Introduction
Given its unique capacity to assimilate divergent mores India has adopted various languages with perfect ease and equanimity over the centuries. The important acquisition among them is English, the language of our British colonisers. It has almost been naturalised as a popular medium of expression by a number of Indian poets, novelists, dramatists and essayists who claim parity with their counterparts in the English speaking countries of the world. Despite the raised eye-brows and frowning faces of the votaries of Swadeshi questioning the efficiency of English as a suitable medium to depict the Indian situation, we have a galaxy of litterateurs like Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan, Raja Rao, Nirad C. Chaudhury, Nissim Ezekiel, A.K. Ramanujan, Dom Moraes, Vikram Seth, the Booker-awardee Arundhati Roy and the Pulitzer Prize-winner Jhumpa Lahiri who have canonised Indian Writing in English as a vital component of Commonwealth literature. This spectacular emergence of Indian writing in English has a long history which dates back to the colonial times when English used to be the language of British rulers and a few aristocratic Indians who were deeply (and flatteringly also) enthralled by this language of their subjugators. Apart from the English writings which appeared in prose, the earliest attempt in the field of poetry was made in 1825 by Cavelly Venkata Ramaswami who translated into English Arasanipala Venkatadhvarin's Viswagunadarsana. Henry Louis Vivian Derozio (1809-31) is credited as the first Indian poet in English who brought out two volumes in verse-Poems (1827) and The Fakeer of Jungheera: A Memorial Tale and Other Poems (1828), which demonstrates his strong affinity with My Native Land," Byron. His shorter pieces like "To India "The Harp of India" and "To the Pupils of Hindu College" have "an unmistakable authenticity of patriotic utterance which stamps Derozio as an Indian English poet who is truly a son of the soil." He initiated a tradition of writing poetry in English which can be easily divided in two phases the pre-Independence and the post-Independence. Derozio, Kashiprasad Ghose, Rajnarain Dutt and Michael Madhusudan Dutt are among the significant poets of the earlier part of the pre-Independence phase. After the great mutiny of 1857 rightly regarded by many as the first war of Independence, and the atrocities heaped upon the revolutionaries, there was an upsurge of nationalistic fervour among Indians. Fired with a patriotic zeal some Indians like Swami Dayanand Saraswati and Vivekanand took to reawakening the nationalistic spirit among countrymen to repudiate the false notion of British superiority and to assert the glorious past of India. While on the other hand, there were others who were swayed by the British pelf and power and pledged themselves to the English. Not only were they attracted to their political or social positions, but most of them proselytized themselves to Christianity also. To this period and group belong the Dutts Govind Chander, Hur and Chander, Girish Chander, Umesh Chander, Toru and Aru Man Mohan Ghose who was the elder brother of Sri Aurobindo. The Dutt Family Album (1870) comprising poems by the members of the Dutt family recently converted to Christianity betray their slavish attitude to everything that was British. Another poet Nobo Kissen Ghose known as Ram Sharma (1837-1918), on the other hand, wrote with some genuineness and authenticity and can be considered as the first mystic poet of Indian English poetry. His volumes include Willow Drops, The Last Day: A Poem and Miscellaneous Poems. His poetry, however, hangs between two extremes at the one end he shows admiration for the British rulers while on the other he praises nationalists like Swami Vivekanand. Ram Sharma was extremely overpowered by the love for the West to the extent of expressing his responses to the Indian experiences through the myths of the West.
About The Book
Nissim Ezekiel is one of those few men of letters who become legends in their life-time. A playwright of credentials, a critic of encyclopaedic range and an academician in his own right, Ezekiel will, however, be remembered primarily as a poet. His poetic odyssey spanning a period of over half-a-century saw the publication of eight volumes including the Akademi Award winning title Latter-Day Psalms. His first book, the epoch-making A Time to Change introduced the Modernist element in Indian poetry in English. A winner of several coveted laurels including the prestigious Padma Shri for his contribution to 'Indian Literature in English, Ezekiel became a phenomenon in the later half of the twentieth century. a The present book claims to provide, for the first time, a systematic graph of Ezekiel's expanding poetic sensibility taking into account the whole gamut of his poetic output. Beginning with significant biographical details and formative influences, it formulates Ezekiel's poetic creed, literally 'workshop criticism' to use T.S. Eliot's terminology. Worked out in three well-marked phases the Romantic, the Realist, and the Humanist-the book discerningly examines the stylistic niceties of this versatile artist. The concluding chapter demonstrates how cultural anguish and anxiety which inform his early poetry finally yield to an unusual sense of acceptance and affirmation-'My backward place is where I am.' The post-colonial poetry in English owes much to Ezekiel for creative fecundity, critical insight and astute craftsmanship. The present book asserts its indispensability for offering a perceptive critique of one of the father-figures among contemporary Indian men of letters.
About The Author
Sanjit Mishra had his higher education at the Banaras Hindu University where he obtained a First class at the M.A. examination in 1995. He earned his Doctorate from his alma subsequently. He has mater published research articles on Indian poets like Kamala Das, Ezekiel and Ramanujan among others. Currently, he is working on a post-doctoral project in contemporary poetry. Dr. Mishra is Lecturer in English in a Govt. Post-Graduate College affiliated to Rajasthan University.
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