Original subtitles

Good morning and welcome to NPTEL online course on

Indian poetry in English.

Standing before you is Vinod Mishra and you have been listening to the lecture

on Indian poetry in English.

My dear friends, you might remember that in the previous lecture or in the first

lecture, we talked about poetry in general.

and how Indians also tried their level best to write in English,

despite certain differences, despite many people

having different views about English being imposed upon them.

But towards the end of the lecture, we could also realize that Indians

could write in English.

And they had a conscious urge to write in English and they started

writing in English. Now, in this lecture, which is the second part of the

introductory talk, we shall discuss how Indian English

poetry began.

Earlier, we talked about how Indian English literature came to be.

And now we'll talk about.

How Indian English poetry began?

My dear friend, we know well that Indian English

poetry was started or came to India through some of the British poets.

And some of them were women. Fine? So

they started writing in English, but what they wrote,

was not about India, because in their psyche, they had England.

And imitating them, some of the Indian poets

started writing in English, especially as you find

that the middle class, who later on came to be the Babus

during East India Company's regime,

They thought that they should be Western professionals and they should actually

try to learn English. And for that, many of them not only sent their sons and

daughters to England, but when they came back to India, they had very radiant

views.

They actually brought with them the English style and people raised in...

These families, especially these elite families, where most of the people spoke

in English, they conversed in English.

There were some progressive sons and daughters. We shall discuss them one by

in the lectures that follow.

But in India also, many of the poets who actually followed

their traditional languages, though they were writing in their mother tongues

and all, so many of them, Jews, Christians,

they actually felt alienated by their English language and also

felt that those who came with their qualification from England,

they actually differed from them and these people actually felt

themselves different. They felt themselves alienated.

Now, in this regard,

I will make a mention of one of the anglicized Indian poets,

Madhusudan Dutta, because Madhusudan Dutta had an opportunity to

have English education and he was a great follower of that.

And he started first writing in English, though he was an epoch -making Bengali

poet, which he later on became.

But initially he tried writing in English. We shall talk about him also.

So he said, he once said, besides, remember, I am writing for that

portion of my countrymen who think as I think, whose minds

have been more or less imbued with Western ideas and modes of thinking.

But my dear friend, to tell you the truth.

Madhusudan Dutta could not prosper as a celebrated writer in

English or a celebrated writer in India.

Actually, he had to take to writing in his mother tongue, that is Bengali.

But then the contribution made by Madhusudan Dutta is really so that we

can still remember.

But what he did?

He actually brought the English style in many of his works.

Now, it is quite natural that when we grow and when we grow in size,

because when in 19th century many people had started writing in English

and you will know that as more and more people started writing in English,

there were different groups of poets.

especially and they got themselves divided into Bombay group of poets

group of poets and then there were some publishing houses which also came into

being and popularized many of the poets who till this time were not in

the news there were some journals also that came and the journals also could

propagate many of the issues which then were the talk of the nation And

especially, not only, and these people were not confined only to one language.

Some of them also wrote in Marathi.

There were also some bilingual poets who wrote in their mother tongue as well as

in English. Some of them also translated their own work into English. And then,

of course, Hindi also was there. So there was actually a sort of renaissance

knowledge and renaissance of writing in India.

But then as the situation became better, there is

actually one thing that we should also be reminded of. And why and how?

Actually, after the two world wars, and of course, before that even

Indian freedom struggle, many of the English poets had by that time got

a sort of reputation and they were also influenced by the second

world war after the colonialism and then they started writing back and many

people sometimes very jokingly started saying that now we are writing they sent

writing back to those people who gave us english indian poetry

in english for several reasons could not get could not get an upper hand

as compared to the novels because even before independence you might realize

though there were some poets but these poets many of the readers and critics

feel that they simply started imitating their english masters it was for the

first time that the indian novelists could make their own presence felt

And the three foreigners you already are familiar with, Balraj Anand, Raja Rao,

Anita Desai, and many more. Not only male writers, but even female writers.

not only in one part of the country, but even in Bengal, Bhavani Vatacharya, and

then in some other parts of India also. These people actually popularized Indian

English literature by their writing. But majority of them started writing

through the mode of novels.

There were at times conflict of interest with nationalists, intellectuals,

cultural conservatives and of course regionalists.

