In the second decade of the 19th century, there was a rapid spread of the English Language in India. English became the medium of thought and expression among the Indian Intelligentsia. It entered into the soul of the Indian people. The first sign of this was found in the writing of English verse by Indians. But their new experiment, however, ended with no mean poetic achievement. According to Srinivasa Iyengar, the best Indo-Anglian poets have given us something which neither English poetry nor any of our regional literature can give. They have effected a true marriage of Indian processes of poetic experience with the English formula of verse expression.
The first in the group is Derozio if we include him at all because he is not a “pucca” Indian by birth. Yet in his poetry as in “The Harp of India” or ‘’To India – My Native Land’’, he successfully exposed his heart aching for India. Most of his sonnets and lyrics glow with a genuine nationalistic favour. His long narrative poem, ‘’The Fakir of Jungheera’’ also deserve mention. Kashiprasad Ghosh is the next to come. His first volume of English poems, ‘’The Shair and Other Poems’’ is largely derivative and imitative. The influence of Scott was too much for him to be original. Equally poor is ‘’The Moon in September’’. ‘’The Boatman’s Songs to Ganga’’ is a little better having some originality. Apart from his great manipulation of English rhythm and metres, there is nothing great in his poetry. The same bent for the technical aspects of poetry can be seen in another figure, namely, Rajnarain Dutt. If Ghosh to Scott, Dutt was much indebted to Richardson. Dutt’s lengthy poem, ‘’Osmyn’’ is by no means great as a piece of poetry.
Michael Madhusudan Dutt, who dreamt of making a name as an English poet, had the celebrated epic, ‘’Meghnadbadha’’ and the famous English poem, ‘’The Captive Ladies Language’’. The influence of the English romantics, especially of Byron, Scott and Coleridge, is writ large on the subject, language and style of his " The Captive Ladies’’, ‘’Visions of the Past’’ is another collection of verses. His occasional poems like the sonnet ‘’To a Star’’ sometimes reflect his poetic talents. However, we’d better not exaggerate his poetic achievements.
‘’The Dutt Family Album’’ was another landmark in 19th century Indo-Anglian poetry. It is a famous volume of about 200 poems by the members of a single-family. The best of them was Govinda Chandra Dutt, the father of Toru Dutt. Here he showed enough of his poetic excellence in both thematic and technical aspects. The ‘’Album’’ is remarkable for the mastery and variety of metres, the range of subject matter, and the quality of style represented by poems in it. Of the other contributors to the ‘’Album’’, Girish Chandra deserves some individual mention. Sonnet is his speciality, his sonnets in ‘’Cherry Blossoms’’ give expression to the author’s experience at home and abroad. He wrote a good number of lively poems too with historical and legendary tales as their subject matter. Like him, other poets as Soshi Chandra Dutt also wrote poems on historical themes. But in conception or imagery, their poems are little Indian. Perhaps, it is their lack of confidence that made them heavily draw upon the English poetry by Englishman.
But it’s a different story when we come to Govind Chandra daughter, Toru Dutt, that ‘’frail exotic blossom of the song’’. Her verse is never merely imitative; rather it’s mostly ‘’Well-Knit, vigorous and of a pleasing variety’’. In spotter of her vast European exposure, Toru chose to write on Hindu legends and mythological lore and her heroes and heroines were Prahlad and Dhruva, Lakshman and Eklavya, Savithri and Sita. She started her carrier as a poet with translations from French poetry – ‘’A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields’’. But it’s for her original poems on Indian themes that Toru is better known. While most of the poems of ‘’Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan’’ deal with Indian myth, a few give expression to her moods and feelings. In ‘’Sita’’ and ‘’Our Casuarina Tree’’, she blended well myth, paths and her feelings. Both are similar in tone. In the context of her tragic life, the poems gain power and poignancy.
Equally vast English exposure brought in so much Englishness in Manmohan Ghose’s poetry that Oscar Wilds observed, he ought someday to make a name in English literature. Ghose began with his small contribution to ‘’Primavera’’. ‘’Love Songs and Elegies’’ is another famous collection of his poems. He sang in his early poetry of Love and Nature and the joy coming off them. In Manmohan, English flowers bloom on every page and the English seasons pass as in a pageant before our eyes. Of Indian, he truly said ‘’Lost is that country and all-but-forgotten’’.
