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Modern Indian Poetry in English
Modern Indian Poetry
in English
Revised Edition

BRUCE KING

OXFORD
liN J Vl!RSI f'i PRESS
 Preface to the Revised Edition

This book consists of the original A1od~m lnduzn

first published in 1987 and slightly updated tn 1
new chapters. Wriucn in 1999, the new chapters rC2lJ
t cr c1 nUtrk ,roxro1d 1huvrrsity PrcS!i
sn themselves, survey developments in the pre\ 0
UK nl1n f'Mlllll oth r count rll'5 Chronology h.ts also uccn brought up to date in th cd
Along with Jiscu~>sions of recent books by establ1 hcd
f'ullhsh d 111 Jndtil new anthologies, and changes tn publishing and 1he
1J X1 nJ Un1v1 a IIV I New Deihl
the main new fc.uurc.o; nre .1 long essay on Agha Shah d
xl rd UuiVrDily I' res 2001 emerged a~ a maJor poet, and two chapters on s1gnifi
1 of 11 x thor h \1' b n r.seftcd
and what they reprcscm. tvbny will regard these as du~ _._,.,....,__
chapters of the book, but there is continuity as m~
(1 t.'lker)
sud1 as Agha Shahid Ali, Meena Alexander and B b
already mentioned in the first ec.lirion but were not
for reasons of space or because rhey had no1 pubhshed
Since lt1otl~m Indian J~urry in English first appeared 1\n
Mchrotra, Eunice de Souza and Makarand Parana~
unpormnt nmhologie.s which have brought new potts t
rcv1scd dac t.anon. As I re.1d reviews of poet.s b) poets.
h:ave \Hill aw ~rJs, .md discussed with poets theu rr:,~,,.......,~"'­
work of od1c , .l paHern emerged. Fin<1lly. how~
:.ts tlus depends on suhjecrive choic~:s. There were
thouglu ex~:;clleJH, others who seemed co me l
unpuhli!lhcd .tre.ts ufsot.:i.1l or cultural experien<X
brought intu dac hook. I do nor claim chat chese
llltt·rcsting new poets in lndia. The1e arc • fe,,
•bout but evcntu tlly dccsded not to include ~
work und no pod v.'3s willing ro convin~o.e me 1' '
can wruc. bour them. In some cas·~. I h H' l't"
I IJt tv 1 aty p pas!i O'>cr eHr.tl )Oung poets who c: wo1k i~ e ~ •
I N w 114"1111 I 10 001 not )C:l pubhshed a .. olumc: of poe11y n t ''h 1
H

Preface to the First Edition

In tha anuoductlon to the English-langu:age poetry of lnd1:a since

nauonal andepcndencc I wiiJ first be c.oncerned wnh It$ ha tory, how
II canon of &~gnafiant authors, hooks and text i bc:ang formed, rhe
> 1al background of the poet,, their market and reader , and the
Bruu KJng maan aesthetics of their work. Sub cquently I will di6\.-u du: most
•gnaficanr poet: , Nissim Eze~ R. Parthasarathy, A K. IU!manujan,
Kamal Jlal.., AJIT Juss<~waiJa, Arvand Krishna Mehrotra, Jayama
Mahapatra, G S. Sharat Chandra, Gievc Patel, Arun Kolarhr, Dallp
hurc:, E 1111 c: de Souza, Sanun Rodngues, Manohar Shcuy, alecm
~ radiO , M I me Silgardo, Vtkram Sclh and others, before ofTerang
a hronology of publscauons JOUrnal and events. This ss the first
comprchcn ave: tudy of modern Indian poetry an Engl1sh and my
appro h as ha toracal cuhural, socrologsal and Jnernry
My rcacarch and 60me ofthe writing took pl"ce in India dunng 1984
on a {llJOWihtp from the: Amen n In mute off ndian !Udses. Widaout
th u 1 n month grant I could not h:.v started. I m al o happy ro
acknowledg rhat a pcraod as a Ki11olar 111 rc:.sadcncc ar the Rockcfc:llc:r
Foundauon Research Center an Dellagio, Italy, allowed me: to wnrc:
or revue 10me haptcr5an cxcremely plc:lS:lnt urmunJi11gs. A N;ationaJ
Endowment for rhc Humaniucs iummer stipend 111 I CJ85 allowed
me ro omplccc my manuscnpr Fanally, Jam indc:bt<:d to the lndulfl
poeu, an ludang wmc who are not mcnlloned an the: fnJI~,win~ pages,
thcar fm:ndt, pubfa hcrt and several Jnd IIlii • cadC:IIliC:S (~,r tllf 01 llHI I ttiU,
a~d, photoooptet, books, JOurnals and huspuality. ~lulc my "lc:hu ol
thiJ kind arc 50 1mmcruc that I dare not attempt tn lru rhc m.auy IIIHIC
here, I mwr parucularly thank Nt am Ezekiel, J::.yauta Mahap.um,
Adal Ju awalla Arvand Kn hna Mchroar:~, Ma11uh:u Slaetty nnd
Ayyappa Pantk 'r for thcar fncnchlup as wdl. 1111s bo ,k •~ dedi red
10 them
on tent

PMu I
llurodth 111111

II I !.story lltcll'uhli ldng Gil'clcs II

Ill I hr. l'n 1s, their l{t'. dc1:. .unl the M.ul er 47
rv
V l'oclll \11d
..
llli~:;ISill

VI
\II I h l'o 1 In ha I· !,:.zekiel, Ram umjun, Po~Lcl,
Dillll\\ lila, hh Ku111nr 110

129
ll7.l, ilg udc) l 7

162
I
xu hill I lm, Kum tr,

Ill \nd l' cum I 1Cha muh 41tul lu s.t,,illl t

P\1' I I

1\ It'
27

' 7
 <ON II· NTs

XVI Marum}; .Mora~s. Pecradina, Ramanujan,

P2rel SheH). Mehrorra, Daruv.-ai!J,
de Souu, Alexander 295

G N~ ~omen Poets. ShJ\~asani, P~rcl, D'Souza,

Sambf3ni, q_,harker, Dl\'d.karum, Bhatt
XV1Il N~ Poers, Styi<'S, and Feelings: Hoskote,
312

Thayll Surcndran, Nambisan, Mercham,

IUo, Padhi, Kh:ur, Pr.uad, R:unakrishnan 333
Chronology ofSJgnificmr Publicuions,
Journals and E'lenu, 1947-99 355
Chan 1: Life and Career Derads of Some Poets 38~
PART
Chan 2· Anthologies, Publishers and Awards 397
Chan 3: Imporram Amhologized Poems 399 1
Index
403
CHAI'fE I~ ONl

Introduction

Modern l ~dian ~nglish languagcpoetr} isoncofthcmany•ne'"

literature wht\. h began to emerge .u the end of rhc Second World
War after the end of cohmialism. Unltke the \.rcatt~e wnung of
Afnca and thl ( anhbcan, .~cdc_:n I.ndian poetrv in ~ ngltsh has
been neglected bv mo t '''tics, loretgn reader-; md tntcllcduals
for It has no obvious direct relationship to the culturalmov~­
mcnts whac.:·h led to n.Haon.ll independence; by 1947 the siw.uion
hnd changed and "'ith it the com:ern of tht· new rnetc; bt'C:\mc
their rclataon'ihap to and alien;)tion from the re:tlities ot thcirso~:ietv.
In p.utiwl:u, the)· f.H:ed a dul~enge from older nnuonalist inr;J.
lntuals and from n•g1nnalists who demanded a rcnailisanc..: ol the
culture of dte prl!-c.:uloniallanguages of India.
The onh· answer to those who claimed that Indiars could nut
wntc.: authenti~.: poetry in th~ English in which they h.td been edu-
cated was to write poet n as good .1s that nf Brirtsh, Americ.ln and
Irish poets, hut w writt' it about lndi.m lives and condiuons. "llw•
in Jt!;clf became the basts ol ,1 stiiJ ulntinuinl!, conflit:t .1s cuhut,tl
conservatives, n;1tionalists. nd political radtc:tl~ "'•'m~d a litl'ra
ture about traditional c.:·ulture or the poor .1ml the rural Hindu
ma1>ses, whereas the poets wc.:rc.: mor~ likdr to be wrll t'duc.ued,
mtddle das and pan of or .tware of the modern wcqcrn1zeJ
culture of the citi~.: , uni\'crsitic~ :md proiev,innal cb-.st''>. The}
often haJ been rai,ed in l.tmilie~ where En~lish was <Hll' tll the
languages spoken, attended good l~nglish-languagc sehoul.,, e.uly
l.tllen in lovt• wuh the f·.nglish l.lnguagc.:· .md ir., liu·tatmc, .1n_d
bcc.:n either hrnugln up in .1 cultured environment or bv_t11l'lr
university d.ty~ h.ul frica1J~ with .ln interest in .the ,\rt~ .tnd tde.ts.
·1he supposedly tr.lllitional~.:ulrurt.>of the I Imd1 spc.tkang ma,,c~.
or ol thcu PJr si or G<Jall Catholil' famrlie!>, w.ls 1.1th,·r arrdcv.ull
tu them or, rn ~onw c:ts~.·s, was p.ut ot the n~'>ll idiom .l~:tlll't
whtdt tltc\ wcr c t ebclling.
Man)' of the poets ll·ft lndi.l fnr mdv ~nd tr.wd abr(l.td.' or
out of d1 atasla~.:tion In this they Y.l're nu d1ffercm from pre:' lllll'i
INTRODUCTION
3
and Melanae Salgardo have appeared ..... has 11 b
b d f •- a sma ut rap1dly
an muang o yo cnucalstudaes an books and d
on the poetry aca cm1c JOurnals
Desptte connnuang attacks on the lnd 1an En g1I h poetS, t he1r
p au tn m od em I n d1an cu Iturc 1 recogmzed Th....1r poetry •os pan
I
of the prou
_1: o f mo d
b I ern1uuon wh1ch 1nclud-... ur ban1zat•on,
111dutmauzauon, mo taty, andependencc, socaal chan e, mcrea ed
1

communacataon (an the form of falms • rdev1 1on • ra d1o,.g JOurna1

and newtpapnw), nauonal and tntmlaoonaJ trampon.auon networks
mus education and the resultmg paradox that a an tndepcndcn;
naraonal culture emerge at also pan:ic1patc an the mtemauonal,
modem, u ually westernazed world. Unles ome new radical
change occurs, lndaan socaal and econum1c progrc 1 linked to
the same processes of modernization whid1, for h1stor1cal and
polattcal reason , have become wedded to the prtad of the
Engl11h language and the evolution of an r ngl. h language
culture along adc Hmdi and the rcg1onal lan~uagc Although
pre ently the language of only 5o me four per cent of the popula
taon and wnh nu rc:g1onal base, I· ngllsh 1s the bnguagc of tho c
who govern, c.:ommumcate, produce and make dc~.:mon :u the
nauonal level A the language of upward rnobahty nd modern
c n umer t te , 11 u a likely to prcad further nd a~ u (loc 1t
Will an rea angly become lnd1 mz d. a procc s .Ire dy noticeable
an maguanc and an l· ngl1sh language poCtf') m uch f ture a
the yntax, word order, lex• , 1daoms, pronunc1 uon, mwnauon
and trc pancrns Tha rcflc~.:ts a change m mentality ngh h'
no long r the language of colorual rulers, 11 r I nguagc nf
m dern lndaa 1n whu.:h word and cxprc 1on ha\C' rnowm~ed
national rather than rmportcd s•~ruficancc'i and r fdcrH.: • lludmJ;
to local realaue5, tradition and w.1ys of fcclu1g. ut:h lrulaanaza
uon ha been proccedan., for ~cvcrnl gc11cr •r•ous u11d IS prornmc•H
an the poetry of Kamala Da" and Prrmh Nand), r111J prt ·nt..
lth ugh more nuanc.:t·d, in the work ul Kck• l>.u ltw.11la, ll ,.,
mor hkely to be felt in tcmls of vn1c~: and !<itrr:s5 '" the V< r.;c of
Ezeka I and Jayanta Mahapatra, or m the k111d of rJpHIIy pre c I
aron1e found an the poetry of Ramanup!ln. I
The poet a a group tend tO b ni:argmalto tr:ul!uon I 1 me1u
·1 l • tl• 1r l•ngh h bnrru gc
1 ry not only by beang aItenateu '> ,c " 11
education but a1 o more igmfJcantly, by commg frt'"'
b uc
ommunm u th~ Parsts, jew and Chnsuan , ur 'Y mg
 MODERN INDIAN POF'T'RY IN fNCllCill

•rebell d Islam or b) la"mg abroad Many (Jf

from Handw m anlin that have already been panJy "c'itcr
INTROIHI TII.JN

Wath ca.,;h decade an Iller a In'' "" d

. "' m
I
s
Ia y .iii H II l"ht 11 d
me c:ome from arru ely dunng thc1r ch1ldhood sc\ eral :awarenc s (l f .. ctua I lnd1an expcncnce 1o; nouc 3 l l "
nu •ht be a m:m~.:r ot kmds of tcchn,qu a d , c While th1
ruz«< or that mo.:d!n xtenh:,l The often do not h:n c local narwwmg of the dlo;tnn~.:c of the pnct' .pn ex pre I fnh, n r fl
to~ b~tt up m urban centres or stu?•cd or
,j
1 . ere pt1ono rorh•m
wert
eJf as poet f rom t he actualnr~ of the com munn 11fe 1 d not
r ba.,e d h I n the r iormauve ycus Thc1r per 0
yeiJedabroa w aest 1 U lk f h mean t I1'\t t hc poet 1s Ics con c1ou of b JnP 1 1
0 1 u .nee or a11cn t d
e modem ather than tradluonal. n I e many o t e but rat Itcr t hat poctr} . TC\ ee~ls more of tl 1c en' 1r nm nt f oth '
lerb and the bourgeoa ae who attempted to 1m nate the 11\eS, an d o f t I tc pc~1f1cs of da1ly life 1nclud --'
0
h
Jlrlaslll, th ,, h 1 h • lnl; rucauon "It
no ther authenU\: mentalny for the poet ex ept ot hcrs ,V/ 1 c l 1s 1s dear m the \Cr c of 1 un 1~.: d sou:r. , s.a1 m
f the tDOd m w rid and ats concerns, whach the) may Pccra d ma an d Manohar Shctt} • c\ en the older p t wnt mor
a e b 1 of whac:h the are a pan, as are an mcrcas- dtrect Iy·1f romda conrext·thanJ>rc\ 10usly· fhc 1r1c ca cd pcrccptlf n
aumber of Indian o f cI eta1 s an . mcmones
I . of Indian soc1al reality, fo unu-1 111 t 11
Si.oce Ezdtel publ hed has first book (1952) and the work o f Ezc k I~: • Kamala Da , and Ram:unl)an dunng the '(0
lllMtNti4l Wttld and Tho11ght began pubbshmg Engl1sh- and rakcn up by Oaruw:1.lla, has nc1w been 11\tcrnat.zcd ,~nt'
lll:tplge pocuy 1 h tory of publicataon, maJor works, JOurnals, rel;ent poetry being richt~ r in its sense •1 1 ln~.:auon rul ril~gc of
ewaa. penonaiiaes and awards has already developed. There ubJCCt matter.
are perhap muty poets recogntzed to be of wonh, a number of (If at firsl modern lndi.1n Engl1sh verse appeared to he mdcbrcd
OtiiiF poets pmng to that ude and probablr several hundred to Driu h and a few Luropc:m models, n nO\\ reveal an aw rene
who ve publishtd volumes of poetry an Englash. of mo t of world ltt~.:rature, including contemp' rary Amen an,
More RpJficant than the acbaevements of individual poets 1s recent South Amcncan, and older lnd tan dc\OtJOnal \Cr c 111 the
the npida w11h hi h lndaan Engh h poetry has become a reg1onal languages. Jn thts Indian Engli h langua~e poctf'\ 1 no
-IUSWDIJlllradltlon wath rccogmzable models, penods and different from that of the rcgaonallanguagcs, whtch I o durmg
ia8ueaca. Where the earl Ezekiel and P. Lal offered rwo contrast- the coloma! pcnod followed Bmi~h examples and com cnuon of
modeb ance then Ramanu)an, Panhasarathy, Daruwalla, ver c. Around the umc of nauonal mdcpcndcncc It tarred 10
Malupatra Kamala Da Vskram Seth and de Souza are among reform 1t elf a a modern lncrawrc by mcorporaung the t hm
tbote who have moved poetry mto new dimenstons, as Ezeksel que and themes of uch maJOr twentieth centur") modcrn1\t a
tmu to do Pons have a wader vanety of lndtan poem<i, T S Eliot and Ezra Pound, by dascovenng the great b dy c I
tea pnspe uve , form and subJect-matter for models. How a french CXpCrtmCnta) poetn from the niOCtC nth CCJilUr)
nauoaal tradmon 1 bemg formed can be seen in the way Ram- Rtmbaud and I amrcamont to the twcnucth centurv dad:u t :an I
anu an poetry a an example for Panhasarathy's Rough Passage, urreali ts, while lcarmng frorn the politt~.:al poctr) of Ncruda
while Panhasarathy mfluenced Santan Rodngues's poems about and others. Sc\ era! of the I· ngli!lh-languagc poet~. su~;h a Kol:ukar,
has own Goan hentage. RamanuJan and Chitrc, arc also Ill\ olvcJ \\ nh d1an~c 111 the
There are tdenuf1able penods when Indian poetry took new reg1onal hter:uun s.
direcuons, such as the focusmg on the actuallly of personal and The poet's decisiOn lO usc I· ngllo;h l'i mnucncrd by eJuc uon,
family life by Kamala Das and Ezektel m the early '60s or the but al o bv the .5tate of regional -langu.t~c poet rv Kamala [)as
xpenmental poetry of Mehrotra, Kolatkar, Nandy, Ch:trc and
ay that\\ hen he began wnting m I nglldtthcrt• wo~s no modern
poetry m Malayalam. Manohar Shctl) ay thin Ill 'I ulu, the bngu c
~apatra whtch began to appear m the later '60s and early 70
rmcwed more dct.asled, satmcal and yet compassionate focus of ht fam1ly there l no (;~c.llti\'C ln datun.: I he many Par 1 P0 t
wmmg m E~gla h may be cxplamed by the fa t that Pars1 Gu,;m'lll
n communal and fam1ly hemage has become evtdent more 1
recent1y 1 a daalect Without a tradition of cnou cn:auvc lite: raturc he
 MOOfRN INDIAN 1'01'1 R\ IN I N <, t.J s tt
INTRODU C flO N