Poetry of pre -independence period actually was discontinuous.

Why discontinuous? There are regions galore which actually requires a sort of

detailed discussion.

Even you know C .R. Mundy who was an Irishman.

and the editor of illustrated weekly through his illustrated weekly he

transformed the journal to one more appropriate to the newly independent

as mentioned by bruce king in his book my different now it

is also a fact to remember that between 1868

and 1905 more than

Two lakh books were printed in the country.

So press actually gave a new lease of life to these new brand of writers.

And many of those who were writing in their own language.

So in a very subtle way, because, you know, during that time, they perhaps

not openly discuss or openly criticize the Britishers. So even

Bankim Chan Chatterjee.

When he wrote his own novel, you know, he went towards the past.

And with this new dawn of life, as he himself mentions, came into the country

one of the mightiest instruments of civilization, the printing press.

But since we are talking about Indian poetry in English, we will also see how

Indian English poetry came to be recognized.

It was not only because of the press, but then in India, there were

publishing houses, no doubt, but many publishing houses did not publish in

English. So it was the writer's workshop, which actually did a yeoman

Indian poets and especially Indian novelists. So the founder of the

workshop was Purushottam Lal, who in 1958,

who started this writer's workshop and even today it is functional.

So it actually gave a new opportunity to many poets who were writing in English.

Many of us should remember that P. Lal once said that since nobody published my

poems, I started my own press.

And you know, in 1960,

Sahitya Academy also accepted English as a national language.

Now we could hold our head high because English got a sort of acceptance even by

Sahitya Academy.

There were many appellations that we have already talked about.

But then what new thing happened when we had...

Sahitya Academy and when we had writers who had started writing and composing

their own poems in English actually this gave them an opportunity to Indianize

English now it was for the first time that we are not Englishizing rather we

actually Indianizing English And that is how when Indian writing in English

started, you will actually witness if you read many of the novels of those

that many words of many languages got included in these words.

And this is how Indian writing in English and even and this was done not

through novels, but also through poems. Many reasonable words also came to be

included.

English became the link language for inter -regional communication.

So with Sahitya Kadmi accepting English as a national language, we got

more opportunities.

Then, as I said, of course there were certain groups, but then Indian English

poets can be divided into certain periods. There were

certain periods.

First, as I said, many many British poets they brought they

started writing poems in English but then their themes were not Indian they

in their psyche this England the early poets we will mention how the early

They started writing and what was their modus operandi and how they were

influenced or at times they also tried to show that they had their nation at

core of their mind.

And then there were poets who after post -independence, there was actually a

deluge of poets. Many of these poets have already been prescribed in certain

universities. And since then, there has been no end. There is no stop. Poetry

writing, especially in English in India, is especially on a great, you know,

flow. And then there are also another...

period of poetry where many of the Indian English poets they were not only

influenced because there were many English poets also who sometimes they

most of their years in some alien countries and then they came back and

when they came back they also started practicing their hand in even even they

had been writing while they were in some other countries but then The themes of

their poetry ranged not only from a sense of diaspora, but also

towards a beckoning or towards a retreat to their own nation. So we shall be

discussing them through in our lectures in great detail.

Now, one question that actually is very important and we need to

focus much on it.

was whether or should our Indian English poet be influenced by Western

ideas. Yes, my dear friend, even though there were several impositions, I

remember that in one of the books by Aravind Mehrotra, he

makes a mention of one of the editors.

one of the editors of a famous Indian journal who mentions that how one

Englishman very jeeringly talked about Indians writing in English as

Matthew Arnold in a sari.

Matthew Arnold in a sari. This was actually an attack.

And to this attack, one professor corrected Sakuntala in skirt.

Now, by this time, people had become, and poets had become very conscious, and

they thought that English was not only the language of the Britishers, but

English was our own language. Here, I would like to remind you what I had been

saying in my previous lecture, how Kamalada says, the language in which I

becomes mine.

Fine. The language in which I write becomes mine.

So what the early Indian English poets and scholars opined, they decided

that they would write in English. And while writing in English, they would be

talking about the problems of their own country. Of course, not keeping their

nationalistic fervor on the margin.

