Mythopolitics and Identity Formation: Reimagining Epic Narratives in 21st - Century Indian English Fiction

In the 21st-century Indian English literary sphere, mythology is undergoing a significant revival—not as static reverence for the past, but as a dynamic space of political dialogue and identity reconstruction. Contemporary writers are reimagining foundational epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata not merely as religious or cultural touchstones, but as living, adaptable narratives that can interrogate and challenge entrenched power structures. These modern literary interventions—often framed within the discourse of “mythopolitics”—strategically deploy myth to engage with pressing socio-political concerns, including caste hierarchies, gender inequality, regional marginalisation, and the complexities of individual subjectivity. By decentering canonical interpretations and shifting narrative focus to overlooked or vilified figures such as Ravana, Sita, or Karna, these works offer a radical rearticulation of identity within a mythic framework. This paper examines how selected Indian English novels utilise epic retellings to lend voice to subaltern experiences, recasting myth as both a repository of cultural memory and a tool of ideological disruption. Far from being passive rewritings, these narratives actively dismantle hegemonic norms, reclaiming myth as a contested space where historical silences are filled with new voices and perspectives. In doing so, authors not only preserve the imaginative grandeur of myth but also politicise it—transforming it into a literary mechanism for resistance, critique, and empowerment. The abstract explores how this dual function of myth—its preservation and politicisation—makes it a fertile ground for both continuity and transformation in postcolonial Indian consciousness. Myth, therefore, is no longer the domain of deities and dharma alone; it becomes a narrative crucible where collective and personal identities are renegotiated, memory is restructured, and tradition becomes a site of radical possibility.