Chapter : 1

Background to
Indian English Poetry

1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2. History of Indian English Poetry
1.2.1 Poetry of first phase
1.2.2 Poetry of second phase
1.2.3 Post independence poetry
1.3. Major Indian English Poets
1.3.1 Pre- independence poets
1.3.2 Post - Independence Poets
1.4. Major themes dealt in Indian English Poetry
1.4.1 Pre-independence Poetry Themes
1.4.2 Post - Independence Poetry Themes
1.5 Conclusion
1.6 Summary
- Answers to Check Your Progress
- Field Work

1.0 Objectives
Friends, this paper deals with Indian English Literature and we are
going to begin with Indian English verses. After studying this chapter
you will be able to -
· Elaborate the literary background of the Indian English Poetry
· Take a review of the growth and development of Indian English verses
· Describe different phases and the influence of the contemporary
social and political situations.
· Narrate recurrent themes in Indian English poetry.

Background to Indian English Poetry / 1

 1.1 Introduction
Friends, this chapter will introduce you to the history of Indian
English verses. It will provide you with information of the growth of
Indian English verses and its socio-cultural background. What are the
various themes in Indian English poetry? Who are the major Indian
English poets? This chapter is an answer to these questions with a
thorough background to Indian English verses which will help you to
get better knowledge of the various trends in Indian English poetry.

1.2 History of Indian English Poetry

Poetry is the expression of human life from times eternal. India infact
has a long tradition of arts and poetry from ages. Colonialism gave a
new language, English for the expression of Indians. The poetry
written by the Indians in English in the last 150 years may be said to
have three phases: the imitative, the assimilative and the
experimental.
The period from 1850 to 1900 is the imitative phase when the Indian
poets were romantic poets in the Indian garb or in George Bottomley's
words "Matthew Arnold in a saree" or as some derogatively observes
"Shakuntala in a mini-skirt". The chief sources of inspiration were the
British romantic poets: Wordsworth, Scott, Shelley, Keats, Byron.
The period from 1900 to 1947 is the assimilative period when the
Indian poets still romantic tried to assimilate the romanticism of the
early nineteenth century British poets and the "new" romantics of the
decadent period for expressing the consciousness of the Indian
renaissance between nationalism and political changes which
ultimately led to the attainment of political freedom in 1947.

1.2.1 Poetry of first phase

The first phase of Indian poetry was the period of literary renaissance
in India. Derozio's poems, Kasiprasad Ghose's The Shair or Ministrel
and other poems, Michael Madhusudan Dutt's The Captive Lady,
Manmohan Ghose's Love Songs and Elegies are a testimony to the
creative upsurge occasioned by the romantic spirit kindled by the
literary renaissance. Toru Dutt alone among these romantic poets of

Background to Indian English Poetry / 2

the first phase puts an emphasis on India and her heritage by putting
into verse a large number of Indian legends. The romantic Toru Dutt is
also a predecessor in respect to the use of the tree in verse as
demonstrated by "Our Casuarina Tree", a predecessor in respect of
childhood memories recalled with nostalgia or regret.

1.2.2 Poetry of second phase

The poets of the second phase, still romantic in spirit were Sarojini
Naidu, Tagore, Aurobindo Ghose and Harindranth Chattopadhyaya.
The poetic output of these poets was prolific. Romanticism of these
Indian poets was fraught with nationalism, spirituality and mysticism.
It was therefore different from English romanticism. Indian
romanticism widened the poet's vision. While Aurbindo's was the
search for the Divine in Man and Tagore's was the quest for the
Beautiful in Man and Nature. Both were philosopher poets. Sarojini
Naidu's romantic muse underscored the charm and splendor of
traditional Indian life and Indian scene. She had a fine ear for verbal
melody as she was influenced not only by English poetry but also by
the Persian and Urdu poetry. She excelled in lyricism. She was a true
nightingale of India.
Poetry written in the colonial period with a view to establish Indian
identity by the Indian poets was an explosion or rather outburst of
emotions: the nationalistic, philosophical, spiritual or mystical
emotions. The appeal was to the heart of the readers. The poetry of
Toru Dutt, Sri Aurbindo, Tagore and Sarojini Naidu could not be
romantic since they had to express the ethos of the age. They were
not merely imitating the English romantics, Victorians and Decadents
blindly. Their poetry was the best voice of the contemporary Indian
time - spirit. It would be fair to say that Toru Dutt and Sarojini Naidu
constitute a kind of watershed between the first two phases, in that
they share their predecessor's individual nostalgia as well as their
successor's sense of crisis and quest for identity.

