Communicating Indianness in The Poetry of Nissim Ezekiel

Dr. Subhash Chander Sharma

One of the most important names in modern Indian poetry in English Nissim Ezekiel is
perhaps the most widely known among our poets whose work reveals a consistent
commitment to the craft, authenticity of articulation and sincerity of purpose.
To Ezekiel goes the credit of having ushered in a new trend in the post-independence period,
which changed the course of Indian poetry in English in theme and technique. (qtd. in Shukla
235)
The incisive quote by Krishna Sastri on Nissim Ezekiel is a tribute to his poetic
vision, worth and contribution. So much so that from 1960 onwards, it has been the age of
Ezekiel in Indian English poetry. A doyen of Indian English Literature, Ezekiel is credited
with imparting modernist sensibility to Indian poetry in English as also deftly using English
language as a means to explore the Indian mind and sensibility. He steered Indian poetry
clear of the idealism and romanticism of the earlier Indian writers in English and strived to
look at any typical Indian situation with an Indian attitude. His poetry marks the dawn of a
new era.
A close perusal of Ezekiels poetry shows that it has strong cultural overtones which
enable him to forge a link between his individual self and his surroundings. Ezekiel made
significant observations on culture and its various aspects which facilitate an analysis and
appreciation of his poetry. Unlike Eliot, Pound and Auden who came from a cultural ethos
with Eurocentric ideology Ezekiel inherited a pluralistic heritage with decenter structure
defying any common denominators, even serious attempts at defining Indianness and Indian
identify have ended up with platitudes which have perpetuated the orientalist image of India
with the age-old stereotypes of spirituality and idealism. One is prone to conceive of the idea
of Indianness as a monolithic notion radiating from the core of Vedic antiquity. This Indo-
centric bias creates a glorified construct of an imaginary India which glosses over all the
cultural specificities and heterogeneities. In fact, the multi-centrality has lent the Indian

www.ijellh.com 549
culture its predominantly syncretic character, its pluralistic tradition, its absorptive nature of
internalizing alien influences. Cultural manifestations of these multi-centred peculiarities
characterise what indinaness would mean in contrast with monolingual, totalitarian and
fundamentalist cultures existing elsewhere.
Ezekiel believes that a writer needs a national or cultural identity, without that you
become a series of limitations, echoes, responses but you do not develop because there is
nothing at the core developed.(3) As such, Ezekiel advocates broadening of the scope of
culture: Culture doesnt consist only of literature and philosophy and art and it is certainly not
acquired by adhering to the beliefs of the past and conforming to its institutional demands.
For him, its living presence is indicated in behaviour, by rich and poor alike and there are
universal human standards by which it may be judged.
Ezekiels concept of culture is critical and dynamic. While elaborating on Indianness,
he challenges the view that the Indo-English poets who, by accident of circumstance, imbibed
English with their mothers milk lost their prospect of producing that excellent flavour which
is called Native.
Again, Ezekiel strives to put into proper perspective the cultural tradition of India
when he says that Indianness is not to be confused with conservatism. The vastness of India
in respect of cultural, linguistic, ethnic and religious diversity kinds it a mini-global
proportion and Ezekiels confrontation with the culture of the country is the meeting of the
marginal with the mighty. A poets perception is shaped not only by his upbringing, the
social and environmental factors but also by the tradition and culture of the society. It is for
this reason that Indianness of Indian poetry in English is of crucial significance. A truly
Indian work is one which is about India and Indians, presents an Indian point of view and is
written in a language and style which fits well into the matrix of the Indian cultural ethos and
way of life. The secret of a poets greatness lies in his being wedded to the physical and
cultural ethos. Nissim Ezekiel observes, there is no single Indian flavour which alone can
claim the designationIndianness. Its value depends on a host of generative factors which
should never be simplified for purpose of praise or blame (80).
Unlike Jayant Mahapatra, Ramanujan or Kamala Das who did not make an effort to
acclimatize an indigenous tradition to English language, Ezekiel strives to relate himself to
contemporary India. His major themes are the Indian scene, modern urban life and spiritual
values. But basically his poetry is something that grows out of his own life and experience.