' 81
lay of Enghsh language poctrv \\ 1th that m the rcgion.11
cap sub cct that need further studv .
1
., . .
liS tn Cr C.lSIIl g Openn ess .HHi imm f'
Mchrotra' early bhmat mata a I Ct •acy :sa so noticeable in
, )
7

am•UII•..., ~~ rol~ laved by Kolatkar and Churc 111 de' clopang ~ I .

the poctrv o f Sa ecm Pce radina Bcside!i 1
,,., rycr, anu omev. hat I .
ater '"
1
Bes d J p etry 10 a nc\\ d1recuon, the poet ha, c been · · JCtng tne start of a h· hi
s u llJCCtn c p1 otest poetry, sometimes w 1itt en b , •g }'
~an ua pn tran lanng from regional language . There counter culrurc of the '60s strencothened th . > Nandv, the
an d med'ae,.: a.I ~1·am1l
1
P trill act" • I · d · " c llllcrest tn su rreal
000
b RamanuJan from dass1ca d ad atst an expenmcmal verse which had 1 1 b '
and modem Kannada by Mahapatra from modern Onya.' by by Kolatkar, C hitre and others 111 Marath i ~~~~~1 YMcen ~xp~~cd
K tkar rom Maratha, by Chatre from modern and n.1ed~eval and o ther regional languages had rel:ent tradit' e 'farat .• nya
11

Marathi b Patel from Gu,arau, bv Mehrmra from Hmd1, by .. • II ms o cxpcruncnta

I t')t , avant-garde wnttn g, Indtan English lant~u b
p Lal from Saruknt.. by Nandy from Bengal.i, Urdu and other . . h d' . 0 age poetry egan
deve Iopmg m sue 1rcct10ns after 1965. Among the poets of
Imp p LaJ and Nandy have been espec.1al.ly acuve as .pro- the avant - ga rd e were ~ehro~ra, Kol at k.tr, Chitre, Mahapatr,,,
IDOitel'l and pubhshm of translation from classacal and regmnal ~and) and Deba Patna1k ; whtlc they have gone on to write other
linguae E ekael and G S. Sharat Chandra ha"e also been in- kmds of poetry. some of thctr best-known poems, su\:h .1s Mchro-
.lved watb tran lauons from lndaan languages. Just as English t~a's 'The Sale' and 'Continuities', Kola tk.tr\ 'the bo.ltlidc' ami
bu become the link' language for anter regional communication ~httre's 'The Amb_ulancc ~id e', show how l ihcr.ltin~ .tncl produc-
for ch groups as admmastrators academics and the professional t1VC was suc:h expenmentaltsm. If rl·~~nt poet~, p.mi\,;ul.uly Sil~.trdo
Eaclish translation serves as a link cultural language, makmg and Shettv, have taken a ren ew~d ltlten:st m thl· more logtcally
anilable co the maddle classes the vanous regional languages and de'reloped 7 more: tormally organ1zed Jy,,~.:, they can do Ml with,,
m clauacal tradtnon sense of having been freed fro m the necessity of bcginnin); ·' poem
The Eagli h language poets mtere5t in devotional verse is part wirh a statement which is logicall y dl"H.·Ioped to J conclusllln.
the mcreasmg range of Indian English-language poetry. Whereas Their poetry is m ore linear .md argurnent.Hi' ely \,;onstruucJ than
the gnificant poetry of the '50 and early '60s was primarily the that uf M eh rm ra and .Mahapatra, but it is st tl l more open, more
penonaJ hon I nc, often confess1onal or argumentati\ie, in the read ) to haft to the unexpec ted 1n ubjcct nuuer anti im.tge' and
mid '60s poet found new modes of express1on. While Ez ekiel to off(;r uncon ventional emotion . than the poetry wrsttcn
and RamanuJan were already familiar wath American poetry, the bcn~ een 1950 and 1965; it is more .tssociation.tl m org.tnilttton
Amen n mfluenc on lndaan poetry became more sigmfil:ant in th 1 log1callv structured.
the rmd •60 when Daruwalla, Shiv Kumar and others began tO 1 he open: asso\_;i:nional poet ry, with its ~urp~ismg ltlHuc.1~s ,
11m for a 1 formal, dtrcct per onal \'Oice and diction and to
pn mmcnce of such topics as ~u i lt, c;cxu.tl iw ..unbltlon, nu·mm.tcs
wnte about ordmary expcnencc an recogmzable locations. The of pa'i t r(•bell io ns, co nfl ic:ts, shn mes, cluldhood .111d ll)vc aH.urs.
man-alone m-a hostile world attitude, with its sense of opposition, .1nd the assertio n of :\n an icui.H <.' but fra<.:tun·d sell. w.ts P 1rt o~ the
co nfessional mode th.u stan ed in Anwril.l J urin~ tl!t• c.u I!, SO<-
h'rucasm and the tronae of ltfe, found m the poetry of Daruwall:t, . 11 was pr:a:u·c;ctI ·tntt·•·n.ll!ona
· II}· ~~1 urinv~"~ the '60s
U~ts affamue an ~mencan literature, as does Daruwalla's tru ~t an d w hac . · I hc.:rt·
had always been ,, conll·sswna · 1tnuI'· Hton tn mm Clll
1, lndtwnncttv
•. r 1
m ed peakmg votcc Although he continues to usc naditional rr::- k f k • f II I t >11' w lm ltfc , ml a
as t"..ZC ael 's pot·tr)' o ten rn a ·cs usc o ·' l s t .
proso Y and formal stanzaac shapes, the voice seems closer w the 1 D ·, hi,·hh crnouvc, self
~penence fof the cnses than an previous Indian poetry where des1rc for personal ch an~e, tlU I Kanu ·1 as ~"~ . I .
·I ' nnft'S\Itm.ll ; 'i tc: WrOl(
were was o tm a distance bctween mora1refl ecuon. and actuality. rcvclaton.• moody poems wen. : rnuc 'more ~ J
There 15 a) openly about •1 ' • n ' , Hll>ll'>.' -.aJucs an 1mpe •
\aned, olten ~,;On t ~.: u nt; cnH
poruons of~an opcnnes ' especially noticeable in the middle 1
without bemg l:om.:erned-as Ezc..:kH.-1'-" ~s-wilh ~,;on s~'tt'lll Yh·~?t 1
lope. ~arrauv: ~~:- as af assocaatton w_ere takmg over from the w11l for self-improvement. WI 1{ rc. J d'
1
as the auto >togr.lp t ~o: a
d 111 Das's
an an argument. e cxpcnence Itself mstead of an example elements m Eze~ael 's poetry usual1y appcarc t:o.taiH.:C '
\
 1 N I R o I) U < II IJ N
9
~cqucn~;c anntbcr rmtan~c o( an lndran 1 nglrsh poet seck1n
I!;

rcconulcmcnt wuh a tradrtrun ~rom wl11ch he feels alienated an~

of whh. h he r ratlonal_ly CCpll\:al. A different pproach to the
problem of rcrntegrauon rs Jussawalla'• 'Mi sang Person' in
wh1~h the *•enatcd mrddle-dass mtcllcctual i atinzed for Ia k
of \;ommitrncnt to the rcvoluti<?nary t~1rcc of history While su~h
longer scqucn\;cs uf poems, wath thc1r extended range of themes
:and subJect matter •. may ~c~rn a. world away from I· zckrcPs early
lync , rt w.l l!.zckrcl whu 1n 7h<· Unfimshcd M.m first showed
lww a unrf1ed vrsion could he put to~cthcr rn whidt divcr~e lvri~;;s
were linked hy theme, implied narrative, imagery and rccu;ring
hut developing umccrnc;,
lnJ1:U1 I· ngli'ih poetry has ~>incc independence ,1lret1dy evolved
rnto a litcr.try traditiOn wirh a hislory of major journals, such a-'~
Poetry India and Opnnon Literary Qu.ntcrly, imcrcstin~ liule
magazim:s such as d,unn )fJtt .1nd Dit.tloguc, ~..:cmrnl volumes sudt
as I· zekicl's The Unfmisbed .Man .we! !'he l~xclCt Ntlme, KJrrula
Das's fiurmnr, m Calcutta .tnd Ramunujan's Th£' ~tndcrs, which
hcgan .1 c..:111on and which, belonging to the mid '60s, are now
regarded as pan of a gulden age. h i~ a stil! vaal, l~ving, cv~lving
traduaon, as is shown by the, often prcl::llrous, e)(lsl~nu.~ ot such
JOUrnal c\S ClumdtabiMg.r, K.wl-lnclia ~md the lndum f.ttcrary
Rt vtc'll, t. ach and all of whil.h may have disappc;1r"d by the trme
you rt•ad th is, no doubt lo be repl.tccd by other _wn:h-bc.ner5 nf
contemporary puetr"}'· And there have bt.·~n cx~ttang fir~t v~lumcs
publashcJ more tcccntly, such as I·unacc de Souz.t s Fa. and
M. nohar Sheu(s A Guarded ~p.ut'. . .
Whale lndrtn I· nglish pot.'Lry .1ppc.tr~ firmly e tablrshcd, tn
\:OIHrast w the 1950'> when it lurdlv exited ~cyond tht.' sdf-
pubhsheJ \ olumc~ ol Ezekid a~J the puhlr~.Ltron ul . D~~
Mur:u· in rn~l.tnd, it still }'l.ls m.lJnr problem\. Mor~ pmtr~ ~~
bcmg. wrtttcn th,\1\ l)C f01 e nmI pu ll' 1 1 1 H: r., lt.'l.t.'l\'l'
• llt.lllus~;rtpts
b . k·
, I' 1 1
<.:Vnv d l)' fi om new I· ng l'i 1- angu.tgc 1~ , . ., 1cts lwprug toI n:n mtn
p rmt but ' f~.·" J>uhlashc.'rs
. w1'II pu ll' I .
l J)o 1 pm try.
Tlu· on. y pcommcr-I
,
caal publrshin'' hnuSL5 to do )tO arc 0 xI<, n i U111\'t'tksll ·Y rc!lo; 3nt11
ArnuiJ I h:lllt'm:trut; tbt.• 1ll Ilen <'rgut:. 1•I1at 1tit~; mat1 l't·•Is.;wo
,., .;ma
pO':i'iible
• \V 1 "!
v.' 11 c t 1JC () x1or' f st.'IICS snOW'i lt lJl
1
to mak<.: a p~t1flt.
1'
lllt'o;hcd narnt.·s
1 · authors
to make a profu t•n pol'lf)', ~etr f Oxford Univcr ity l'res!!'s
1 arc c a

and the hook~ ha\c the bt:nc.:fu " · InJ 1'a is JHi\attl ·
name and drstrr buuon . n<•t wnr k· MC.l t pocll)' Ill
~ A~ 1 OETR'\ IN £ Gll Ji

CHAPTER ~0

History and Publishing Circles

A un e} of the hi tory of modern Indtan poetry wtll show how

the emergence of the new poet!") depended on the poets them
ehes who, along v. ith a few ednor and promoter , had to be
their own publishers, crmcs and ponsors. Although the new
poetry v. as. often closely associated with the development of
other post-mdepend~nce arts such as drama and patnting, the
poets had to create thetr own cultural space, stan their own JOurnals
and edtt and publish each other's manuscripts. Ther was no c1 •ntt-
nuny bet'\\ een the new poetry and that written before indepen-
dence Poetry of the pre-mdepcndencc pcn1od v. a , the wrner
felt, a rna of emiments, cltche , outdated language nd conven
uon , the o stfted remam of a coloma! tradiuon bad I\ 111 need of
a new tart through grafting on a VItal body of contemporary
'erse and contact wtth contemporary ltfe and spec h Ni ~•m
Ez.ek1el appear to ha' e been the onlv poet to have been for
penod of ht youth anfluenced by an older Ind1an poet: Armando
ienez.e wa h1s fir t model, but he oon turned w a more
m d m 1diom
Th new poet:s "ho began to appear at 1ndependcn c were m
I \ e 'W th the English 12ngua •c, excited by thc1r dt co .. r) of such
late nmeteenth-century and twentteth-<:entuf} puct Hopkm.,,
Yea , EIJOt, Pound and Au den; thctr concern 10 the•r wnnng
were IOdJvJdual or c pre sion of the human ~ondJtam '"gencr.:
rather than the pea:.-ants and the now upcr eded 1 uc of pollllca
and p nd nee The nauonalist poliucal need for a u.,ablc pa t,
Hh at empha 1 on nauonaI cIas ICS, naytn ology and n:pre dcntah
1

