In Indian literary history, who was the first Indian woman to win the Man Booker Prize for fiction?

Introduction / Context:
The Man Booker Prize, now known simply as the Booker Prize, is one of the most prestigious international awards for English language novels. This general knowledge question checks whether you remember which Indian woman first achieved this milestone, an important fact in both Indian literary history and major world literary awards.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• The award in question is the Man Booker Prize for fiction.
• We are asked about the first Indian woman to win it.
• Four notable authors are listed as options.

Concept / Approach:
To answer this question, you need to recall major Indian winners of the Man Booker Prize and then identify which of them is a woman and who won it first. It is helpful to connect authors with the specific novels that won and the year of the award.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Recall that Arundhati Roy won the Man Booker Prize in 1997 for her debut novel The God of Small Things.Step 2: Note that she is an Indian woman author, and her win was widely celebrated as a landmark for Indian English literature.Step 3: Kiran Desai, another Indian woman author, won the Man Booker Prize later in 2006 for The Inheritance of Loss, so she cannot be the first.Step 4: V. S. Naipaul and Salman Rushdie did win the Booker Prize, but both are male authors, so they do not fit the requirement of being the first Indian woman winner.Step 5: Therefore, the first Indian woman to win the Man Booker Prize for fiction is Arundhati Roy.

Verification / Alternative check:
You can verify this by remembering that the 1997 Booker Prize is often cited in Indian GK as the year Arundhati Roy made history. Later Indian women winners, such as Kiran Desai, are always mentioned after her, confirming that Arundhati Roy was the first.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Kiran Desai: She is an Indian woman who won the Booker Prize, but only in 2006, so she is not the first.V. S. Naipaul: A Nobel laureate and Booker winner of Indian origin, but he is male and not the first Indian woman winner.Salman Rushdie: Another famous male Booker winner of Indian origin, but again not a woman and not the first Indian woman winner.

Common Pitfalls:
Many aspirants confuse Kiran Desai and Arundhati Roy because both are Indian women who have won the Booker Prize. The key is to focus on the year of the award and remember that Arundhati Roy won in 1997, almost a decade before Kiran Desai.Another mistake is to ignore the word woman in the question and simply pick any famous Indian Booker winner.

Final Answer:
The first Indian woman to win the Man Booker Prize for fiction was Arundhati Roy.