Rehashing the lost sub-continent debate

While I have been dozing away on the sidelines, the lost sub-continent debate seems to have continued strongly. Tabish Khair's rejoinder was out last week and he says that questions about the Indian diaspora are irrelevant.

So let us just recap this story and get it into my thick head now.

• August 13, 2005: William Dalrymple writes The lost sub-continent in the Guardian.
• August 14, 2005: Kitabkhana picks up the thread and does a neat job of it.
• August 20, 2005: Pankaj Mishra censures the article here.
• August 21, 2005: Kitabkhana mentions Mishra's reaction and a number of interesting comments gather at that post.
• August end - November 2005: Lots of blogs comment about it.
• November 09, 2005: I rehash it here acknowledging the vague intuitive signals that tell me Tabish Khair is going to respond (ouch, that brickbat hurt!)
• November 12, 2005: Tabish Khair did write!

So what are all of them saying anyway?

That writers who live in India and aspire to stardom are doomed?

That Indian writers cannot bother to write non-fiction?

That quality is scarce in the majority that writes?

That the Indian readers living in India are still not big enough a market for quality works to be appreciated?

That it does not matter whether you are Indian by origin or birth or migration and what matters is that India is your subject?

People seem to be saying yes to most of these questions in all those discussions indicated in the timeline. They are also saying, "Show me the money" and we shall show you more Indian Writers in the Indian scene.

So why are we not getting ready to take Indian Authors deep into the English textbooks and creating that big future market?