Chapter 2 Indian Poetry in English: A Brief Introduction

Preliminaries

Indian English poetry carries the message o f Indian sensibility, culture and heritage. It is meaningful in attitude and perception. Therefore, it would be worthwhile to regard Indian English Poetry as a limb o f the larger body o f Indian poetry. Indian poets in English display comfortable control on universal themes. Most o f the Indian poets in English have been bilinguals or translators. The list o f these poets starts from Toru Dutt, Manmohan Ghose, Sri Aurobindo, Rabindranath Tagore,

Puran Singh, Sri Ananda Acharya, and Nissim Ezekiel up to Dilip Chitre.

Regarding Indo English poetry, Amritjit Singh rightly says, “There are many critical issues regarding Indo- English writing but most of them are centered on these writers’ choice of English for creative expression.” (Singh 1) Indian English poetry, in fact all Indian English writings, is written in language other than mother tongue o f the writers or at least that o f a majority o f them. It is argued that if these writers are

Indians, their natural medium for expression should be Indian languages. Then questions arise. Does the Indo English writer choose to write in English in search of a wider reader? Or does he consciously or sub-consciously allow him self to become an external explainer o f the East to the West? Or does he run after international fame and name? Or does he consider writing in English as a symbol of prestige? All these

11 questions have been endlessly raised but the answers to such questions remained unanswered or unsatisfactory at least.

It has been said that Indians cannot practise spontaneity dealing with Indian themes. English language is neither the mother tongue nor the road language for

Indians so as to use it as natives do. The language, which neither resides in the poets’ psyche nor runs through their blood, cannot express them properly. It means that

Indian English poets never give vent to poetic experiences with the best overflow of feelings. Of course, their poetry in the regional languages may abound in sincerity and truthfialness o f human feelings.

However, the choice of language by the Indian writers is much more reasoned.

It is an attempt o f reaching the world outside. K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar remarks,

“Indians have written- are writing -in English for communicating with one another and with outside world, for achieving self-expression too artistically, using English, if necessary, or necessarily, in an Indian way.” (Iyengar 4) Iyengar has clarified that the

Indians use English language in an Indian way and do not charmelize their thinking so as to fit English but use it in such a way that the process o f cognition remains as it is.

Indian poets used English as creative medium with their intention of introducing

English in Indian scenario. In the process, the Indian English has achieved its distinctive identity. In this regard, Braj kachru in his essay, ‘The Indianness in Indian

English,’ observes, “I believe it is the English language that has been indianized if not the Britishers” (Kachru 408).

A large number of aspirants and claimants (Indian English Poets) are waiting

for recognition and acceptance in the main stream and there are at least twenty poets who have won both national and international recognition. It means that the objectives Indians keep their eyes on, while writing poetry, are fame and recognition.

On the other hand natives use their mother tongue viz. - English and pour their heart

and mind without any reserve because English is their life experience, ways of doing

12 things and the whole stuff o f life right from the birth till the end. Besides, Indians face

strange problem in the form o f cleavage between the cultural grading and verbalization. Indians try to verbalize Indian action in English but sometimes cannot

find suitable words and that causes the divorce between feelings and words and may

not beget good literature.

Indian Poetry in English: The Notion, Birth and Origin

The notion and the origin o f Indian English poetry are wrapped in the

prehistory of Jhe Indo-Westem encounter, long before the birth of Henry Derozio.

Makarand Paranjape in his introduction to Indian Poetry in English puts two related

preconditions for writing poetry in English, “First, the English language had to be

sufficiently Indianized to be able to express the reality of the Indian situation;

secondly, Indians had to be sufficiently Anglicized/ westernized to use English

language to express themselves. The first of the two conditions, the Indianization of

English language began much before the second, the Anglicization of the Indians”

(Paranjape 1).

Indian English Poetry has begun in the presence of the British as a political

entity in our country for about one hundred and fifty years. The British had an

extended empire during the nineteenth century and this empire has a strong impact on

its territories. These territories were o f two kinds -those like Canada, New Zealand

and Australia where English people colonized and established their culture and those

like India and Nigeria where they where rulers by force imposed their rules and

regulations, their culture, their fashion and even their language. In 1947, India gained freedom at the same time Sri Lanka was granted freedom. The breakup of the British

Empire with resulting development of new independent nations and the assertion of

an Independent cultural and political identity led to the growth of common wealth

literature. The current trend in post-colonial poetry is to assert one’s national identity

and glorify the landscape of his/her country.

13 Historical documents suggest that the discovery of sea-route to India in Kerala by Vasco- Da-Gama in 1498 enhanced the commercial link between India and

Europe. Then Portuguese, Dutch and English slowly but steadily and surely gained monopoly of the land. Trade, Economics and monetary gains were the prime reasons

for the control of the land. Then came political and administrative monopoly with

English language, and it gradually became the language of privileged. English got paramount importance and regional languages were being marginalized. The Indian

elite, so-called sophisticated, felt the need to enjoy this monopoly and they promoted

English as a medium of education. The people like Raja Ram Mohan Roy played a

significant role in this move. According to K. R. S. Iyengar, the renaissance in

modem Indian literature began with Raja Ram Mohan Roy (Iyengar 30).

This, together with modem Indian Macaulay’s minutes on education on 2"^*

February 1935, enabled English to become official language of the country.

Macaulay’s minutes state, “to make the natives of these country scholars and to this

end all our efforts to be directed” (Macaulay’s minutes).

Even the then\jovernor General Lord Bentinck also said that the main

purpose of the British Govemment ought to be the promotion of English literature and

science among the natives o f India. Then the first English universities at Calcutta,

Madras and Bombay came into existence in 1857. These universities became the

centers of literary talent in the country in English language.

With introduction o f English education in different parts o f a country, several

English educated Indians started English as the medium to express their feelings, ideas and emotions. Indian English was the good result of this excitement. Many

scholars considered Ram Mohan Roy’s essay A Defense of Hindu Theism (1817) as

the first original publication o f significance in the history o f Indian English literature.

Besides English education, Christian missionaries played a significant role in

promoting creative writing. The Christian missionaries set up printing presses all over

14 the country. The socio- religious organization like Brahmo Samaj, Arya Samaj and

Prarthana Samaj also helped to review cultural past o f Indians.

With so much encouragement given to English, it was inevitable that some would pursue poetry writing in English. A number of Indian words had been regularized into English; at the same time some English words began to become common to the Indians towards the end of the 17*'’ century.

Throughout the last twenty years or so, during which Indo-English literature has received the attention of scholars and critics. There is always confusion over the nomenclature o f this literature and it continues even today. Scholars and critics gave different labels to this literature ‘Indo-English’, ‘Indian English’, ‘Indo-Anglian’ etc.

Iyengar used Indo-Anglian perhaps as an invasion of Anglo-Indian to suggest that it was a part o f Indian literature rather than British literature. The terms ‘Indian English

Poetry’, ‘Indian poetry in English’ and ‘Indo-Anglican poetry’ are equally accepted.

Indian Poetry in English: Growth and Development

A number of young people, having had dynamic education in the new school fired with the ambition to put India once more on the cultural map o f the world . They knew very well that they ought to write in English so that they could easily attract the attention of their English masters and also reach their countrymen with different language. Indian English literature was born out this excitement and Indian English poetry took birth in this exciting atmosphere o f growing craze for English education and English literature. Kashiprasad Ghose brought the flavour o f local tradition through his ‘The Shair and Other Poems Henry Derozio and Michael Madhusudan

Datta were his contemporaries. Along with his contemporary socio-religious situation, the forceful writing of Ram Mohan Roy also contributed to Indian English poetry. H. M. Williams observes, “his (Roy’s) influence extends through the Dutts,

Tagore and Sarojini Naidu and on Sir Aurobindo Ghose” (Williams 1).

15 Indian English poetry, in its historical perspective, reveals three main stages in its growth and development. These three stages are Imitation, Indianization and

Individualization. Though these are transition phases of Indian English poetry, the common thread that links them together is the Indian sensibility. The growth o f nationalism in India and its reflection in Indian English poetry may be found through different periods.

Indian writing in English is,highly influenced by British literature. It is

derivative and imitative at the same time. The Indian English Poets have accepted

many poetic devices from English literature but their imagery is new, concrete and

concise. All this does not mean that there is no attempt on their part to be original. To

say that they are totally influenced by the English poets is not true. Hence, Indo-

English poetry cannot be called merely an imitative work of the Indians. In this

respect, K.R.S. Iyengar writes, “Indian writing in English (not in English alone, but

all Indian writing) is greatly influenced by writing in England and we have had our

own, ‘Romantics’ ‘Victorians’ ‘Georgians’ and ‘Modernists’. But in its own way

Indo-Anglian literature too has contributed to the common pool of the world writing

in English - the major partners (contributors) in the enterprise being, no doubt, British

literature and American literature” (lyenger 5).

Prof V. K. Gokak is of the opinion that Indo-Anglian poetry is so imitative

that it cannot stands on its own. While talking about the influence of English literature

on Indian English Poetry, he says,” It starts as romantic poetry simply because it was

bom under romantic influences. It became Victorian because English Romantic

poetry became Victorian. It decided to go through a period of ‘Decadence’ because the nineties were a period of ‘Decadence’ in English poetry. After ‘Decadence’ came

‘Georgian period’ and Indo-Anglian poetry, loyal as always, suddenly became

Georgian. English poetry went modernist. Indo-Anglian poetry has no alternative but

to do the same” (Gokak XXII).

