Indian English Literature

434 Pages·2.006 MB·English

by  Unknown

Evolution of Indian English Poetry
Introduction
A probe into the aetiology of Indian English literature reveals that the impact of
the West in shaping its foundations is undisputed. The presence of the West and
more so of the East India Company and their collective efforts to promote and
spread English in a country like India that has been markedly characterised by a
multiplicity of languages is in itself intriguing. The enthusiasm demonstrated by
the Indians towards the spread of English in India accentuated the policy of the
British to go ahead in rendering meaning to their proposed venture.
The growth of Indian English literature is the attempt of a re-awakened national
spirit to find a new mode of self-expression. In other words, Indian English
literature begins with a spirited effort to re-discover India’s glory in the past. It is
quite remarkable that scholars like Sir William Jones who founded the Bengal
Asiatic Society as early as 1784, H. T. Colebrooke who authored “Degist of
Hindu Law on Contracts and Succession” and James Prinsep were scholars with
a passion for oriental culture. They were the representative white men in India
who were not just persuaded by imperial motives of expanding their territories
but also perpetually strived for a consummation of the Indian ethos.
M. K. Naik in his book The History of Indian English Literature catalogues the
following as factors that prepared the climate for the growth of Indian writing in
English:
(a) The pressing need for Indian clerks, translators and lower officials in
administration;
(b) With the rise of the Evangelical Movement in Britain, the ideal of spreading
the word ofChrist among the colonised natives assumed vital importance for
some Englishmen;
(c) The functioning of missionary schools which taught English besides the
vernacular languages;
(d) The secret motive of dismantling the sanctimonious tenets of Hinduism and
the pretention that the spread of English would serve the purpose of a potent
weapon to civilise the Indians whom they regarded as lesser breeds without any
law;
(e) The East India Company also thought that the spread of English education
among the natives would lead to the assimilation of Western culture by the
Indians and that this would stabilize the administrative set up.
In addition, there were certain other factors that prepared the climate of for the
growth of Indian English literature. In the first place, it was Raja Rammohan
Roy who championed the cause of English education. In his famous “Letter on
English Education”, addressed to the Governor-General Lord Amherst in 1823,
Roy vehemently argued against the establishment of a Sanskrit school in
preference to one imparting English education. In 1816,Roy established an
association to promote European science and learning which led to the
foundation of The Hindu College at Calcutta on 20th January, 1817. Secondly, it
was Macaulay’s famous Minute on Education of 1835 that intensified the pace of
what Roy had advocated so far. Lord William Bentinck, the then Governor-
General, accepted the extremist stance and recommendations of Macaulay in
favour of English education and in 1835unequivocally declared that the great
object of the British government ought to be the promotion of European
literature and science among the natives of India, and all funds appropriated for
the purpose of education would be best employed on English education alone.
However, Sir Charles Wood tried to correct the extremism of this policy and in
his Despatch of 1854 observed that the object of extending European knowledge
to all classes of people must be realised by means of adopting the English
language in the higher branches of instruction and by that of the vernacular to
the great mass of people. This led to the establishment of the first three Indian
Universities—those of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras—in 1857. Thus, the
growth of the Universities was one of the cardinal factors that prepared the
groundwork for the resurgent Indian genius which within a short duration
ushered in a renaissance in various fronts: political, social, cultural and literary.
With the passage of time, the initial hiccups that surfaced with the introduction
of English in India gradually subsided for the better. Thus, what we have today is
a body of Indian writing in English that has transcended spatial barriers to
disseminate to the world the patterns of Indian life and thought and its trans-
cultural felicities.
The entire gamut of Indian English poetry or Indo-Anglian poetry (as it was so
called during the pre-independence era) spanning nearly a hundred and fifty
years, written by the British serving in India and on Indian themes, began during
the 80s of the eighteenth century. In general, the history of Indo-Anglian poetry
began with Henry Louis Vivian Derozio who was half- Indian and half-
Portuguese. As a teacher of English in the Hindu College, Calcutta, he inspired a
number of young and dynamic youths with a love for the English language and
literature. The first quarter of the nineteenth century was the period of incubation
for Indo-Anglian poetry and Derozio was then the moving spirit. The publication
of Indo-Anglian poems by Indian poets like Kashi Prasad Ghose, Gooru Churn
Dutt, Rajnarayan Dutt,M. M. Dutt assumed prominence during the second
quarter of the century. The famous Minuteof Macauley on Indian education
which popularised the teaching of English language in the vernacular medium
further helped to promote the growth and development of Indo-Anglianpoetry.
It is worth mentioning that Indo-Anglian poetry took shape under the enervating
influences of English romanticism which accounted for the excessive
preoccupation of the then Indian poets with romantic themes and subject matter.
It learned to lisp in the manner of Byron and Scott in the poems of Derozio, M.