1.2.3 Post independence poetry

The ethos of the post-independence phase of Indian English
literature is radically different from the first two phases. Its relation to
the first two phases is that of the modern age in English literature to

Background to Indian English Poetry / 3

Victorianism. When the question of political independence was
resolved in 1947 with the partition of India, the tensions of the Indian
psyche suddenly relaxed. The post - independence era of hope and
aspiration was replaced by an era of questioning and ironic exposure.
The national identity achieved after independence gave Indian writers
a new confidence to be the critic of the present, the past and of
themselves. In this new spirit and confidence the Indian poets found
themselves in line with Modern English and American poets. So once
again there was borrowing up to some extent as in the first two phases
of Indian poetry. While the pre - 1947 poets borrowed from the
romantics, Victorians and "new" Romantics of the decadent period,
the post - 1947 poets borrowed from the modernist poets like Yeats,
Eliot, Pound and Auden.
It is ironical that the word "romantic" should become a veritable red
tag to the post- independence poets. If the word "romantic" is a red
tag, the word "mystical" drives them to a fury. Adil Jussawalla, for
example, finds Sri Aurbindo's Savitri "unwinding like an interminable
sari". Parthasarthy declares that "Savitri fails as a poem because
Ghose's talent and resourcefulness in the use of English was limited."
About Toru Dutt, Parthasarthy says, "Toru Dutt's poems mean little to
us because our idea of poetry has changed since her day."
If the succeeding generation denigrates the preceding generation so
vehemently, all past poetry - Valmiki, Homer, Dante, Kalidas,
Shakespeare, Goethe, Whitman - would become irrelevant. No true
poet can escape tradition for tradition haunts the poet. The radical past
is stored in the poet's deeper consciousness what the psychologist
Jung calls "the blocked off radical unconscious". At the same time, no
poet can escape the present also because he is in it and of it. The best
that the poet can do is to relate the immediate present to the living
past and if possible to a future that is in the process of becoming.
The later phase of Indian English poetry is of the modern and post-
modern phase. The modern or experimental Indian English poetry is
part of the process of modernization which includes urbanization,
industrialization, mobility, independence, social change, increased
communication (in the form of films, television, radio, journals and
newspapers) national and international transportation networks, mass
education and the resulting paradox that as an independent culture
emerges, it also participates in the international, modern usually

Background to Indian English Poetry / 4

westernized world. Following are some of the factors responsible for
the emergence of "new", "modernist", "experimental" Indian English
poetry:
1. The economic progress achieved through the government's
policies of democratic socialism and five year plans.
2. The social progress achieved through the rise in mass education.
3. The economic and social progress resulted in the broadening of
the middle class sections of the society.
4. The spread of the English language and the evolution of the
English culture alongside Hindi and the regional languages
hastened the process of modernization. English has been
Indianised in pronunciation, intonation, stress parts, idioms, word
order and the syntax.
5. The scientific and technological advancement, the scientific
temperament and modern sensibility has given rise to agnosticism
and atheism among the educated intellectual. The modern
educated intellectual Indian is critical of the formal and ritualistic
religion.
6. The modern sensibility has led to an open mode of expression in
social relationships.
7. Modern poetry deals in concrete terms with concrete experiences
in free verse. Rhyme and other devices are of meter and stanzaic
forms are discarded.
The major post - independence Indian English poets are :
Nissim Ezekiel, Dom Moraes, P. Lal, Adil Jussawalla, A. K.
Ramanujan, R. Parthasarthy, Gieve Patel, Arvind Mehrotra, Pritish
Nandy, Kamala Das, K. N. Daruwalla, Shiv Kumar, Jayanta
Mahapatra, Dilip Chitre, Saleem Peerdina, Santan Rodrigues, Eunice
De Souza, Silgardo, Meena Alexander, Agha Shahid Ali, Vikram Seth,
Manohar Shetty etc.
The models of the modern Indian poets are neither exclusively
Indian nor British but cosmopolitan. Europe, Africa, America and Asia
have all become a part of our cultural consciousness and offer
impetus and stimulation. So the poets have cosmopolitan culture to
fall back on, though the preference is shown for Eliot, Pound, Yeats,
Auden, Dylan Thomas, Wallace Stevens, Ginsberg, Sylvia Plath,

Background to Indian English Poetry / 5

devotional poetry of saints like Tukaram.
Contemporary Indian English poetry is the expression of certain
attitudes and values believed in by certain sections of today's Indian
society, wholly urban, middle class. The poets are realistic and
intellectually critical in the expression of their individualized
experience. The poets go in for precision at all levels.
The poems are not didactic but thought provoking as they fall back
on psychological problems presented in a psychoanalytical manner.
So most of the poems do not strive for resolution of themes or
conclusive stance. Modern Indian poems are by the poet turned
psychologist, psychoanalyst, existentialist, surrealist etc. They are
purely an expression of thoughts felt.
There is a lot of experimentation in the modern Indian poetry with a
view to achieving modernity. Rhyme and stanzaic forms were replaced
by free verse. Verbal melody came to be evoked through the use of
alliterative and assonant words. The tone was one of intellectualized
irony and sarcasm. The stance of the poets was one of complete
detachment and objectivity. The other innovation of the modern Indian
poets is the use of symbolism. The poets use modern techniques used
by the film industry and advertising industry, besides the stream of
consciousness and free association of ideas. There is much "word-
hunting" and "image-hunting" which reflects the medium of
consciousness on the part of the poet. The Indian poets therefore
borrow words from their regional languages. To be Indian, poets have
to be rooted somewhere in India - geographically, historically, socially
or psychologically.

1.2 Check Your Progress.

Fill in the blanks in the following statements:

1. Indian poetry written by the Indians in English can be divided

into three phases: _______, _______ and _________.

