Factors influencing modern Gujarati Literature are quite a few in number. Though old influences continued to exist to a certain extent, there was seen a definite shift in emphasis. There were a number of literary expressions free from the influences of Sanskrit or English literature that came into vogue. This trend was encouraged by organizations such like the Gujarat Vernacular Society, Forbes Sabha, Bhikhsu Akhandanand Publishing House, and Gujarati Sahitya Parishad, as well as by the emergence of periodicals such as the Gujarati, Samalochak, Viami Sadi, Sahitya, Buddhiprakash, Vasant, and Sudarshan. This prepared the ground for developing the Gujarati language to suit the requirements of the age, which rejected heavy scholastic diction. Newspapers also favored simple language. This trend brought some Parsi writers into the field who differed from the mainstream in that they were closer to the public because of their use of daily conversational language.
One of the major factors responsible for the change in creative field and literary writing in Gujarat, as also the rest of India, is that the country no longer accepted the British ideology blindly. Organizations such as the Brahmo Samaj, Prarthana Samaj, Arya Samaj, and the Theosophical Society had redirected the attention of the educated classes to Indian culture. There was a tendency to strike a balance between Eastern and the Western thought. The establishment of the Indian National Congress (1885) led to a new awakening in India. Even though religion-oriented literature did not cease to be written, there were now seen poets and writers who did not hesitate to turn their attention from God to man. Literature in Gujarat had thus entered a new phase.
Another major factor which gave a further impetus to this new trend was Mahatma Gandhi`s return from South Africa in 1914. There was felt a distinct change in the environment at this time. With the launching of the Satyagraha movement in 1923, there was a surging tide of nationalism in Gujarat, along with the rest of India. Gujarati literature acquired new dimensions. It was the beginning of a literature infused with the spirit of nationalism, concern for the downtrodden, and humanism.
During this time, the younger writers were also fascinated by the by the socialist thought of the West and the success of the Russian revolution. That influence grew stronger during the next two decades, with the formation of the Progressive Writers` Association. In Gujarat, too, there was a group of progressive writers. Much was written about the downtrodden in quite a revolutionary spirit.
Yet another factor that played a role in shaping modern Gujarati Literature was the writers` interest in Freudian psychology and the stream-of-consciousness technique of James Joyce, which was dominant in the west at the time. Young Gujarati writers no longer imitated the earlier writers of their own language or even prominent writers like Rabindranath Tagore. Those who started writing in the 1930s tried to bring more psychological content into their creations and themes, with more emphasis on human relationships. They were more concerned with the inner world of their characters. Even when they were writing about the freedom struggle they broke away from the constraints that the earlier writers worked within. Not that they were completely devoid of moral considerations, they were more considerate toward human beings when their actions did not appear to conform to the accepted social norms. This resulted in a strikingly divergent trend in Gujarati creative writing. But it was not quite the end of the earlier phase of Gujarati literature. Old-time writers continued to write, and there were new entrants who had started writing in the last decade of the nineteenth century but had attracted attention only in the first decade of the twentieth century and were active for the next three or four decades.
Thus it is evident from the above discussion that there were a number of factors which influenced modern Gujarati literature and went into making it what it is today.
