The Bilingual Writer Stripped off his Bilingual Identity in Indian Literary Scene: Manoj Das and the Politics of Packaging Amarjeet Nayak Thapar University, India Abstract The position of a bilingual writer in India, who writes in English and a regional language, is a problematic one as s/he has a foot each in two literary traditions–Indian Writing in English and Regional Language Literatures. Instead of being seen as a bilingual writer, the market forces see to it that the writer is seen as a monolingual writer in the respective literary tradition. This paper tries to show how packaging of the bilingual writer in these two traditions contributes significantly towards the split identity of a bilingual writer as a result of which the bilingual writer is stripped off his bilingual identity. I shall do this through an analysis of the packaging of Manoj Das, a prolific bilingual writer in Indian Writing in English and Oriya literary traditions. Key Words: Manoj Das, Packaging, Oriya, bilingual. The relationship between an author’s work and the reader is not a straightforward one. The publishers come in between these two. The publishing house becomes the intermediary between the author and the reader. This is achieved by the way a book is packaged. This paper analyses the packaging of Das’s books in Oriya and English. It especially focuses on the way the actual text is sandwiched between selected reviews of the author and/or the text to examine the politics of packaging. It is my contention that Das’s books are packaged in such a way that the bilingual aspect of the writer remains largely neglected which furthers the split reception of the writer. Sometimes, even when the bilingualism of the author is highlighted, it is usually not for the purpose of bridging the gap between IWE and RLL traditions. This can be illustrated with the help of the following example. The most famous Oriya anthology of Das’s short stories is Manoj Dasanka Katha O Kahani which received the Kendriya Sahitya Akademi award. It is published by Friends Publishers, Cuttack. The publishers’ comments in the book’s first edition (1970) are worth noting: It is a matter of pride that apart from Oriya literature, Manoj Babu is well-established in Indo-Anglian literature. It is well-accepted throughout the world that his stories are the products of a powerful pen. Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities (ISSN 0975-2935), Vol 2, No 2, 2010 URL of the Issue: http://rupkatha.com/v2n2.php URL of the article: http://rupkatha.com/V2/n2/ManojDas.pdf © www.rupkatha.com