2. George Bottomley's has described Indian English Literature as

"Matthew Arnold in a ______".

3. The pre-independence poet, Toru Dutt's poem _______

describes the use of the tree in verse.

Background to Indian English Poetry / 6

 4. Rhyme and stanzaic forms were replaced by ______ in modern
Indian English poetry.

5. There is much "word-hunting" and ______ which reflects the

medium of consciousness on the part of the poet.

1.3 Major Indian English Poets

Before Indians could write poetry in English, two related
preconditions had to be met. First, the English language had to be
sufficiently indianised to be able to express the reality of the Indian
situation. Secondly, Indians had to be sufficiently Anglicized to use the
English language to express themselves. In 1780 India's first
newspaper, 'Hicky's Bengal Gazette', was published in English. In
1817, the Hindu college, which later became Presidency College, the
premier educational institution of Bengal, was founded. More
significantly, in 1835, Viceroy Macaulay, in his famous Minute, laid the
foundations of the modern educational system, with his decision to
promote European science and literatures among Indians through the
medium of the English language. The result was that English became
in India, as later in other British colonies, a passport to privilege.
Indian poetry in English began in Bengal, the province in which the
British first gained a stronghold. In addition, his poetry was largely an
urban phenomenon centered in Calcutta. Infact, for the first fifty years,
it was confined entirely to a few Bengali families who were residents
of the city. Then, gradually it moved to other urban centers such as
Madras and Bombay; even today, Indian poetry in English remains
largely urban. Moreover, because English was an elite language in
India, Indian poets in English came from the upper classes and
castes.
When Indians first began to write poetry, it was not distinguished
from that of the British in India, or Anglo - Indians as they were called.
Indeed, because India was a part of the British Empire, Indian poets
in English were not given a separate national identity; their early
efforts were considered tributary to the mainstream of English
Literature.

Background to Indian English Poetry / 7

 Perhaps it is best to see Indian poetry in English as a phenomenon
as valuable for what it symbolizes as for its own achievements. It
embodies the legacy of colonialism, our struggle against colonialism
and oppression. It is also the site for the continuing Indo - western
encounter and the evolving culture of post - colonial India. It is still a
literature of major aspirations, a literature which has access to a
national consciousness and to some of the best minds produced by
this country.

1.3.1 Pre - independence Poets

The nineteenth century saw the institutionalization of British
imperialism in India. An oppressive economic, political and social
system was put into place which emphasized the inequality between
the minuscule British ruling class and a vast populace of Indian
subjects. Indian English poets displayed various degrees of
compromise and resistance to it. The fact that they wrote in English
itself showed the extent of their capitulation. On the other hand, they
tried to make up for this by writing in a manner which emphasized their
difference, their Indianness. The tension between the alienating
language and the Indian sensibility is as old as Indian poetry in English
itself.
Henry Louis Vivian Derozio (1809-1831) is generally credited as
being the first Indian poet in English. He was born in Calcutta and
especially remarkable because he was Christian and reared among
Eurasians who were closer to the British. Infact, many of his Hindu
Bengali contemporaries too strove to identify themselves with the
latter. Derozio's love for India is revealed in several of his poems. He
had an extraordinary career as a journalist, teacher, poet and a
leading intellectual of his day. In poems like, "The Harp of India" and
"My country! In thy day of glory past", he strikes a nationalistic note,
trying to revive in English a moribund indigenous tradition of poetry.
His long poem, "The Fakeer of Jungheera" is an interesting attempt to
fuse the Byronic romance with social criticism of contemporary Indian
mores. He died before he could fulfill the great promise that he
showed as a poet and intellectual. Despite this he is counted among
the major Indian poets in English for both historical and artistic
reasons.

Background to Indian English Poetry / 8

A contemporary of Derozio, Kashiprasad Ghose , published The Shair
and other poems (1830). Ghose has the distinction of being the first
Hindu to write original English verse. He wrote several pieces on
Indian festivals which were meant for his British and Eurasian readers.
His best work, perhaps, is "To a dead Crow", a semi - comic poem
which is a parody of an elegy.
Michael Madhusudan Dutt (1824 - 1873) whose long narrative
poem, 'The Captive Ladie', failed to earn him the fame he so aspired
for, is an interesting, almost archetypal figure in modern Indian poetry.
Dutt is remembered today not as an English poet but as the first and
one of the greatest of modern Bengali poets. After his failure at English
verse, he turned to Bengali, embarking on a brilliant literary career
which after producing a series of original plays and poems, culminated
in a Miltonic epic in blank verse, Meghnathbadh Kavya (1861).
Another family with the same surname, Dutt, brought out an
anthology called The Dutt Family Album (1870), featuring about two
hundred poems by Govin Chunder Dutt (1828 - 1884), his two
brothers and a nephew. The Dutt family was to produce another
generation of poets in Govin's daughters Aru and Toru. Another
noteworthy poet of his time was Ram Sharma, born Nobo Kissen
Ghose (1837 - 1918). He wrote volumes of satiric verse and also
introduced a religious dimension to Indian poetry in English. In this
period, Indian poetry in English moved out of Bengal for the first time
with the publications of the Bombay Presidency poets, B. M.
Malabari's Indian Muse in English Garb (1876), Cowasji Nowrosi
Versuvala's Counting the Muse (1879) and A. M. Kunte's The Risi
(1897).
There is almost complete critical consensus that Toru Dutt (1856 -
1877) was an original talent in Indian poetry in English. Like Derozio
she died young, and like Emily Bronte, her life has been the object of
as much curiosity as her poetry. One year after her sister, Aru's death,
Toru published A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields (1875), which also
featured eight pieces by Aru. These poems, "renderings" from the
French, were enthusiastically received in England and India, and soon
went into three editions, the third published by Kegan Paul, London, in
1880, with a Foreword by Arthur Symons. In 1875, Dutt took up the
study of Sanskrit and ten months later, she was proficient enough in it
to think of producing a "sheaf" gleaned from Sanskrit fields. This

