Biography of india english poetry

7 Introduction/Background/Evolution of Indian English Poetry

Abdul Mubid Islam


 

 

Introduction

A probe into the aetiology of Indian English literature reveals that the impact of the West in shaping its foundations is undisputed. The presence of the West and more so of the East India Company and their collective efforts to promote and spread English in a country like India that has been markedly characterised by a multiplicity of languages is in itself intriguing. The enthusiasm demonstrated by the Indians towards the spread of English in India accentuated the policy of the British to go ahead in rendering meaning to their proposed venture.

The growth of Indian English literature is the attempt of a re-awakened national spirit to find a new mode of self-expression. In other words, Indian English literature begins with a spirited effort to re-discover India’s glory in the past. It is quite remarkable that scholars like Sir William Jones who founded the Bengal Asiatic Society as early as 1784, H.T.Colebrooke who authored “Degist of Hindu Law on Contracts and Succession” and James Prinsep were scholars with a passion for oriental culture. They were the representative white men in India who were not just persuaded by imperial motives of expanding their territories but also perpetually strived for a consummation of the Indian ethos.

M.K.Naik in his book The History of Indian English Literature catalogues the following as factors that prepared the climate for the growth of Indian writing in English:

  • The pressing need for Indian clerks, translators and lower officials in administration;
  • With the rise of the Evangelical Movement in Britain, the ideal of spreading the word of Christ among the colonised natives assumed vital importance for some Englishmen;
  • The functioning of missionary schools which taught English besides the vernacular languages;
  • The secret motive of dismantling the sanctimonious tenets of Hinduism and the pretention that the s
  • History of indian literature

    • Indian poetry in English

    Poetry written in English by Indians

    Indian English poetry is the oldest form of Indian English literature. Henry Louis Vivian Derozio is considered the first poet in the lineage of Indian English poetry followed by Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, Sarojini Naidu, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, and Toru Dutt, among others.

    History

    Nissim Ezekiel is considered to be a pioneering figure in modern Indian English Poetry.His first book, A Time to Change, was published in 1952. The significant poets of the post-Derozio and pre-Ezekiel times are Toru Dutt, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Sarojini Naidu, Sri Aurobindo and Rabindranath Tagore. Some of the notable poets of Ezekiel's time are A. K. Ramanujan, R. Parthasarathy, Gieve Patel, Jayant Mahapatra, Dom Moraes, Kamala Das, Keki N. Daruwalla, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Shiv K. Kumar, Arun Kolatkar and Dilip Chitre. Rabindranath Tagore wrote primarily in Bengali and created a small body of work (mainly prose) in English and was responsible for the translations of his own work into English.

    If Indian poets in English are less well known abroad than the novelists it is probably because their concerns are personal, local and yet universal; they do not write, at least not directly about the nationalist and postcolonial political and cultural themes that the West patronizingly expects, even demands, from the formerly colonized.

    —Bruce Alvin King, Modern Indian Poetry in English. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004

    Poets

    Other notable 20th century poets of English poetry in India include Eunice De Souza, Gieve Patel, Kersy Katrak and P. Lal among others. The younger generation of poets writing in English are Abhay K, Adil Jussawalla, A. J. Thomas, Anju Makhija, Anjum Hasan, Arundhathi Subramaniam, Hoshang Merchant, Madan Gopal Gandhi, Bibhu Padhi, C. P. Surendran, Dileep Jhaveri, Gopi Kottoor, Jayanta Mahapatra, Jeet Thayil, Jerry Pinto, Urvashi Bahuguna, K Srilata, K. V. Domin

  • Famous indian poetry

    • Indian English literature

    Literature written in English by Indians

    Indian English literature (IEL), also referred to as Indian Writing in English (IWE), is the body of work by writers in India who write in the English language but whose native or co-native language could be one of the numerous languages of India. Its early history began with the works of Henry Louis Vivian Derozio and Michael Madhusudan Dutt followed by Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo.R. K. Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao contributed to the growth and popularity of Indian English fiction in the 1930s. It is also associated, in some cases, with the works of members of the Indian diaspora who subsequently compose works in English.

    It is frequently referred to as Indo-Anglian literature. (Indo-Anglian is a specific term in the sole context of writing that should not be confused with Anglo-Indian). Although some Indo-Anglian works may be classified under the genre of postcolonial literature, the repertoire of Indian English literature encompasses a wide variety of themes and ideologies, from the late eighteenth-century to the present day, and thereby eludes easy categorization.

    History

    IEL has a relatively recent history, being nearly two centuries old. The first book written by an Indian in English was The Travels of Dean Mahomet, a travel narrative by Sake Dean Mahomed, published in England in 1794. IEL, in its early stages had influence from The Western novel . Early Indian writers used English unadulterated by Indian words to convey an experience which was essentially Indian. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (1838–1894) wrote Rajmohan's Wife and published it in 1864, making it the first Indian novel written in English. Lal Behari Dey's Govinda Samanta or the History of a Bengali Raiyat was published in 1874 and the same author's Folk Tales of Bengal: Life's Secret was published in 1912. Bianca, or The Young S

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  • Indian english writers
      • Biography of india english poetry