u n of typ•cal character , no Ionger ecmcd rclt:vant f In tea • t c

1 d
bout 11 c tnt 1c ~tty n
un er p t were more: I1keJ) to wnte a
11 ctr cmpha 1 "'a more
e r p r nal de Jr and d • content . 1
th a then • ethJ I or mterp r onal than on
m nd m r.h J The new poetry wa P3
::t:he
I
;~:~~~~
 Ill 101110 I
I II I 1I I T 0 It Y A N I I I' U 8 I I II I N t t 1 1\ c 1 1 s
13
and he cl11 I I be St udcnt \f.!or/rJ It 1 tl IC 1ate 1940s he
II r I11111 A lk :tJ, w I10 wa til play u~..h a me1
Jcv lopm m o( the nrc II\ ln<lta Alk ttl att~r rdmcn~\ role sn the
'"nt r w lu dramn group and <~ver th• tc, nne cctual ,:md
lh,ml ay puct~ were part of a •rei wad 1 ch ycdar' many of the
arc •merest 10 the
, JrtcHI art , c p 1a II y t h c theatre When Alka1 0 d 1 d
dt Jlll3 Ill I ondon, he • dvi cd l"?cktcl al '' I CH•1l al beet dec tOd tu y
roa to c t11.:atc
0
IHill If an ~.;Ontcmpclrary culture A I z ·kscl Otlld not alford to
trnvd Alkazt gave hun a one way hoattt kt.1 to 1 ngl. nd In l·ngl:tnd
I Lekt I met Kc hav Malak . (b. I9l8) • who wa t1 1c f'•r 1 1ttcrary
d nor o f 1IH N cw IJc II 11 poln.•t.al Jf'IUrt\ I 1J,,11 ght, started '"
1948, and wh' w t gmng to the m.lllgur almt.'ctmg of &he C'rmgrc~s
lor Culturnl l·rccdom. M.1lak wnt; .t th 1t tunc al~o a Jcmoa.1tac
Ol.l:lll'lt, a fc,llt'JWt r ol M. N. Roy's H.adi~.: 1l I 1 muq uc Mmc
nH nt Alter I• zt•ku~llwgan J~ubli'lhmg in lhiush lttcr.u v Jl..lllrrt:tl
nr
he was lmJil~lll ,,., the .lltt'llllllll M.wdy, who .tsl,L·d him LO SCilt t
poems to th~.: 111145/Y•Ift d Wlec/.:ly. lie ,\hit) puhli hcd 111 J'bu11ght.
When he ICIUIIIl'd lo Bomb 'Y in IIJS2 M.md , hirl'd him 1s .111
'""'st.u\1 'dittll; .unnng his dutil's "lS lo advts~ tho~(· whn
<>Hhnultcd pc t'lll tn the Jl!ustt.ucd \'1/c~~·J..·I) how tlwu wu1k ~.ould
be unproved Among the e.ulv CLJilll ilnHOI s wlul shu\\ t•d thear
work 10 h•cka:l wa.:tc D 'Ill Mor,ll'S (h 193X) ami Kcrs~)' Katr.1k
(b I 'J%). lie al tJ nu~t K:un. I D.ts (b. I1)'\c,) wlu1 had hecn
puhll hang m PIN Sllh.;l' I'H8.
Mot acs' fadacr ".ts a Wlll-known t•diwr ,ttld JPUrnah 1 liHI
Dom Montes h:td 111 has teem publi:ihnl a siHlrl stot \ 111 the
ll/11 u.rtc;d \\, ckly. I: zckid ~ah 1 cd hun nor w ht: wal11111; to
ll.~o:Cpt the c:t )'. ~..:col.tdl·:-; ,1\',ul. hlt• 111 Ind1anlatcr r l an leo; hut h)
nmpl'lC b'·uusl Bnush t nd.uJ,, Knu.1l , "hu "a ~~~ lCtot m
Alka;r.r' dt:llll:l gtoup, bcg.u1 Wrttllt~ ltJill,Ullll: Vl'r~l' .H 'Sdwnl,
but alter Ius rntl'll'sts llllllt.'d w mmktn poctt\ he.: h~d. ltL· •~·
mcrnhll'>, no tHll' tu discuss 1t \\ ith tH tl~t· llllH l'Xlt:pl l•z~.:kl.cl.
llck•cl .,, l'IIl thwugh his ptll'II\S L.udulh, an.tktug hu.u Jmtd
cal:h word. M:tn > ol 1he poi.'Jll\ in till' Iit~~ bo11ks IH' publt,bul ·'"'
an 1'7lku:l's Sl)'k and 3Jl\'l'.ll '\tllll'U .11-1 p.Ultll,t da.tlo~lll'•tbt•ut
how to hH Th, mru.ll ~llHlp ol IIHidCII\ l·nglish l.111~ 11 ·'gl' pt~t·t~
tl •1•11lll'l l't'llCI rltHHl
Il ad f1.: \\ C 0 llt l L I 'i \\ II Il tn 1.I ll 0 :i lll' JHll I fI ll J1l. llI j )t1tll
' t'l
htH'J'l' ,lll\1
l
ol 11111 aunalasl , man t>l "' Iwm It.H l 1c ttt rrtu1 and lat,•tar' .
mag.t
were tarung tht·tr o\\ n IHlrt I" l I pn It ll 1.,,1 th a l:umllls
• .
fHl\'l' 1ast
l
lint' K:urak 1en\l'mlcrs Ic,,, 1111; Iu-s podliS 1
who n:turncd them l\) him month I. tea "1tht1utl:t lllllll'lll.
Ill !'i 1 U R 'I 1\ N fl I'll D I ISH I N G c IRC I S
IS
to pre\ ious Indian poetry; it was a ubst.tntlal vol , h ·
· f 1 · · umc, OW111g a
\Jnt:tyo te~.: llllqucc;rang~nglaornfrccversctotrtdtt
. '" '
wna 1prosody
and had a dt~ll.nct _Pcr.wna and point of\ icv.. h nught be cons 1 ~
dercd th_c bc.gmnmg of th<:' C:tnon ot nwdl'rn lnd iun I· n li h
poetry. It lnd1an pucts o~tcn a\\ poctl') as the hobb, of an m~tcur
who wrote OCCaSIOnal piC\;es In pan: lime, fzekicJ \'icv. c.•J po~.:LrV
a· a '1\ av of life; a poem was pa1 t of an CV<)Ivang bnd) of work, a~
c~:press10n of a hfc as a poet. Soon after IllS return to Ind 1a he pn-
\ arc I\ publtshed Sn:ty Poem' ( 1953); as there w.1s then no poetry
pubJj hmg !Jouse and n(l mean of d1 trtbuuon he left ~o::OplC f r
sale at the trand Bookshop an Bombay
A round 195 ~ F zckiel joined PEN .lnd became a sisrant cdnor
of their io.un~al, P~:V• .v. htch had been publi hing smce 19H,
after Soph1a Wad1a s rcuremcm he became cd1tor. Over the vears
the poet appeared in PEN, as did re' icws and orne an.clcs on the1r
work E.zck1d also founded Quest (1955), a general intellectual
rc' 1e" associated with liber<tl democratic politics, span ored b)
the Congress for Cultural Frc,•dom. Ezekiel w,1., It~ fir t ednor
umilmid 1957 and remamed a literan advisor O\ er the vears unul
It cca cd publicauon '" uh the f. rnerg~:nC) .and "as super eded by
eu Quest. As a general intellectual rev1cw con~crnc(l '' nh the
problems of modern lnd1a, omewhat on the model of EPICotmtcr
m England, Quest helped make moJcm lndi.tn poetn pan of
contemporary lnd1an culture. Among its earl} conmbutors "ere
Morae , Lal, Adil JussawalJa (b. 1940), KamJia D.1s, KaLrak.
R. Partha arath) (b. 1934), A. K R manuJan (b 1929) Dll1p
Chitre (b. 1938) and Arun Kolatkar (b. 1912), tlu latter publt hcd
a poem an the fir t i sue. A b1lingual poet" ho expcnmcmcd "tth
tran laung h1 "'ork between the t" o langua e~. Kolatk r-.a
painter and b) profcs,;ion a graph1c des1gncr \\as part of Bomba\
1arathl bohem1a rather than Engh h- pcotkang um~cr It} or
profe sional cm.. lcs. He rhought lor many } c rs that ht: "a
the onh Engh h-language poet m India. as Anmd Mehrotra
(b. 194 7) and fnend "'c.: r~.: later to do Jn Allahah 1d. D1l1p Clmre
met Kolatkar in 1954 through theM rath1 poetn cene Jn whl h
Kolatkar "a n leadc.:r of the a\ nt garde poets, lhe) hdpcd co- du
Sl abd , a tcncalled M:mnhi literar) journal \\ lu h appeJrcd
lrrcgularl) b rn ccn 1955 and 1960 Outre became a regular oonm
butor 10 Qu st nd later one of the ednors of Neu Quest Anoth
p et who appc.ar d m Qu st '\\a GJC\ c Pat I b 1940 , a medaa
l
flltTOaY AND PUBLISHING ClllCLES
17
lipifiet that modern andaan poetry an English was altead falhn
ifD cwo groups, those assocaated wath Ezekael Y _.J g
.._L- d ho · d , centrcu an
.,.....-y, an t se assocaa~e wath Lal, centred an Calcutta and
roaleaerextmt Delh1. Durmg . the 19SOs and early '60s, howevrr,
~~~'~'~Ups were not obv1ous; a mutualanter•st an
.-- d th " promotJng the
~try an emselves kept the wnters together
11M departure of Mandy from the Illustrated We;kly left the
••·•ng number of poets needang a place to publish. Several fch
1iad manusmpu ready, but none of the commercaal pub-
Jiilllln were Interested. ~zekiel privately prmted has The Thrrd in
tJI9 Uld K.eshav Malak, who had returned from his travels,
........, out hts ftrst book as a Surge publication. To meet the
lfOWIDI needs of the poets the Wmers Workshop, which had
illned m 1958, began m 1959 to publish volumes of poetry. The
foundan~ membe!" of the Writers Workshop in Calcutta
**a small circle of fraends-P. Lal, Anata Desai, Lal's former
mtclent Deb Kumar Das, David McCutchaon, Kewhan Sio, jai
R:itlll and Davtd Crane--Indians and foreigners living in Calcutta.
Tlwte wu a weekly meeting at Lal's house on Sunday.
11w first Writers Workshop volume of verse was The Lamp t5
Lile (1959) by Roben Perlongo, an American then living in
Cllcutta. It was followed in 1960 by Lal's The Parrot's Death and
OtHr Ponns, Ezekiel's The Unfimshed Man, R. de I . Funado'~
Th Okt~ntlns, Deb Kumar Das's (b. 1939) The N1ght Befort Us
and Pndip Sen's And Then the Sun.
A *»mewhat defensive angroupness as perhaps shown b-. the pre-
me
faa 111M poets wrote for each other. Lal introduced the volurn~
of zeluel, Funado, Sen and Deb Kumar Das; K. R Rao wrote a
preface to Lal's book. The World u Spltt (1961) by N. K. Sethi
(b 1936), an Indian teaching m New York, had a preface by t~e
Amencan poet William Carlos Williams. Entrance (1961) by La.la
Ray (an Amertcan married to an Indian) was prefa\:ed by Davad
McCutchton, an Englishman teachang in Calcu.tta. In 1962 the
aenes expanded to include Adsl Jussawalla's Lands End, Laurence
Bandeman"s Grt~ffitJ, Ira De•s (b. 1932) The Hunt. Lal's second
book, LOfle's The F1rst and Monaka Varma's DragonJl•es Drdw
Fl.~ Prefaces were wratten by Ezekiel to Vanna's poems, Pra 1P
Sen to Ira De's and Lal to Bandeman•s.
In 1960 the Wnters Workshop also staned Murellan~, a ba-
monchly JOurnal devoted to creattve wrumg Early contributors
an haded Ezekiel, Anata Dcsa1, R. de L. Funado, Davad McCue
 ..., I) I A N J l) E T R\ I N I N C I J S If
MODERN I •• J(iSTOR\ ANI\ i'UBLI HING CIRCI F.S
1 19
M00 kcnl!e Maltk and C. R. Mand); in
ht .n Lila Ra} • Romen h h) p'ubJ 1 hrd a poem The eighth Indta. He read Jussav.alla's prcv 1ousl ll
R p rt asaral l. I . I d suggested he end them to thl' Wntcrs Wy unkpul' •shed poems and
rh ~' cnth I sue Garland for Shav. n Mand)•' w liC l me u ed . or s lOp for p 11l r. .
J and's EwI ( I ~62 ) mtrodu~.:cd a , cry p
1ssue 1961 IS A
r E k I Ruth p 13 " er Jh.lbval.l, R. de L
e a sand poems by zc 'ngar Lal Oesat, Parth.1sarathy
Furt do. K. R. SnmC,aha dye and' 1 R' Stanle). To the tent}~
I 1
.
•

~o
tamed aucntton. Jussaw.tlla wa s onlv •wcm
romts1n1• } oun''
ume w ten tnerc were sttll few volume t I d' n
l •~at1un.
t:> poet .1t"
n a.m \:Cr e w h
already spoke th<•languagc of rnodcrn alien~/w~ at~11e tame but
on su -
V rma G S harat an ra
.a • • 2 J a\\ aHa conmbuted a poem. . . were hi~ own. Ezekiel \.:ailed 1 ancl's Fndthe lJonbm rkythbm~ •hat
• uc m 196 Ius'60 Lal s Wraters \X ork hop "'~s a pub~Jshmg .
lashed by a new In d tan poet Sllh:e Moraes'
le~t oo to e pub
1R -
Bv the car> group of 51 gnif1cant v. raters. Ot those ·
l acceptan~c by the Sahitya Akegmnmg
1960 a Isu saw tlc 1, · f E
crntr c for an mcreasmg
ed ts J>arrhasarathv.Ju~sawaII a .m J G . S. . II
as a nauona angu.1ge
d
anI' the appc;lran~e
H cml o ng 1Ish
ot crc,•at avcwrmngan
·· d
now constder maJOr poe ' 0 I , aJ h h r. .. ·
t Chandra (b. 1938 had appeared on the sc:?~· t _u:rs,. t oug aruc Ies on I n d 1un 1~ ng 1sh wntm,~ in fudiz• 1 ~ ~·
1 cuucd
h av Ma Iak after 1972. A fewn a~.:adcm 1 c' 'JOU' er,uurc
1
Shan f fj ce were thouglu of suftanent mtercst to be
no• 0 1e s stgnt acan •
__ .... d
h' d ,v ·
b K R s l}·engar m ts 1r1 ltnl " r1tmg m
bv Kes
• .1 I. rna 1s n f 1.:~~ ng1·15 h
da USKU a mo ern ' . . Tl studaes star.tcu w ll~.;h gave s_up~urt to the nev. poetry throu •h
En luh (Furtado, Pr.tdip Sen and Deb Kumar Das). lere were a arttcles,, revaews
I f and the. puhltcauon of a few pocn1), Tl •e L 1tcrary g
nu~ber of foretgn 'asators ro the Workshop, and Mzscellany pub- Half-} ear y, oundcd tn 1960 bv H . H . Anm. h Gowd... b-
1ts hcd poems o f •
... few , 1nduding the New Zealander James Baxter · cary
1.as hed 111 I ·tssuc.s poems ll)' Fzckiel, G. S. Sh.uJt Chandn .. , pu (,\
and the Enghsh poet 0. J. Enright. . , . frequent contrtbutor), F. R. Stanley, K. R. Rao, juss.1walla and
The two most agntfi\.:ant early volumes theW nters ~ or~~hop Panhasara[hy, and favomabl) rcv1ewcd Ezekiel's The Unfi11uhe I
pubhshed, md "htch ha\ e a place m the. canon of sagnafJcant Ma~ and Juss.t walla'~ Lmzd's _l mi. Gowda" as very aware uf the
books of poetry, v. ere Ezekiel's The Unfimshed \fan and Jus.sa- Wr:u~rs Workshop .tnd wrote 111 support of the new poetry. Ezekacl
walla's Land's End The Unfimshed Man (1960) was the farst proqdcd f urthcr support when he becumt liter.H')' anJ rc..:te\>w s
volume of poetn produced in India of consiste~tly high quality editor t)t .1 new gcncr.ll magazine, 1m punt (I 'l61 ). started bv
and" ith an overall unny of purpose. The attennon to craft, con- A. D. Gorwala, also owner of the andcpcndcnc polatical Journ.ll
astenq of Sf) le and perfeding of an intellectualized ironic tone Opmwn.
whale treating a record of a persona] cnsts in a distanced, rcflec- In 1962 the Amencan poets Allen Ginsberg and Peter OrJo,sky
me manner, brought together characteristics of Ezekiel's earlier ~isited India. After meeting Mal. v Roy Choudhury and the Ucngali
three volumes. Whtle being varied in subject matter and setting, 'Hungrvalist' poets in Calcutta, whom the) puhlici;.rl J in Amet 1~an
ha poems deft!) Implied a location, a personal story about the literary journals, Ginsberg and Orlonky 1110\ ell bndlv tu
dt tllu tonments of marriage, a love affaar, moral choices, and a Bombay where thev read their p• 1ctry on the tcrr:H:c of AlkJzi'
conclu ton about the relauonship of the poet-artist to India. 11 flat; they accused the Bomh;n poets of still writing old-la luoncd
mcluded :;uch poems that ha~e been subsequently anthologized Briti h 'erse and of not havmg found their O\ n \Otce. The !t.tmc
as Emerpnse, 'Marnage' and 'jamini Roy.' These are the earliest year Pengum \1odem Poetry 2 published Dom 1oraes, ,1l?ng
poems that are sull widely anthologized. The importance of the with the British poet l(jngslcy Ami~, anJ Pct,r Poncr, a.n Australt 11
vo.lu!'"e was soon recognized in Davtd McCutchion's 'Examen de The next year Margaret O'Donnell's 1ln Antlmlt~g)' u/ C(Jmmon-
Madt' (MlScellan), 29, 1960) and later m Subhas C. Saha':> explica- wealth Verse (1963), published in London, included I:a.'i, Lal, l lc~cl
tiOn of 'Emerpn e' (MISctilany, 40, 1970). Eunice de Souza's and od1ers it was the first of several British and Amcm. an anthologK"'
excellent notes were added to the second edition of The Urrfimshed tn which the new poets would appear. At home Gorw~a·~ Opmwn.

Man (1~69), which was meant for use by university students. with Kersey Katrak as I[S poeuy ad\lsor, mncd publ! lung lnc!Jan
Ezekiel, who recommended poets to Lal knew Jussawalla's English poetry. Jn 1964 The:. Ccmury, .1 New Delha ~ublacauon