Background to Indian English Poetry / 9

volume was published posthumously in 1882 as Ancient Ballads and
Legends of Hindustan by Kegan Paul, London, with a Foreword by
Edmund Goose. Before she died, she had written one French novel
and left incomplete another in English, both of which were published
after her death. The most significant aspect of Dutt's literary career
was her use of the rich Indian heritage of myth and folklore. In Ancient
Ballads she converted popular stories from the Ramayana,
Mahabharata and the Puranas into English verse. In this, she
pioneered a way for several later Indian writers in English who had
similar problems regarding their poetic identity. The best of these,
probably one of the best individual compositions in Indian poetry in
English is "Our Casuarina Tree". This poem, reminiscent in both form
and content of Keats' odes, is about memory, imagination and
transcendence. The beautiful tree in the poet's garden at Baugmaree
becomes, by the end of the poem, a symbol not only of the poet's
joyous childhood but also, through an extension in time and space, of
the poet's longing for permanence and eternity. Similarly, "Sita" is a
remarkable poem whose subject is not much the pathos of the
banished Sita in exile but the power of poetry to produce emotion,
much in the manner of Valmiki's 'shoka' (sorrow) leading to the 'shloka'
(verse).
Manmohan Ghose (1869 - 1924) went to win an open scholarship to
attend Christ Church College, Oxford, in 1887. There he befriended
Stephen Phillips and Lawrence Binyon. While at Oxford, Manmohan's
poems appeared in Primavera (1890) along with those of three other
poets. Oscar Wilde reviewing the book in the 'Pall Mall Gazette'
commented favorably on Manmohan's poetry. During his lifetime just
one collection of his poems, Love Songs and Elegies, was published
in London by Elkin Mathews in the Shilling Garland series in 1898. He
remained a dedicated poet and wrote a number of longer, more
ambitious works including 'Perseus', 'the Gorgon Slayer', 'Nala and
Damayanti', 'Orphic Mysteries', 'Immortal Eve' and 'Adam Alarmed in
Paradise'. After his death, Binyon published some of his shorter
poems as Songs of life and death (1926), prefaced by a memoir. Later,
the Calcutta University, where he was remembered fondly as one of
their greatest teachers of English, commissioned his daughter to
publish his complete works in five volumes (1970 - 1971).

Background to Indian English Poetry / 10

 Sri Aurobindo (1872 - 1950) probably has the best claim to be
regarded as the greatest Indian poet in English. He wrote a vast body
of verse in almost every available genre during his poetic career of
over fifty - five years. He wrote lyrics, sonnets, long narrative poems,
dramatic poetry and epics. He was well - versed in both European and
Indian classics, proving his command over them in his brilliant
translations. He was also one of India's most significant philosophers
and critics in recent times, thereby originating a new, and evolutionist
Yoga philosophy. He founded an original school of thought and
religious sect as the head of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry. He
used his original English poetry equally with prose as the vehicle of his
ideas. Aurobindo is the most discussed of the Indian poets in English;
there are more books and articles on his epic of over 24,000 lines,
Savitri. In Savitri he used the story of Savitri's conquest of death in the
Mahabharata - a story which has influenced Indians for centuries as
an exposition of perfect womanhood - and expanded it to create his
epic. Savitri realizes her divine potential and like Christ worsts Death;
afterwards, she returns to the earth as a symbol of what humanity can
achieve. A mystic and a seer, Aurobindo claimed to have described his
own, palpable experiences in writing the poem. Savitri is one of the
longer poems in the English language (it is roughly twice the length of
John Milton's Paradise Lost). It took about fifty years to write - from the
germ of the idea to the final written version - and complete and faithful
reading demands a long time; nevertheless, year after year, it
continues to attract, repel and challenge critics, students and other
readers.
If Aurobindo is the greatest, Sarojini Naidu (1879 - 1949) is among
the most popular and accessible of Indian poets in English. Naidu's
poems are deliberately grounded in an anti - intellectual aesthetics of
ephemeral beauty. She was primarily a lyric poet whose mastery of
rhyme and meter is unmatched. The chief quality of her poetry is
melody - sound and sense combine to produce an emotion, as in
music. She is remarkably versatile. She draws on the rich traditions of
several Indian languages, regions and religions. Naidu's images are
stylized and sophisticated, not naïve or simplistic. She uses several
discourses - types from Indian traditions of poetry: some of her poems
are monologues or duets; still others are communal songs in separate
voices and in chorus. Naidu was chiefly a love poet and her poetry