M. Dutt and others. The deeper tone and accents of romanticism were caught by
poets who came later during the third quarter of the nineteenth century. Govind
Dutt, the father of Toru Dutt was the first to introduce the introspective vein in
poems like ‘Romance’ and ‘Wordsworth’ respectively. The process of
assimilating romanticism in all its variegated aspects continued well on into the
century and even later. Shelley, for instance, found his earliest and best disciple
in Tagore. At the same time, the impact of Victorian poetry was being felt on the
Indo-Anglian scene.
Genuine lyric poetry and lyrical narrative poetry both of the Romantic and
Victorian type came fully into vogue in the last quarter of the nineteenth century
with the generation of Toru Dutt. “A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields” by Aru
and Toru Dutt was published in 1875. Toru Dutt’s “Ancient Ballads and Legends
of Hindustan” was published in 1882 followed by R. C. Dutt’s “Lays of Ancient
India” and his renderings of the Ramayana and theMahabharata that were
published in 1894, Manmohan Ghose’s “Love Songs and Elegies”(1898) and Sri
Aurobindo’s “Songs to Myrtilla” (1895) and Sarojini Naidu’s “The Golden
Threshold” (1905) were some of the prominent works that echoed the Romantic
and Victorian sentiment. While the other poets of this quarter continued in the
Romantic and Victorian strain, or even emulated the satirical tradition of Dryden
and Pope, Manmohan
Ghose, Sri Aurobindo and Sarojini Naidu who had spent their impressionable
years in England when the Decadent poets dominated the scene, revealed the
strong influence of this trend in their early poems. It is interesting to note that
‘decadence’ became the main feature of both Manmohan Ghose’s and Sarojini
Naidu’s poetry. However, the introduction of Indian themes gave a new vitality
to Naidu’s poetry. Sri Aurobindo very soon surpassed the manner of his “Songs
of Myrtilla” and blazed a new trail in poetry which many were to follow later.
The last quarter of the nineteenth century is, on the whole, the golden period of
Indo-Anglianpoetry.
It would be quite unjust if we do not take into consideration the contribution
made by the stalwarts of Indian English poetry who in the first place solidified
the edifice of a literature which catered to the then public taste. English literature
is a foreign literature but its appropriation to suit the Indian condition by
improvising it is something quite commendable. Eminent and prolific writers
like Raja Rammohan Roy, Henry Louis Vivian Derozio,Romesh Chunder Dutt
and Sri Aurobindo and Rabindranath Tagore among many others made possible
the concept of an Indian literature in the English language for which all later
generation of writers stand indebted till date.
Raja Rammohan Roy
The renaissance in modern Indian literature begins with Raja Rammohan Roy
(1772-1833), often called ‘the father of Bengal Renaissance,’ who was born in
Bengal on 22nd May 1772. It was when working with Digby, a British Official
that Raja Rammohan Roy completed his mastery of the English language.
Leaving company service, Roy returned to Calcutta in 1814 and started the
Atmiya Sabha and also launched himself on the consciousness of the Calcutta
society. What stirred him to action was the plight of the Indian widows, the
darkness of superstition,the miasma of ignorance and the general backwardness
of the country. Although attracted by Christianity, Roy realised that the bigoted
Christians were as conceited as the bigoted Hindus. With the starting in 1821 of
Sambad Kaumudi, a weekly paper, Roy was able to make abolder and more
sustained onslaught on the forces of prejudice and reaction.
In the first place, Rammohan Roy was an intensely religious man, a Hindu
Brahmin who felt that quintessential Hinduism is identical with quintessential
Islam and Christianity. He was also aware that to spread the gospels of humanity
was the message of all these great faiths and it was with this universal outlook
that he formed the Brahmo Samaj. Roy’s idea was to unite India through the
common worship of one God by the members of all denominations. In the
second place, he was a great humanist and a social worker who waged a battle
against the monstrous custom of Suttee. Fortunately enough, the unanimous
agreement with Lord William Bentinck, the then Governor-General of British
India, made it possible to abolish Suttee in 1928.
As a writer, Roy edited periodicals in three different languages—The
Brahummunical Magazine in English, Sambad Kaumudi in Bengali and Mirat-
ul-Akhbar in Persian. The earliest of his writings on religion were in the form of
translations: An Abridgement of the Vedanta and Renderings of the Upanishads.
He wrote his first original essay in English with the title “A Defence of Hindu
Theism”. This was followed by “A Second Defence of the Monotheistical
System of the Vedas”. His works on the plight of women in orthodox Hindu
society were numerous and deserves credit.
Roy never literally engaged in poetry which might lead the reader to ponder on
the logic of introducing him in this module. The logic is that he was the guiding
star of Indian English literature and that although he himself never dabbled in
poetry, he solidified the very edifice of a literature that has intrinsic merit and
depth.
Henry Louis Vivian Derozio
The first Indian poet of note, Henry Louis Vivian Derozio (1809-1831) was the
son of an Indo-Portuguese father and an English mother. After completing his
schooling, he first tried his hand at journalism before quitting the Hindu College
at Calcutta as a lecturer. His fearless spirit of inquiry, indomitable courage, his
reformist idealism and his romantic enthusiasm fired the imagination of the then
young generation.