16 On the same line Nirad C. Chaudhari in his essay ''Asserting a Doxology” joins his voice to assert the need to write in EngUsh, “writing in EngUsh by us is all the more significant because we can satisfy our literary ambition by writing in our own language. If in spite o f that English attracts us that is due to the aspiration to reach out to a wider sphere. We are very happy with our solar system. Nonetheless, the stellar world beyond has its gravitation. All Writing, if sincere, is compulsive.”

(Chaudhari 136) In this way the period-wise growth and development of both, the

Indo-Anglian poetry and British poetry go hand in hand to some extent.

In a nutshell, it can be said that Indo-English poetry started in the beginning as the work of emulation of style and diction of the British poets but it has been gradually trying to get itself identified as separate identity by evolving its own diction and style and even imagery. One finds slight variation in Indo-Anglian English poetry written using different periods in respect of its mood, style, diction and other prosodic features. A strict line of demarcation cannot be drawn between British English and the

Indo-Anglian variety. It is observed that different periods in the historical development o f language exhibit some novelty or other.

Indo-Anglian Poetry

Indian Poetry in English caught a public attention towards the end of the nineteenth century. After the achievement of independence, Indian poetry flourished

with leaps and bounds. To Indio- Anglian writers Poetry is a vehicle of creative

language for many Indian poets. Independence did not bring a change only in the

socio-economic and political fields but in the field poetry as well. Indian poetry in English underwent gradual changes. Though there were economical developments yet

the gap between haves and have nots widened. There were social transformations.

Independence in India does not bring a change only in the socio-economic and

political fields but in the field poetry as well. The Post-independence generation of

Anglo- Indian poets has introduced a modem style and idiom. The idiom, style and

17 syntax speak of the freedom in handling the theme. Nineteen Sixties and Seventies witnessed the birth and development o f Indian poetry in English. Ezekiel, Shiv K.

Kumar, Keki N. Daruwalla, A. K. Ramanujan, R. Parthasarathy, Kamala Das, Jayant

Mahapratra have given a new direction to the writing o f Indian Poetry in English.

Indian English poets considered poetry as a criticism of life. Love, life and deaths are the permanent themes of poetry. Love occupies a central position in Indo-

Anglican Poetry of the recent times. There is portraying of love, life and sex. The

search o f self and the quest for cultural roots are the dominant themes o f the Indian poetry in English. Indian English Poetry is true to the changing socio- political and

cultural background of India having the varied themes. It has established identity of

its own too distinct to be overlooked.

It would be more appropriate to divide the various phases of Indian English

Poetry for better comprehension. The first phase is quite obvious ‘Colonialism’ (1825

- 1900). The next phase is called as ‘Nationalism’, it is also known as Pre­

Independence period (1900-1947). Then we move into the poetics of ‘Modernism’

which has been regarded as the ‘Post-Independence period’ (1947-1980). And the

poetry after 1980 is labeled as ‘Post modernism’. All these phases and periods are not

watertight compartments, but are approximate and provisional.

Colonialism (1825 -1900)

The British power got institutionalized in the beginning of the Nineteenth

century. The British power had quite good hold on the subcontinent. The British were the supreme authority of economic, political and social system of life. The early poets

had a capacity to communicate and express the Indian ethos, culture and tradition to

the West in English, in addition to their own mother-tongue. This cultural

Renaissance started from the soil of Bengal and the Costal Bank of Bombay. Calcutta

18 and Bombay were the centers of learning and eventually became the centers of creative writing too.

The social and reformative zeal developed in Bengal as one of the offshoots of national consciousness. The English education and western culture made Bengalis keenly conscious of the retrogressive effects of the superstitious customs that were

prevalent in the society and the dogmas issued by the Hindu shastras. This

consciousness gave birth to several religious and social reforms. The very people who

praised India’s glorious past and cultural heritage were bitter critics of prevalent evils

in the society. This was not double thinking but two aspects of the same phenomenon

of national assertion. The growing demand for social reform exerted its influence on

the poetry of the contemporary period.

Indian English poets like Henry Derozio, Kashiprasad Ghose, B.M. Malbari

and others have given expression to this spirit with the purpose of purging society of

its harmful practices. So this zeal can be treated as one of the aspects of nationalism.

The aspects discussed above rightly bring to notice that the first expression o f Indian

discontent and the assertion of nationalism were not mainly political but strictly

cultural. Naturally, Indian English poetry can be studied as an emblem o f cultural

nationalism. This is the first stage of nationalism. It is time of casting around for a

cultural identity.

Henry Louis Vivian Derozio (1809-1831) is generally regarded as the first

Indian poet in English. It is believed that Indian English poetry has begun with Henry

Derozio who was a poet teacher and like Keats he too, had expressed nature in his

poetry. He was highly influenced by romantic poets like Byron, Shelley, Keats, Scott

and Moore. The essence o f Romanticism found in his poetry. He was not an Indian in

the real sense of the term because his parents belonging to different nationalities-

father, a Portuguese and his mother, an Indian. Being Eurasian it was but natural that

he would be critical of prevalent Hindu customs and practices. He was dismissed

19 from the services of the college in 1831 charged with having corrupted the minds of youth. He has written just two volumes of poems, Poem s (1827) and The Fakeer of

Jungheera: A Metrical Tale and Other Poems (1828). His achievement may be meager. Nevertheless, he was rightly called ‘the National Bard of modem India.’ In poems like The Harp of India and M y country he strikes nationalistic note. Derozio breathed his last very early age due to cholera in 1831 before he could enrich his contribution to Indian English Poetry.

Derozio had a great passion for teaching and always had academic interactions with students at Hindu College. He was so popular that his students began to be recognized as Derozians. Ideas and social norms were core topics of debates

organized by him. He was eager for change and that is why he encouraged students

into journalism to spread these ideas into a society. He would love to take great

pleasure in his interactions with students. Verghese rightly comments on Derozio’s

attempt to be an Indian, “Thus from Derozio onwards Indian English Poets in an effort to assert their Indianness and their pride in being Indian use ‘Indian imagery,

Indian themes and sentiments” (Verghese 7).

Kashiprasad Ghose (1809 - 1873) is considered one of the founder pillars of indo-

Anglian literature. His poetry is derivative and imitative in nature, yet sometimes

finds sparks o f originally in it. His The Shair and Other Poems (1830) finds a place in

literary history o f India. Even he is considered as the first Indian to publish a regular

volume of English verse. Ghose edited an English weekly The Hindu Intelligence. He

called himself as the ‘first Hindoo’ who has ventured to publish a volume of English

poems. M.K. Naik calls him ‘the first Indian English poet of Pure Indian blood’ (Naik 24). He wrote about various Hindu festivals and social practices as well as about

Indian countryside. He kept the torch of Indo- English poetry burning by publishing

the collection of poems entitled The Shair and Others Poems was published in 1830.

Although he wrote a number of poems on Indian festivals, he seems to have largely

20 worked under the impact of Sir Walter Scott. Because of this, Prof Dunn has regarded his verse as “agreeably imitative and everywhere pleasing” (Dunn 5).

Prominent personalities like Michael Madhusudan Dutt (1824-73), Toru Dutt

(1856-77), Manmohan Ghose (1867-1924), Sri Aurobindo Ghose (1872-1949),

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), Sarojini Naidu (1879-1949), Harichandra

Chattopadyaya (1898-1989) and many others tried to pour their experiences and observations in their poetry. Nevertheless, critics like Prof V.K. Gokak have discussed the questions whether early Indo-Anglian poetry is nothing more than wagon hitched to the engines of English poetry. It is no doubt that Romantic poetry,

Victorians poetry, Pre-Raphaelite movements made their impact on the early poets;

each successful poet among them coloured their thoughts, experiences and

observations with his own specific style. They had cultivated proficiency in English

language and the result was prolific - be it Aurobindo’s Savitri (1951) or

Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali (1913).

Michael Madhusudan Dutt (1824-1873), began his writing from Hindu

College days. He was a brilliant student; won several scholarships in college exams as

well as a gold medal for an essay on women's education; his poems in Bengali and

English were published in different journals like Jnananvesan, Bengal Spectator,

Literary Gleamer, Calcutta Library Gazette, Literary Blossom and Comet.

Madhusudan took inspiration from Lord Byron. Michael’s unconventional, dramatic

and in many ways tragic life has added glamour to his name. He was the first to use

blank verse in 1860 in the play Padm avait based on a Greek myth. His epic poem:

Meghnad-Badh Kavya is considered as his all-time masterpiece till today; this epic is

based on the Ramayana but inspired by Milton's Paradise Lost. Madhusudan

transformed the villainous Ravana into a Hero. This grand heroic-tragic epic is written in nine cantos which is quite unique in the history o f Bengali Poetry.

Meghnad-Badh Kavya was first original epic and gave Madhusudan the status o f an

Epic Poet. Much of his time abroad was spent in abject poverty. His extravagant life-

21 style, fickleness in money matters, and reckless drinking conspired to wreck his health and happiness. Madhusudan was well versed in classical languages like Greek and Latin in addition to Indian languages like Bengali, Sanskrit and Tamil. He would also comprehend modern European languages like Italian and French. Moreover, he could write and read comfortably in these languages.

Michael Madhusudan Dutt became one of the Macaulay’s ‘Native

Englishmen’. He got himself converted into Christianity to obtain free education. He was very ambitious to win recognition as a poet in English language. But

unfortunately enough, he could not get much success as he could get as a Bengali

writer. Dutt family brought out an anthology called The Dutt Family Album (1870)

The Album should be valued as a remarkable reflection on the ideal situation -the kind

o f situation that impelled the Tour Dutt and Aru Dutt to indulge in a feverish literary

activity o f a certain standard. Govin was a renowned poet and linguist, having

produced two volumes of poetry entitled The Loyal Hours (1876) and Cherry stone

(1881); and Tour’s mother had ably translated the Blood of Jesus into Bengali.