So India then became a province of European learning and here

as I said many of the early poets had their stay in England. I had mentioned

Michael Madhusudan Dutta who was born in India but

since he had a different sort of background he actually started following

the great poets of England.

And you know Michael Madhusudan Dutt, it is often said that he was the person

who for the first time in his writings started introducing Miltonic verses. We

shall talk about that.

And many regional poets who had been writing in English or in their

own mother tongue. So one famous name that comes to my mind is a Gujarati poet

named Narmada who said, In one of his essays.

Entitled.

Poet and poetry. Where he says.

That rasa.

He talks about rasa.

Rasa actually.

Is the.

That is inner delight.

So the poetry.

And you know. So being an Indian. He said that.

There should be an inclusion of rasa in poetry because that alone can provide a

sort of inner delight to the world of poetry, my dear friend.

Now, what did these Indian English poets do? Let us be reminded

of these three words which we talk in post -colonial criticism.

Many of these poets also, because they thought that they should not

completely forget their own tradition which they have inherited from their

forefathers. So they had inherited their tradition and they wanted that their

tradition should get disseminated in their work.

And next to that, they started experimenting or adapting.

We find that many writers started adapting.

And the last page, is the adept phase where they feel that there could be no

oppression or they felt rather free from oppressive and overwhelming style

of the past. That is why still we at times rue the loss that the

poets, Indian English poets of today, they actually are ignoring their own

cultures. And that is why a great debate, an ongoing debate is going on

the literary critics and the world of poetry where they say that Indian

poetry or for that matter Indian English literature should propagate a sort of

Indian -ness.

a sort of indian sensibility which is possible only when we talk of our indian

culture when we recover our indian culture because many of the poets you

find later in some of the lectures that they started completely following the

western tradition Of course, there were many who felt that it was a sort of

imposition as in the case of Tagore. I have already mentioned that how when he

was even translating his own work, Song Offering or Gitanjali, he actually was

not comfortable and he did not feel that he could write.

But then he wrote and he brought a Nobel Prize in literature to the Indians. And

that actually made our Indian English poetry proud and have its head hold

Now, what are these pages and who are these poets? Starting with the early

say, for example, Henry de Roggio.

a name which might appear quite a sort of alien, my dear friend. But then this

Henry de Roggio, he was actually born of a Portuguese father.

Fine, we'll talk about that. But before that, let us also try to show some light

on the characteristics of Indian English poetry.

Now there are at times people raising questions that has Indian English poetry

adopted the tunes and the tones of modern. Indian English poetry

has a modern perspective now.

Then it was traditional in the olden days.

Fine. In the olden days you could find that most of the poets even though they

were imitating many of them had started writing devotional poems, devotional

verses. But over the years And over these two centuries now, you can find

they have actually transcended and they have also adapted to different sorts of

writing from the phase of adopt, adapt.

Now they have actually become adept at writing. So you can find the practice of

the newer forms of writing which are there in some other literature,

in Britain. And even, you know, you should not wonder that now many of the

Indian English poets are writing haikus, my different, a tradition or a form

which actually originated in Japan.

And that was not our own. So we have actually come a long way, my different.

actually encompasses.

Indian English poetry encompasses different kinds of sensibilities and

expressive styles you will find in the lectures to follow that how Indian

English poets have experimented not only with the form but also with the themes

also with the style also with the meter they are no more now confined to the

sort of musicality and rhythm

Now, many of these Indian English poets have been recognized elsewhere. I mean,

outside the country as well in modern Indian culture. And they have formulated

part of the process of modernization. But still there are many poets who are

still reminded of the fact that Indian English poetry should.

not get away from its tradition, from its mythology, from the spiritual values

that we have been lending to the outside world, my dear friends.

Now, many of the works, as I said, many of these poems got

popularized, not only through journals, As one of the journals I had mentioned

by Kailash Chandra Dutta, how even 100 years before he wrote about 1945,

48 hours in 1945, yes.

And so now see that they are not simply confined to writing about their

mythologies, but they also had actually free access to their imagination.

And many book publications which...

As I said, the writer's workshop which was founded by Purushottam Lal, P. Lal,

Nandi and then Nisim Ejikshil and others.