famtly and met Adil Jussawalla durmg one ~f his return trips to whtch had st.lrted two year earlier, .tlso bcg.111 pub II htng pcJctrY.
 sr(')IU ANI• PUIILISHO~G c IRCl.E.
I>IAN POETR~ IN I N\,l.ISU I .. l 21
MOIH Rill IN
20 rains. It seemed to C(.lllapse the thstance bet d
b 19,. 2) tht> ltterary editor, had brought rCf h · d" . ween poet n
etn the ac'>t cllc 1st iln~.;mg at which 1 al an 1 E k ~.J
Laurence Bantle~an Lx,k ".~h the Writers \'Vorkshop, Gmffir, PO '
.... d wh 1ch was common
u ze 1e1 ann~."
to manv Bnush and Amcrtc.u1 poets dunng ·
out several promtSmg d \" ,.,,·5 Fall-out (1964). WJth Bartho- .... h
the f1r.,t halt ol l 1s century. Inste.ld, Das sccmetl to have her own
Workshop l.lrdc in N('w D e ll u' f rm11
M 'c f \l 0 n ''om..
J%2) an d an , er ion of the contempoa ary cnnfessional mode pracuscd smce
lomew he caned h ruers ctall mtere ted m eA-perimcntal writ-
the J;ue 1950s by such Ame~1can poctc; as Robert Lowell and
1964 to 1967 whJc whas esp ga,cn a poetl'}' award bv the Asian Syh 1a Plath. In her~ erse a H~ndu woman• longing for Kn hna
K mala Das, " o "a
mg. a bhshed re ularh tn 7he Century. was prc.scnt along wtth the gualt at fleshly desires she had learned
PEN, Mantla, pu g nods of modern Indian verse began '" her Cathohc schools: Her second book, The Descendants
One of thhe mhost ebxi~Jtltnlognp:f Dom Moracs's ]olm 1\ obody and (1967), showed tendencacs to~ards depressiOn, sclf-consc•ous-
tn
1965 Wit t e pu ICa
D A K Ramanu1an, N1ssam • • Ezc k' I c·
·ae, 1Jcve
books bv Kama1a as, . f man\ mtcrestmg . but un f ortunate Iy ne!>S and flamboyance as despa1r .1\tcrnated with 'lelf assertion.
Patel and t he appearan Ce O d. Tl . , I• A parallel breakthrough can be seen in Tbe Ex tel Namc(l965),
. d I' oumals such as Poetry In Ill. us was t lc
shon- IIVC nerary J .. older generauon • h' I h d d . Ezekiel's hft~l boo~, .md the last \'Oiumc of verse he was to publish
w ac 1 a starte m wuh the \'X'nters \X orkshop. Many of the poems were in a new
fjJnt fJ owenng 0 f th ... h r· . f
Mand s Illustrated Wukly and Quest' and t e lrst as~ en tOn? a manner. 'N•ght of the Scm pion' spoke of his tamily lile and the
y tto wh 1ch added an often zany expenmcm.1hsm conllicts bt:tw~o:en what a modern Indian bclic\cd .md fdt.
younger genera 11 . · 1·
to modern n JI d an V"rse
.. •
making it more
•
anternauona
• •
m contrast
1 Moreover it was unrhymed and writtell fnr the sp<'akmg \Ou.:e, tl)
to the formal, logical English poeul tradJUOn that was t 1c be rcau aloud. The 'In India' poems were :Wiles of llLi\1 soci.ll
departure pomt of the ftrst generauon of modern poets .. manners .md beha,·iour. \Vhile Ezekiel bad in his carlv books
Although Kamala Das had been pubhshing since she was tou~een, u-.c I free verse as well as traditional prosody, m The Er11 t 1\amc
Summer m Calcutta (1965) her first book, was self-published ther c i a gre,lter fluidity of cadence, a closer approximatiOn of the
wtth a forev.ord by Sophia Wadia, editor of Indian PEN and a speakang \OlCC than jn the past. The poem'> cxpres cd Indian life
fnend of Kamala\ mother, her elf a famous Malayalam poet. The wtthout self-conscious or artifit:iallndianncss. Although Fzck1el
f1fty poems in Summer m Calcutta, mcluding such now famous had always been an urban poet-in contrast to the lnd1an bnd
pte e as 'The Dance ofthe Eunuchs', 'The Freaks', 'Words', 'M) scape painung of the pre-independcnle poets-Bombay ha?
Grandmother's House•, 'An Apology to Goutama' and 'Forest been cl svmbohc cay of modern dissatisfaction whereas nO\\' at
Fue , caught the attentiOn of many for their frank confe.s~ion of had become a place where there were actu.tl.cvcnt.s~ people, d.mg~.:rs
the dt ~ausfacuons of an arranged marriage and the intensity of and pleasures. The Exact Name wa~ re\'lewed m 7 he Literary
exual de ire. The tradition of Indian love poetry seemed re- Cruer1on, Vll. 3 (Winter 1966) and m the lmlwn /'~N(May 1%6).
m\ agorated bv a contemporary 'oice far from the sentimentality A. K. Ramanuian's The Strider.' (I Y66) \\ ds hrst. sulllllltt~d to
whach had been inherited from English Villorian ver~e and which Oxff..lrd Umversit}' Press in Indict which, not havm~ pub!tsheJ
was still characterasuc of Lal and many of the Writers Workshop ~ny local poetry ~ent the manuscript tO Engl.wd wh~.:re It "'~ 5
poets. a~.:~..:cpted b,, Oxf, 1rd .md rc~OtnlTIL'Illled to ItS members by t c
Rather than _finding salvatton in art, Kamala Das's poeuy 11oetry Book · Soctetv. . RamanuJ.lll· •s poum , 11.1J ·1 hwhly• t?
.tlcom-
spoke of fanta.s•es, many lovers and the continuing dis.tppnint- . 1
pIIS 1e d 1 d. ·
u rH cr.s ta tc prcctscncss .uu c 1 'C<Jnomy . ol st,\tement,
mems of love. More nnponam than its themes was the use ot an , · '· h L , lormalllY of strll ture
':i)'mbol and n.Jrrauve. \V'n out ,111 on' tnus • f ·I · •
lndtan English~ 1thout the concern for correctness and precision J J h d a 'HH'C 0 lCC lllllfUt:
t hcv cemcd pedecdy forme ~llll s owe •· r;o h ·
v. htch chara tenzed ?"ost earlier modem verse. Instead it appean:d . d' E •I" 1 try It was a tee n&-
beyond that of any prcv1ous In •an ~ng 15 1 P0 f~: ld. K d, and
unpremcdatated, a dtrcct expression of fcehngs as it shifted errati- . df I. dv o o er anna "
que RamanuJan had learne rom us .stu , bl led Indian
caUy thr~ugh unpredictable emotions, creaung its own form Tam1l verse and the modern Kannada poets w 11 Clll °
through Jts cadences and repeuuons of phrases, symbols and
\ '1~ ~~~
 ••(J0"'
,.. .. ..,
<·'"' ,..,. I'Ol':TR\ I N UNl.l ISp~
!NI)I"'"" "r•U"liSI'IN"
t-ttSTOR'\ ANv u • " CIR Cl US 23
22 modds anto ne" form c •
He shov.
• h"
cdh th.tt
. lndJ iun bhat, a_n d A'-LJra1l am B..... nJamm
· · o { ['\ t •
• pnmstonc College, !itartcd a
and European b od m and" ork from" tt tnt ~•r own lfC· ntagozmc called B_o!nbd)' Duck ( 1964 ). An early tssuc was han ned
~t ~.:ould b< n
,..--- th em e 0 f 1....
prectSIOn ,."gu~uc
""I)
and mtagc and the l:Onci c bv coIIegc aut}10£1 t ICs• because 0 f an arttc · 1e quoting Henry M"•ller.
........
·- • uadtaons
hI te h h
t t etr u nprcd "ctable
1 changes m diredion • b
Pradhan .1nd BcnJamm. egan Dwnysrus (1965), whicl1 tncludcJ
1
n ot ea htdsneb' " a omewha•' O'"t "' ' unre' erberant,
d r
sometimes work by Kolat k ar, Ch nrc an d the eduors. The combined second
V~tre mat~.- d , 01ce that sugge re a comp tcatcd and third number was confiscated by the police as obscene
of
pets
-::J o o:~.u~l~~~~7.;d~nre than \\'aS ~atd Ef~ki~l d-d Partha·
d Ramanu an as the best o c n tan poets
because of a prose fantasy by the ednors called 'The Ritual-The
'fnal'. Panhasara~hy was also involved with /Hunt (1967-8),
1
sarath\ oon r h ch que" a hss use of hts southern Indian whach lasted two Issues.
A mp rt.ant
Brahman te net, ~,;ontrasnng his liteh in America
r t 2 a :;ourc d } (where One n f t h e unexpected p Iaces t 11c new poetry took root wa<> in
1
he had t ken up re dcn~.;e farst a a researc. Tru ~~t, \;en as a Allahabad where, ~fter receiving ~rom an u.nclc m Amenca copies
3

t er at the Una,er •n of Chtcago wtth hts anu u~r· nn.gang of conte~po~ary IHcrary _magazmes, Anut and Aluk Rai, along
2 ntemporan altenauon set Ill speca •c llua wJth their newhbour Arvmd Mchrotra, started stencilling d11mn
f Co 0
tJ n Th J , aded hcntage, Ind1an and \X estern_, 0 f I 11 d"l.ln poet!.
to create amage < you. a m.lgazine of tbe m·ts, in imiration l>f the American publica-
1
had not before bn!n handled o subtl) and wnhout self-cons- ·uon h4ck }'ott: ,t magaziHe o[tht.! arts. They .1lso began \.:Xch:mg-
ciOusnes . l' [> ( 1ng wpies of dtumz you for foreign magazmes and ,-.,piJly became
Anorher sagmfl~..ant , olume "as G1eve Pate ~; oems ~ 966), a temporary outpost ot the American and European avant-g:.udc.
the first and onl} book tssued b) Ezektel as part ot a proJected Th 1s v. as not the first introduction of Indian poets to the con-
enes meant offer an ahernau\e w the Writers ·workshop. A temporary avant-garde as publications were available in the
10
prec• e, cconom 1 al, unmetaphoric poet, Patel often shows. a urban centres after independence, before exchange controls made
mmd reflecung upon actual nuauons he has observed or m it more difftcult. 4lnd several ol the e.arly Writers Workshop poets
"hu.:h he has paruc•pated. A mcdtcal doctor. he is conscious of were ccrtainlv familiar with avant-ga•de literature, as were poets
both the bod)' "'eakness and tt~ res1lience. His ver:.es are dense 10 such regional languages as Mar at hi and Oriy.t. But tlamn you
nd b aque an texture and meamng, and seem purposely to avoid began at a time when the new internation.ll counu.•t-culture. was
p uc grac and enument . Even such a poem as 'On Killing a begmning to be received sympathetically among young lndaan ·
free, \\hach could be anterprctecl as about human hfe, pro\ ides Arvind Mehrotra had unusual energy as a promoter, whale soon
no analogae or metaphon word<> to suggest that 1t IS about any- showing talent as an excellent poet who, .the~ 1970, appca~ed
than more than" hat It ays. Patel's compressed manner, distrust regularly in leading Amencan liter.1ry magaz1nes, once bcang
of enuments, ph) teal awareness and the wav he v. rites from ancluded among th\! San Francisco poets.
pers nal exp nenc , w htJc guardmg h1mself ;ga.inst emononal After Jomg a BA in English at the ,UniHISity of. Allalubad,
lnvoh ement, wa al o new to Indian poetry. where he ftrst published poem~ in the um">er lty rn tg.mne, Mehro-
After E:zekicl becam~.: Professor of Engl1sh at MtthJbhai College, tra w~nt w Bombay to study for an MA. He soon rnct Kolatkar,
Bomba) (19&1_ • Panhasarathy, who had appeared in Qzu stand Chttne, Patd, Ezekiel, P.uth.lsnrathy and Jus a\\:~lla. whn had
wa then teachmg at another Bombay college, joined the depart- braefly returned ro 1ndia from F ngland. 1\csidcs ed•.un~ damu you
ment. E?eklel Introduced Jussawalla LO Panhasarathy, and (1965 H) whit:h first prinred KolatkM's 'the bo.ttndc' Mchro~ra
through the latterjussa\\'alla came to know S. V. J> rau·•h an. Ju:lsa- began t w" ' othet stenct. 11 cd Journa
· 1s, t'Z"'·
.....1 , ,·..,1gr•U tn1lWl.Zmc:
., ": ~
0

walla was at the poetrv readmg during wh1ch the Beats read thetr (1967 71) and (t1k1r ( 1968), which published Clutrc s tr.msi.Hwn
workdbebfore F7ektel and Parthasarathy. In the mood of rebellion of Tuk.1ram in ·its only tssuc. lIe published a nunibL'r uf p.Ull~hkt
~urre
B b Y the 'tSit of G 10 b erg an d 0 r 1ovsky to Calcutta an d o f 1n d"'' .adu.\1 poets, .anc1ud"tng 1liS
· own ( om 1 .."tC poems '.15 l oems 11
1 1 6
om a}' Panhasarathy, along with Pradhan, who taught at Mithl /tom the Good Surrealist and bb,rr.mnut-'1: 11 pmyc ( )(, )· lC
Ill TOR"' ANU r'UlH ISUlNG CIRCLES
2S
appeared 1n Tomado. 11\e . 'lndtan Rena tS'>an e , num b cr o f
Sam e k sa (M ad ra • 1967)
~.
mcludcd Clutrc an d Ko 1att.ar • tr ns
l ated b· ) Ch ttre f rom ~~1arath 1 ' .md poems by 1, art h a arat h y Th e
Amencan JOUrnal hzt7cpzd publtsh d m pnng 1968 ·ectal
Indtan
'Th tssue "luch mcluded Mchrotra' blJaratmat_a, Chp atrc'
e larst Ftve Breakfasts' • an umuled poem of Kolatkar 'al ng
v. tth poem by Pnu h N andy, Kamala Das and e.. era) t s "'ell
known poets who had been published hv Mchrotr 1chr0lra,
Chttre, Patel, Kolatkar and Jussa\\ aJia a) o appeared m the
Bomba) annual Pusbp mJail, ~hach tan d m 1965 and whtch for
c1 tame had Clmre as poet(") edaor.
The tx 1ssues of Poetry lndta (1966-7), edncd b Ezekiel, \\ere
one of the htgh moments of modem lndaan poetry and a lmk an
th hne of senous places of publtcation th:u tartcd wnh Mand)'
Illustrated\~ eckly Beside' Partha .'lrath) (\\ ho "'a a\\ arded the
Ulka Annual Poetry P:rz.e for the besr poem m l· nghsh h\ a oung
Indtan poet pubbhcd m Poetry !ndut), Patel, Gauri Pant (b. 1920),
K ki Daruwalla (b. 1937), H. 0. ~azareth (b 1944). K. 0 Katrak.
Kamala Das, AnmJ Mehrotra, Saleem Peeradma (b. 1944) and
Adtl Ju J\\ alia, Ezek.ie1 publi hed tranSlation from lndaan l.mgud:!CS
b\ Kolatk r, RamanuJan, Vina\' Jha, Patel, Chttre. La.l, SuJH. nd
Meenak ht MukherJee), along -w tth re\ te'-' sand ana~les on English
and Jnda n-Iangua e poetrv. The quality'' as extremely htgh and
a man o the arucles, revu~\\ s and translauon con~emed
mod m poetry Lhe magaune prm 1ded during tt hort hfe .tn
mfunnt:d ~omparauve \ aev. of\\ hat had been happcmng m Indian
p try dunng retc.:nt de~.:ade It attempt to tre t nticall poctl")
m the man) Jndtan language along "tth I ngltsh "as notable;
v. hile later tmit:ttcd h\ other JOurnal Poetry• !nd.a has rcmaaned
an tts scnoume sand judgement unique. Re\!tCWS were ofhagh
st.mdard. The farc;t i sue \\as peda~,;ular, "uh tran I uons of
Vcdtc h) mno; b) L.1!, of Tukaram and M:udheker from ~1aratht
bv Kolatkar and Chttre, of Tam1l lo\ e h n s b) R lmamiJan, of
Amnta Pntam from Puniabi b the New Zcal:md poet Chotrl~:~
Brasch, along\\ 1th 1 nghsll-l:~nguage poCtl) b) P.uel and Panlla
aratlt) There\\ ere also poems b) ThomJs Blackburn, Howard
Sergeant and Ro) }~ullcr from England. I or t" o) cars lncl1a h:lll a
poetry rnaga11ne of the lughe t mremational standard . AI o
important were the affmates that were found between modern
vcr sc m the many I ndtan language ; the Engli h ). nguagc poel

~
ttl 'l("'R'I f\NP 1'Uilii'>II1N(, CIRCll
27
f E:rcktcl, Pnrtha ;~rat h). K.unala lhs • Jm aw II a ar 1d 01 1
0,,~t l COl'f
ommmm ctt It JJ f'm~ts ( 196';) "as foll
O
} d\ lcr
-r J , ( 1')t-7) tn\ e 1y Commo,1
1l I P . f I 0 I Utllf) v , e \ OICCS o{•J (
• JL nmmonu ill1
( 1968) anJ Ill 1970•· 'crrg.mwn l'oc•tt CJ f>o ~n 'rom 1 d l' a
k I d0 b .. .J J' tl Ia ,am.muJa.n
p,ut hasar.tt I1 •, 1 z.c tC an c Kumar Da ) · D :usy A 1ucn' 1 '
