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 friends, 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, Parsis, 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 poet

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.

and they got themselves divided into Bombay group of poets, Calcutta group

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

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 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, Volkraja Anand, Raja

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

And 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

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

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

for the first time that we are not Englishizing rather we are 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 days 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 only 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 the 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

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 margins.

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 Kabhi

Ani Kabita, Poet and Poetry, where he says that rasa, he talks

about rasa.

Rasa actually is the androoni maja, that is inner delight.

So the poetry

And you know, so being an Indian, he said that there should be an inclusion

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

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 phase 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 lost.

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

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

Indian English 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.

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

But over the years, And over these two centuries now, you can find that 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 a 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 friend.

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.

And so now see.

that they are not simply confined to writing about their mythologies, but

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 Ezekiel,

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 and Lautrimont, Dadaist and surrealist political poetry also,

and also I mentioned the new form that is haiku, fine?

There has of course been a decrease in distance between moral reflection and

actuality. If you distinguish 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, many of us may

be comfortable with, but 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 understood?

Or what is Indian tradition to 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 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. One can find.

The layers of meaning. That is embedded.

And the layers of values.

That it has got.

In our poetry.

So. When we talk about.

the traditions, we ought to be reminded of what Tagore says and

what Arabindu has also followed.

Now, when we talk about the early writings in English by an Indian, as

I had been mentioning, that why even when Kavila, Venkat, Ramaswami,

who actually rendered Beshaguna Darsana of

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

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.

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

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. Fine. And then what he

wrote. And what made him popular. Was his famous work.

The Fakir of Jangira.

Which was published in 1828.

So 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 Derozio 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 Derigio 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 fakirs, the fakir from

Jangira, Jangira was actually a place in Vagalpur where

Derejo had spent some time. 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 fakirs 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 Derigio was simply a traditional poet. But Derigio was actually trying to

open the minds of the masses. That how 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 when as a child.

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 the writings he had said. Which

actually is provided somewhere in a 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?

There is something that withers it in spite of every effort and every care.

What it is, I have never yet satisfactorily ascertained. So even

child, he used to write. And he said that why...

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 friends.

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 sonnets which he calls and

you see that even though he was of a Portuguese descent but he had the

of the place where he was living and and he wrote he writes in the poem and

title 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 breath sigh

from basketball maiden fair so sweet so soft my inmost rapture sense the

bounteous nature feels though omnipotence 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 by those alone who feel their influence the world never knows where

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 a 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

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 Miracle.

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 poetry, which we shall be discussing in

the lectures to follow. And the contributions of these people here, you

some of them, Torudat, 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 poetry should stand indian english poetry

should stand for indian sensibility indian strain indian ethos in

one word to say indianness 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 as a writer of

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 literatures 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 of 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.

But then, 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 English

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 lives.

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 by me thank

you have a nice day