Thereafter, Gavin’s daughters Aru and Toru began to write as representatives

of the next generation. Aru Dutt has written just 8 poems in all collected in Toru’s A

Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields (1876), but whatever little she has produced is full of

pathos. Aru may serve as a stepping stone to her more profound and better equipped

younger sister, Toru Dutt (1856 - 1877), whose work and worth are o f lasting nature.

Toru Dutt (1856-1877) inherited literacy impulses from her family. She is

acknowledged as the first major voice in Indian English poetry. Though Toru has

written only one volume of original poetry called Ancient Ballads and Legends of

Hindustan (1882), yet this work alone is enough to give us a peep in to the classical Indian tradition having frill of religious fervor and philosophical speculations. It also

demonstrates her deep love for the Motherland, its folklores and legends, its ancient

tales o f high moral and spiritual character. Her “Savitri ” is simply superb both as a

22 legend and as a piece o f artistic creation. Like Derozio, she died young. In her superb poem Our Casiiarina Tree, Toru very objectively implicates time and eternity. This poem is always finds place in many anthologies and is often singled out as the first major Indian English poem. M. K. Naik believes that “It was with Toru Dutt (1856­

77) that Indian English poetry really graduated from imitation to authenticity” (Naik

37). While writing about their experiences, even when ‘voluntarily’ exploring their

Indian ethos, earlier Indian English poets were caught in a conventional poetic idiom

that perhaps would not serve the purpose.

Nobbo Kissen Ghose is among the first Indian English poets to write about

their own religious attitudes and mystical experiences. He was a government servant,

but gave ftill time to writing. He would also practice yoga and was known to have had

mystical experiences which later he portrayed in his poetry. Romesh Chunder Dutt

(1848-1909) was a versatile personality. He was a very good translator as he worked

in different domains of English language. He tried to condense the two great Indian

epics - the Ramayana and Mahabharata while translating them. But he lost the originality in the process.

Manmohan Ghose (1869-1924) was educated at the Oxford University. Even

though he devoted himself to the poetry he could produce only one collection of poems entitled Love Songs and Elegies which came out in 1898. In collaboration with

Arthur Cripps, Laurence Bin yon and Stephen Phillips, Manmohan published in 1890

a volume of verses entitled Primavers. Ghose’s Love song and Elegies was released in 1898, and his Songs of love and death in 1926 (two years after his death). His

poetic sequences entitled Immortal Eve and Orphic Mysteries unquestionably irradiate the true pathos and sublimity o f pure poet. As a true poet Manmohan has sufficient time and patience to stand and stare, to feel the heart-throb o f birds and

beasts, trees and flowers. He was one of the poets who loved to live in England but he

returned to India reluctantly in 1894. He lamented that in India he felt denationalized

23 and lonely. He finally decided to return and settle down in England but died before he could do so.

Pre-Independence Poetry in English (1900-1947)

The second stage is the centerpiece of nationalism; it is the time of struggle for independence. And this spirit is understood as the political aspect of the struggle for freedom. 1920-1947, Gandhian age is known for the period of struggle for freedom and this was epoch making period o f Indian nationalism. Even in cultural sphere,

Gandhian thought and the Quit India Movement provided an immense creative impetus to contemporary literature. This phase o f Indian English Poetry is mainly notable for the overthrow of the British power. This was the age of Gandhi and

Gandhi infused the spirit for freedom in the minds of corers of Indians. Consequently, the effect percolated even on Indian English Poetry. Poets began to write about the nationalism, about spiritualism and also about mythology. Hence this phase can also be called as ‘nationalism’.

Sri Aurobindo Ghose (1872-1950), younger brother of Manmohan Ghose, was also sent to England when he was only seven and returned to India when he was about twenty one. But unlike his brothers Aurobindo strongly identified himself with his motherland becoming revolutionary in Indian freedom movement. He wrote a huge number of poems during his poetic career of over fifty five years. Lyrics, sonnets,

long narrative poems, dramatic poetry and epics run down of his prolific pen. He was

also a significant philosopher, fervent yogi and stoic personality. He is the most discussed poet; there are more books and articles on ‘Savitri ’ alone than on any other Indian poets in English with an Exception to Tagore.

M. K. Naik observes, “The work was continuously revised by the poet almost till the end o f his days and shaped into an epic o f humanity and divinity, o f death and the life divine.” (Naik 52) Sri Aurobindo himself describes it as, ‘A sort of poetic

24 philosophy o f the spirit and o f Hfe’, ‘and an experiment in mystic poetry cast in to a symboUc figure.’(Sri Aurobindo 731-732) To conclude in brief about Savitri, Iyengar has used the words o f Prof Raymond Frank Piper: “Aurobindo created what is probably the greatest epic in the English Language. I venture the judgment that it is the most comprehensive, Integrated, beautiful and perfect cosmic poem ever composed. It ranges symbolically from a primordial cosmic void, through earth’s darkness and struggles, to the highest realms o f super mental existence, and illumines every important concern of man, through verse of unparalleled massiveness, magnificence, and metaphorical brilliance. Aurobindo’s Savitri is perhaps the most powerful artistic work in the world for expanding man’s mind towards the Absolute”

(Iyengar 206).

Various poets like Nobbo Kissen Ghose and Aurobindo Ghose attempted the

exploration of the self and which gave rise to mystical & religious poetry. Thus

mystical and religious poetry was almost inevitable in the colonial context and

Aurobindo’s contribution to it is an impressive corpus which cannot be dismissed as

easily as P.Lai and others have attempted to do at various times. Aurobindo and Rabindranath Tagore were major influences on poets writing in the first half o f the

twentieth century.

Rabindranath Tagore, in fact, occupied a significant position in indo-Anglian

poetry. He wrote only one poem. The Child (1931) in English which is an interesting

description of the pilgrimage of men and women of all kinds to the hypothetical

shrine o f fulfillment. This reminds the readers of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. His famous poem, Gitanjali (1912) won him the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913.Gitanjali a prose poem, compelled worldwide attention, and he was now

recognized as a poet not o f Bengal only but of India and the world. This great laureate of India has diverse facets-the poet, story teller, the novelist, the philosopher, the

educationist, and the prophet of enlightened humanism. His prose workstoo- notably Sadhana, Nationalism, Personality, The Religion of Man, etc ;yi))*^fe'S^(nally

25 written in English for they were meant for an international public. Thereupon,

Rabindranath Tagore kept translating several o f his works into English. He was poet, dramatist, novelist, short story writer, critic, painter, musician, educationist and perhaps what not. He was one of the most remarkable figures in the recent history of

India. His sensibility was idealistic and romantic, but his romanticism grappled with modernism and serviced it. One cannot deny the huge impact and influences of

Tagore’s poetry on Indian English poets and poetry. Nevertheless he was often criticized about his crude symbolism and generalizations.

Shri. Ananda Acharya (1881-1941) and Puran Singh (1881-1931) could not attract the attention of (common) readers for what they actually deserved long back.

Acharya’s poems show overall, a combination of Vedantic and Buddhist influences.

While Puran Singh’s poems show his devotion of Sikh faith together with a mystical

eclecticism. At the same time, J. Krishnamurti (1895-1986) wrote poetry for a brief in his long career as a philosopher and teacher. His poems were poetic prose basically

devotional and mystical by nature, passionately didactic but rich in imagery and

metaphor. Humayan Kabir was poet, novelist and translator. Harindranth

Chattopaddyaya (1898-1989) the youngest brother of Sarojini Naidu showed great

promise in his first collection. The Feast o f Youth but could not continue the same

spirit fiirther.

Sarojini Naidu (1879 - 1949) was the first female poet who served Indian

English literature for her life time. She was one o f the torch bearers in Indian English

literature. She can also be considered as the path maker o f Indian English literature.

She studied at London and Cambridge where she had developed the lyrical art. She

was a multifaceted personality and more than a poet she had occupied some of the

highest official positions in the public life of India. She was not only the poet but also a matchless singer and freedom-fighter and also a fiery orator. She had the ability to

express Indian sensibility like English poet.

26 The Golden Threshold (1905), The Bird o f Time (1912), The Broken Wing

(1917) are her collections of poems. All these three volumes consolidated her position as a poet. In 1961, her unpublished poems were collected by her daughter Miss

Padmaja Naidu, and published by M/s Asia Publishing House under the heading The

Feather o f the Dawn. In all the four volumes by Sarojini Naidu we witness her unerring sense of beauty and melody. Her poems present a feast of delight to the reader. As a true lyricist, she always spoke in a ‘private voice’ and never bothered to express the burning problems of her day. But she is an artist of the first rank, and on the strength of her perfect rhythm and verbal felicity she has come to occupy a place near Toru Dutt, R.N. Tagore and Sri Aurobindo in the realm of Indo- Anglican poetry. In India, she recognized as the Nightingale of Indian song.One cannot sideline the lyrical melody and patriotic fervour and also love and beauty. Padmini Sengupta observes, “Nevertheless her early poetry was devoid of nationality” (Sengupta 4-5).

There were other poets like Swami Vivekananda, Malabari, J.M. Tagore,

A.M. Kunte, Brajendranath Seal, D.L. Roy, N.W. Pai, Nizamut Jung, Peroze P.

Meherjee, Ardeshir M. Modi and Ezekiel. The literary activities of these poets contributed much towards the diversification of Indo- Anglican poetry. In addition, A.