Ameracan allll10l ogy o f Poems ]rom lndUJ was publ h--1lee\ t IlC arne
ear ( 1969) as t I1C pee aal 8 oo k·s Abroad issue on lnd tan 1tteratur .
Y
1 he cxpcrnnc n tau on oft he sec nd h' If of tltc 'll 0 ' wa t ken up
b-. Prmsh Nandy (b. 1 1947),·J.n C.'l\tlernelv 1,rohfic ,vn•··r • up ro mmcr
.... an·l
wuh an eye ror mscO\ cnng . . . others but "ho c O\\ n talent u{fcr;
fronl l I.tc k o f. M.: l{ cnttcl-.~11. Gnod irn. ge O\:Cllr 111 the ul)
poems 111 the tm~tst lll .1 bcwah.~ctmg outpour mg of, erln gc, ultc·n
wath n0 ths~.;crntblc. ~,;ot~t~nt. l· xa~,;tl) \\hat N. nd) had 1n mull\ an
wriung c;uch \ crsc 1s d11ftcu h tn ._,\ 1 but lw .tppl' u s to In~ c 1mi
tated tltt' l)bs-:urity, obliqucnc~~ .md t:l.l\1cal JUXt.lfH>!;llinn •>I
avant gat de pncll y withO\It ha' inh a dc.u· n··'"""' lor su(\t l'"-Pl'''
mentation. But it N.1nJ\''' cMI) pm·tq tlll\\ ,tppcal s supctltcl.llh
modert'IIStiC, it w,\!\ wtd<:ly publi~hcd hy nb \,;ut t.: fowgn 1m" n,,\s
and the :.n .mt-gardc Ri' cr Run Pre s ol Nc\\ '\or\ Nand) \\ ,\s
tncndh with ht fellr>" Cakuuan P. 1 .tl "hu cncou1 :~ged lm
arl) work. The \Vritcrs Wot kslmp pruned lm larst Htlumt, Of
Gotls mrd Olives ( 1967), with its Mnhtcrr.wc.u\ cdngm s md
amagcf), and n Ertbcr rdc of Anogancr ( 1%!\), '' h1lc 1 uhly',
own Dtaloguc Publac.uions baou~ht out/lfmu/l 011"' 7um H)
Neblmk \~ reatb (1968); w itlun the! 1\{'Xl fc\\ \cats N.u\d \ ~<.·ro;c•,
along with thl: l:Ountcr cuhme, moved iuto tt pnl111c ll. an~.t pctl1ap
best phase, .1 ccn 111 his t\\ o wt•ll kno" n poem 'Nc 1r De h~
pnya P.u k tht:)' found him .nl.1st' Jnd ' 1kutta tl •ou mu t cxtlc
me' N.tnd tricd w bring to Fngli h-l.111gutgc p11ct1 till' so~:a.tl
and politi~,;al mvnh c:mcnt whid1 \\',\S ~.;h.tr.\~,;tcn~tt~.; ol ~lllllt: ,,t the
· 1 \' 11 • 1 N \II 1 ' ~'Ill\\ 111'' ~.;ck·
rcgtona -l.mgu.tge HcratUJt'S • .JI?~.;.lU"c o · t
bnt~ t.llus his bollks h.ul t.u tl'd to be dt~lt tbliLCtl "'d then
o n

publtshcd by At nnld-1.-h·im•munn. . f l't' 1 1 ,.,,,cst tn l lll}'ll l "

Nnndy next nwv<.•d t.lptt11 y nlln P0 1 1\,; : 1 · 1 1,
. '. . ,. I I I I l'i :-.\\I IIIII~. \\Ill l \C
son" I •r tl s. I he r.lpH ttv o 1I H:.' JJIl ''lllhl
· 0 0 sJ1f tt /)ou • . "J,
lftnlL'tl. LaO('
0
obs~.;UIC c I~CIIIlH.'lll.l1-pt..llttu.:.l JH/•R ' I l r the \/ HlllgJt I · 1 n.l v v Lr
(197-1) anJH:.
r
nm'o only .
a )'t':ll 'll' orel , , (~IV7'i) '' I111..:
l I 11 01
· IliSICl, 11
and the: pt)J' son"l" lvncs nf I •onc'Hlltg II.Jtrtrl l 'I. 1,,, I ~.,;Oil
' 1n 1,lll l 1m.u 1t:
ted to ha\ c sold 20 •000 coJ''"'s A'i I I "t.' ns )l ~
·cl h :\\ 111 ~ prt•tcn lllllli of
•
mto a hlm. lu• m. n\ , Nand) t.ll swppll
 ttl !Ct 0 R Y A t-Ill I' II Ill I S Ill N t J ( 1 I(( I I S
'J.~J
ll
nJ Appnrrttcm Ill Af'rtl, Shiv K 11111..-·1-• "llr,uat
A J
~·1
1
, ~ cmc, Mamt a
11
Kaha's I nlmtc to l'nf'a, j:ty.uHn Mal
1
by 1 <" nnd St'll'l'tWlnt•l "'ul Otbt•; \~!), lra s lu}t rhe Sky Tcm
R:mumuJan's r ond volume• Rdatt."" '"" S, c:an<
ml~ 1"'11ePPLC:trt'ti alo ng wilh
011 lo \f
cthtlon o f ( ,,S, Sh,,rat Ch. ndr ,1's Aprrlr N11 ' /' ' agazmr
!'
uut n th.lt g• cctcd P. l .1l's mn !HYC 1 1 1 " JtH1I R tt ( · Desp•tc the
~ ut em "{1um Poet
I 11gI IS IJ A"A"t IJu I ogy tmd n CHdo (1%9) lackan 'J .'"
and dtsutmm non , the Willers Wnrksln' . gdselcctwny
'I t f I p ' omtnut• to be the
malll plH) IS lCI o t tc lndtan 1 nglish poets.

) K N Dnruw.1lla
d h. 1937) h. d oubl,
1
'sl1ecl ·11\ ("'l
< IICst ( 19£,4)
/CJttJ'") In '''• .Dz
, rloguc.
. man)' . Anlc. rt~:an
• n\'[;"
" ·• tncs, anu"' w.ts one'
7
ot llC
I •P''Cl rq;ul.lrl
0 l } 1 (_ .ts:.oct.Hnl \\ tth O nmwn
r
in 1llt· Iat e '60 s.m~l
~ar 1'I 7 s .11r C1 >u_ on (I 970) .md lppamum m \prrl ( 1Q7l ), ,15
l c.-ku:ol s;ud Ill hts re\'Jl'\~'' • rC\'l'.llcll .\ tn .l tnr po('t " itb un unu slu l-
1 hru.tlt l'<lll!;l', ol tc~o.l~mquc .mtl.1 ~ ubst .mt i,tl boJ v ol ,, Mk, lli-;
puetry ts huth tmnu·,h.Hely lndi.m in rcf~.· rclh:t• and univets,11in its
~.;l\n~.;t:rn ' ' ith lo' c, ~.kuh, dnmin.u ion, selt -t.:liiHrnl, sd t- hctrly.\l
md the 011UJ"ll0l l' t hm ll'Stth r, om oci,,l ,\nd P''lttic.11 ,\ \.':Wmmo·
rl:mon . 1hc! C ts "fu·n ~ kni fc-<'d g~.·to D.u u\\,,11,,\ tone l.lnd .m
Jllt;l \, s.ni11 p e 1s p~.·di' <' tll n ki nd th.tt hnd ll l)t been heatd befure
m modern lnd1an P' etn. His nl.lst ~n ,,, both u~dtti~;h1.t.l prosody
:md 1 r ' ( rsc, ~.;I c l ti\Hl o l n " s t nn7 .uc ll,Olh wd mt t ure ot
\:( nu ol1 rl narr:ttl\ c \\at h loo~ch ·''~ lc.'l.ll d ,., em . ho" cd a
\ lendmh of th mctho . .ts of ~.;nntempornn J\mcncan ''eoe "1th
th l:ut: nmctccnth ccntun and ca1h '" ·nti<'th cen tun• tr.lJi-
tl~lll (lt Bu1\\ nm~. llopk1 n . l·ro~t .md l a" rcn c. If ~1ehrotra,
M.1hap lll a, N. nd , Kol.nk r and 'lum· 'ugge-aed th.ll the
dn d (urnul, logi~..alh cu g<ull cd poett"\ " b bemg rcplil~ed b}
nwr c penmt'nt.tl , radh. al method~. D:u u'' all a ~ho" cd "'•' s m
\\ t tdl trJOitlOn.ll kmd<i l,f p~ etr ...:ould he nl.lde ~llntcmporan '.n
uh1c t matter nd ~" le I h' l iln~u.tl;t: .u1d d1cuon ate paru-
luharh , ·~mou m ltmm~.: rli.tte. \\ lul( the p ('Ill that npp~.ared
m tht: ( uh \olunte' !lr ll· tmpu:: siH: than' ight'-'t the Jackals',
' H "k' nnd othct, Ill the r 1"1118 o{ Rtt P .llld Kcepfr oj hthdr
· 1 "' , 1Pntfic:ull f'l'd •'
1)thI \tlhtm~.:s,the\ ' ctca 1~1\ll.lt.'l.ll~'' f t l•e \-" 1
" lmh.ln lf
et, ol 1 c anu. 1 a
1\1 1\ ed • \\ nh a shu p -'" . :u en 1 o 1 nc(i , aluc I lcre ".t
l p11.ll , IC\\ d O~o'l t an t l pr l\. \II m lndt.lll h C tnUO\liC1\
m l m "h appcJt d to nO", nort k l
d tt1 n ph\ stCJl es:t tence.
but ho JC'~.ted bt:~l• m and P l t' \.l" uet d t•ph' 1cal
J m ) f'nt 11\C' "
ln u nfn nt~U m "at elt 1 trtt'r ;\
h d
'
.. p JA H p f T Jl Y I N t N <.> I 1 ll
ttl ORY AND J>UBt.ISHING CIRCL~S ll
unt a Ezekiel and those a sociated wnh him ind d E ·
de Souza and Saleem Peeradina, began to app, ly r:o mg. umce
__. th h d L__ rc rrgorou
onue2l standaws an a occn common in the e:arly '60 . A gmwin
dafferencc m per p~ctJ,•e between those sull defendmg the , al~
dtt of wraung I ndaan poetrv 111 l:.nglish and those "'ho felt the
1 ut had been uperseded by the need to make crnacal d1 nma
nauons between the good ami the bad account for the oomro
., r y that erupted over P. Lal's Modem bzduw Poetry m Englulr
An Anthology and a Credo. Lal' massive coltccuon of over a
hundred poetS was meant to show how wade pread lhe new .,.. nung
had become. The lack of !>electi\enest>, unfortunate\) reflected 10
some of I al's introductory comments on the poets, brought a
final break between those insiHing on mat c ngurous tanrlards
and La!' open-door poli~y. Lal tclt that it was tmportalll to
encourage the writing anJ publication of poetrv if HooJ poet
wen: to be founLl; hili LritiLs felt that a mass of bad poetry would
pollute tand.mls, making it unlikely th.u ~ood poct1y would be
w rtttcn 01 apprct:J.ned .
In the Januar)' 1972 i'isliC of Quest (74), Jc,l>ted to Conttmpo-
rary Poetry m Engl~>h: Au A.nrs.smt'Tlt a11d $dcctton, cdite~ by
Salet:m Pecradina (b. 1944) and co-publtshetl a" a hook b} ~1ncnull.m,
1 al's antholot;) was criticazcd ,tnd 1 igoruu tandanl applied lO
th poet 'I PecraJina had dtOSl'll. This was ~lae f~, t scr&<lU atH'IllJH
at d 1stmgua hang who were the bcner lndt.tn I· n •la.,h poet~. thctr
haroa tcrastl sand f. ults. So that the anthnlot;) ould be usetll>y
rudcnt<> n mcludcd hort aitical eso;a • mtroducang the pod
Th dc~uon 1c.. ca1 how a group uf igntfaLotnt pod had dc\e
top d uound I zek1cl (" ho Ill 1972 \\as appointed Rc.aJcr at the
Una-. r u) of Bomba) ) or had been rt:I.Og017Cd h hinl on .1ftcr
th u far t app~.= ranee in print. Most had bn n publlshetlm Poe~ry
lt1dr Gaun l>cshpandc and t\\amta Kaha (b 1940) were an~.;~
drd b •-;tde I• Z.\:kJd, Ramnnui:m, Kolatkar, [>:utha ar:uhy. ~, tnt '
Mehrmr;\ l)aru\\ alia, Ju sa\,. all , Patt•l, Kamala Da
311
'
1 cckrt
• · d · I n to l11s \Vtll I
dana Whtlc I al i al P 10 luJe , the ant roc uClLl n h
• uc~ de Sol 11 ,1 crlltliZitlg l c
L
n g.:au\c: nml there 1s an c •1)' b \ \II d 111 V K ( kak' fhe
1 ck of cl ~.:• ,, u v •n La I' .mt h ,Jog) • 11 'r Jlll • .,
I p ( 1970) cernt m.t 11111 '
c; lei " rrc .HH"\ of Indo A11g um ocrry
i
. ' . umllickn'
d -• b N d , oetl"\ 'umn•c•csung' '
ucu m ucs n e ·'" } P ., 1 al and other n ma.t
and wuhuut menuonang name'i, cnuc•deed Xa' 1er's College,
1 d wnh ham Peer;~dtna lumself had MU
1
•1 ~ t ho\\cd ha~ p<>cm
8 )mba and done an iA at the Una,er ttY c
41 0 A IJ I' I I I H I t l 1 1• ( 1 1

l ,1, uti' po ''

 HISTORY AND l'l HLISHING CIRCLE
35
# wtth vanous Bombay httlc magazine.-; during th d d
•6()5, and who were ill\ olvcd with the Penguin N::::~, an late
JruJJA, Around 1973-4 the)' talked ahout form· " t '."hg_Jn
. bl' h . mg a pu1l 1Is mg
co-o"'"rauvc to pu ts manuscnpts. For Mchrot J ll
r- d K I k h f . ra, u sawa a
Patd an o at ar, t e our ednors, and others h . '
volved ·m th e d'tscussaons, · h
t ere were ohvious ad
w o were m-
vantage~ m
.
bnnvmg out t h etr b ook s wgether with a collect v
., I f . 1 e tmpnnt,
responstbthty, sty e o presenUtton and puhlicny for the ·
. d' 'd a1 b k •rt... fi scncs
rather th an 1n .•v• u oo s. • ne trst four books had good revtews
and Kolatkar s ]eJUYr was awarded r_he Commonwealth Poetry
Prize for the. b~st book of ver~e pub lashed that year in any of the
fonner domtmons and colomes. h ha been twice repuhlished
and translated into Germa11. The volumes also showed how far
the four poets and Engli h-language poetry had progressed
dunng the decades ince the outburst of publications m the mtd
'60s In Nme Enclosures it was possible to see that Mehrntra \\a
a careful craftsmaf\ who slow!} revised his matenal. R2ther than
the mfant temble experimenter of the early ver e, Mehrotra i :a
sophisticated, witty poet who while building upon radical
nouons of construction has fonnetl a poetic from local material,
parody and the consctous manipulation of chance. The re ult is
that h1s work combines clev~r soc1al satire with surpnsin& con-
trol over experimental technique. Ju~sawalla'<i Mmmg Person ts
more politically and sociallr aware than hts 1962 boo~, while
Patel's How Do }'ou Wrthsttmd, Body shows tltc author' ancrea -
ing complexity of outlook and style.
}tJun, the first book Kolatkar publi hed in f.nglish, made us~
of the flat, styleless manner he had been trying o_u_t m Maratha
after his lnltlal penod of surreali tic experimental wrnmg. Wherea
nfnlously good Indian Engli h poets attempted w plck ~s much
as poss1ble into a line, aiming for texture, caden~c. tmage, Kol:nkar
npressed a new kmd of poeuc per anality, takmg odd angles of
Vllaon, leavmg space, p Iaytng, moe kmg, . tre2w· 11•ro off h11nd what
Olhen regarded as acred. The often purposefully prosaiC, co,1
Ioquaal characterJSttCS. Ieave tmerpretauon of the speaker
, of the unpocuc. 11lC
arutude open and appear to rnake a poetr) l 1 t
poetry consaru of observmg prec1 e deUJls aud cas-ua puzz emenf
.
about thear slgntf&cance rath er t han expos• ul::>n or cxpressaon . 1oIC..
JCJUrt,
Ct hiS VISit tO
emouon. By wnung a book on one su bJe • • h .any
abo put together what was e scnuall) a long poem, wtt m
 MODI!AN INDIAN ro T"Y IN F::N G arsu s
1 tf
UTOitV AN 0 I'U II I I S Ill NG C l R C I. I
39
Bqond t~ appearana of the 0 ford and Clearmg House vllf!l JnduJ ~md on(; of the ~..:o-ctl unrs of Ne
"' I d f rom pnctr v read ings and wgmun, 1
senes 1976 was a vtnrage year rn other ways J:ayanta Mahapatra t 1ons J<av• cvo \e 1 h puhl1ca -
ot 1er appentugs
published two books of poems, A Fathers HoHs~ with Unned In the '70s, w I1c n a m·w nrcIt' ot poe ts tnrl~t l \i t f
, ' ~ J rHHn a ·tcr 1948
\Yrirersand.A R11111o/R1teswath the Unaversttv ofGcorg1a Pres!\, began to appear m Bombay at St Xav1cr's • K · c ·an d S'd·'h '
1 u arth
Unntd Wnters was a Calcutta pubt.shmg venture, wh1ch also colleges. Most went on to start, •f not finish MAs· f 1 h
lrl ~n g I S at
brought out Meena Alexander (b 1951) I Root My Namt• ( 1977) St Xav1er' s C o II cge or rhc 'd .
.
•
'
Umversllv of Kombay
• 1 h
t ey
lftd Prin h Nandv s /11 Se~t Arurchy (1976) among 1ts book• of tudaed w1th Ezc ki e1 Best cs bemg encouraged bw 1ere I· k I
) I . y 7.e IC •
poetry from vanous lndaan languages. Its editor was Pranab juss~waII a an d I ate ' s'~me were mfluenceJ by thctr teachers,
Bud opadhyay, 1 Bengali customs official wa~h a strong mterest Eumce de S~uza and R. I anhasarathr. This is a sign that moJ crn
lhe ans. He edned the Journal Etc and as a b1lmgual poet and a Ind1an Enghsh poetry ha~ alrca~~ go~c through three genera-
Bengali film darKtor and actor (NaranJan Mohantv, an associate tions a~d had ~ccomc ~el±-~ u stammg, m the sense of poets cn-
0 Band opadhyay, was also pan of this Calcutta circle. He star- couragmg am1 mfluen~mg ca\.:h other, in contrast to the vears
ted /'on1y (1975), whacb he now edits from Berhampur.) A Ram immediately after mdcpendcnce when there were 110 usablc.local
~ , which had the prestige of being published by an American models and ~u older community of p.oets to encourage rhe young.
uruversaty press, showed that Mahapatra's technique and range The rnam wnters to appear among th1s new generation of Bombay
bad matured; he had moved beyond the awkward angularities poets are .Melante ~ilg.trd<? (b. 1956 ), Manohar Shetty (b. 1953)
..d sornetunes conmvcd amagrs of his earlier experimental writing and Rodngues, whde ~h1ren Bhagat (b. 1957) •. Darius Cooper
and now pohshed has verse to a new consistency of texture and (b 1949) and Aro op M1 tra (b. 1955) show prom1se. Two ~lightly
mood. The volume was unified by recurnng images and themes older wmers who have published with them are Saleem Peera-
as Mahapatra's antrospecme preoccupation were treated from dma and Euni ce de Souza. Their main pub lication channels to