Background to Indian English Poetry / 11

explores the many facets of love as outlined in classical texts: love in
union, love in longing, love in separation; the pain of love, the sin of
love, the desire of love; earthly love, divine love and so on.
Indian poetry in English of this period can also claim Rabindranath
Tagore (1861 - 1941) as one of its own. Though strictly speaking,
Tagore wrote only one poem, 'The Child' (1931), in English, his own
English renderings of his famous poem, Gitanjali (1912) won him the
Nobel Prize for literature in 1913 and world - wide renown. After that,
Tagore continued to "translate" several of his works into English,
deviating considerably from the Bengali in the process. Tagore
bestrides the world of Indian culture like a colossus. Poet, dramatist,
novelist, short - story writer, critic, musician, educationist and savant,
he was one of the most remarkable figures in the recent history of
India, besides being almost certainly the greatest Indian poet of the
century. We find a chiseled perfection to his work. His poems are
strikingly finished, rich in texture and profound in thought. He
celebrated and affirmed his pleasure in the world of the senses. He
saw the world as imbued with the glory of God. He carried over the
plaintive longing for the beloved, the self - chastisement and the
humility of the Bhakti poets, but in a more formal, sophisticated and
self - conscious manner. He aligned himself with the down - trodden
and the suffering masses of India, criticizing the oppression of the
British. His sensibility was idealistic and romantic, but his romanticism
grappled with modernism and survived it.
Sri Ananda Acharya (1881 - 1941) wrote over thirty - five books, out
of which ten were collections of verse. All of these have been collected
in the volumes, Snow Birds and other poems and Arctic Swallows and
other poems both edited by K. V. Sharma. Acharya's poems are
spiritualist and mystical. They propound a philosophy of life which
emphasizes self - transformation and pacifism. Many of his poems use
esoteric imagery and symbolism. The poems show overall, a
combination of Vedantic and Buddhist influences.
Puran Singh (1881 - 1931) is chiefly remembered as a pioneering
figure in twentieth century Punjabi literature. Besides poems, novels,
short stories, drama and criticism, he also wrote extensively on Sikh
culture and history. His form and technique were influenced by Tagore,
while his ideas were inspired by Sikh scriptures and devotional
literature.

Background to Indian English Poetry / 12

 J. Krishnamurti (1895 - 1986) wrote poetry for a brief but crucial
juncture in his long career as a philosopher and teacher. From 1927 -
1931 he published three collections of poetry. His poems are all in a
poetic prose, the form which Tagore popularized. They are basically
devotional and mystical poems, passionately didactic but rich in
imagery and metaphor. He underwent a spiritual transformation. Since
then he toured the world speaking against occult hierarchies and
authority in matters of spirit.
Humayun Kabir (1906 - 1969) was an individual of vast and varied
accomplishments - scholar, educationist, administrator, politician,
trade union leader, poet, novelist and translator. He wrote over thirty
books in English and Bengali. Besides two volumes of poems, he
wrote a novel, Man and Rivers (1945). His poems are far more
concrete, realistic and modern in sensibility than those of his
contemporaries; infact, in tone and character.
Harindranath Chattopadhyaya (1898 - 1989), brother of Sarojini
Naidu showed great promise in his first collection, The Feast of Youth
(1918). Both Tagore and Aurobindo were impressed by hi talent; the
latter wrote a glowing review of the book, while the former hailed him
as his successor. His output is varied in theme, ranging from
Aurobindonian idealism to Marxist materialism. He usually writes
rhymed and metric verse.

1.3.2 Post - Independence Poets

There is no doubt that during the 1950's the dominant tone in

Indian poetry in English shifted. The impact was swift and sweeping.
What had been a minority voice suddenly became that of the majority.
A readymade aesthetic was available to the new poets - the
modernism of Eliot and Pound, of Richards and Leavis and of Picasso
and jazz music. This aesthetic found rapid acceptance in the
disillusionment of the post - independence era. Instead of ushering in
the promised golden age, independent India became a typical third
world country, backward, corrupt and hypocritical. The new generation
which had come of age in the 1950's and 1960's found itself betrayed
by its elders. It was impatient for change and fed up with the platitudes
of the past.