K. Sett, B. D. Shastri, K.R.R Shastri, Barjor Paymaster, Trilokchand Rai, Vyasa and

P. V. B. Sharma are some other names which have tried to fallow the tradition of

New-Romantic School o f poetry in Indo-English literature. There are a number o f pre independent Indian English Poets but somehow they are overlooked, not included in well-known anthologies. Even Swami Vivekanand (1863-1902) has written religious poetry in English. From history to mythology, from patriotism to history, from religion to mysticism- all subjects are pondered over, and redefined in early Indian

English Poetry.

27 Post- Independence Poetry in English (1947 -1980)

Political Independence is one of the most important events in the history of

Indian English Poetry. Independence did not change the agenda for Indian English poets though the context had undergone a drastic change. Nevertheless Indian English

Poets, critics have been unable to escape from the questions of Indianness. Some poets, somehow, indulge in demonstration of Indianness to appear exotic in the eyes o f western audience. Vilas Sarang accepts, “there is some truth in belief that an Indian

English Poets, by expressing on Indian sensibility, will speak more authentically, and achieve greater depth and possibly greatness than by assuming a cosmopolitan stand”

(Sarang 7).

Poets of this phase do not approve of the romanticism and mysticism of the new romanticists. They decried the tradition set up by Manmohan Ghose,

Rabindranath Tagore and Sri. Aurobindo. They decided to make the Indo-Anglian poetry realistic and serious by evolving new poetic diction and phrases. These poets came to be known as ‘workshop poets’ ‘Quest poets’ and ‘Neo-symbolists’. Nissim

Ezekiel, Dom Moraes, P. Lai, Shiv Kumar, R. Parthasarthy, A.K. Ramanujan, Keki

N. Daruwalla, Kamala Das, Gauri Deshpande, D. K. Das and a number of other poets are known as the ‘workshop poets’ or neo-symbolists’.

Indian English Poets were enabling to escape from the question of Indianness.

Nissim Ezekiel and P. Lai enjoy immense historical significance by virtue of their unflinching devotion to the Muse and their unstinted support to a number of young poets. While both produced a fine body of poetry on varying themes and moods, P.

Lai became very active to champion of contemporary Indo- English poetry and launched almost a cultural crusade against the age-old taboos and doubts being associated with it. Lai’s matchless enthusiasm is reflected in the founding of the

28 Writers Workshop at Calcutta in 1959 which has promoted a number of emerging talents by publishing their works free of charge. Ezekiel has been a source of

inspiration to many young poets writing in English by setting up an example of his

disciplined art before them.

Nissim Ezekiel is the patriarch of modem Indian English Poetry. He, very

often, faces the fact that he is an urban middle class man in this poverty- stricken and

illiterate country. He is a Jew in a country where Hindus are in great number. This

increases his sense of alienation and theme of alienation occupies Ezekiel’s poetry.

Nissim Ezekiel is the first among the ‘New poets’ who published a collection of poems entitled, A Time to Change in 1952. There are also other five collections of poems to his credit. They are Sixty Poems (1953), The Third (1959), The Exact Name

(1965), The Unfinished Man (1960), and Hymns in Darkness (1976). In fact A Time to

Change was published by Fortune Press, England. It was an epoch making event signaling the dawn of modem Indian English poetry. Like other and earlier Indian

English poets Ezekiel too makes a choice to affirm his Indianness. He wrote

evocative, direct, intellectual and sensuous poetry and also autobiographical one. He

is seen as a guiding star for emerging poets.

Nissim Ezekiel’s poetry is modem in the sense that it is charged with irony

and is marked by heightened critical self consciousness. His major themes are love,

personal integration, the Indian scene, modem urban life, spiritual values but basically

his poetry stems out of his own life and experience. There are two other aspects of

Ezekiel’s poetry, namely the confessional element and the devotional element.

Ezekiel’s poems have an autobiographical dimension. And what is personal and autobiographical, often borders on the confessional. In fact, there is a very fine blend o f confession, autobiography and prayer.

Bmce king observes, “The Post-Independence poets were quite different from

the earlier poets because ‘there concems in their writing were individual or expression

29 o f the human condition in general rather than the peasants and suppressed issue o f political independence” (King 11).

This comment shows a misunderstanding of both pre independence Indian

English Poetry and post independence Indian English Poetry. The Pre-Independence poets were reacting to particular socio-political and historical situations they did not write directly about the peasants or about political independence. They were more concerned with affirming and exploring their Indianness.

P. Lai, an accomplished craftsman in Indo-English verse is well-read in modem English and American poetry and Sanskrit classics. Like Dom Moraes, his sensibility remains largely romantic, though he is strongly opposed to romantic excesses. Whatever poetry he could produce, he produced it only in the sixties, - Calcutta.- The Parrots Death (1960), Love’s the first and Other poems(1963), ‘change’, They said(1966), Draupadi and Jayadratha (1967), and A Long Poem. Thereafter, he turned to verse translations or ‘transcreations’ (as he calls them), and in this context his vigorous and laudable job of rendering the Mahabharata in ten years must be mentioned. As a poet, Lai shuns propaganda and sticks precisely to the

concise phrase and concrete imagery, as may be seen in his poem, ''The Simplest Love. ”

Dom Moraes (1938) can be acknowledged as the leading poet of modem

Indian English Poetry. Educated at oxford and influenced by Eliot, Auden and other

poets, he has emerged as the most successful of the ‘new’ poets. He lived in England

for many years and adopted British Citizenship in 1961. He was awarded with the well deserved Hawthorden Prize in 1958 for his great piece of work A Beginning (1957). Thereafter he came to be known as an established poet in the domain of Indo- Anglian poetry. His other notable poetic creations are Poems (1960), John Nobody

(1968), and Collected Poems (1969). His autobiography, ‘My Son’s father, contains flashes of self-revelation. His sensibility is essentially romantic and subjective. He is

30 also confessional poet and tries to turn the personal into the universal. He was influenced by Dylan Thomas. His poetry is highly personal. He tried to dissociate himself completely but nobody accepted his claim. He disowned his Indian heritage repeatedly. He continued a busy life, travelling all over the world as correspondent and prolific writer. His poetry seems to transcend the personal experiences to the universal level.

Jayant Mahapatra, Shiv K. Kumar, K. N. Daruwalla, R. Parathasarathy and

Arun Kolatkar belong to the Nineteen Seventies. Jayant Mahapatra (b. 1928) has special capabilities to express modernism through his poetry. The recurrent themes of his poetry are loneliness, the complex problems of human relationships, the

difficulties of meaningful communications, internal and external world of mind and the complex nature o f love and sex. His earlier poems are considered as experiments

with theme, form and style. Another important feature of these early poems is the recurrences of same symbols and images like the sky, the seasons, the rain, crows,

walls and, flames etc. All his poems have been compiled in four volumes, A Rain of Rites (1976) Waiting (1979) The False Start (1980) and Relationship (1980). They reveal a first rate poetic sensibility. Mahapatra, a teacher o f physics, began to text

various ideas of what constitutes a modem poem and quickly progressed through

organization by sound, image, theme, creating often obscure, difficult lyrics. Modem

Indian poetry in English often used topics from urban life, Mahapatra’s poetry mostly

made use of the mral landscape and local traditions.

Shiv K. Kumar (b.l921) is a highly qualified poet who possesses a keen sense

of artistic perfection. His poems are authentic in depicting the distortions,

bewilderment and boredom o f modem life. He shows his deep faith in Indian culture

and tradition despite the fact that he has spent a considerable span o f time abroad. His

poetry creates an impression that it is an expression o f anger and Ihistration, the outburst o f a rebel. He published his first volume. Articulate Silences (1970). This was followed by Cobwebs in the Sun (1974) and Wood Peckers (1979). His works

31 reveals a mastery of both the confessional mode and ironic comments.

The two poets who have been both bilingual and experimental are Arun

Kolatkar and Dilip Chitre. Both write in Marathi as well as in English. Arun Kolatkar

(1932) won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for his first book Jejuri (1976). It is a string o f 31 poems telling about Jejuri, pilgrims’ center in Maharashtra. It is a record of his impression about priests, gods, men, animals and other. The ‘Boat Ride’ is a series of perceptions concerning a tourist’s trip. Dilip Chitre (b.l938) is another worth-mentioning poet who has published a few collections of poems and short stories in Marathi. He has also published a long poem in English Travelling in a Cage and other Short Poems. His poems in English were published in Ambulance Ride (1972) and Travelling in a Cage (1991) He has often declared eclecticism an asset for the contemporary Indian poet.

Women poets always present on the literary scene of India right from the

Vedic and Upanishadic days, and the present age appears to be no exception. In 19'’’

century we had Aru Dutt and Torn Dutt who composed their rhythmical and rhymed verses in English, and in the early 20* century there was Sarojini Naidu who sang her mellifluous songs of high lyricism and emotionalism, earning thereby the prized title

o f ‘the Nightingale o f India.

Women poets need to be mentioned separately because of their substantial

contribution in the development of Indian English Poetry. The post- Independence

scenario presents a richer and more fertile crop of Indian women poets, who form a

sizable school in modem Indian English literature. Kamala Das (b. 1934), a bilingual

writer, writes in Malayalam as well as in English. She has published three books of verse in English: Summer in Calcutta (1965) The Descendants (1967) and the Old Playhouse and Other Poems (1973). Kamala Das is the most discussed and

controversial figure in modem Indian English Poetry. Her uninhibited frankness and

candid expression is commented every now and then. She writes quite witty and

32 confessional, recalling the practice of such great women writers of our age as Sylvia

Path, Anne Sexton and Judith Wright.