www.ijellh.com 550
He is a poet of the city Bombay, a poet of the body, and an explorer of the labyrinths of the
mind, the devious delvings and twistings of the ego.
Typical Indian beliefs, situations and contemporary society attract him the most and
he creates a new kind of poetry in Indian English idiom. His well-known poem, Night of the
Scorpion, for instance, is typically Indian in its theme and its execution is befitting to the
theme. The language of the poem is appropriate to the situation and evokes the actual scene
in the minds of the readers. The arrival of the scorpion, the act of stringing, and the
subsequent escape have been described with great skill and economy of language:
Ten hours
of steady rain had driven him
to crawl beneath sack of rice.
Parting with his poison flash of diabolic tail in the dark room
he risked the rain again. (130)
Then the chain reactions follow. Peasants who came like swarm of flies with
candles and lanterns buzzed the name of god hundred times to paralyse the Evil One (130).
The concept of sin, redemption and rebirth are all brought to bear. An important theme in the
poem is the problem of evil and suffering which is a traditional Hindu and Buddhist belief.
This point of view is appropriately enough represented by the peasants when they talk
unconsciously about a fundamental metaphysical belief: May the sum of evil / balanced in
this unreal world / against the sum of good (130).
The simpleton rustics raise the fundamental question regarding the very nature of
reality. The lines, May the sins of your previous birth/burned away tonight, (130) refer to
the doctrine of Karma and rebirth typical Indian beliefs.
They express their faith as well as practical aspect. Thus Night of the Scorpion is
one of the finest modern Indian English poems in its thematic richness and technical finesse,
and it is a poem which only an Indian English poet could have written since the experience
and the response to it recreated are rooted in the modern Indian situation. An art rooted in the
soil has freshness and a vigor which no amount of clever pastiche dressed up in sheer
technical virtuosity can hope to possess. It is a traditional poem with a thematic complexity as
noted by Chetan Karnani. Thus the theme of the poets mother stung by a scorpion is given
multiple treatments bringing in its sweep the world of magic, superstition, science, rationality
and material affection. The poem gives a new direction to ordinary reality especially of
Indian life unmediated by cold intellect. The poem ends on a positive note and finally

www.ijellh.com 551
presents an embodiment of motherhood who is ready to sacrifice her life in order that her
children may live. She is thankful that the scorpion chose her and spared her children: My
mother only said: / Thank God the scorpion picked on me / and spared my children (131).
Ezekiel reveals typical Indian sensibility in Entertainment, while describing a
monkey show. The poet brings out the poverty of the master of the show as well as the
unwillingness of the onlookers. Beneath the ordinariness of the event is revealed the
callousness of the people:
The monkey-show is on:
.......................
Anticipating time for payment,
the crowd dissolves.
Some, in shame, part
with the smallest coin they have.
The show moves on. (193-94)
English, the language of the coloniser and oppressor, has been instinctively imprinted
in the Indian psyche with prowess, competence, status and elitism all various
manifestations of masculinity in some way in Indian context. Indians craze for speaking in
English and their proclivity to grammatical in-correctness prompted Ezekiel to compose his
very Indian poems in Indian English which exploit not only the Indianism in subject matter
but the Indian way of thinking in English also. The language in three poems is based on
Indias colloquial speech and the tone is conventional. Poems like Healers, Hangover,
The Professor, Irani Restaurant Instruction are cases in point. Here, Ezekiel uses English
the way most unlettered Indians write and speak:
No Indian whisky Sir all important this is Taj.
Yes Sir soda is Indian Sir.
Midnight.
Taxi-strike. George Fernandes.
...................... .........
Half the day hazy with the previous night. (232)
In poems like The Railway Clerk, The Patriot, Soap and others, Ezekiel
presented a delightful specimen of unselfconscious Indian English at its best. The Patriot is
a portrait of a confused mind which has withdrawn into a parody of Gandhism, mistaking
platitudes for thought and action. The patriots aversion to foreign thing and goods is alive

www.ijellh.com 552
even in post-colonial India. One fully remembers that Indian freedom movement was incited
by anti-colonial sentiments and an abominable disgust with all that was foreign and injurious
to national interests. The protagonist in The Patriot is alert to admonish the modern
generation of its potential hazards. The apprehension that imperialism might entrap the
country again if lure for non-native goods is allowed to go unabated and unrestrained. The
lure of the foreign things prompts the patriot to glorify whatever is swadeshi or indigenous.
The post-colonial situation enjoins upon the artist to devise a two pronged strategy to
resist the temptation of imported goods in these global times and at the same time to serve as
a watchdog of national imperatives threatened to subversion by colonising forces. If the artist
is able to devise strategy to counter such subversive forces he redeems his duty towards his
mother land and in a way prove his masculine credentials. In this sense Ezekiel stands out
prominently. He exposes certain remnants of and habits of the colonial era which Indians
cannot easily wish away. One such infatuation among Indians is to achieve proficiency and
competence in English the instrument through which the Empire transformed the thinking
and tastes of the natives and exploited their resources. The urge to communicate in English is
inherent in the colonized and at times it reaches ridiculous distortions in respect of faulty
speech patterns and grammatical in-correctness. The protagonist in the piece, Soap,
unabashedly voices this colonial fancy even at the cost of the national language, Hindi: So
Im saying very politily / though in Hindi Im saying it, / and my Hindi is not so good as
my English (209).
Ezekiels very Indian Poems are subtle comments on Indians fancy for English and
the way it is used in India. The imposed overconfidence about accomplishments in English
has been creatively exploited by Ezekiel with utmost transparency. He seems to have a
repertoire of inaccuracies in the use of English language, prominent among them being
dropping of articles, wrong use of prepositions, using imperfect or continuous tense in place
of simple or indefinite one and above all Indians craze for employing idioms:
Whole world is changing. In India also
We are keeping up. Our progress is progressing.
Old values are going, new values are coming.
Everything is happening with leaps and bounds. (239)
The most recurrent feature, ing form so common with Indian people, is seen in
poems like The Patriot, Goodbye Party to Miss Pushpat S., and The Railway Clerk. In
Goodbye Party for Miss Pushpa T.S., he writes:

www.ijellh.com 553
 Miss Pushpa is smiling and smiling
even for no reason
but simply because she is feeling.
Miss Pushpa is coming
from very high family.
....................
Whenever I asked her to do anything,
She was saying, Just now only
I will do it. That is showing
good spirit. I am always
appreciating the good spirit.
Pushpa Miss is never saying no.
Whatever I or anybody is asking
She is always saying yes,
and today she is going
to improve her prospect,
and we are wishing her bon voyage. (190-191)
Have the poet has a dig at another colonial residue to visit abroad for career prospects.
Ezekiel in this poem also disparages the distorted form of a colonial practice to deliver
adulatory speech at farewell parties without really meaning them.
The Railway Clerk and Irani Restaurant Instruction are representative pieces of
Indian English. The former is a moving picture from static to sympathy:
My wife is always asking for more money.
Money, money, where to get money?
My job is such, no one is giving bribe,
while other clerks are in fortunate position. (184)
The Irani Restaurant Instruction is again an illustrative piece:
Do not write letter
Without order refreshment
Do not comb
Hair is spoiling floor
Do not make mischief in cabin
Our waiter is reporting

www.ijellh.com 554
 Come again
All are welcome whatever caste
If not satisfied tell us
Otherwise tell others
God is great. (240)
Thus, the fragments of clerical life with deep colonial imprints form the thematic
content of the poem titled The Railway Clerk. The protagonist complains against the
apathy of the higher authorities who twice refused his leave application thus denying him the
pleasure of sometime off the monotonous daily routine. Interestingly, he finds fault with his
lot My job is such, no one is giving bribe, while other clerks are in fortunate position
(184). This longing for a corrupting gift has its origin in the colonial regime. By conferring
honours on the native princes, landlords and influential people with decorative titles like
Raibahadur and also by granting special privileges in terms of cash and kind to them which
were nothing short of a refined bribery, the British enlisted their active support and thus the
Empire sent down firm roots which took more than a couple of centuries to dislodge them.
Given his pecuniary constraints, the ambition of the clerk to visit some foreign countries is a
marriage.
Again, the colonial replica of the so-called steel frame the Indian bureaucracy and
its typical mindset has been satirized in the poem, The Truth About The Flood, a flood
poem based on a report in The Indian Express, 25 September, 1967. Its focal thrust is on the
anger and annoyance of people against government officials, including the District
Magistrates of Balasore and Cuttack. The poem delineates them pitiably lacking in their pre-
independence predecessors efficiency and competence, yet these white collar job men
retain all aura of colonial hangovers, used to enjoying all prerogatives, these vestiges of
British regime do not hesitate to move out in all paraphernalia even during the calamities like
flood only to show off their positions. The refrain until I convinced them I wasnt a
government official underlines the villagers hatred against the officials who were simply
interested in collecting statistics and doing paperwork. To pass the back on others is the
secret of success in governmental positions tenaciously handed down to post-colonial India.
The district authorities at Balasore while admitting their failure to provide proper relief to the
flood-affected people blamed nature for manipulating their fiasco:
Nature, they said,
had conspired against them.