Background to Indian English Poetry / 13

 The first major characteristic of the modernists was a rejection of the
past. This was suggested in the title of Ezekiel's first book of poems,
A Time to Change (1952). A whole generation turned its back on
tradition and found itself alienated in the new India. Secondly, they
declared themselves opposed to the idealism and romanticism of their
predecessors. They wanted a poetry which was without escapism and
flights of fancy, a poetry written in a clear, hard, unsentimental voice
and in everyday language. Thirdly, the poets believed in a secular
muse. They had little faith in mysticism and other - worldly ideologies.
Instead with relish, they introduced a bold, new frankness into their
poetry. Turning away from religion, they sought meaning and order in
personal relationships. They wrote about the city and its dirty, poverty
- stricken and dehumanizing environs. Finally, the poets increasingly
resorted to irony as the best means of representing their love - hate
relationship with their surroundings. They believed they were
alienated from their society and irony was the only way of expressing
their ambivalence towards themselves and their world.
Moraes chooses "Babur" as a persona to suggest his own sense of
alienation from India; Jusawalla finds himself filled with revulsion and
pain upon "Approaching Santa Cruz Airport, Bombay", in Kamala Das'
"The Sunshine Cat", the speaker castigates all the men who abused
her, Ramanujan wonders if he is really himself in a characteristic self
- reflexive "Self - Portrait". Mehrotra resorts to a surrealistic subversion
of meaning in very discontinuous "Continuities"; Parthasarthy's
"Homecoming" is loaded with self - criticism and loss; in Daruwalla's
"Routine" the police officer cynically prepares himself for another riot;
Mahapatra's "Dawn at Puri" links the temple at Puri with crows and
skulls' Chitre's speaker regards his "Father returning Home" with
dispassionate and ironic detachment. Kolhatkar turns the whole idea
of the traditional pilgrimage inside out in "Jejuri". The situation is
Indian; the observer is critical and alienated. Sometimes the
detachment turns into attachment and the irony into anger. But often
the attitude is as troubling and uncertain as the language is precise
and clipped.
The poets seem unable to commit themselves to any ideology but
remain on neutral, treacherous ground. Alienation is the tension
between the English medium and the Indian experience is the source
of the poetry. The sort of sensibility which came into vogue during this

Background to Indian English Poetry / 14

time is characterized by Mokashi - Punekar's phrase, "cultural
allotrophy".
On the other hand, even the first of our modernist poets, Shahid
Suhrawardy was quite aware of not just the tension between his
mother tongue and his language of expression but the allegiance that
modernism bears to trends in western literature and art.
By the 1960's the West was entering a new age, what came to be
known later as "post - modernism". At that time the modernist
sensibility in India had, paradoxically, just taken root: the sixties saw
the publication of a vast number of "new" poets: Jussawalla, Das,
Mehrotra, Ramanujan, Patel, Nandy and so on, who are now
acknowledged as the protagonists of the movement. Hence,
modernism in Indian poetry in English was established about twenty
years after it had passed into history in Europe and America!
Those who started as modernists became affirmers of the past
and of tradition. Eliot himself is a paradigm of this pattern; starting as
a literary radical he ended as a conservative. Two Eliot figures in India,
one a poet, the other, a critic, who are greatly responsible for the
popularity of modernism, too, follow a similar paradigm. Both Lal of the
Writers Workshop and Professor C. D. Narasimhaiah of the 'Literary
Criterion' started as radical modernists, but have now mellowed into
upholders of Indian traditions in literature and criticism.
Such a return is discernable in other modernists too. Ezekiel's
poetry is increasingly spiritual in theme; Daruwalla's last book of new
poems ends with a passionate plea to God for knowledge and truth;
Parthasarthy and Ramanujan have both been obsessed with
discovering their Tamil heritage. After the initial revolt against tradition,
the modernist poet seems to be turning back to tradition to discover
the roots of his identity. Alienation, the very condition which made
poetry possible, is now being cured through poetry.
The very poets who dismissed their predecessors as being inferior
and derivative can themselves be accused of being imitative and
contrived today. They formed themselves into clichés and groups and
launched attacks on those they considered their opponents. They
polemicised poetry. And through their anthologies, introductions,
critical commentaries and interviews, they sometimes descended to
bitter wrangling and mud - slinging.

Background to Indian English Poetry / 15

 Straight away, one can separate the high modernists from the neo -
romantics. To the latter category belong not only Lal and Nandy, but
Moraes, Meena Alexander and to an extent, Mahapatra; romanticism,
no doubt, continued to be the minor mode throughout this period, with
numerous practitioners. Among the romantic poets we find a variety of
styles and modes. Lal is witty and dainty in his gestures; Moraes very
conservative in form, but always experimental with his numerous
personae; Nandy is excessive and expressionistic; Mahapatra
emotional and sentimental; and Alexander dreamy and academic.
Within the high modernists, essentially two traditions can be posited:
the clear and the obscure, or the conversational and the esoteric. The
first, best exemplified by Ezekiel, is poetry of communication. The poet
tries to speak to his readers as clearly as possible, almost in a manner
of a British movement poet like Philip Larkin. There is no attempt to
subterfuge or complexity, through irony is the chief vehicle of evasion.
To this group belong the majority of the poets like Ramanujan, Patel,
Parthasarthy, Kumar, Daruwalla and Peeradina. The other tradition is
of obscure and esoteric poetry which resists easy decoding.
Practitioners include Mehrotra, Kolhatkar and Mahapatra. Finally,
there are the confessional poets like Das.
Of course, all the poets write about personal relationships, growing
up, city scapes, tradition - modernity conflicts and their identity crises.
Post - modernism seems to promise a variety of new devices
including parody, pastiche, collage, intertextuality and literary
cannibalism of varying degrees. One of the main subjects for poetry is
the nature and problematic of poetry itself. There is, at the same time,
a return of involvement in the Indian context, celebration of difference
and the exploitation of ethnicity. This period has already produced
noteworthy talents like Agha Shahid Ali, Saleem Peeradina, Manohar
Shetty, Vikram Seth and Imtiaz Dharker. There are other poets, with
published collections to their credit, waiting in the wings. Among these
are Melanie Silgardo, Bibhu Padhi, Sujata Bhatt, R. Raja Rao, Sanjiv
Bhatla, Charmayne De Souza, Menka Shivdasani, Hoshang
Merchant, Sudeep Sen, Tara Patel, Tabish Khair, Ranjit Hoskote, Jeet
Thayil and Vijay Nambisan.

