This article examines how P.E.N., an organisation born in imperial Britain, endeavoured in some cases and floundered in others to create conditions for collaboration between Indian and British writers. Drawing on the P.E.N. archives at the Harry Ransom Center (HRC), I examine communication among and between Indian and British writers in P.E.N.'s orbit during the World War II era and leading up to the Indian Independence Act of 1947. As a forum for collaboration among writers internationally not only to develop writing and editing projects together, but also to forge a unifying conception for the modern era of the relationship between literature and political freedom, P.E.N. aimed to create opportunities for exchange among Indian and British writers. Analysing Indian writers' articulation of the necessary conditions for cross-imperial collaboration, I consider how mutuality was compromised under political conditions of imperialism hinging on hierarchal notions of culture.

中文翻译：

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“破裂的玻璃板镜子”：1945 年 PEN 全印度作家大会上的合作条件

本文探讨了笔会这个诞生于英帝国的组织如何在某些情况下努力并在其他情况下为印度和英国作家之间的合作创造条件。借助哈里·兰森中心 (HRC) 的笔会档案，我研究了二战时期以及导致 1947 年印度独立法案出台的印英作家之间的交流。国际作家不仅要共同开发写作和编辑项目，而且要为现代文学与政治自由之间的关系建立统一的构想，笔会旨在为印度和英国作家之间的交流创造机会。分析印度作家