Besides Kamala Das, Gauri Deshpande, Monika Varma, Lila Ray, Margaret

Chatterjee, etc. have made substantial contribution to the growth and diversification

o f Indian English poetry. Others who have shown a certain amount o f promise and talent are: Gauri Pant, Suniti Namjoshi, LalitaVenkateshwam, Anna Sujathamodayil,

Lakshami Kanna, Vimala Rao, Malati Rao, Meena Alexander and Eunice de Souza. There are more than thirty modem women poets with more than one collection each

to their credit. But they cannot receive attention of the readers as Kamala Das does.

In a nutshell, one cannot ignore the contribution of different Indian English

Poets in different phases, patriotic, romantic, spiritual, mystical, metaphysical, neo­

symbolist, neo modernist, pre-independence and post -independence. In the light of

the present statement let us try to figure out the place of Daruwalla in Indian English

Poetry. He is one of the potent voices of modem Indian English Poetry. Damwalla

has been publishing collections of poems since 1970. He has published Under Orion ( 1970), Apparition In April (1971), Crossing of River (1976), The Keep of the Dead ( 1982), Winter poems ( 1980), Landscapes (1987), A Summer of Tigers (1995), Night

River (2000), Map Maker (2002), Collected Poems: 1970 - 2005 (2006) and The Glass-blower: Selected Poems (2008).

Keki N. Damwalla (bom 1937) is one of the most remarkable poets in the

galaxy of modem Indian English Poetry. His reputation, especially, lies in his

objective responses towards subjective experiences. He is typically modem in depicting the boredom, bewilderment, allusion, failures and frustration o f the man in

this world. He is also known for his flawless and picturesque depiction of socio­

economic reality. As a tme satirist he mthlessly exposes various evils in India. His

poetry is remarkable for its modemity. His substantial contribution to Indian English

poetry makes him representative poet o f modern India.

33 Daruwalla’s poetry directly stems from the life around him. It is the result of his interaction with external world. His poetry reveals his social awareness, intellectual strength and sharp perception o f environment. He was a police officer for a long time so he had many opportunities for observing life in India and understanding human emotions and passions through poems. M. K. Naik has rightly remarked about Daruwalla’s approach towards life in his poems, “Daruwalla observes the Indian scene with a trained eye but cannot, in spite of his training, remain absolutely detached” (Naik 205).

He has responded everything that he has witnessed by writing a poem about it.

In other words it can be said that he seems to be very much sensible to social evils and problems. Daruwalla has successfully employed irony and satire as major tools to put forth the realistic picture o f the society. He brings out corruption at different levels and places. He also talks about bribes through his poetry. Even in the current scenario, people accept and give bribes. Like Daruwalla, Anna Hajare (modem

Gandhi) raises his voice against bribe, corruption and black money.

Daruwalla maintains the balance between the urban and the rural life. His poetry is ornamental not only depicting the urban distortions and morbidity, but the rural innocence and pathos also. The poet is much interested to present the human fate in both circumstances. The poet believes in the presentation of human events in human as well as natural context. Daruwalla’s poetic world is inward as well as outward; the poet beautifully sings the lore of human failures and fhistrations in a unique way with the help of images drawn from various aspects of life. His poems are not sentimental plea for betterment but there is inwardness, which is rare in modem

Indian English poetry. Thus Damwalla, who is still composing poems, proves to be a unique voice in modem Indian English poetry.

34 Daruwalla’s Early Life and Education

Keki N. Daruwalla was bom in Lahore, now in Pakistan, on 24*^ January 1937.

He was brought up at different places. Hopping across the continent in his childhood, changing from one medium school to another, wrestling with Urdu for two years,

Daruwalla can speak Hindi very fluently, Gujarati and Punjabi, moderately as well.

About his choice of English for creative expression, Daruwalla says in Lai’s

Anthology (1969), English came to him quite naturally, and asking him to write in any other language would be like asking a cricket player to use his talents in Kabbadi.

For him English is an Indian language and he thinks that we can touch it up with colours typically Indian.

Daruwalla’s father was a professor o f English who taught in Loni institute o f literature (LIL). His family left Punjab after the partition but his elder brother moved to Junagadh in Gujarat. His school and college education was completed at different places. Then he did his graduation in English and also offered history and political science as optional subjects. For his Post graduate degree, he sought admission in

Government College Ludhiana, in Punjab University. He obtained his masters degree in English literature from Government College, Ludhiana, and University o f Punjab in 1958. The same year he joined I.P.S. and stayed in Uttar Pradesh for the most part of his service till he retired in 1995. He also became a special assistant to the P.M. on

International Affairs. He subsequently was in the cabinet secretarial until his retirement. Meanwhile, Daruwalla was also a visiting fellow at oxford, under the

Colombo plan in 1981. O f late, he started translating from Indian languages.

While talking to Vrinda Nabar in 1976, Daruwalla dismissed the biographical background of a writer as unimportant. About his biography, Daruwalla says, “I have nothing interesting to say except that I am neither a good Parsi - hardly ever having lived like one, nor a Hindu or a Muslim. The same goes for culture - I am neither a

35 Punjabi nor a Gujrati or a U.P. man, a bit o f everything which really means nothing”

(Nabar 272).

Daruwalla’s Ethnographic Details

Parsis are an ethno-religious minor community in India. They are probably the smallest community in the whole world numbering not more than 90000. It is believed that the word Parsi means a native o f ‘pars’ or ‘fars,’ an ancient Persian province in Southern Iran. The Parsis pride themselves as being the descendents of the mighty Aryan Tribes who ruled Persia centuries before the Christian era. They claim that their kings were the mighty and most powerful, the wisest and the most beneficent o f rulers and their ancestors were trained in all the arts o f civilized life.

They feel proud and claim that their empire was times the size o f Babylonian. It touched the waters of Mediterranean, the Aegean, the Black, the Caspian, the Indian and the Red Seas.

They left their beloved country to save their religion from the forced Islamization by invading Islamic Arabs in the Seventh century A.D. They decided to seek shelter in India as there was some sort o f intercourse between India and Persia for many centuries. They landed in Sanjan in 716 A.D., 25 miles South of Daman. At present most of the Parsis live on the west coast of India especially in Bombay. In Pakistan, most of them live in Karachi and Lahore. It was during the British rule that they shifted to Bombay in large numbers.

The Parsees, due to their small number, enjoyed a marginal position in the

British India. So the British employed them as their agents, mediators and diplomats. The Parsees regarded English education as one of the blessings by the British on

India. Westernization produced adverse results as well. It is truly ironic that the process of westernization brought about ‘double alienation.’ Though they were adequately westernized, the British never treated the Parsees as their equal. At the

36 same time, the Parsees were alienated from the mainstream of Indian life. Though the

Parsees enjoyed a marginal position in the Indian society during the British era, the influence of religion on social life was fairly strong. Brotherhood of man is a cardinal doctrine of Prophet Zoroaster’s message. The Parsees pray for the good of all countries. Thus the central tenet of the Zoroastrian worldview viz., good thoughts, good words and good deeds operates as the guiding principal in a Parsees’ Social

Life. A true Parsee should be tolerant to the faiths and beliefs o f others.

Zoroastrianism makes them sociable with the other sister communities of India. They mix freely with members o f other faiths; sympathize with them in their grief and afflictions and work to alleviate their misery.

The World is becoming multilingual, multicultural and multiracial global village.

India is no exception to this. It is very interesting to know the historical background of the Parsis. Parsis were invaded by Arabs. Many were forced to embrace the Islamic

Faith. Others came to India. The people landed on the shores o f Gujarat. The loving hospitality of local people embalmed the tired and bleeding souls of dislocated

Zoroastrian. The Parsis approached the Local Hindu King, Jadi/Jadhav Rana seeking permission for settlement. The King was reluctant to allow them. Therefore he sent the Parsi representative with bowl of milk filled to brim. It was to indicate that the bowl was already full and there was no room for Parsis in this country. The Parsi

leader took a handful of sugar and mixing it in the milk, sent the bowl back to the

ruler. This symbolized his promise that the Parsis would mix the local people like

sugar in the milk. They promised to dissolve their separate identity and sweeten the

lives of others. The Rana imposed some conditions regarding their language, their

clothes and then they possessed hybrid identities.

About three hundred years after the encounter with Jadav Rana at Sanjan, the

Parsis dispersed in different direction, going to Ankaleswar, Cambay and Navsari.

Early in the Nineteenth century, they left for Bombay. The early Parsis of Gujarat

were engaged mainly in agricultural pursuits. Later on they took up trades like

37 carpentry and ship-building. Zoroastrians kept the promise they made to Jadav Rana.

They integrated themselves fully into India, The land which adopted them. But for their efforts, India in general, and the city o f Bombay in particular, would not have been what they are today. Kulke, a well known Parsi Scholar observes, “the undermining of the Parsee identity, westernization combined with an impeded access to the Indian society and its value system characterize the community’s marginal existence, which still persists to the same extent as before” (Kulke 266). The Parsees are attempting to assert their ethnic identity in diverse ways. They have tried their best to repay their debt o f gratitude to Gujrati and Indian people through their good deeds. Apart from earning glory in the field of industry, education, science and charities, they have also contributed a lot to theatrical arts.

There are certain worries and anxieties, fears and insecurities felt by this community. Their culture slowly and steadily moved towards extinction. Their extreme individualism, late marriages and very often the decision to remain unmarried, low birth rate, high death rate, high rate o f divorce, increasing diseases and mental illness were some of the major factors responsible for this extinction. If the same does not change in near future, the community will vanish from this planet.

