Raja Rao

Raja Rao Biography

Raja Rao was an English writer from India. He along with R. K. Narayan and Mulk Raj Anand are regarded as the best Indian writers of English language. He wrote novels as well as short stories and those works are deeply rooted in Hinduism. A semi-autobiographical novel, The Serpent and the Rope published in 1960 placed him among the established English writers from India and this work is a search for spiritual truth in Europe and India. This book won him Kendra Sahitya Academy award as well. He has been honoured with Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1988 for his contributions to the field of literature. He was honoured with Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan by Indian government. All his works were written in English.

Raja Rao was born on November 8, 1908 in Hassan, Karnataka state. His father was a Kannada teacher at Nizam College. He was the eldest of nine siblings. He was educated in Muslim schools and intermediate was taken from Aligarh Muslim University. He completed his post graduation in France. He lost his mother at a younger age of 4 and those memories made deep impressions on his published works as well. While studying at Aligarh Muslim University, he became friends with Ahmed Ali, who became a noted writer of contemporary times. After completing graduation from University of Madras, he won the Asiatic Scholarship of the Government of Hyderabad in 1929 and thus he went abroad for future studies. He learnt French literature from University of Montpellier in France.

He returned to India in 1939 and joined as editor of Changing India. He participated in Quit India movement also. His novels are Kanthapura, The Serpent and the Rope, The Cat and Shakespeare: A Tale of India, Comrade Kirillov and The Chessmaster and His Moves. His works also include short stories, a few anthologies and a few non-fiction works.

Published: N/A

Updated: March 17, 2014