Background to Indian English Poetry / 16

1.3 Check Your Progress.
Answer the following questions:
1. Which is India's first newspaper?

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2. Who laid the foundations of the modern education system?

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3. What is the poem 'The Fakeer of Jungheera' about?

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4. Which Bengali epic did Michael Madhusudan Dutt write?

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5. Which poet converted popular stories from the Ramayana,

Mahabharata and the Puranas into English verse?

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6. What does Aurobindo's Savitri symbolize?

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7. Why is Sarojini Naidu called 'the nightingale of India'?

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8. Which are the various facets of love highlighted in Naidu's

poetry?

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9. Which is the only poem written in English by Tagore?

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10. Which is the first collection of poetry by Ezekiel?

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11. What does Moraes "Babur" suggest?

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12. Who are the two Eliot figures of India?

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Background to Indian English Poetry / 17

 1.4 Major themes dealt in Indian English Poetry
One cannot deny the fact that Indian poetry in English in the post -
independence period is different from the poetry in the pre -
independence period or rather colonial period. All literature, as Taine,
the French critic said, is the product of the triad, the race, the moment
and the milieu and since for the Indians the attainment of
independence in 1947 marks a great watershed in the annuals of
India's political history, the period preceding independence was
naturally full of political ferment and turmoil and the urge of the
nationalist Indians to acquire a distinct national identity to avoid being
brow - beaten by the imperialist forces.
The Time - spirit that permeated colonial India and began to
permeate independent India were different. The sources of inspiration
derived from the Indian ethos were ipso facto different. What England
and America witnessed in the early part of the 20th century, India
witnessed in the post - independence period. Indian English poetry
therefore acquired a new dimension of modernity and modernist trait
in the 50s when the English and the American poetry had acquired it
in the 20s.

1.4.1 Pre-independence poetry themes

Poetry in English written in the colonial period, though of a different
order, cannot be just dismissed as insignificant however imitative or
derivative it may be. Whatever its deficiencies, it has no doubt certain
areas of excellence in the works of Toru Dutt and Sarojini Naidu,
Tagore and Ghose. Literary history shows how the succeeding
generation tends to run down and disown the preceding generation,
the predecessors.
Most of the early poetry was inspired by the Indian freedom struggle
and the western romantics. Derozio, Kashiprasad Ghose and the Dutt
family wrote romantic poetry highlighting the Indian culture and ethos.
The themes were vivid like Indian legends and myths, epics like
Ramayana, childhood memories under the Indian sun etc.
Sarojini Naidu with a deep sense of rhythm wrote romantic poetry
basically. She also wrote about the unique Indian culture and
nationality. Tagore and Aurobindo Ghose were philosophers and
mystics. They put in the Indian philosophy of oneness of God, religion,

Background to Indian English Poetry / 18

childhood, spirituality etc. Infact they both are even today the most
widely read and critically evaluated Indian English poets.

1.4.2 Post - independence poetry themes

The post - independence poetry underwent a sea change as far as
the themes are concerned. The poets are faced with the crisis of
identity so their poetry is one of quest, a search of their self, a search
for their cultural roots. The reason for such a theme of Indian poetry is
not far to seek. The Indian poets who express themselves in English
have their cultural roots in their community. Many of these Indian
poets have been educated abroad but since they belong to the middle
- class, they find themselves alienated within their own immediate
circle and even from the westernized ethos.
Some of the poets come from different racial backgrounds but are
nationals of India for example, Nissim Ezekiel is a Jew, Dom Moraes
is an Anglo - Indian, Daruwalla and Jussawalla are Parsees, Eunice
De Souza is a Goan Christian. The Indian poet writing in English
therefore finds himself alienated. So the poetry of modern Indian poets
naturally turns on the theme of identity crisis. Poets like Ramanujan,
Parthasarthy and Arun Kolatkar are preoccupied with the problem of
roots. Their examination of Hindu ethos has been in several
directions. Ramanujan, for example, conjures up his early childhood
memories with strong sense impressions. At the same time his mind
keeps examining the strong and weak points of his cultural heritage.
Parthasarthy too is obsessed with his roots in India while leading a
westernized life style. His poem 'Rough Passages' is an attempt to
deal with the theme of identity exposed to two cultures namely the
Indian and the Western.
The scrutiny of society is another subject matter of modern poetry.
The poets who write in English were born, say in the twenties and
thirties of this century and on growing up they have been a part of
independent India. They are a witness to and a part of socio -
economic and political changes. They cannot but be critical of all that
happens around. So the socio- political and economic scene as it
impinges on the poet's consciousness becomes the subject - matter of
modern poetry. Arun Kolatkar's Jejuri is an example in point. A mood
of disillusionment and despair, cynicism and sarcasm characterizes