To avoid this, the Parsi community had to take some corrective measures.

The Parsis are the followers o f Prophet Zorathustra, popularly Known as

Zoroaster. The Zoroaster’s theory developed from the traditional classification of

deities- Ahuras and Daevas. According to theory there is only one Ahura Mazda and

regarded his religion as monotheist. There is no place for superstitions, dogmatism,

blind faith or fear of punishment. It is a scientific religion based upon knowledge and

illumination. Some of the most important Zoroastrian virtues are honesty, liberality,

contentment, simplicity, industry, frugality and truth. Zoroaster rejected ritualism and external practices of imaginary value.

38 The value of religion is in upholding man in his life of good thoughts, good words and good deeds. According to Rabindranath Tagore, Zoroaster proclaimed in the dark days o f unreason that religion has its truth in its moral significance. A true

Parsee should perform actions in accordance with the will of Ahura Mazada. The true

Zoroastrian way o f life consists in spreading happiness around. A Parsee should regard himself as a part and parcel o f nature. A true Parsee lives not for himself but

for his family, society and the country as a whole. Brotherhood of man is thus a cardinal doctrine of Zoroaster’s message. This religion is flexible to accept and absorb all future developments in human thought. There is equality between men and women; they are given equal position in every sphere of life. There is no discrimination in the field of spiritual evolution and salvation.

Zoroastrian rites and rituals are different fi-om the rites and rituals in Hinduism

in one way or the other. Zoroastrians have rites for every day, every season and every

phase of human life. But during the passage of time and because of the transition from

rural to urban living to modernity, many traditional rites have become impossible to

be preserved. They practice only some important rites and celebrate some popular

festival including pateti, khordad Sal, Zorasathost No Deeso, Jamshed Navroj and

Muktad ceremony.

The Zoroastrian Holy scriptures are known as ‘Avesta.’ It is written in the most

ancient o f all Iranian languages- Avestan language. It appears that Avesta is a

collection of writing composed by several heads in different ages. A close study of

Keki N. Daruwalla’s poetry reveals a picture of Parsi community in diverse hues. His

poetry gives an authentic account of parsi religion, rituals customs and manners. Parsis are worshippers of ‘fire.’ He does not miss any opportunity to describe Parsi

religious practices and rituals.

39 The Parsis have contributed to every field of creative work like music, painting and literature. This community o f India has always been a colourful one. India has been blessed with several prominent Parsis, who have contributed largely in diverse fields, including literature. Parsis have also contributed a lot to the theatrical arts. They cemented the foundation o f not only Gujrati Theatre but also o f Urdu and Hindu

Theatre.

Daruwalla’s Literary Achievements U i

Daruwalla’s poetic energy is really praiseworthy, it has remained active in endless production o f volumes o f poetry and also other forms o f literature. His first collection of poems Under Orion was published by Writers Workshop, Calcutta (Kolkata) in 1970. Apparition in April was also brought out by Writers Workshop in

1971. Then after four years his Crossing of Rivers (1976), Winter Poems (1980), The Keeper of the Dead (1982), Landscapes (1987) and A Summer of Tigers (1996) were all published by Oxford University Press Delhi. Daruwalla has also published two works of fiction. Swords and Abyss (1979) and ‘The Minister for Permanent Unrest and Other Stories’ (1996) and has edited Two Decades o f Indian Poetry: I960 -1980

(New Delhi, Vikas, 1980) he bagged the central Sahitya Academy Award for his collection, The Keeper of the Dead in 1984. He also got the coveted Commonwealth

Poetry Prize for Asia in 1987.His other anthologies include Night river: poems (2000), The Map-maker: poems (2002) and A House in Ranikhet (2003). His poems have been translated into many languages, including French, Swedish and Magyar.

He has given extensive poetry readings abroad and his poems have appeared in various prestigious anthologies. Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi published Collected Poems: 1970 -2005 (2006). This book is also edited by Daruwalla himself

K.N. Daruwalla’s acclaimed story. Refugee is the prime source of J.P. Dutta’s famous Hindi movie ‘Refugee’. The same short story has been included in the curriculum of Xllth standard syllabus English Textbook of NCRT in India.

40 In many o f his interviews Daruwalla confessed that English language comes to him so naturally and spontaneously that he never struggled to get expressions while writing in English. Further he adds that though he could speak Hindustani very fluently and to a lesser extent both Punjabi and Gujrati . . . he could never write in them. Being asked to write in the language other than English he very humorously used to say that it was just like asking someone to play cricket while he/she is interested in Kabbaddi. Daruwalla in his poem, The Mistress, speaks o f “Indian

English,” The language that he uses. This candid response reveals the nature of his poetry in particular, and the Indo - English poetry.

All the above responses of Daruwalla help a lot to study his poetry. K.N.

Daruwalla’s poetry has an extended dimension from The Ghaghra in Spate to the holy city of Banaras and its Ghats. His poetry sometimes seems to be

autobiographical. It has a close relationship with his duty as a police officer and the

sensitive accomplished poet in him which touches the depth of human experience.

Pritish Nandy knows and accepts Daruwalla as an ‘accomplished poet’ and

discovers no ‘dishonesty’ in his poetry. Daruwalla may not have the intellectual

intensity of Nissim Ezekiel’s poetry, the anguished private voice of Kamala Das, the

rich and insightful world of details of Ramanujan, but it does have sincerity of

experience and relevance. Daruwalla is rooted in the soil and that is why even his

simplest poem has ease of language and genuineness. In fact his being a policeman

adds the depth and dimension of his poetry. Daruwalla’s duty as a policeman is

evident in his first phase of creativity. In the first phase itself Daruwalla has full control over his ‘experience’ and the environment in which he lives in. His poetry is

especially known for vigour and immediacy of language, social sensibilities and various evils, a skeptic and indignant cynicism about the plight of human society and

rare realistic portrayal of life. Daruwalla was criticized of being too much of

landscape poet and it is to be noted that he readily admits those charges of being

41 landscapist. His thematic canvas transcends the boundaries of India and stretches itself into the rest of the world.

Daruwalla’s place in Indian English Poetry

After World War II, Indian life and literature had to face a lot many challenges. The culture associated with English language and literature had lost its hold even in the most westernized cities in India and yet Indian English poetry has been making remarkable progress. It is quite obvious that Indian writers who wrote in

English and other languages had great impact of British literature as well as style of colonization.

The Post-Independence period witnessed the most crucial development especially in poetry despite of the fact that Indian English poetry emerges out of limited people. Indian English poets make their appearance like comet. A number of established Indian English poets have failed to go beyond a volume or two. Among the leading poets, Ezekiel, Mahapatra and Daruwalla are the few who have published volumes at regular interval. Publishers were reluctant to publish Indian English poetry. In his preface to Three Poets, Adil Jussawalla cites many instances of Indian

English poetry cyclostyling their poems, publishing on their own or other poems by other poets. Meanwhile the literary situation in India underwent certain changes when the Oxford University press introduced the new poetry in India Series in India. There was a Writers’ Workshop in Calcutta which inspired many new poets from India and of course invited the publishers too who came forward to publish Indian writings in

English. With this remarkable movement gradually Indian English poetry began to flourish.

New poets in Post-Independence period adjust themselves in entirely human condition. Their approach towards human problems is quite different from their predecessors. The new poets are able to maintain their separate identity and class by

42 composing common human problems. K.R.S. Iyengar has studied the modem poetry in his book ^Indian writing in English in a comprehensive manner.

Keki N. Daruwalla’s place in modem Indian English poetry is very well recognized. Like many other poets of the post-independent period, Daruwalla’s main significance lies in his continuing involvement with his poetic self which ultimately

shows his personal quest for order and satisfaction in the modem urban world. His

awareness for others is discemable. Unlike Kamala Das, Damwalla hardly uses his

autobiographical account as raw material; rather, it is his self-perception o f the outer

reality which operates as the basis of his poetic creations. The character of his poems,

like Mehrotra and Mahapatra, is not an experimentalist, but a victim o f the process o f

urbanization and social changes. As a result of this victimization, the poet often seems

to sink into a state of dilemma and shows his nostalgic yeaming for the mythological

past as an escape from his sufferings and frustrations. In this approach he is almost

identical with modem European poets like Eliot, Pound and W.B. Yeats. The poet

often shifts his perspective from freedom to control, reality to illusion or illusion to

reality and brings the complexity of psychological tension in his creations. If Kamala

Das ftilly involves with reality itself and Ezekiel tends to be more impersonal in

realistic depiction, Damwalla distorts the reality itself and becomes more

metaphorical and symbolic like Yeats.

Modemity was available in the Indian English poetry. Ezra pound and T.S.

Eliot influenced not only English poetry but also Indian English poetry. New poets

rejected romanticism, idealism and religious beliefs of their predecessors and became

alienated from their society. Their poetry became sensuous, cerebral, symbolic and

complex. Among the modemists who made substantial contribution to the development of Indian English poetry are Nissim Ezekiel, Keki N. Damwalla, Adil

Jussawalla, Kamala Das, A. K. Ramanujan, R. Parthasarathy, Jayant Mahapatra Amn

Kolatkar, Dilip Chitre, Saleem Peeradina and several others. All have achieved a high

degree of precision, perfectness and proficiency in their English verse.

43 Daruwalla, considered as the most promising new poet, has made a substantial contribution to the development of modem Indian poetry in English. He shows major trends of modernism in his poetic expressions with a keen sense of social awareness.

