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ENG-02-16 Institute of Distance and Open Learning Gauhati University MA in English Semester 4 Paper 16 Contemporary Indian Writing in English-I Contents: Block 1: History of Indian English Literature Block 2: Poetry (1) Contributors: Block 1: History of Indian English Literature Units 1, 2 & 3 Saurabhi Sharma Research Scholar, Dept. of English Gauhati University Block 2: Poetry Units 1 & 3 Ranjita Choudhury Dept. of English Guwahati Commerce College. Unit 2 Dr. Runjun Devi Dept. of English Mangaldoi College, Mangaldoi Units 4 & 5 Kalpana Bora Research Scholar, Dept. of HSS, IIT Guwahati Editorial Team Dr. Kandarpa Das Director, IDOL, GU Dr. Uttara Debi Assistant Professor in English IDOL, GU Sanghamitra De Guest Faculty in English IDOL, GU Manab Medhi Guest Faculty in English IDOL, GU Cover Page Designing: Kaushik Sarma Graphic Designer CET, IITG February, 2012 © Copyright by IDOL, Gauhati University. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise. Published on behalf of Institute of Distance and Open Learning, Gauhati University by Dr. Kandarpa Das, Director, and printed at Maliyata Offset Press, Mirza-781125. Copies printed 1000. Acknowledgement The Institute of Distance and Open Learning, Gauhati University duly acknowledges the financial assistance from the Distance Education Council, IGNOU, New Delhi, for preparation of this material. (2) Contents Page No. Block 1: History of Indian English Literature Block Introduction 5 Unit 1: Beginnings 7 Unit 2: Early Twentieth Century 25 Unit 3: Post-Independence Period 49 Block 2: Poetry Block Introduction 75 Unit 1: Jayanta Mahapatra 79 Unit 2: Keki N Daruwalla 103 Unit 3: Kamala Das 127 Unit 4: Adil Jussawalla 149 Unit 5: Vikram Seth 167 (3) (4) Block 1: History of Indian English Literature Block Introduction This block brings to you the literary history of Indian literature in English. As you read through this block you will read about many writers and their works. The numerous details may almost overwhelm you because unless you are familiar with the works the names by themselves will mean nothing concrete. The study of literary history can even be a fascinating subject if some ideas are explored. Indian Writing in English creates its own enigma through the nomenclature. Why “Indian” writing? Is there something special about the way that Indians use the language? Such questions are difficult to answer but are enduringly fascinating. Critics have grappled with this problematic and have posed answers that need further refinement. When we consider the fact that Indians were ‘dubashis’ in the time of the East India Company, it signifies that native people were already competent enough to handle this two-way process. The category of ‘Indian Writing’ itself brings us back to the theoretical question of what constitutes a recognisable text of ‘Indian Writing in English’. In short, the unresolved questions are many and could keep any critic occupied for a length of time. Another question that has to be confronted by anyone who studies Indian Writing in English is related to the problem of mimicry. Are Indian writers engaged in creating something resembling ‘English Literature’? Are they being merely derivative? The obvious answer is in the negative, but if this is considered in line with the notion that any national literature is a vehicle of cultural transmission, then how does the Indian writer shear the language of its cultural mooring and transform it into a tool for the utterance of another culture? Writers of significant skill and substance have fully understood this complex problem because our colonial past cannot be wished away. Nor can the raging politics behind it be wished away either. You may find it interesting to read more about this aspect of the status of Indian literature (5) and culture after the entry of the British into India. This history sets up as problems to be resolved all that it touches upon: culture, literature, languages, traditions, religious rites, administrative practices, and all other aspects of life in India. It may be useful for you to keep in mind the fact that no matter how imitative English writing in India may be pronounced, it leads us to the study of a subject whose boundaries are not tied to the ‘literary’. In order to fully understand the situation of the Indian writer in English it is perhaps necessary to go into psychology, history, anthropology, linguistics, philosophy, political history, and cultural history. This course which you are now engaged in studying is thus one of the most exciting ones to be with. This block covers the more than a hundred-year long history through three units. We are confident that you will find this division convenient and informative. Our questions are meant to make you think of the many aspects of what you are learning. Make use of the cultural knowledge you are already in possession of. It will surely add