Background to Indian English Poetry / 19

modern Indian poetry.
Alienation and exile, the crisis of personal identity and of cultural
identity, childhood memories, familial relations, and love, nostalgia for
the past and cultural traditions therefore constitute the themes of
Indian poets. In the case of some poets, the sense of alienation from
the family or the community becomes so overwhelming that they turn
completely inward. The result of such inwardness is a highly personal
poetry, confessional in tone and obsessed with loneliness and
insecurity from which the escape is sought either in the erotic
fantasies or the self- probing of a tortured soul. Such is the poetry of
Kamala Das, Eunice de Souza and Shiv Kumar.
The poets of the 80s seem more interested in depicting and
evaluating their family background, personal and social landscapes.
So do the poets Agha Shahid Ali, Dilip Chitre. Mahapatra portrays the
rural Indian landscape of the state of Orissa.
The poets thus reveal their awareness of raw Indian identity. The
poetic sensibilities are oriented along three distinct avenues: the
modes of affirmation in terms of myth and history, quest for the self in
and through love, modes of negation in terms of longing for dissolution
and death. In other words, modern Indian poetry has centered itself
around self in relation to society, history with family as the core unit
and in relation to self, its own propelled emotions and feelings. So the
themes of modern Indian poetry are secular and more introspective -
contemplative.

1.4 Check Your Progress.

1. According to Taine, what is literature?
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2. Name the two pre - independence poet - philosophers.

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3. What were the pre - independence themes of Indian English

poetry?
__________________________________________________

4. Name some of the poets who come from different racial

backgrounds but are nationals of India.
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Background to Indian English Poetry / 20

 5. Name the post - independence poets who are preoccupied with
the problem of roots.
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6. What are the reasons for expression of the poets in

confessional mode?
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7. Name some of the confessional poets.

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1.6 Conclusion
This chapter enables us to know that when one surveys the history
of the evolution of Indian English poetry we realize that Indians have
mastered the alien language, English with perfection. It was in an
infant stage during the pre- independence stage but now it has grown
up. Its increasing number of poets proves that it has been a successful
medium of expression. At the same time, we find a variety of themes
prevalent both in the pre and past independence period. There have
been much experimentation in the past and they are ongoing still. The
future may bring for admirers of Indian English poetry a new
refreshening change.
The next chapter deals with the Indian English poet, Nissim
Ezekiel with reference to his selected poems.

1.7 Summary
The Indian English poetry began far back before the
independence. The credit of introducing Indians to English goes to
Lord Macaulay. The Indian value of cultural assimilation was applied
to English language. With English education, Indians befriended
English making it a language of their intellectual as well as emotional
make - up.
The pre - independence period poetry had imparted some great
minds like Tagore, Dutt family and Aurobindo. Their poetry had themes
like nationalism, nature, Indian culture, love etc. Most of the poets of
those times wrote poetry in imitation but there were few genuine

Background to Indian English Poetry / 21

figures too. Their poetry reflected their individualism.
Post - independence brought in a dawn of a new era of
disillusionment and identity crisis. The promises of a bright future of
India and the bitter experience of partition had made life miserable. A
new elite middle class had come into existence bringing in a quest for
identity as Indians and as humans. Diaspora and culturally rootedness
had its own problems. These themes gave birth to new techniques
and experimentation in poetry. Confessional mode of poetry explores
the trauma of modern life. The poetry of the modern and the post -
modern Indian poets reflect the contemporary society and life. It can
be called an India in a miniature form.

Answers to Check Your Progress

1.2
1. The imitative, the assimilative and the experimental.
2. Saree
3. "Our Casuarina Tree"
4. free verse
5. "image-hunting"

1.3
1. 'Hicky's Bengal Gazette'
2. Lord Macaulay
3. Fusion of Byronic romance with social criticism of contemporary
Indian mores
4. Meghnathbadh Kavya
5. Toru Dutt
6. Savitri realizes her divine potential and she returns to the earth
as a symbol of what humanity can achieve.
7. Her poetry is melody - sound and sense combine to produce an
emotion, as in music.
8. Love in union, love in longing, love in separation; the pain of
love, the sin of love, the desire of love; earthly love, divine love
and so on.

Background to Indian English Poetry / 22

9. 'The Child'
10. A Time to change
11. Suggests his own sense of alienation from India
12. Lal and D. Narasimhaiah

1.4
1. literature, as Taine, the French critic said, is the product of the
triad, the race, the moment and the milieu
2. Sri Aurobindo and Tagore
3. The themes were vivid like Indian legends and myths, epics like
Ramayana, childhood memories under the Indian sun etc.
4. Nissim Ezekiel is a Jew, Dom Moraes is an Anglo - Indian,
Daruwalla and Jussawalla are Parsees, Eunice De Souza is a
Goan Christian.
5. Ramanujan, Parthasarthy and Arun Kolatkar
6. The result of inwardness is a highly personal poetry, confessional
in tone and obsessed with loneliness and insecurity
7. Kamala Das, Eunice de Souza and Shiv Kumar

Field work
Read few poems of the poets we have examined in the chapter
and try to critically analyze them on the basis of this background
chapter.
❑❑❑

Background to Indian English Poetry / 23

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Background to Indian English Poetry / 24