phase fostered the development of the Bengali alphabet. In this period, rhymes, anecdotes and a song began to appear. During the high phase, the Bengali region was under Muslim rule, significantly influencing the literature during this period. Bengali writers commonly would write on their culture, religion and history. Bengali literature also developed in translation literature, Govindamangal is the earliest known translation in Bengali literature and was a translation of sanskrit. The late mediaeval phase was characterised through the diminishing muslim control and the increase in control of British due to their establishment in South Asia.

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