to the understanding that is required to grasp the subtleties of Indian Writing in English. Contents: Unit 1 : Beginnings Unit 2 : Early Twentieth Century Unit 3 : Post - Independence Period (6) Unit 1 Beginnings Contents: 1.1 Objectives 1.2 Introduction 1.3 Brief History of the Colonial Encounter 1.4 Beginnings of Indian Writing in English 1.5 Important Writers & Major Trends 1.6 Summing Up 1.1 OBJECTIVES This unit aims to make you aware of the complex history that lies behind the very discipline in which you are working to gain a master’s degree – English literary study in India, and how it came to be. In one sense, this is not a purely ‘literary’ history as the impulses creating this discipline in India were explicitly ‘non-literary’. Within the space of a few pages we cannot go over all the events and social currents that make up this ‘history’. Our unit therefore proposes to help you to • read critically Indian Writing in English • recover the themes that animate this writing • explore the scope of this area of literary studies. 1.2 INTRODUCTION We have already gained, from the paragraph above, the range of ideas that are clustered together within the label ‘Indian Writing in English’. We normally tend to accept without question the spread of English education in India and to think of English literary study as an extension of this phenomenon. (7) However, as we look more closely at the way in which English Literature was introduced in our educational institutions, it becomes clear that the subject always had a privileged position under colonialism. Indeed, for the colonial structures, English literary study was a powerful and apt tool for the consolidation of colonial authority in India. You will find it of particular interest to know that contrary to our familiar identification of ‘literature’ (in the English context, especially) with secular humanist movements, in the Indian context English literary study had an almost opposite role to play in keeping with missionary activity. Some of this we have compiled below for your understanding. We should point out to you here that the study of Indian Writing in English necessarily embroils us in postcolonial theories. That is natural, given that the colonial stretch of Indian history brings up questions of power, domination, cultural inequalities, cultural conflicts, and therefore the status of Indian Writing in English in general. It is for this reason that the sequence of historical events from the end of the eighteenth century till the present is of such great importance. Below, you will find a brief glimpse of this troubled history. Stop to Consider: The term “Indian English literature”- From “Commonwealth” to “Indo-Anglian” Indian English literature is generally defined as literature written originally in English by Indian authors by birth, ancestry or nationality. Indian English literature is both an Indian literature and a variation of English literature. Indians have started writing in English for communicating with one another and the outside world using English in an Indian way. The term ‘Indian English’ literature is also known as ‘Indo-Anglian’ literature or Indian writing in English. Anglo - Indian literature – the writings of the British or other Western authors regarding India cannot be a part of Indian English literature. Similarly literature in Indian languages translated into English cannot also become a part of Indian English literature unless they are not creative translations by concern authors themselves. Indian writing in English is greatly influenced by the writings in England and the Indians have had their own “Romantics”, “Victorian”, “Georgians” and “Modernists”. However, Indian English literature has contributed to the field of world writing in English in its own way. (8) K.R.Srinivasa Iyengar writes in the “Introduction” to Indian Writing in English: the difficulties surrounding the name to be given to writing in English by authors of Indian birth, ancestry, or nationality, brings up several questions relating to race, and even politically-laden notions of what is meant by ‘Indian’. As is pointed out here, “Indian literature comprises several literatures –Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kashmiri, Kannada, Maithili, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, not to mention Sanskrit, for people continue to write in it though the readers are few and far between – and Indian writing in English is but one of many voices in which India speaks.” He quotes from Sri Aurobindo: “It is not true in all cases that one can’t write first class things in a learned language. Both in French and English people to whom the language was not native have done remarkable work, although that is rare. What about Jawaharlal Nehru’s autobiography? Many English critics that it first-class in its own kind; of course he was educated in an English public school, but I suppose he was not born to that language.