www.ijellh.com 555
 Write the truth, they said,
in your report.
And so I did. (188)
Nissim Ezekiel deserves full credit for honestly reporting the truth which lies in the
exposure of colonial mode of governance. The poet also exposes the method in the pretended
politeness which again is an English vestige as expressed in In India. Nissim Ezekiel
argues that the British try to endear themselves through superficial things like courtesy,
though they render grave harms such as violating chastity. The English boss sexually assaults
his Indian subordinate and offers her a safety pin to organize her disarrayed clothes by way of
showing his civility and affability:
The struggle had been hard
And not altogether successful.
Certainly the blouse
Would not be used again.
But with the true British courtesy
He lent her a safety pin
Before she took the elevator down. (134)
The British acquired India not as much through violence and wars as through
politeness and civility. The British courtesy was a powerful weapon in the hands of the
colonisers and its effective use dates back to the Mughal emperor, Jahangirs era when
Thomas Roe presented himself as an English ambassador all humble and courteous, asking
for trade permission. British colonisation was a slow and steady but calculated design and
India was taken over through quiet, treachery, deceit and deception cloaked in suaveness,
civility and courtesy.
The poet also dwells on another legacy of the colonial rule inordinate delay in legal
system. After independence, when India had to frame its constitution anew, ironically
enough, it was modeled on British parliamentary system. There is certainly some logic when
they say habits die hard and one would add colonial habits never die. In the piece, Undertrial
Prisoners, in Songs of Nandu Bhande, Ezekiel disapproves of existing colonial Jail laws
with their complex and circuitous procedures to meet the ends of justice especially from the
humanist point of view. The under trial prisoners have to rot in jails for years together before
trial against them gets initiated:
We have our rules

www.ijellh.com 556
 made long ago
hes got to wait,
the law says so.
its not our fault
he lives in jail. (CP 241)
The rules and regulations made long ago in pre-independence days need to be
modified and recast in view of the changed situations when the ex-colonized themselves have
to administer justice to the guilty from amongst them. The poem, however, does not plead for
reducing the quantum of punishment. It lays all stress on the quick and speedy disposal of
litigations to ensure that the victim gets relief at the earliest and the culprit brought to book
with the barbarity of his heinous crime still fresh in his memory. The red-tapism best defined
colonial strategies and this satire on officialdom demonstrate how persons involved in it
forget to distinguish between their office duties and their personal lives. They conduct
themselves mechanically so much so that even a solemn institution like marriage calling upon
emotional impulses gets the typical official treatment in their hands. Instructions to the
prospective husband through living as a neighbour at the moment exhibit that human element
has completely dried up and Macaulays design to produce English knowing clerks in 1933
has achieved something still in that the traces of Empire are too deep to be effortlessly
bleached out:
When the female railway clerk
Received an offer of marriage
From her neighbour the customs clerk,
She told him to apply in triplicate,
And he did. (275)
It seems colonial imprints run too deep in the psyche of Indians which colour their
general demeanor. Ezekiel emerges truly a postcolonial poet whose poetry portrays pos-
colonial attitudes of Indians as reflected in their typical use of a foreign language, mannerism
and general demeanour. In his very Indian poems Ezekiel succeeds in creating the authentic
impression of India, its people and places, and in giving the peculiar flavour of the language
as used by English loving and status conscious Indian belonging to the middle class Indian
society. His experiment in the levity and frivolity of Indian English has a more serious
purpose than ridiculing these peoples inordinate craze for foreign things, manners and
language. Joseph Furtado was the first to try his hands in 1920 in Pidgin or Bazar English.

www.ijellh.com 557
But it was Nissim Ezekiel who made serious efforts to exploit the resources of Indian English
and its nuances and eminently succeeded. A substantial part of his success goes to his
meaningful experimentation with his medium, his constant endeavour to find the right
medium the exact name for his self-expression. Nissim Ezekiel thus imparted the Indian
English poetry a distinct character and gave it its own authentic voice and rightful place.
Herein lies Ezekiels strength as an Indian poet in English.

www.ijellh.com 558
Works Cited:
Dodiya, Jaydipsinh K, ed. Indian English Poetry: Critical Perspectives. New Delhi:
Sarup and Sons, 2004. Print.
Ezekiel, Nissim. Collected Poems. 2nd edition. New Delhi: OUP, 2013. Print.
---. Selected Prose. New Delhi: OUP, 1992. Print.
Naik, M. K. A History of Indian English Literature. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 2012.
Print.
Nair, Anup C., and Rajesh I. Patel. Nissim Ezekiel the Poet: A Birds Eyeview. Dodiya
247-59.
Reddy, T. Sasikant. Composite Cultural Reflections in the Selected Poems of Nissim
Ezekiel. Indian Poetry in English: Critical Essays. Ed. Zinia Mitra. New Delhi: PHI
Pvt.Ltd., 2012. Print. 265-78.
Singh, Kanwar Dinesh. Contemporary Indian English Poetry: Comparing Male and
Female Voices. New Delhi: Atlantic, 2008. Print.
Shukla, Anant R. Indianness in the Poetry of Nissim Ezekiel. Dodiya 235-46.

www.ijellh.com 16