He depicts his struggle to express, in a sharp satirical tone, the human predicament prevailing around him.

While probing deep into Indian English writing one has to think of Indianness which appears there consciously or unconsciously. The question of Indianness is not merely a question of the material of poetry or even of sensibility but also awareness

o f the locale and social problems. Indian English poets not only write for Indian

audience but also for a non - Indian and western audience. Even the best Indian

English poets continue to exploit Indianness, in an extremely subtle and sophisticated

manner. Thus, Ezekiel may write a poem about Indian superstition or Ramanujan a

poem about snakes, some write about river, some others about Nature and family. In

one way or the other the Indianness and Indian sensibility is reflected through Indian

English Poetry.

Indian English poets may be divided into three groups: those who have lived

for some years in the West, and thereafter returned to India; those who have decided

to make their home in the West; and those who have lived abroad for any substantial

period. Ezekiel, Moraes, Jussawalla, Parthasarathy, and Vikram Seth belong to the

first group. G. S. Sharat Chandra and Ramanujan belong to the second group. A

number of leading poets who began to publish during seventies e.g. Mahapatra,

Daruwalla, Mehrotra belong to third group. They seem to regard India as their natural home. Daruwalla’s first creative venture, Under Orion is remarkable for its pulsating quality which is essential component of Indianness. It is an impressive achievement.

Daruwalla’s poetry has remarkable quality for sharp perception of the environment.

He leaves far behind his contemporaries in the delicate painting of environment. Apparition in April is a remarkable collection for its focused intensity, its emphasis on

44 the specific social context and for its violence. What makes this second collection

different is its concentration on specific weakness within the Indian context.

Daruwalla’s next collection Crossing of Rivers has greater thematic unity than his

earlier two collections.

The Nineteen Seventies witnessed all the important collections written by

Daruwalla. He is of course, one of the most substantial of modem Indian English

poets. As a poetic craftsman, Daruwalla occupies a very high place in modem Indian

English poetry. He has expressed himself through this works using new idioms new

phrases and realistic images. Nissim Ezekiel rightly considers Damwalla’s significant

contribution to Indian English poetry. According to him Daruwalla surpasses his

contemporaries because of his depth of feeling, economy of language and originality

of insight.

Daruwalla’s Professional Life and Poetic Career

A piece o f literature is derived from one’s own observation and experience o f

the world around. Daruwalla’s poetry is also the result of his own interaction with the

extemal world. The poet has profoundly described the human emotions and passions in impressions and images. Damwalla in his book, Two Decades o f Indian Poetry: 1960-1980 describes his poetry “as a totally impressionistic recording of subjective

responses” (21).

Damwalla was a police officer for a long time which helped him to bring out

different shades of human emotions and passions in his poems. His profession gave

him an opportunity to understand the men and matters around him. The words of one of the most famous Police Officer in fiction are relevant here. George Simenon’s

Inspector Maigret observes, “We see . . . all sorts of men and women in the most

unbelievable situations at every social level.’ We see them, we take note we try to understand... our job is to study men. We watch their behaviour.” (Naik 205)

45 Daruwalla too observes the Indian scene with a trained eye. He observes the human world in his own style. His poetry is the poetry of the complete man.

Both Ezekiel and Ramanujan as professors in the academia do not have as much exposure to the outer politics of knives and guns as Daruwalla due to his profession as a police officer. “The experience he has acquired in a long professional

career as a senior police officer, reinforced by a robust temperament, gives his poems

a wide access both to the turbulence, and to the stiller impulse that is life o f India in the metropolis, the provinces and the hinterland” (Patke 260).

Unlike his other fellow academician- poets, Daruwalla does not derive poetic strength from close-door readings or classroom verbal jugglery, but from live human

situations being staged and enacted in the outer field perennially. Curfew, riot,

genocide and incidents pertaining to violence, death terror and carnage are transmuted

into poetry not for reflection, or for mere representation, but for urgent human

intervention.

In his very first collection. Under Orion, Daruwalla takes the reader straight

into a riot- tom city, into its barren streets seething with fear in the poem, ‘Curfew in

a Riot-torn City’. The graphic description is no ordinary journalese; it is a call for the

restoration o f the ordinary human self:

A thinning drizzle

has smeared the walls,

giving moss and fungus a membrance of bile....

{Under Orion 41).

Curfew is a metaphor of violence locked in us. The poet understands the limitations of curfew-controlled violence:

46 Plug all the cracks.

Fear, love and hate must crumple where they are.

Nerves exposed upon the tarmac must be hacked.

Between the outrage without and the pain

Within there should be no discourse. Passions must be

held in the disordered geometry of lanes

{Collected Poems 137)

The incidents of communal violence invariably propel Daruwalla into poetry for a response to such situation entails the larger question of responsibility of the intelligentsia to pressing social issues. From the partition to the recent Gujarat riots, nothing escapes the uncanny poetical/political attention of the poet.

Daruwalla takes much care in not letting his professional identity getting overpowered him, nor does he permit it to become a major thematic obstruction. He focuses his attention mainly on the environment that is familiar to him and paints it with his own style and technique. It has rightly been observed that Daruwalla’s poetry has remarkable quality of sharp perception of the environment. Unlike R.

Parthasarathy, he excels in his delicate painting o f environment and surcharging it with pictorial vividness.

Daruwalla has an absolute instinct for painting the landscape. He painted the ever-flowing Ganga and the territorial Ghaghra, the mighty green, gray hills and mountains, the countless trees and bamboos mating against the horizon. While depicting the rural part of India his sentiment is essentially a typical Indian. His description of landscape gives a typical Indian flavour to his poetry. It is not merely an ornamental but a living entity whose presence touches the heart o f the reader. He confronts with a complex struggle between physical realism and moral awareness.

Daruwalla’s poetry is of course not as outburst of sweet sentimentality but a criticism of life. His poetic goals are to reveal some innermost facets o f human nature. His

47 vigour, control and honesty in terms o f idiom and expression are striking. And there is enough evidence of a sensibility acutely committed to present day socio-political and cultural reality. His poetry reveals his social awareness, intellectual strength and a sharp perception o f environment and forth-right statements’.

Daruwalla reacted and reflected on whatever he saw, observed and experienced. The physical and human world around him appealed him and various aspects of contemporary Indian life found expression in controlled rhythm and also precise language in his poetry. Geoffrey Chaucer has been aptly labeled as the master of depiction of a character. He used to depict characters as if his eyes were wandering over them. Similarly Daruwalla depicts any person or any event in such a manner as if the person is present before him and the event is happening in front o f him. Daruwalla takes his reader along with him and makes him/her visualize the situation like the poet

Sir G Chaucer. His poetry is really thought provoking.

It has been almost an accepted fact that poetry must spring from the specific

soil. Poets like Manmohan Ghosh and others have attempted to extend the western poetic tradition but the quality and component of Indianness is perceptibly absent in their poetry. Daruwalla is aware of the fact that mere local colour will not help guarantee Indianness and moreover, it is a thatch-roof and cow-dung cakes variety, as he calls it. He is Indian to the core and never allows himself to go in for mere depiction of Indianness.

In response to P. Lai’s questionnaire, Daruwalla says, “Daruwalla hopped

across half the continent during his years of education and his transferable job as a police officer kept him on the move later. So it is no doubt this poet too depicts his

location, his India, in his poetry. He belongs to the world and world belongs to him unquestionably” (P. Lai 92).

48 He may thus address India angrily as mother who will crawl towards Banaras to die and call her one vast sprawling defeat’ (Collage II; Mother). He is after all the policeman whose routine is to wear ‘the putties left behind by the Raj’ who has to walk into ‘a ring o f abuse’ (Routine). He can note that during a curfew in the poem,

‘Curfew in a Riot Tom City’:

two days have passed

without turning up a corpse

( Under Orion 42).

So far as communal and social background is concerned, almost fifty percent of the poets are from Hindu family background whereas remaining fifty percent poets are of the communal groups combined. Other communal groups comprise the Parsi

(Zoroastrian community) - Daruwalla, Adil Jussawalla, Gieve Patel, Katrak,

Jhabvalla, etc. Roman Catholic - Dom Moraes, D’Souza etc. Of those from non-

Hindu background Parsi and Roman Catholics are highly prominent. English was the family language of them. Almost all the poets from other communal group have middle class family background and financially secured. Daruwalla’s father was a professor o f English. Mobility and foreign travel are also a part and parcel o f the poet.

Daruwalla has to travel places because of his job as a police officer, later he joined in government.

Chief Aspects of Daruwalla’s Poetry

Daruwalla is really a master of many poetic devices, style and techniques, narration and depiction, rhyme and rhythms, dramatic monologue, traditional

prosody, projective symbolism and unmatched and innovative imagery. He versified several common happenings, events and objects. His verse is often considered as an

uneasy mixture of freedom and control. Daruwalla moves from meter to free verse,

from rhymed to unrhymed verse easily.

49 While Daruwalla’s poems give expression to desire, memory and senses they are grounded in concrete images, characters and situations. The poems record a modem India during a ‘Curfew in a Riot - Torn City’, they (Poems) also records of

‘The Epileptic’, ‘The Beggar’, ‘The People’. The poems explain malpractice, poverty, corruption, communal tensions, diseases and the like. Daruwalla’s poetry seems private and personal. In an early statement about his poetry Daruwalla had mentioned about his ambition to write a series of intensely personal poems - all interconnected and nailed around the scaffolding o f a personal myth. Therefore we can say that

Daruwalla’s poetry is largely autobiographical in nature. It has a close relationship with his duty as a police officer and the sensitive accomplished poet in him, which touches the depth of human experience.