Derozio’s poetic career was very short lived. He published two volumes of
poetry: Poems and The Fakeer of Jungheera: A Metrical tale and Other Poems.
His most successful poems are his sonnets which show a strong influence of
British romantic poets in theme, sentiment, imagery and diction along with some
traces of neo-classicism. His satirical verse “Don Juanics’ and the long narrative
poems clearly indicate his special affinity with Byron.
The Fakeer of Jungheera is an extremely competent narrative of the tragic life of
Nuleeni, a high-caste Hindu widow, rescued from the funeral pyre by a young
robber-chief whose love she returns. In this fast moving tale, Derozio skilfully
employs different metres to suit the changing tone and temper of the narrative.
A noteworthy feature of Derozio’s poetry is the burning nationalist zeal which is
somewhat quite phenomenal. His poems “To India—My Native Land”, “The
Harp of India”, and “To the Pupils of Hindu College” have an unmistakable
authenticity of patriotic utterance. Derozio was also a pioneer in the use of
Indian myths and legends as well as of Western classical myths. However, as fate
would have it, he unfortunately died of Cholera in 1831 at the age of twenty two.
Nevertheless, his contribution to Indo-Anglian poetry is undoubtedly grand and
high.
Romesh Chunder Dutt
Romesh Chunder Dutt (1848-1909) began his career first as a novelist writing in
Bengali with works like The Lake of Palms, The Slave Girl of Agra, Todar Mall,
Sivaji and Pratap Singh. His The Lake of Palms and The Slave Girl of Agra are
English renderings of the original Bengali version. The other three were
translated into English later by his son Ajay Dutt. Among the various
meritorious historical surveys that he had made, those important include A
History of Civilization in Ancient India, The Economic History of British India
and A Brief History of Ancient and Modern Bengal.
It is however as a translator of Indian poetry into English verse that R. C. Dutt’s
significance needs to be taken into account. As a poet, he rendered into English
representative Sanskrit poetry sacred as well as secular from the Rig Veda to the
later classical period of Kalidas and his successors. As a translator, Dutt was face
to face with a host of difficulties. He had to strive hard for elevating the level of
his translations to such a degree where not only should the originality of the
matter be preserved but also the handling of the foreign language should be of
substance and merit. Although he did not succeed in retaining the originality of
the matter and manner of both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, he did
however succeed in introducing these Indian epics to millions of English readers
who otherwise would have never heard of them. His position in Indian English
literature will always be seen as a novelist and a poet vested with an outstanding
potential to make the translated material as effective as possible.
Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo’s (1872-1950) career is a glorious chronicle of progress from that
of a patriot to poet, yogi to seer. Being an accomplished classical scholar, the
hallmark of Aurobindo’s poetry is a mystical experience which he describes as
“Narayana Darshana” (or to envision the visage of
God). His long poetic career spanning sixty years yielded an impressive volume
of verse of several kinds: lyrical, narrative, philosophical and epic.
His early “Short Poems” celebrates the themes of love, sorrow, death and liberty
in a typically romantic style and is coloured by the writer’s acquaintance with
Greek literature. The note of rapturous mystic awareness in “Short Poems” is
unfolded in pieces like “Invitation” and “Revelation”. Besides, in “Short
Poems”, Aurobindo attempts reflective and symbolic verse. The ‘Poems in New
Metres” contains some of his best known mystical lyrics like “The Bird of Fire”,
“Thought the Paraclete”, and “Rose of God”. The longer poems of the early
period are three complete narratives: “Urvasie”, “Love and Death” and
“Baji Prabhou”. “Urvasie” which is written in blank verse deals with the Indian
legend of King Pururavus and his love for the celestial damsel Urvasie. The use
of similes, set descriptions and the grandiloquent diction elevates it to the level
of Milton’s grand work Paradise Lost. The central theme of “Love and Death”
is love and the poem is based on an ancient Hindu legend of Puru, son of the
rishi (sage) Bhrigu and his beloved Priyamvada, the daughter of the celestial
nymph Menaka. Here again, an essentially lyrical narrative is
unsuccessfully sought to be given an epic colouring. The poem is characterised
by Miltonic similes and Latinised diction. “Baji Prabhou” which deals with
military heroism is founded on the historical incident of the heroic self-sacrifice
of Baji Prabhou Deshpande who to cover Sivaji’s retreat, held the pass of
Rangana for two hours with a small company of men against twelve thousand
Mughuls.
Sri Aurobindo experimented much with the quantitative metre (hexameters). His
two most ambitious efforts in quantitative hexameters are “Ilion” and “Ahana”.
The “Ilion” is set against the backdrop of the Trojan War and deals with the
clash between Achilles and the Amazonian Queen Penthesilea. On the other
hand, “Ahana” is the Divine Dawn who descends into the world and is greeted
by the ‘Hunters of Joy’, ‘The Seekers of Knowledge’, and ‘The Climbers in