So many Indian English poets have been popularized and not only have they

brought innovation in terms of their technique and theme, but they have also

seen to it that their themes are influenced even by the major 20th

century poet T .S. Eliot, Azra Pound, French experimental poetry from the 19th

century, Rimbaud, Alotrimon, Dadaist and surrealist political poetry also. And

also I mentioned the new form that is haiku. So there has of course been a

decrease in distance between moral reflection and actuality. If you

the works of some poets from others they will find that the canvas has become

very broad my dear friend the canvas has become very broad they have not only

experimented with the new forms but they have also brought in now there are some

newer themes also which as Indians we many of us may not be comfortable with

they have brought it even in their poetry now when we talk about traditions

And the question that many of us come across, should we really leave our

traditions behind?

And how is Indian tradition better or what is Indian tradition's stake?

So here, it is quite pertinent to mention the words of Ramidhanath Tagore,

who, even though initially he started writing as a traditional Indian

English poet, but then what he says, About the traditions in India.

Is really an eye opener.

It seems to me.

If the world of the day is European music.

A huge forceful tangle of harmony.

And the world of the night is our Indian music.

So he says.

The world of our Indian night. Indian night is our Indian music. A pure.

Look at the word. A pure.

Tender, serious, unmixed Ragini.

We Indians live in that kingdom of night.

We are entranced by that which is timeless and whole.

Ours is the song of personal solitude.

Europe's is that of a social accompaniment.

A sort of seclusion that we can find in Indian devotional poems. And my dear

friends, You will find that when Togol talks about that kingdom of night, what

he actually means is it is timeless and it is whole.

Ours is the song of personal solitude.

Europe's is that of social accompaniment. We cannot leave our

We need to talk about and that is why when Arabinze write Savitri, one can

the layers of meaning that is embedded.

And the layer of values that it has got in our poetry.

So when we talk about the tradition.

We ought to be reminded of what Tegur says.

And what Arab Hindu has also followed.

Now when we talk about the early writing in English by an Indian.

As I had been mentioning that why.

Even when Kavila Venkat Ramaswami, who actually rendered Beshaguna

Darsana of Abhasanipala Venkatadhwarin, it was actually an

early 17th century Sanskrit poem, but it could not be accepted as Indian writing

in English only because it was a piece of translation.

But my dear friend, even before that, as I might have mentioned in my previous

lecture, there was one Dean Muhammad.

Fine, Dean Muhammad in 18th century was born in Patna.

And this Dean Muhammad was actually employed by East India Company along

with his father.

And he wrote his first ever book in English. And that is The Travels of Dean

Muhammad. But as luck would have it, this person later on switched

over to England where he got settled and he started his own business there.

And that is why we are not able to consider him as an Indian English

Now, who is then the first Indian English poet?

Of course.

The name that most of us are familiar with is Henry Louis Vivian de

Rosio. Fine?

This person, you know, at a very early age, he started writing poems.

And, you know, even though he was of a Portuguese descent and had an

Anglo -Indian mother,

He was actually surcharged with a sort of nationalism and the fervor of a young

man.

And, you know, initially when he had his education, he

had his education, he was actually influenced very much by romantic poets,

namely Byron, Scott, Sully and Keith.

And the imprint of these influences can be found in many of his works.

So, Henry Louis Vivian de Roggio, who actually,

he had also a knowledge of Greek and Indian mythology, and he started writing

English. His life was full of ups and downs.

He actually became a lecturer in the famous Hindu college.

But because of his modern outlook and rebellious views, he could not survive

there for a long time.

Because he had become quite a favorite of many of the students.

And he had been writing poems. There are many of the poems which are even

dedicated to his young students.

Where he calls to the new petals that you are of.

And then what he wrote and what made him popular was his famous

work. The Fakir of Jangira which was published in 1828.

Henry de Regio, the lecturer in Hindu college, he became

famous, but then since he was influenced by Western views, it was actually said

that many of his students, while they had to chant mantras,

they were actually reciting Iliad and Odyssey.

And it is said, many, many people often say, That Derogeo was polluting

the minds of the young Indians. And that is why he had to leave the job

of lecturer in that Hindu college.

But then there are some works that made him very famous. And one such was the

Fakir of Jangira.

Now this Fakir of Jangira is actually a poem about a Brahmin

widow named Nalini.

And you see how Deregio during that time was trying to delineate the

predicaments of a widow.

