The book is the first of its kind in using the methodology of Comparative Literature to look at ethnographic fiction written in different regional languages of India.

The issue of cultural identity of writers has often been seen as a simple case of a one-to-one relationship between the writer and the community of his/her birth. However, in reality, there is no one cultural space that any writer, or even any individual, inhabits. Cultural boundaries are today more porous than ever, and it is highly problematic to see the writer as either an ‘insider’ or ‘outsider’ of any ethnic community about which he/she writes.

Informed by such perspectives, Ethnic Worlds in Select Indian Fiction closely looks at the chronological history of the Assamese ethnic novel within the framework of Comparative Literature. It is very rare that literary representations by and about ethnic communities in India have been compared and contrasted.