vaned angles The effect was of a dastinctive pt>rsonality and a date arc Ka7.•z- l n tli'a and the N ewground publishing co-opera-
body of work rather than a wnter of individuallyncal moments. uve. Th e1e have, however, been offshoots, such <ls the Hack
He Introduced to lnd1an English poetry the new kind of verse Writers Cooperative, wh ich published 45 RP ~f. :1 volume oi
that had been wntten in America dunng the previous decade, poems by Raji v Rao (b. 1950) and Rafiq ue Baghdadi (b. 1947),
where vanous unexplamed, often contradictory feelings were and Aroop Mitra' s own \ViiJho rse Press, through which he
held together-although spaces were left between-by being published his first book of poems.
pans ?f an antrospectave mood brought about from heighten ed Santan Rodrigues first pu bl ished poetry in the K. C. College
attennveness. The unexplained assocaatjons appeared to come Annual, Bombay, in 1970. While at K. C. he knew Saleem J>eera-
from h1dden. recesses of ~he mmd, making articulate fcclmgs dma and was a friend of Rajiv Rao and Rafiquc Baghdadi ~1r" Parth:t
-which were dafficult to defme. Although many indiv1dual poems sarathy v.•as o.nc of his teachers. A h erR. Panhasar.lthv gave a t.1lk
often seem no more than mood pieces, the volume added up to on modern poets to his wife' stu dent~. Rodrigue~ met hi.m , read
SOmethang more, a puz.z.ling mmd creaung itself through conti- h1s poems and through him met other poet ~. He met Adtl J u~~a­
nual meditation Realltv seems to dissolve and be replaced by a walla through one of his teachers. (n 1972 he ~ent lm poem~ to
reality of conscaousness. Such poetry opened new areas to the Nassim Ezekiel who forwarded them ro Quest and lliustrarecl
amagmataon, although n showed similarity, as Daruwalla larer Wulely, where they were published. .
noted, to eighteenth-century ruminauons on some prospecti\ e. Stanm~ in 1973 there were po~tr}' readings at the vam liS
w,Sankuhn Rodngues's Cb 1948) I Exut, pubhshed by the Wnters Bombay colleges in which Rodrigues and Aroop M1tr.l, who wa~
wor · · fiarst volume by one of Ezekiel's
ud s op • was a promasmg a student at K.C. College, participated. There were. also .mnual
: ~lS Rodngues was also one of the founders of the ne\\' poetry contests for the students, judged by -;uch esrabl1~hed wnter~
om ay JOUmaJ Kr~va (1976)-which two years later became as Ezek1d and Jussawalla. Darius Cooper, RaJiv Rao .md Baghdad•
 sTORY J\1110 J>tJJll ISIIIN, ClRl l 1,
MO ldt NUIJ\N I OETRY IN I NGLI II til 41
by Wntcrs Workshop, no l:Oplcs became I 1 I .111
book h<lp As the\ t)ung poets tclt the ne <~C:" 0c Bc,mbay 't
d1 cus cd forming thc•r own co opc~at or·' '~ I pubhshcr,
th _J
Cleanng l ~ousc
r t Ilc 011gmaI ten poets imo\vcd 1
I c on t lC model of
in rhc
vtn left after dl grccmcnts and Nev. ground r prOJeCt,
Rodngue , Mdamc Silgardo and R.aul d 'Gama ~a :-.r~"le~ b
althou h not • ne of tho e 1m oh cd in the public pootc. q;d;udo,
i . , h l e ry rca mg
91 a rue cnt at t k.w1cr . c >egan '' rattng S oem around
19 s• howcd bhct wor l to de Souza'" ho encouraged l
lCr to cnnu
nut 10 "ntc .1 out 1rr per. onal pc•acncc, and em some poems
t Rodngueo; fot Ka I .1 he first hook cv. ground pubh hcd,
'hrt Poets (1978), c~n)ot'\trd of clcctt ns from the poem f the
tduors Ncwg~o~nd ~next -..:olumc "-CIC d<.• ou 1 a's fl':.: (1979),
S leem Pc radsnu s l n· r Offen,p (I 'JSO) :md ~1 m0 har Shcn, 's \
NArd d Sp.tcc ( l l)81 ). Althnu~h d~..: ou:u .tml Pcct .ul~na had
betn wrmng 'er se and lud bct":n patt of the litcran ~ct·nc lot
me tunt>, the "~.:rc th~.:ir fu· t 'olumc~ of poctt'. The volumes
b de Soun and Shctt\ "~o.·n.· p<lt11llll:trh Iugh I · prnt ed m rt:\ tC\\ s
b t:abhshcd poetS. hl'tt did. lth.hclor nf Comnwr\~o: d gtcc
1 the Um\ ersan of Bomba and stant:rl an ~t \in l· ngh h, ''here
h one of I lek1cl' sludcnt , bdon: hecomtng a Journal! t
nd bt r 1" rncr of manuals for cortlputcr 01 gamz :Hton •t h :td
rk d v. u h Sdganio on 1\C''\ not ( 19 '2), a gcnaal m g..tzmc
w r h ..tt' n u ume mcludcd Bhagat .md Ju 3\\ all1 among 1t
t but{ r , 1 \ II a pnnnng m• Je, on th ~ ctn of Pcl·r.ldllla,
D.uu alb, d'G.mu Ro e and 1lhapatn.
wground bo k 1r u uall pubh ht• J m 1000 "op1eo; md
p t ar a k d to pa\ p:art ot the cxp<.·n c nf the Jrlllllll~, a
book nnt.,t CO\ cr their co t bc·lote :.nt:"- m mu u•1 t c:tn be
ad red Ahlaough the nt;mal thre 'olumcs ~ttlld' ut r:JJtdh
r ult of po tn readmg b' the. uthn1 , Sltcm ~ (, (d
h:t J, nc le s "ell, d ·~pttc c d~llenr tt'' tC" 1 r h~hh
~u ~he" all not dl) publit rcadtng .
he-n poet ;u- not tntcac ted tn •ndt~al mndcrm tt~d\nt
u th \ ~ecm more mll rc ted in d{ p1cting and£'\ nlultlll~ the •r
&rml b.1\ kHu>uud, per onnlllf ·,rei. non:," uh others Jn~IJ,~;.O
1
undm :o~ ~ here the p et of the late 60 and r.1r
• n ant re t d an op n tru rurc • l o;tr.t~.:t pm~; n • t:(
1
111
rano , rmmed1a , of ffcd and e plouu< n of dhh
:o.uru....... 1 t pcrtOl I J 1 ,m t
n' tt n , the nc" po t rc
 MODERN INDIAN POETRl IN ENGI ISH ttUTORY ANO PUll I I Sill NG Clll< t I!:S
-n
~ as shown by Shetty and Silgardo, consctouslv re-explore hope to become beucr known. lndet·tl the
me Bnush poenc traditiOn With its e:xpllctt statement, logi~.:al 'onn a network of often third trinet 311 d ~fn;l 11 cr poet• Yjournal
l' I tt younger w ·
argument, closed fonn, and use of the external world as syrnbolic of whom appear not lo 1avc le.trncd the I . ntcrs, m tny
of umer feelings. While the Arnencan and mternational moder- dian English poets and who COntinue tll cssons or the modena
In c vague my 1 1
mst influences of the '70s have passed, de Souza and Silgardo arc· Common before mdcpendcncc, or who tl • k lea verse
· 1 1n poetry c · f
an tune wath the femmast movement m contemporary poetry, in sunple thoughts an J senurncnts-too often • ·• .ons•sts o
A few o f t hc minor tmt·ts c.xprcsscu m na v
1nf}ate d Ianguage.
theu directness of speech, self-revelation, and non-nostalg 1c 1
• c 01
. h . r rcvca 1 nn lnsl'curc
memories of farnaly life. ~Po f Eng IIS , 10 contrast to the fndtanization of I· •I
Smce the mid 1970s there have been an mcreasing number of the better poets. ng tsh by
poeuy and other literary JOUrnals wh1ch pnnt or review volumes 1 he growing stature of Mahapatra is shown h R l
. 1 b . Y e atumslup
of poeuy. Thtsc include The Book Rro1ew, The lndzarz Book !980), t hc f trst vo. umc . ) an Engl1sh lanrtuar•c
o t>
pt>ctt ·
OrCtCIVC~
Cbroraid~ Common ealth Quarterly, Poetry, Spark, Art and Sahatva A k adem1 pnzc. In Relation_ship Mahapatra attempted to
P«try Tod&y, Lync, Cygmts, Ekestasu, Orbit and many journals go beyond
• ·
the fragmentary perceptions and rccurrt'nrr ob
tl SCSSIUnS
which have exiSted bnefly or which have pro\ aded places for of h1s earlter 'er~r to create a tw~lvc-part epic dream voyage
publu::ation or comment. A few, such as Skylark (1970-), have through the .emouonal . sources . of . ovuilty feclmvs
. h1s tt
of est t.lngc
had a long extsrencc for magazmes specializing in poetry. Such f h
ment rom IS CJWtronment.lt IS Similar to /ejun and Rough Passa e
oumals prov1de places for the increasmg number of young or m bemg a long poem havmg U!. its theme the rclttt1on1.htp nf 1 ~c
les er known poets to publish Of the established wnters onh writer to his past and Indian culture.
Ezekiel and Mahapatra often contribute to them. More impor- In the hrst four years of the 1980s, hestdcs the four new hooks
tam places of pubhcanon With h1gher standards mclude the published by Clearing Hou c of 1 ocms by Chitrc, Mehrmra, Na7a
bon-lived Tenor (1979-80), Mahapatra's excellent Chandra- rcth and Mahapatra, OxfnrJ Uni\ crsi v Press brouAht out four
bb.ga 1979 , NNP Quest (1977-), The Jndum lzter:ary Revie--L£, more book by Indian poets Thest: in\; udc P.uk1cl's latter Day
wh1ch was founded bv Suresh Kohli (1978-9, restarted in 1985) Palms (1982) which receJved a Sah1tya \ltadcm1 prize. Bc~illcs
and which was asSOCiated ~ ith the lnduzn L1terary Revzew ediuons three poems in Indian English, the 'Nud • '.md the 'I aucr Day
of ver~ and &.:nticaJ books. Except for the high quality Cbandra- Psalms' sequences, the volume mcluclcd sdcdion~ from the out ol
bhaga and The lndtan Lturary Rev1eu estabhshcd poets, where pnnt The Unfimslu•d Man and TJu Ex,Jct Name Oaruwalla
passable prefer to publish in newspapers or an general magazmes, published \t1mter Poems ( 1980) and Tht· Ket·pet rl{the De~ul
such as Drbona~r and the Illustrated Weekly, which pay thetr 1982) which ha some of his best work, pre' tously not available
contnbutors UtsJde magazines and anthologies, incluJing 'Hawk aod thr.:
An ther •gn of the growmg interest in lndian English poetry, roup enmled 'In the Shadow of the (mambara'. It recetveJ the
and the mcreasmg number of wmers, 1s the appearan~;;e of ne\\ 1984 Sahirya Akadcmt prize. While G. S. Shar.u Chandn'~ Helrlo ml
antbolog es 'Whde Pntt h Nandy's Str:angerume· An Antholog) 19 2 drew heavaly on pre~ iously published\ olume"S, tt howe(l
f lndta.n Perry m Engluh (1977, K N Daruw·alla~s 1ua why everal critics felt he hJJ be n wrongly nq;lc~tcd by Partha
De de lndum Potrry 1980) and A. N. Dw1'"edi' Jndra,1 aralhy' 1976 anthology. Ahhough he had ltved aluoad for
Po~rry m Engluh 1980 have been brought out bv commer- many year he had conunued to write about Jndw as well a!l ht
~al pubh her many of the other amholog1es, uch as /ndran Mt- of xile. Mzddle Earth (J 984) made widely a\'ailable sclecuons
:nse m E gli.sb A Con empora'> Antholog> 1977 , ~ eu, Dzmen- from Mehrotra' earlier Nine l:ndomres anJ Dtst.mce m Statutt
11 " ' l11do-Engl1sh Poetry (1980 19 Poets An Anrholog) M~s along wuh some new and prevsously uncollected poems
.:81 .and Modnn Trend m Indo-Anglian Poetry (1982 are In Lzfe S•gn (1983) Mahapana is more dJrcct, less guarded, fthahn
v weighted towards new or mmor authors who pre umabl} n pre tou volumes. Among ot her amport~ll t books o t c

--------------------~--------------~-----------------------------~---
 fA Ol RY I IH I Ill
WOO R
4

n rour mau pubh hmg u r

.1n earl) bt n 111 r lauon to
nd I I (C.Ucult:t), wnh M ha
 MOOFIIlN INDIAN 1• 0£'1 R"' IN I NGI I S t j

developed. thtar mam locall,;hannels have been Gta)' Book .lnd

ChanJrabhag•, along wath a number of le ser-known JOurnal
such 1 Vortex and Poetry. cHArTER TH R I· E
While uch poeu as Kamala Das, Keka Daruw all a, Jayanta
Mahapatra, Sh1v Kumar and N1s •sm Ezek1el
f
h:ad by the late J980s
b S h
~en re o nazed a nauonallr s1gm acant "~V a tt) a cal emi
A i the Poet's, their Readers and
___ .J
awuusan
~
1 no•• have an cstablashed place m Indaan culture, others
.., attracr auenuon Asho k Ma Iu11an
nu to I ' d!'look,
. ' s t11r the Market
'""' ~
was publashed by Ox ford U naversaty
· J) rcss, as
are 6
Go•rt Vzgnetu
Ll'-

was Imtiaz Dharkar's Purdah. B1bhu Padha (b. 19c; I) has publ1 hed
his first volume of v r e, Gomg to rhe Temple (t _988). Some remark-
ably gooJ poetry is bcmg wnuen by lndmns hvmgabroad. A. K. 1. SOCIAL BACKGROUND ANI) CAREhRS
Ramanu 1an, whose Second S1gbt (1986). has been published b)
Oxford Unl\ersity Press, Agha Shah1d Ala (b. 1949), whose rccem Who are the Indian Fnglish poets? The percentage of poets from
publa auon!i are The H.tlf-lnch Hzmalayas ( 1987) and A Walk Hindu family backgrounds (Shctty. Kamala Das, Rayaprol,
Through the ) ellow Pages ( 1987), Mecna Alexander (b. 1951 ), Bibhu Padht, Shiv Kumar, Honnalgerc, Mchrotra, P. Lal, Seth,
G S Sharat Chandra, Deba Patnaik (b. 1936) and Vikrarn Seth Kolatkar) ts abollt equal to that ot all the: other communal groups
(b. J952) unul has recent return to India, mtght collectavely be combined. Ramanujan and Parthasarathy were raised in Hindu
regarded as an O\erseas colony of Indian literature, evolving in its Sriva1snava families . Several come from either rci ormist or modcm-
own way an re ponse to American condinons. Seth lu rapidly azmg Hindu group~. Sharat Chandra's family is l in1;.ty.u. Chitre's
nsen to promanem:e wJth \-fappmgs (1982). The Numb!" Adminis- family <ltC agnostics of Hindu descent, while Malik 's p.uents .tre
traror' Garden ( 1985) and Tht Golden Gate ( 1986), the latter a Arya SanlaJist. Only two cstahlisht><f poets arc from fsl.tmic families-
WJtty novel in verse. SuJata Shan (b. 1956), who lives in GeJm,lO)', Agha Sh.thid Ali .md Pcerndina. An unusu.tlly large pt.•rccntagl'
has published Brmuzcm ( 1988) in I· ngland. That manv of the new are of the Parsi Zoroastri.m cnmmunity-Katr.tk, Oaruwalla,
poets were born after 1947 means that Indian J• nglish poetry 15 Patel,Jussawall.t, Coopcr.HH.i Jimmy Avissa. Rom.m Catho~ic:» of
likdv to dc\ic10p m unexpected ways, as can be seen from Seth's Goan dcslcnt include M o t'.lCS, de Sou:t.l, Silg.1rdo, Rodn~ucs,
tongue m-chcck sense of humour and his use of tradational poetics Nazareth, .md R.wl d 'G<trna Rose. ~teen a Alt!xam.ier's parent
as a defence agam tv. hat he ces as the self-destrucuve imrospcc 2re from the ancit·ut Svrian Christian community; the f.uuilics of
t10n of romamic1sm and modernism. Mahap;atra and Patn:tik were Christi.ln converts in re~~tll gu en
Funher C\ idence rhat lnd1an English poctl') has a recognized tions. Randhir Kh.trc comes from .1 Christi.tn f.unily o~ huropl'.m
and expandmg role m contemporary Indian culture mdudcs: the and Indian StO-.:k. Ezekid 's parents \HrC jc\\'> . Oi thml frorn
Padma Shn AwaTd h\ the President of lndia to I· zckiel for hi:. non Hmdu backgrounds, Parsis ;tnd (Jo.m Rorn.tn ~.alwho .uc
contnbuuvn to literature in l·ngli~h, the establishment ol Kav)a htghly prominent. It .1 repr c~ent.l.tl\ c group of thu ty tO forl)