So this Nalini was going to make her sacrifice when her husband was dead.

She was going to be on the funeral pyre. In those days Sati was

quite famous or infamous whatever you say.

But it was only at that time.

That one of the fakir. The fakir. The fakir from Jangira. Jangira is actually.

Jangira was actually a place. In Vagalpur. Where Derejo had spent some

There was actually a rock. Where many of the fakirs used to stay.

And that is.

What he has delineated. In this book also.

So one of the fakir.

Came. And this fakir is supposedly.

The.

first lover of this Nalini so the fakir rescued but then the fakir wanted

to take Nalini with him but then he had to fight and in the fight

once again the fakir lost his life and Nalini was once again sacrificed to the

flames so Henry de Regio even though being of a portuguese

descent he actually allowed in his work this predicament of women

so how can we say that de regio was simply a traditional poet but de regio

was actually trying to open the minds of the masses that how are this system of

sati even though it had traditional element mixed in it was not welcome

to the outside world and then afterwards he wrote some

other poems also even even when as a child you know he he at times questioned

himself why why we are not able to write and he was writing

under the pen name named juvenis and in one of one

In one of the writings he had said, which actually is provided somewhere in

book, why is it that literature does not flourish in this country?

Is the soil or the climate uncongenial to the culture of so delicate a flower?

See, he talks about his country, India, as a flower. Or is there a paucity of

those talents which are necessary to accelerate its growth?

In spite of every effort and every care.

What it is.

I have never yet satisfactorily ascertained. So even when as a child he

write. And he said that why this flower is not flourishing.

And then from his own scrapbook. He snatched some of the pages.

And sent it to the publishers. And thought that he will be published.

My dear friend, many people might talk about Henry de Regio as one who

was simply trying to glorify, who was simply trying to bring the romantic

elements even in the sacrifice of a widow. But what we can

find, we can find a sort of nationalistic flavor in one of his

calls, and you see, That even though he was of a Portuguese descent, but he had

the elements of the place where he was living.

And he writes in the poem entitled, To the Rajoni Gondha. Rajoni

Gondha. I mean, this is a flower. And in that sonnet he says, The fragrance

comes upon my heart. As it were, Allah breathed sigh from bath full maiden

So sweet, so soft.

My inmost raptured sense, the bounteous nature, feels, though omnipotent, thou

art like goodness.

By the cold world's eye, unseen, unfelt, while bridges pass thee

by, receiving a rich boon from thy sweet breast, an odor like the breath of

angels blessed, thus like petitioners they wake the sigh of incense pure from

gentle charity.

That from her home in shades unseen, unknown, bestows her bounties, blessed

those alone who feel their influence. The world never knows where and for whom

that flower of sweetness blows.

So in a way, he is talking about his own country, that is India.

And he had already raised the question as to why literature cannot flourish in

this country. And in a very subtle manner.

he talks about and he sings of the glory of the country called India, where he

says, where and for whom that flower of sweetness blows.

So, even though one can say that he simply imitated Byron and

Sully and other romantic poets, but there is a universal element of his own

nation in many of his poems.

Actually, many, many critics,

who actually viewed Derogeo and his people were accused of cutting their

way through ham and beef and waiting to liberation through tumblers of beer.

So this actually became a sort of impediment for the poet.

But then there were many who praised him also. There were many who were the

admirers of Derogeo and one of them Named E .F. Oten. Very

enthusiastically called him. The national bird of modern India.

There are other works of.

Derogeo also. Those who are interested can go through.

Poems published in 87.

Then the Fakir of Jangira. And then the harp of India. My native land. The

eclipse. A walk by moonlight.

Song of the Hindustani.

But then when he was actually. Expelled from the college.

At that time, there was another person named Kasi Prasad Ghosh, who can be

supposedly called as the first Indian English poet who actually had the

pure Indian blood in his writings, as the critic says.

And two of his works, which became very popular, were the Sire or the Minstrel

and other poems, and then the boatman's song to Ganga. My dear friend.

We have made a mention of Michael Madhusudan Dutta, even though he could

flourish too much in the world of English, but then what he wrote were in

way or the other influenced by Indian mythologies and Indian stories, but then

he actually tried to bring a sort of difference. For example, in the work

entitled Captive Lady, where he talks about Prithviraja and his love for

the Kannauj king's daughter and there he actually makes a sort of difference. It

is said that the king and the queen were killed but what he shows in it

was that they get themselves killed only because of the opposition of

the society against their marriage.