Daruwalla is rooted in the soil and that is why even his simplest poem has ease of language and genuineness, and avoids glamorous or superficial expressions. His poetry is a natural efflorescence, a genuine utterance. In fact his being a policeman helps to the depth and dimension of his poetry. For poet critic like Pritish Nandy the fact that a person can be good poet in spite of his being policeman should be accepted as an accomplishment for the latter.

It is quite obvious that Daruwalla’s duty as a police officer is evident in his first phase of creativity. The everyday experiences and observations of the poet have been recorded poetically. Throughout his poetry he talks about the riot he witnessed and then cleverly generalizes the particular and stamps personal experience to universal or general level.

Daruwalla is a sensitive poet by heart but outwardly he keeps a strong posture which collapses the moment he starts talking about violence, terror, state power hardnosed men in society bereft of finer sensibilities. He feels, perhaps, that many sufferings, pains and predicament of man are creations of intellectuals. The thought of

50 curfew appears for the first time in “Under Orion.” Curfew in the poem, ‘Curfew in a

Riot-torn City’ reminds of death, destruction, fear and violence:

TraiHng the siren comes the iron law;

you clamp the curfew on the outskirts now,

on the outer fringe,

the outward striate o f this whorl o f madness.

What the hell is it, you wonder; Curfew or contagion? {Under Orion 42)

Daruwalla is conscious of what happens around him and paints a true picture of it without adding any personal views. It is easily made out that the port is pointed, cutting, ironical, piercing. He is ruthless when talks about contemporary life.

Daruwalla paints picture and images in words but at the same time comments on contemporary issues rather scrupulously so that he is not misunderstood. He is cautious in lyrics as the images open up new meanings and while he keeps an eye around. When he talks o f life, death, sex, hunger, thirst and poverty, he is mostly ironical. Not only he takes pity on the life of poor but also denigrates the rich people with power who often accelerate the pace of self-aggrandizement and greed with little scruples. These burning thoughts disturb the poet and around these issues, a philosophy of apathy, hatred, violence, futility, death and waste is bom.

The policemen in their starched uniform move like cardboard made mechanical devices. In fact these men in starched khaki are supposed to bring peace among mankind but their attitude and behavior bring out the feelings o f uneasiness.

With indifference they rush with their guns cocked and feel relieved that the bullet has not claimed a corpse. Daruwalla criticized the policemen when they fail to discharge their duties. They do discharge their duties but mechanically, without involvement, and you know that none can succeed unless he pours his heart and mind together whatever work he undertakes. Daruwalla seems to attack on corruption and

51 malpractices found in the society. He ruthlessly exposes corruption, especially the

notorious and evil of bribery and widespread malpractices in ‘Graft’. Adulteration which plays havoc to public health, oils are adulterated, medicines are made of

infected vegetables- all this is reflected in Daruwalla’s poetry.

Shiv K. Kumar and Keki N. Daruwalla, poets o f sophistication and urban

background carry the impact of urban-consciousness with ignorable expectations.

These poets are suavely sensitive and have an enormous strength to use language with

ease and effectiveness that even an English author finds it difficult to excel, for, they

are clear, direct, and simple but artistically imagistic.

Kumar and Daruwalla have a distinct individual philosophy of life. A sheer touch

of powerful imagination gives a birth to extraordinary situations out of the

commonplace. An insignificant event or incident in life gets a Midas touch and turns

it into an experience of a lifetime. Daruwalla and Kumar write poetry with anguished

love and passion; and raw cynicism determines their philosophy o f life. Shiv K. Kumar’s “Broken columns'’’ and Daruwalla’s "The Night of the Jackals" are long poems with ordinary incidents but when one reads the poems, it is breathtaking

experience to move with the strong sounds and emphatic punch of the words.

Conclusion

Indian English poetry carries the message o f Indian sensibility, culture and

heritage as it is. The choice of medium of expression is justified. Slowly and steadily

English language got established and it has become the accepted language today. Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Macaulay and Lord Bentinck supported the promotion of English

languages and science in India. The spread o f English had been continuing throughout the country. A number of English words began to become familiar to

Indians and Indian words have been naturalized into English. By the end of the 18*

52 Century, English men in India had started writing poetry on local Indian subjects and with it Indian English Poetry started flourishing.

Historical amount of origin, growth and development of Indian English poetry from its very beginning to the present time convinces us that the future of this poetry is not as discouraging and disappointing as coloured by some of the west trained scholars. Indian English Poetry has now acquired an international attention and recognition. One cannot deny its importance; one should rather adopt a realistic approach in this matter. Indian English literature is as much as integral part o f common heritage.

It is no doubt that Indian English Poetry is highly influenced by English literature and its masters and then it has become one o f the varieties o f English.

Naturally, Indian English poets accepted many poetic devices from British literature but their imagery, diction and style are innovative and original. In short it can be said that Indo-English poetry started in the beginning as the work o f imitation o f style and

diction of British poets but in the course of time indo- English poetry got established

.and created separate image by developing its own style and diction and even

imagery.

Henry Derozio and Kashiprasad Ghose wrote English poetry in the early 19*

century, even before introduction and establishment of English in Indian society.

These were inspired by the English and other poets and wrote in close imitation of

their contemporary English masters. Their poetry was thus imitative and derivative

but they honestly tried to express Indian locale.Madhusan Dutt and Toru Dutt wrote

about the ancient legend of India. Sarojini Naidu wrote about the sights and sounds of

India, the poetry o f Tagore and Aurobindo is mystical and spiritual.

The characteristics of old poetry are mainly spiritualism, romanticism and

mysticism. Then there appears ‘Neo-modemists phase’. The emergence of the neo- modemist phase brought about changes in Indian English Poetry. Almost all the

53 Indian English Poets seem to have given up the use of traditional meters. They have accepted irony; their imagery is new, concrete and concise. They reacted against spiritualism, romanticism and mysticism of their predecessors. Women poets deserve to be mentioned separately because of their substantial contribution in the development of Indian English Poetry.

The post- Independence scenario forms a sizable school in modem Indian

English literature. Kamala Das (b. 1934), a bilingual writer, writes in Malayalam as well as in English. She is one of the prominent voices raised against male dominated culture. She confesses all her personal and private life and also gives direction to the

Indian confessional poetry. Almost all the Indian English Poets seem to have given up the use of traditional meters. They have accepted irony; their imagery is new, concrete and concise. They reacted against spiritualism, romanticism and mysticism o f their predecessors.

Women poets deserve to be mentioned separately because of their substantial

contribution in the development of Indian English Poetry. The post- Independence

scenario forms a sizable school in modem Indian English literature. Kamala Das (b.

1934), a bilingual writer, writes in Malayalam as well as in English. She is one of the prominent voices raised against male dominated culture. She confesses all her personal and private life and also gives direction to the Indian English Poetry unlike

British American and Canadian poetry is of mixed hue, a blend of different Cultural,

religious and socio-economic sensibilities.

Besides Kamala Das, Gauri Deshpande, Monika Varma, Lila Ray, Margaret Chatterjee, etc. have made substantial contribution to the growth and development of

Indian English poetry as most of them have come from different socio-cultural and religious backgrounds. Indian English Poets contributed to Indian English Poetry

differently e.g. experimental poetry was carried forward by Pritish Nandy which was

represented by the experimentalist like Mehrotra. Poetry of exile remains a unique

54 feature o f Indian English Poetry e.g. Ramanjun, Sharat Chandra, Shiv K Kumar and

Vikram Seth. These poets express their anger against India or their pressure Ufe in the

West, their feeling of unbelongingness, feeling of loss and biculturalism.In this way, the post independence poets continue the earlier project of painting and constructing the nation. Irrespective o f their religion and region, caste and creed, sex and society,

they hold on tight to the larger construct that contains them India which is a pluralistic

India of various traditions and cultures woven together by historical continuities.

Daruwalla’s exceptional poetic craftsmanship, flawless and picturesque

depiction of life around him gives him unique place in modem Indian English poetry .

He has successfully employed irony and satire as a major weapon to explore the

realistic socio-cultural and political, religious and regional picture of the Indian

society he lives in and he worked with. His profession helped him a lot in this

depiction of realistic picture. Daruwalla maintains the balance between the urban and

rural life. His poetry not only depicts the boredom and distortions o f urban area but

rural beauty, innocence and pathos also. Daruwalla is basically known for bringing

poetry a range of experiences generally outside the ambit of poets.

Indian English poetry has now taken for its theme various Indian subjects from

legend, folklore to contemporary Indian situations. Our poets no longer sit in ivory

towers and sing about birds and cuckoos. They are alive to their contemporary

situations. They are conscious artists who “look before and after” and try to bring

innovations both in form and content of their poetry. They are conscious of creating a

new idiom and employing new imagery in their poetry. There is variety in the post-

1960 Indian poetry in English. They do not write poetry in the conventional English

poetic diction but in live Indian English language. They speak to use in our own

situation and in a language that is spoken, heard and understood by the English educated Indians o f our country.

55 As any piece of literature is the result of one’s own observation and experiences of the world around, Daruwalla is no exception to this. His use of landscape, riverscape, valleyscape etc. gives typical Indian flavour to his poetry. It is not just ornamental and pleasing, nor an outburst o f sweet sentimentality, but a criticism of life which draws the reader’s attention to some harsh realities of life. His poetic goals are to reveal some innermost unrevealed human nature. Daruwalla’s poetry has an immediacy and anger. It means that his poetry has immediacy, a sudden reaction to the happenings around him.

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