Then in Vivekananda and Aurobindo, we found two great poets, rather, more than poets. The former is a saint-poet. Through poetry, he expressed his meditative experiences. His poems are always charged with spirituality. Aurobindo, as a translator and narrative poet, as daring experimenter or as a futurist, had a record of unparalleled poetic achievement.
Of the 20th century poets, Tagore is the real Titan. He was a mystic who sought to realise his oneness with the universal soul. Yet, he is opposed to all forms of Darren asceticism and is a lover of life. Tagore’s collections like ‘’Gitanjali’’, ‘’The Crescent Moon’’, ‘’Fruit Gathering’’ or ‘’The Gardener’’ are mere translations in English. All these glow with a great religion forever. Tagore wrote a few original verses as well. They show no less beauty than the original Bengali ones. For example, in ‘’April’’, we’re a great beauty of rhythm and movement; the freshness and dancing cadence suitable to its subject.
Sarojini Naidu combined in her the vigour and vitality of a freedom fighter with the sensitivity of a born poet. She, with her great lyrical bent, is often called ‘The Nightingale of India’. Her songs may not always have the spontaneity of a nightingale’s song, but its melody they often have. To the English-speaking world, they reveal ‘the glamour, the emotions and the mystics of Inda. Dr. Iyengen writes, ‘’she tried to cater and reproduce in English the tilt and atmosphere of some of the folk-songs, in her early poems like Bungle-Sellers’’, ‘’Palanquin-Bearers’’, ‘’Coromandel Fishers’’ and ‘’Snake-Charmer’’. Thus she only continues the tradition of Indo-Anglian poets to make India a land of mystery, romance and enchantment. In her ‘’To a Buddha Seated on a Lotus’’ or ‘’The Flute Player of Brindavan’’, we’ve even some philosophical strain. She always romanticised, glorified and mystified India. So, she is a failure to interpret India in its true colours.
Her brother Harindranath was first introduced to the literary public with the publication of ‘’The Feast of Youth’’. His early poem contains some strong notes of reflectivity and philosophic colours. ‘’The Village Image’’ is his best word picture describing Indian scenes. But with his far-fetched, complex metaphors, he often becomes obscure and artificial.
With Sarojini’s death and Indian Independence, Indo-English poetry entered a new phase of development. Mysticism, romanticism, and ornate poetic diction were then discarded. In 1959, appeared ‘’Modern Indo-Anglian Poetry’’, which summer up the newness of contemporary poetry. Being free from any imitation or propaganda, it comes to deal with some concrete experience, emotional or intellectual. Experimentation without any obscurity or eccentricity is the chief goal of modern poets. A private –voice is often heard. In the poetry of Kamala Das, we’ve her strong confessional mode and her exploration of its own. It’s distinct in the poetry of many like Kamala Das, Nissim Ezekiel, P.Lal, A.K.Ramanujan, Pritish Nandi, Gauri Deshpande, Jayanta Mahapatra and so on. Most of them, with their unique personal idiom, creative freedom and individuality, negated Allen Ginsbery’s criticism that Indo-Anglian poetry is often imitative and derivative. Their poems now display the colours of modernity, thematic variety and superb craftsmanship. Now, they suffer from no ‘’Anglo-mania’’ or sense of ‘’denationalisation’’, like Madhusudan or Manmohan.
Modern Indo-Anglian poetry is a true ‘’criticism of life’’. It faithfully pleases the contemporary social reality. Poets like Koki Daruwalla, Kamala Das and Arun Kolatkar are all concerned with the socio-political reality in a new and ironic mode. As in the present, so also the future of Indo-English poetry is bright. A.K. Mehrotra’s ‘’Nine Enclosures’’, Arun Kolatkar’s ‘’Jejuri’’, Gieve Patel’s ‘’How Do You Withstand’’ and Adil Juesawalla’s ‘’Missing Ferson’’ are acclaimed widely at home or abroad. This new poetry in English is characterised by experimentation, innovation, new imagery and realistic attitude, authentic creative urge and equally superb craftsmanship. Indo-Anglian poetry has come of age, and it is now taking new directions in the hands of its chief luminaries.
Thank you