Now Michael Madhusudan Dutta had started his hand in English but then because of

the advice of one of his friends who told him that you could do better if you

confine yourself to writing in your own mother tongue.

So he had embraced Christianity.

He left Hindu college and then he embraced Christianity.

But then what is significant of him is That he was so much influenced by

that he introduced free Miltonic words in his poems. And then he wrote two

dramas in English named Rajia, Empress of Indy and Sarmista.

we can find that later on Michael Madhusudan Dutta became very famous in

and he is remembered no less than any other great poet because of one of his

works in Bengali that is Meghnad Badha where he also distances himself from the

tradition of adoring Rama rather instead of adoring Rama he

actually talks about Meghnad and finds the Ravan's son and he finds A lot of

courage. And he actually.

Thinks of Meghnada. And Meghnadbad has become. One of his most.

Immortal pieces.

We can find that. As we have mentioned that. Where these Indian English poets.

Even for that matter. The famous.

Ugly poets.

Where they also influenced by. Yes.

In one of his.

Interviews or writings. He has himself mentioned.

I acknowledge to you and I need not blush to do so that I love the

language of the Anglo -Saxon.

Yes, I love the language, the glorious language of the Anglo -Saxon.

My imagination visions forth before me the language of the Anglo -Saxon in

all its radiant beauty and I feel silenced and abased.

Michael Madhusudan Dutt's contribution in early Indian English poetry may be

less, but he made himself a celebrated writer and a celebrated

poet in Bengali and he made himself very famous

for his writings. Of course, not without being influenced by many of

his English masters.

My dear friends, there are other path breakers also.

whom we can call as one of the significant voices of Indian English

which we shall be discussing in the lectures to follow. And the

these people, here you can find some of them, Torudatta, then Arabindo, then

Tagore, and then Sarojini Naidu, who in the early period of Indian English

poetry made a remarkable presence felt. What they did?

They not only infused Indian sensibility, because Indian English

stand for Indian sensibility, Indian strain, Indian ethos, in one

word to say, Indian -ness to the core.

They actually disowned the conventional Western models and they discovered their

own style.

About Sarojini Naidu, it is said that no one had a better, pleasant ear than

Sarojini Naidu.

And Rabindranath Tagore, we all are familiar with his contribution, not only

a writer of Bengali poetry, but also as a writer who actually infused a

new sense of Indian -ness by writing his famous Gitanjali or the

song offering.

Now, my dear friend, there can be continuous debate about

Indian poetry in English as to how the theme, how the form,

how the experiment, how the tone of Indian English poetry should be. But

to conclude, we can quote what Buddha Dev Bose, though he was at

times criticized and admired for his remarks, what he said, there is no such

thing. as Indian food. The term can only be defined as an amalgam of

several food styles just as Indian literature is the sum total of

written in a dozen or more languages.

So what Buddha Dev Bose says has actually become true today.

We find that now Indian English literature or Indian English poetry

is the sum total of all literatures. It is an amalgam of several food

styles. It is an amalgam of several styles, several forms, several themes.

And proudly now we can say that Indian English, Indian poetry in English has

come to stay and is making its journey, making its sojourn pleasant day

by day. We will see That even though many of the poets are prescribed in most

the universities.

But then there are many poets who are still contributing their might. Yet

they have passed unnoticed. And through this course we shall take some

of the voices. Because it is very difficult to include the vast corpus

of Indian English poets.

If time permits, we shall try our level best to touch upon the major,

significant, magnificent voices because Indian English poetry is giving

voice not only to the people living in the urban areas, but also to the

people who are living in rural areas, people who are voiceless.

And one of the efforts of any literature, or for that matter, Indian

poetry should be to voice the voiceless, to record not only the lived but the

unlived experiences, to record not only the imagination but the dire

reality that is changing our life and giving us a new lease of life.

So before we start a new lecture, let me say a goodbye to you. Thank you

very much. I wish you all the best.

And I think you will be enjoying cherishing and releasing these lectures

Thank you. Have a nice day.