Bharatr A Revle'w of lmi~au Poetry (Madurai, 1988); thl' foundin~ poets is listed in t)rdcr of biath or ,Kent ding tn when they hef"n
of Pruas Press m Bombay, which has already published second publishing there is no dear pattern ot .1 changing onmlun.t 01
volumes of poetry byE un~ee de Sou1.a and Manohar Shl·tty~ thl' soCla1 ongan. · ·r·tcnnt Lh ·1t the ) 11ungcr
• ·' It may, howt'\'cr, bc s•gnt ·
appearance of a maJ~n new anthology of b1dzan Lt1ghsh Put.: try smc' writers born sancc
· · 1 : It t.llll I l.mu~
1944 wclud c on .,, two P0 c.·rs
1950~ rdated by Valas Sarang; and the unexpe~,.;tcd .md power farruhes. While halt the Indian l·nglish pm't" lome lrolll co,m-
ful return tO the Indian poetry scene b\i Dom Moracs w1th his mu natles
· . to the Hmdu
margmal . · · amoa 1,. dw.,c ol nn w ·
maJonry, l_'l •
Collected Poem5 1957 1987 dox H'andu descent Shetty .md Shav . . K um.1r ,lppc.:., u rebds .t~.un-;t
(Yill\
MODF RN
 _~. M 0 1>1 R N IN f) I 1\ N I'<) I rl{ \ IN 1 N ( l tH
I' O fi 1 S, I I I C I R R I A 01 R S AN 0 1 II 1 M A
RK I I )~
" I It
~ air., did not\\ .ur .mt further rqmnung, th~ set ics 1s expand Ill ot hc
r uni .. crs•tics, it offers one Indian and one C
1.1 I~ l \ ommonwcaltl1
\ r ra ;alt 111 the Common\\ calth \..ountr1cs \\ l11.:rc I· zck 1cl ue rat ure cou rsc. 1c art · · 1asa1 at 1v and 1 aruwall
d . a aml1o1ogac
0 Iare u cJ at most t~~IVCl'St\;cs an l~zcktcl, Kamala Dac;, Ramanu-
lnJ 1an p etr J mdud don n J ngl1sh 'llabus ma) not he Jarg r
but he' r t ad' ~nd hciJ to keep the ~cr1e ah' c Jafl Kolat kar am1f Baru:a a app~r to ,b.c the mo t srudtcd author
Dl mbuuon ha b en m JOr problem for lndi.m poets and 1bc Un•vcrstl)' o olm ay .st.lrt~. teal.c ung lndaan ltteraturem i97S
JOUrnAl OxtorJ ha" go d dHanbuuon and I al ha!ii oUJit up ht and has one opuona papca Ill no tan tterature at the MA level, us1n
o•n ~hann Is. Clcmng House and Nt:\\ ground depend on ma~ 10
Ia publ 1cm through fncnd 111 Bomba) JOUrnalism and pub)
D ~,..,walla's anthology,
.u...
sarathy's l.>OO
k Tl U .
and one at the BA level u 1 , n h g
f • ng ~-arr a
1e navcrsny o Poona began tcachmg lndtan
rc dm~ b' the poct Nand 1s good at ac.hertj~ing himself. Ave~ literature 111 1978 and now hao;; .a . total of s1x cmester courses an
tcw poet , u h a Kharc, 1-Ht\C produced dtcJr own books and don Jndtan an d Commonwea It l1 ~·nung at the MAt vel.
well He sold 3000 cop1cs of h1 second book through the m:ul and Onlv a taf~h tn a_ quarter oi 1ndian universttics offer courses in
lnd 1an Engbsh wrmng; novel~ ar~ set texts far more often than
at publtc rc;admgs.
poetry. ~.more detailcd.cxamination.ol the sctt('xts would reveal
Although Indtan "titers compl.un that there is no re.llicrslHp for surpnstng ~.:onservansm; Aurnlnndo, Toru Dutt, Samjini
poetn an ~ngli h the ales CL'mpan· f••,. urably with poetry publi'ih 3
Natdu ,1nd even Tagore are often the main po~..:t.~ studied. My
ed m the rcglle~nallunguagcs and al~"' with poc.:trv in other I ng· impression is that the mor<' vigorous, proJu~;tivc, bctter-qu. li-
It h pcakmg countnt:s. 11H: rl!ndct .. hip for modern verst in most lted de pat tmesns teach Indian .wJ Commonwt:alth literature.
Jndaan ]anguagcs as siHl\\ n b' iou1 n.tl and b~)ok sales appear Se,eral professors of English told me that th<:)' would like to
Its th n m I ngl1 h. It 1 u cful to conualil the 7li0 to 1000 optc muodu\:.t: the tea~.:hing of lndi:m litctaturc m their department
sold by lc;u ing Hou c and Nc'' ground with the 300 l opu.• but they lacked trained staff. A course may depend on one lectu-
\\ ht h far L book of poems nught dlunhc United States orthe rer and wtll not be given when that leClUJ cr is on leave. This iruation
1000 to 2000 copu~ of an c tablt hed poet. In New Z~a~and Will change as more dissertations arc written on Indian lnerature.
"ha h 1 thou~ht to ha' can unusual number of scnous book pur' Whtle it is pleasing to ee that a growing number of hnghsh
cha er and reader of poeu , a\Crage printmgs arc 300 to 1000 departments teac.:h modet n lndian poetry, unul more gi' ecour~cs
f r 'olumc of' r c. B} v. o~ld standards the sale of poetry book at both the BA and the MA le' cis a profitable m.1rkct for Indaa!1
an lnd1a • good. Ti1c maan d1fferencc from other countries i that F. ngli b poetry is unlikely to de\ elop. Such·'. umverstty markcltS
no one ltkch to achie' c 'ery large ales and there arc no well ne dcd af Indian poeti] is to be self- ~stamtng md no longer
paymg hterary JOurnab; o far there are at bc.:st small fees for dependent un :1 few enterpnsing publtsher ami syrnp,uheuc
r palubl11.:auon m and10logics and textbooks. The umvcrsuy market
IS o tlll mall for poets JOUrnals.
/OU)'tlflfS
Uu ... rnt) Cours
, . bl tS helmpcwuy,
l- I'ltcr.n), :.u;,l\t:t
. I, lll.L, intcllrLtual.utd
1octrytspu. . Wl 'l ~ 1.
Unt\er
A U courses
dh U} . in Ind tan 1· ng I'I 11 wr ·aung
· app.mmtly bl~gan nt
commer~.:t.tl ~cncral ma~azmcs
·c 11 lttwn of laHlall

n ra m-.:ct It\ a.s part of the MA curriculum when K R Sri111 · . ·11 '-' ·w e 'II~;IIbt· (uum •
1alH)lll t 1lt:.
\.l.Q 1\Cngar ~as Pmfes.,or and H i f h . . 1ltcrary anll cultural magazm~!)
. . 'art\,'S,. It11WI Is With:~ . . •
lt.:w cxccp
mc.-m ~fEn hsh B , . ca&.:. o t e Post-graduate Depart· 1 .~. t
C 0 N g hJ 1955 the Umversny of Mysore, under Profe;~or
ame as that of many foretgn lttcr.lt) JOl na ·
Lion 500 is a usual print run Hgu• es I hav~.: f01 older ::lllC r(c~;.n
, , . d 1 \~est (500 copies
opened ~e;_~ ai·~•l], of~ercd an MA paper. Since 1958, when al firSt 10urnals that print poetry inclu ~ f.mt amsold) anll [)utluguc
tn•• poetn. ng asn m H)'derabad has been teach
m '-A'Otr.u nstttut.e ot E 1· ' ·
pnntcd), M1scellml)' (500 copac pnntcd, 200 ' · as docs
c -J m us courses Karn
teachmg Ind a ·. · ata k U mvers1ty
· (Dharwad) b eg:u, (500 to 1000). Gra)' Book printed 300 ~ 0 50
~0 \;OP'f
10 1
'l~tc '60s
1970 two M~ n wrnm.g tn 1964. Osmanaa Umvcrslty offered Ill Chandrabhaga. The obscure stencJllc.:d I mnac l e
courses 111 lndtan hterature; since 1976, like SC\ c.:rnl
 pliJS, JJ\IIH RJAI)ltl':i ANU Till r,.
111 1A~Kl 1 57
c 11ght r
111 11
1111 up I\• 3000 rupee ' or • supp\lscdlv the
1' 1 J
unccn\\l)Ju. tOp
)l • 11 r

Ill Rl 01 K.S
,u 111111 g th. t pth:b H:ad poet~ the career of t ho e tn luded
10
n ul' IJJ gc :uH lll) l og\ 11H~ Ill b e an lfldl auon 0 f h d r h1
,- 1I II t c rc.t
,f (nd• 1n I ng •~ 1 poctl'. tc \.:Ontnbutt r ar\.: nl ost 1YIll cducaP
n•. ,pccaall ' I ng I1 l1 tl.: l~.Ih' mg, tn the other "'n • tn \ii\fJOU
011 , of \.:onunum ....uwns ( rauto cnpt \\ rittnl't:~' JOun1a1
1 m,ad\\:f-
u JOI'
P
), "1t 1 1 a 1 epr c emauon o f :tdmm• unon; •
artd b u n..: smen
h rl 1 c' ·~en\;;c, hm' "' er, that the normal rcadt·r.,h 1p tor lndm~
tn 1 nctthc• lWCt" nor I nghsh tc.1chers.
Clearing House has a list of 1ts
o • f firsr 350 subscribers and t he
It Ull' .ttctfllltll'flllI d11....1t1on~... therokofth cmmed 1aanJof
,the• .u tt~ts ,\~ th~ readers ot poetrv. Approxmutt:h one-fifth uf
the: Jnm:tl ~ub . . ~..r tbers '' t•re other wnte1 s. \"\ 1th educator and
nnu :u was tormmg tbe second and thard large.: t groups. A
1rt detallt.:d brc1kdo" n of the ubscnber ho" the then, and
l bh ~onttntnnt;. 1.1 k of ~up port of the poets b) the Engh h
d c tJbh lml('nt • t un1' e1 ,ine~. Although one o the four
eduo of Clearmg Hou e i a um\'erSlt} Reader an English,
~nd \\ h1lc one of the other editors lectures part ume m English
rud1e • there "ere only fi, e English teacher among the ident.i-
able ub nber:~ for the first four Clearing House pubhcauons,
onh m• lndun ltbral} planJ an ord r Ten educators in
' ld , uch a unn cr it\ profc: or o Educauon, BuJiog'
Gcmun. and me chool teacher "t re ub cnbcr' F1fteen
mHlll sub ·nbers "ere patnter . arn t , falm-m.akers and
r 1" he ub' nbt:r ''ere 1ournahst . film ..:nuo Jfld
pic ell\ t' m the publishing busme . There" ere fi, c mcdJ~.:al
n I ps' chtatn t , s1 bu-.me men and admuu trat r
l c.: Hnt\ odd,ub ~...nber Icantdrnuh.t"O"t:rcum,er-
t d nt • It c m th t the readt:rslup of lnd1an Fn ·h h
'"'-ln 1 t o 1ho e an' oh ed m the n and th m J, nd
th b u d culrural mtere t amon th p fe nal .md
I al ng "nh th e m ' 1n ,u d edu c<1ttl1 h
e F v. a pl'of n lh 1 ' ed th E
t tal the n n J Cle nn H u
n a
d the\..r au\ nd p rf
 I N I 1 R A
M Ill R
Toward .. a Can 11
 2 MOlHRN I DIAN POETR) IN
6 <it A. NO
as a d1rt"Ct replv to P. Lal' mas J\e Afoden1 Indr..m p
Effglish. By contra t Peeradma's seJed&on 1 meant to eoet')
cntical tandards. Each elccuon of a poet 1 pt efaced b tab)
mtroducnon, often of a udgcmental nature, an"' b&ch th' ash
worthv ts u ualh balanced. at umes over-balanced .....
.. ehpra.
l c
etsm The an tho log) 1 the start of a canon a 1t 1 meam n
sundards of euluanon to lhe tud of l ndtan Engh h poeto l)
pcxts represented are JUmanujan. Ezektel. Mehrotra, Ju:lv.
Katrak Kolatk r. Patel, Parmasarath\. Daruv. alia and p
Kamala Das shares a secnon of women writer \\'lth M:ra
and Gaun D hpande Althou0 h P. Lal i represented the t.1 d
non to h1 "ork i highh cnucal and there i al o a , el) ~~f,
rable revte\\ of LaPs antholof'\ and Gokak's Golden T:
Jd A l e; reus t
o- ng um Pottry. Lal "as a pmblem; as one ot the on
arde of modem .Ind&an English-language poers, and as the t-
hsher of man) of the" ~ters, he~ as regarde-d as omeone "'h:h
g~ne tra Peeradm s sele non appears influenced b, E k
~ o as m luded among the cnti along ·w•th Peeradina and de e
1be Peeradma antholog} proposed a list of the oet to
;:m de;'" hj; nm< "hen the numb r of writers h~d in ere
ludo~ de smba orcle of the earh 1950s. The status of Ramanu
R".a '
of poetn. Ramanu an Ez kb) t he pu blicanon
een confirmed · o f hts rn o >OO
n the chOJce ot
alp "'&th odd
m 11 P, etry 9 [>0
~~br. ~:m~ar;::u-aHth'
m owar
hadd appea
rg t
re utanon v. as also
1 ~rry J rom Indta ( 1970). Kamala D
]\& av. aHa's b the ~ ~ tabh hed. a had been Patel'
although recent lta&dr b&r t ook . Daruv. alia's first n' o book
'
e-t e\\s b) Ezekiel een '' Jde}
nifi 1 pratse
. d , recenmg fa,our.lb
th tg
ra ~, P~radina and K k team nc\\ names\\ ere .Mehrotra. Part
m the Little magazme 0 1at ar. The latter two had been a u
out v.ere not v. tdeh k \.ene both in India and the United tat
P
oets , except to reade
1 no\\fn 1n h lnd'sa outs1'de the circle of Bomb
f
sarath> had pubhshed ~ ~ e shon~li, ed Poetry Ind1 • Panh
£ nouceable that b •de 1 d) m Enghsh and in Indian 1ournal I
oun~ no place for Dom ~ unfa, ourable "1ew of Lal the ed1t
1

r~rh ed a a Bnu h wnter orae , who, presumably, ~a n

1 e dur ng th ·
fi nt anth l e n t fev. ea h
Pr t h d •es, one edned b Gt ere"' ere three other fl
an \ th ' appear } aun Dcshpande and t\\ o
not to ha, e had mu~h mfluen
MOllH I 111.1\
 IIIJI R I'll I N U I A N I 0 I I 10 I N 1 N ol I

II
 NON
M I 1\t 71
 f'ffR l \F

Poetics and Criticism

 U aN INDIAN POET a Y IN INcH.t
d.P AND CRITICISM
d lon1al culture, was also becoi!Uo.a 75
mean1ng matter an poetry?' More tmbarra ang was 'F. R
74 O.gr tn ThoHght (28 June 195l) a:....A~Rr•~U:JU:i budsong" and 'the heaven-knows what of my
~..... w-.:tme pl'lllet but now seem totally lllapPro. Eunace de Souza, revaewing the anthology m Pcera
·;~~PJttmi•OT•~ry lnduzn Poetry an Engluh, ~:alled the mtro
•••~ .,.--. urbln attitudes and modem~ Incompetent, ancoherent, and pretenuou • and after
on Stanley's 'b1rdsong' added '(tweet, tweet))'. De
r.a;.-- 'There ts a need for a representauve anthology, but
selection docs not fi11 thts gap and, wor e sul\,
the sagntficant work included ' Elizabeth Reuben 'i
lilbiltiClln to Lal's poetry tn Peeradina's anthology begms by
th t with 'absolute unconcern he fills his poems wuh
a and 'bathos'. The poems 'lack con\;retencss m their
hows no awareness of poetac technique, except for t~;Jiia.y.• 'The roses birds, and bees are like mere counters; nmhmg
pii:Cti'IJJI voweb and ats descraption of the poems 11 ake the'm real, or to convey their fasctnation .... It all
tom
to something both over-nc '1 1 an d"dfi •
••~ ...., ....,.• his revaew bears tesnmony to has own venaon 111 e m1te.

M't:OIIIW1DC aesthettclSm-even echoing Pater-and ha pre- the vacws of Daruwalla, de Souz~ and Reuben are part .of
M.I..,.JI'O.I poetry whtch u metaphorac, melod10us, moral (see his developed in India by Ezekael, I do not neces~anly
11t Colkcttd Poems of P La/, 1977, p. 9) and umro· were directly mfluenced. I sug~est that the mo~al enous-
dern mtellectual conscJousncs ' tcchm\;al compe-
• mt h"~h standards and precmon of language thcv
readm wall feel Daruwalla's 'Introduction' to Two
r,J.., Poetry IS more accurate where It IS daamed that ~o;~;~mt~~~ced into Indtan criucal thought by l· zcktt:l and
A agt anaugurated a new era of Ind1an poetry by
nunc of the demands of the present-day world, bringmg Into ~..a. h1m spread to and de\l eloped by others. f d. I
~· )' • f1 ce can been cc.:n m the kind o a \tee 1e
pia a modem en abality confronnng the confusion, bewalder Part of Ezekie ·~ ilie ~;~Os when he wa a ub editor on the ll/u -
man and di •llus•on of the tame, wh1le using a modem adaom others early 1 dD Morae that the danger to ,l p\.lCl an
w thout the u h11sms and Janglmg rhyme schemes of the earlier trWtffl Weekly. He w.ame . om utauon could be gained~ he read
poets Wh1le Daruwalla' descraptaon of Ezekiel reflects h1s own India was the ease wnh whu.::h a rep d. La! has commented on
.,_,_, · ts querymg every wor • • · •L(
work, t hows how far off the mark Lal was. The very tnle, A NIV1U\ s manuscnp . , . f Quest rcwrncd a poem r c.:
T~ to Ch;cngt belle Lal's maddle-brow, genteel hedonism As lhe arne when Ezekael, then edato~ o rk 'chided obv• lll'i poet 1-
Daruwalla ays, the tade poem shows a 'life of loose untied ends' mlted me for usmg an exclamauon ma ' l' c.:rv"tion at the:
~ and sentimental relterauon. . ' ' A p
h fCl: I sc tl
, ('A h'w Words'.
I ••

Where Lal had seen a flatting hum.mmgbird (a phrase perhap!t better

applied to has own kmd of d~ light, romantic lyric poetry), Daru ....___ d '
wu~ , he suggeste ' wou s r ld t engthen t c pot•m
Dcdi~.nion to bt'lllg a poet
walla speaks of Ez.ektel's reahsm, 'wrmkles, wans and all'. Lal s preface to The Unfimshed Man). d j the usl'l1f
15100 11
It ll unfonunate that Lal's anthology of 132 poets appeared when lftd the art of poetry, internauonal standar s, prct;l t)' :md tb c need
u did A decade earher, before the appearance of books by Kamala word reJection o f poeuctsm . and senumentamon~ I ,
the quaI1t1es
.
mtu
~ RamanuJan and Ez.ekael's EX«t N11TM, it would have heal
W • t then of course, at would have been 1111possable, as the
for logtc c~herence and moral mtelhgence are 3 •ur local world of
whith E;ektel required from the fonner 1Yamatc:
1,:,";',:orkshop and MuaU.,y had only begun publishing 111 lnclian poetry. bl" h d book Unde1
lomw • ~~ longer the tune, however, to praJR R. L. Bartho-
0 f first
IL 11
JO.Z.Ck1e1' revu!w o Daruwa a
•5 kL dIS15c.:repnntcd' 111 pcc
pu
auUlCilbc vo1ce of feelmg•, P. K. Saha for 'the civilized Orion {1970) appeared m the T1mes Wet 'Y ~ the 'rcmarkahl)
~of an etcer beaver' or to defend Dom Moraa by sayutl llelina· anthology. It begms by conuastmg
 M 0 0 1- R N J N f) I A N P 0 t: T R \ I N l N C lt Sti C /I.NIJ ( RITI( ISM
76 ot.T I 77
sub tanual bulk' of Lmde Onon to the slimne s of most lndi:u-. rad.na. 101 t:xarnplc, unroduces h 1s antholo b
volum of poetry m Englt h and ~laJms as a first collcctJOn it com. p ,, ho 1ndtscrimmJtely pmmote Indran g} > CntiCil':tng
I ' E k I . d poet ' encoura"lnt•
pares favo urabll v.lth the fu~ t books oif Dom
h ll
Mor .u~s and A 1,.
· ·•.s ' 1.:\ Hlen~.:e
· · "'·
. By l;Ontra<>L ze re as p• ;usc tor h1s c f
tr.t5I1 • f I , 1. 1 d .
h o o
ra tsman •p :mJ
RamanuJan The sigmficancc of the s1ze (? t e co ectton rarth :t arath) or 11
E k I'
po 1s 1 an prcc1ston anJ c.xact ·
k tmagcs. ecra-
r' ·
not onlv of mature pocuc t.tlem but of lneral). sramma, tmellcctual dIn l ~,.rJtiUZCc;
l 1ng
ze IC t"C~o:o..:nt WOI .lS )a~king COntent d
. t) Ie. Mc·hrmr,t 1 ~nucrzt:d . . for
.
esplle. :\
strength and soc1al av. arcnr~s.' After companng D.1ruw.1l~a to his ne" f•·eu to" ·
·1111 llll~.H apunl\
onternporanes (Mehtotra and Pecradma resem?le hun 111 'thetr ., ,uaN'
of 1.u •o • 1::'
1 wrthout •
com em; 1);1ruwalla 's scnsi'J' 1· . •
L 1 •1\: tS acme 1y
1
sharp JXr~,;epnon of en\ tronment and forthnght t.ncm~.:nt' , ,."arc ot : nd ~..ommmeu tu pr escnt-day \ouo-puliuc.·ll ~o.ultural
Ez ktel prll his depth of fechng, cconom) of language and -lin': l•tctaturc mll'il .-.how an 1warencs<; of the pllv 1 d
.... f d' ~ b . '>•ca an
rus
ongm21m: f mSight', Jl'On), In 'bitter, sc:omful, satin~ tone' and human l.md ~ape o 1n. I 1.1I anuI e,.. mvoh cd in the local life w h 1
. Vt I c
en rg "" argument m 'c: riC \\ luch 1 the end-product of a rigorou Ptoerad 111 a's 'on cern . ' oca 1c.1 1t1c rsf reflected in h1s O\\ 11 'erse~
, . wJt
p oc 5 m wluch ~ttJtudes ha' c been explored and chorccs made.' pcc1alh 'H.md a ! tt ts an extcn'ilun o E7.ck1cl's prai c for poet
Daruw2 1la's amtude mwards India IS 'un entimem.1l'. Ezekiel a\\ ( ol th,u em Jromncnt. He .1lso h.u·c:~ Ezekiel's 011 ern wnh
further comments on Daruwalla's descriptive l>kill, ~rcatmn of the need to discriminate and to judge who h.1s or has not worked
characters and sltuauons, usc of pc.>cuc dialogue and the dr.1matir drligtntly for pr e(i::.inn .1nd exactness.
as well as the 'blend of faeedom and d1sciplinc, metncal rhythms Not a w'tem.1ti( or origirul critic, Ezekiel has a Jistim:• 1,e
and the\\ ord order of prose, compact and harsh allitcrnti' c: phrnsmg.' , ew of poctr ·. Although the ~Oil(Cpts and C!\ en ph• lSes stnmd
Titrou hout there\ ie\\ he contra ts Daruwalla's \'Crsc wath that mtlar to" hat bas often been said, tl1~.: emphasis .md •mplication':i
of poet.l ter • \\hose l:raft man l11p IS limucd to 'the ample Jd up tO personal posiuon. In his talk on 'ldcas and :\lodcrn
expre aon of emot1on w1th a prmkhng of 1magery.' Po n\' (lmlum \~ rzters m Confe~ence, ed. N. Fzekicl, PEN All-
Th1 1 a remarkable re' 1ew, remarkable for its qual it}, pcrccpll\- lndr ~ Centre, Bomba\ 1 1964, pp. 45-84) Ezekiel ugue that
en and com:JdJOn that the first book of a previously ob ure puct modern poetrv is not used Lo do wllJt prose cJn do; th~ pn)p.tgl-
1s .among the best a~hie' ements of Indian E ngli b poctr} to that t n ,f tdea 1s not the 1oh of vf•t.,c:. Modern pol:ts try 'tl.) fmd a
umc lr ~ also remarkable how tlte initial, some\\ hat 'ill I l:mguagc which ''ill mate h the actU.ll speech hJbits, rhytlum, .mJ
pnsm c bscr. auon of the 'bulk' of the' olume cvoh cs int 1 evidence t p1cal awtudes' of the t '" cmicth ccmur}'. W'hilc us1ng fonm
of the.: "':J} Dnruwalla achic' cmcnt ;urpasses that of lllCl!tl of lu~ fr m the past the) have used them in new w.l)'S, ,n01ding 'con-
c ntemp r.me · Key con~epts re maturn\ stamma intellectual n 1011 I fonn used in comcntional wa '; thl'\' h.ne 'rc,c:ltcd
~ ngth, ial a\\ a~cnc , perception of e~~ ironmcn,t forthnght t ndard Images andphrases! tht> who I~ wnc of rhe .tgc pr~ccding
dtatem nt, conom) of language, irony, wne, blend of f;eedom anJ 11 1r • Th~ c'!iSa) t:Ontmucs with a (.h cus~i\lll (11. ho\\ modern
1
phn • w rd order 'r flccuon on cxpenence' and the' anet ol P u~t hav~ needed to construl.:t :1 ftam~.:W(lrk of adcas duough
cr uon Th e are ex pan 10ns o f 1 1e k1cI'scarher' 1equ1rem nt t I1 t h•ch to umfy and express their sen ibiltty; 1t i~ nl'~l'.Sll·1 r} to fmd
n poet he comm.ttcd to bemg a pot:t 1 that the craft of poctlj be alanguag~, lorm and ut it udcs \\ hidt t: :xpn·.,~ ulntCI1lfR•r·11 Y lrft•.
mastered at the h1gh est tan dard1 am1 that poetry hnuld 1>C t hc ~A. ltl.:t\Jrt: ' 11 'Poetry as Knowledge' publi~hed 111 <Juc$!
resu Ito f moral mt.ellectuaI and soc1a. I .mtelltgence
. expressccI 111 nf" 6 Ma) 1972, pp. 45 8) is signifJ~ant fnrth~ trnsion bowecn tl~c
~:} s Wt~ cc~lr~my and pr ciston. Much of what E zek1cl ap 'nccmr:mon and con JCtt.:nC'!iS of pure pl etl) and l·lt:ka(;~.s
_;uv. a V.J e ~a•d by others about his ov. n , er c The concern ltd that poctn contribute •to m.m 's knowlcJgl· ,(.hun c
Wlul 1..tn S of langu
em 1ronmem fo ge, ecunom>, craftsman hap, •p rcepuon o
r ~'htlc a po 111 must' trl\c to fuse 1hought and c.:ml)uon w mu~;<·
thaa h.1\ mora I anuph1lo f - • ,. •
unpu~.-auons • a•1
J whtch there
pan
0
f ' rthnghmcss, IIHclltgcnce and the evaluatavc com r ~ rn ;akc poetr~ a 'precasc J'hacal and cx.tct • f orm O 1 \;t)ur c' a poenJ
f".l's )
v. ho {," { etS \\ •II be <:haracten tic of many v. ntcl and crJU'- Ia k . · knov. 1('l1t;c.
'c ecn associated wnh 1 zckicl. wc,gha WllJOtat truth, m£•anmg ami, espcc•~lly,
,.,.,n llttlt •~M
79
 I I "t I
tfl ~ ANU RITI I M 81
ld t kc Although a poem 1 an ob 1cct mad 0f
b) d It canon to word arrt\c at a truth. u ~up word 1 th
lat d to the problem of bemg a human' bn r tardmg 0 poetry
uon.tlly and intellectually. 'RamanuJan' re mg, growmg up
no lr}· of the past of htc; familv, and of ht p: r'oln through
lation ot t 1c past ·~ a po st e model for how t ou cone, own
r- I •. bl n co urn cU
a .t
Hts po m arc prod uct o f a p\:ctftc culture whtch h
ran ht d tnto'J.lthe tcm1s S ofk anotherCo culture. (The c \tcw~arc.unher
. , e ha
1 pcd ~~ -.ow It tn ·cs a ntemporary· The Poctl) of A K
R manu an, 7h(' lttera1J Crrtcrron, \Ol. 12, nos. 2 & 3 1976
1
A n th..:re 1 the cla1md that a poem . 1s ·an ob,·cct , a ate ' o)f.
1
tm gc~, d1Liugh rc I?tc, to everyday realtt), and to the problem of
'b g 1 human bemg . But the cmpha~is i<> different rrom thal 10
10
E c:k1cl. 11w pt)Cm seems more an ol'!Jcct in 1t df t\ 1an a kmd uf
tr:an m1s ~on oi knowlcdgc_to others.(A-. English IS n11 t ,1 rcginn:tl
anguag~ 111 lndta and therefore .1s used by the Indi m pot.:t w11l not
.h \C the s lQal and cultur.1l nuancl's it would Ill I•ngland anc(
Am nca, thcr c IS a need to forge an unobtrusive 'otc~.:, to m~
In tJgc I) artlficc)W·!.ile this may account tor ParthaSJiltll\ fs
rate.: acceptance than E zcktel of a pnc m a obJeCt and a
t u lUI of im.1gc , 1t 1s also rcl.ncd w this attempt to rool hun-
If tn a1 an11l tt ~diuon. Thi"'i t.lkcs the fotm of a kind of rl!\er c
tr n l:tuon, m which an l nglish poem is \\ rittcn a d it were
T nul Partha~arathv dauns th n since 1971 hi~ po~.:m" a1 c d c,,c 111
t I • content and 1rony to T.1mil ver c.
'X h n: 1 an I zcku~l poem is 1 rwgoti.mon \\ ith the modcr n
\\ r\d Pa11has:u.1th) 's conu:rn \\ ith tit~.: present is in it~ tcl.ttaomhtp
1
tc the pa t. T. S. l•l1ot oubht in tt adiuon :tn ,mswcr co the ft_agmen
ut m uf modct n ltbcr.ll individu.1ltsm; P u th.to;.tntth) ,ed Ill tradl-
t n a lllC:lllS Ol 0\ Cl"(l...lll1illg the el!CCt~ .1 \\'l''iLCI 11 ~o:dlllJ{I(lll wht..:h
ur
1 ruptcd hts toots in a tr::tdition. ·1 hio.; j, .1 soplustH.: ltcd, llll.'111ced,
•mplcx version ni regtonal llnuon.1lism 111 wbtch thr.: tmhvHh,t:tl
lt mpts to ftnd hts 01 her tdcntil)' in terlll" of .1 ~p..:Lillc ~.: .ulturc. 1 hl'
unpltctttes of natiorulist Jcmtnds fw loll, Jnd laistrlltl...ll th~.:tnl'"
' been repla~.:cd h\ an :11 gumcnt wbid1 to; H'logtltinJ,Iy an uuc ol
h m tn trcams of mod~.:rnist poctil thcnn 1
Tht he rctJ al as~umpuons of 1 zckid nu: harcd b'
111 111
v ol
odl~-: 1 1 H t
r lnd1an (;ritai"S and p l • l1u:rc at c, ho" e' t'l • mhlln
t wl d 11 11 I'UJI'l' me ..bnrr \
o not wnt~.: m pre~.: a t: c~.:ononuca ~ ·co ' k f
aned unag • dev lop thctr p'ocm'i I:m ~nalh or pc.l runll
1'

Id d f 1' lvcllllnt \vtl'

------------~~~-----------------=~R~:C:\::cl:o~p:e:d~frum mJture re lo><uon am • : : _ _ _
 1\ND < IU I I C ISM
Of J( 83
un 1, tcJJa t, the) , howe' · er, rccogmzed that such poet h ad
Jfl
ov. n
tra 1uon m carlter
f revolutionary and a\ ant gardc wmer ry
1
" carl) statement o Ithts aesthcuc 1 lutrc's lnt ro ducuon
nn •
. to
htS A' ltl] ().'
olo~''l' oj Marat n Poct7)' ( l'J67) Starttng
d . · · l h •
wn 1 t end;
roo tClIn C' ol the mo cr n mllld,
and the di intePratt
o o n o f t ra •,_
.uona1'- ult•JfC, chnrc asSCI ts tn.n at pt cscnt poetry 'l,cg . I1cr
,; .. . ( I . ms ctt
w1th
a wtal dcmnl o , M mota value.: nt 111 the sp 1rit of untl h
.. me 1111;
moral ~.:onuu1tmcnt.. 'S tll:tSm, amu c11>: and cnes for order are
• onh kands of pocuc exptc ston. Chatre pra1ses the Marath
h
•po 1 Nt:trdiH.:kc• fot ,.us
l'- . l • 1 )•
o >"cur!tY: t te obscur~t)' a~ 1 smg out o1 a
I

pcctfic comrnunscanoo- tcchmqu e based on 1us pn\ate poetics':

lt 1 the dclt:mt obscunt~ ot.nll dern poetry in the fa e of hackneyed
t hmquc of communtl:J.tton; H> understand the poL>trv we mu~t
grasp the ~ram mar o~ tht·.po~t·~ i~Jj, idual cunsciousnesS,:~Lmlhekt•r
u ed mu 1"':11 orgamzatton of tmagcr}' and ~,;Ountet potnt. ChitH'
ff r h1 O\\ n aesthetic of the ,\\ ant-~ardc. He daims that ' .mv-
hm creal a' c l,;hallengcs, nulllfic all previous mould of cons~.; IOU -
n • New 1 ec h rhvthms, new s) max or vocabulary or tmagerv,
r ult from • 'r-c,olutionaT) structural upheaval deep "uhm the
eallH poet's per onality'. Such changes sho\\ a change m soctCt}
ttself durmg a generation.~\ ma1or poet breaks away from pre' ious
nod of on cmusness and thus will ,,twav~ be ob cure to mn t
eaders H or she will, likt• Mardhckcr or Knl.1tk.1r m M.lr.nhi, 'hie
ptm the nt:\\' • nd cra~h 'mto the unkn lWn', anmlul.uing in the
proce the habttu, I poetics of pa t generations. Chtrrr con lud_cs
• mtrodu uon b, claimmg th. t all kmds of Kno\\ lcc.~ge .md c.x
.pen n c arc no\\ part of wh. t go ·s uno poetry. AU en. Gtmberg aml
l R 1Jones arc publi hed in M ratlu. Indians n::ad Pablo Ncruda,
R..tlke, Rm1baud, Kafka. 'a fantastic conglomerauon of clashtng
re me .. 'iston ... a li"ng confusion~
Some of the kc, com.;ept here, 1e: new ftmnal strudurcs; nt"
. f
l'te h patterns rcflccung a Ill 1. 111 conM.;Jou~ne s \\
hach de trO\ sf
rht old, a hift m con ciou nc s c. u cd b'' the conglonll'r-auon 1°
- 1 fl
Itunu _ .J 11C3tllllSinCttlC
m u n e and new and mcrea oo commur
1 __J d' · 1 lttte and
nu World War "hich ha shockc:u tra mona s 1 I
hale makmg hfe ab urd created ne" kmd of mcanmgfu ndeth. n
'ousne an ere
er
btv. d reat poetry c pre.: es nC"- con ct • t1
d . herclore tere as a
en " n w conscsousne an re cnt de :a e 'th 1 of the
«d tl
r a ne\\ poetry wh1ch \\ tll ea 1cr c:xp
res t e an arc 1)
h ld other
. t of\\ at" ou
r ampo e order on It bv somt= al tgnmcn
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R592966.
R594212.
R594213.
R594214.
Metromedia Producers Corporation.
LP43914.
Mexican joy ride.
R592815.
M-G-M TV.
LP43641 - LP43664.
LP43798 - LP43801.
LP43959 - LP43962.
Michael gets suspended.
LP43975.
Michelsen, Ralph C.
MU9078.
Mickey down under.
R582867.
MIC. SEE New York (City) Department of Health. Maternity, Infant
Care—Family Planning Projects.
The Midnight lady and the mourning man.
LP43743.
The Midnight man.
LP43743.
Midnight rendezvous.
R587216.
M.I.5 plus 2 equals 0.
LF195.
Mighty Mouse.
R591488 - R591489.
R591493.
Mike’s graduation.
LP43966.
Milliammeter shunt actions.
MP25514.
Milner-Fenwick, Inc.
MP25708.
MP25710.
MP25925.
Milner-Fenwick, Inc. Educational Division.
MP25925.
Mind my chopper!
LF198.
Miracle at Oakmont—The 1973 U.S. Open.
 LP43794.
Miracle on 34th Street.
R583799.
Mirisch-Cinema Company, Inc.
LP43726.
LP43727.
LP43728.
LP43783.
LP43784.
LP43920.
LP43921.
Mirisch-Geoffrey-DePatie-Freleng.
LP43765.
LP43766.
Missed period.
MP25751.
Mixed company.
LP43919.
Moberg, Vilhelm.
LP43813.
Mobilizing help in achieving goals.
MP25695.
Model, revised.
MU9018.
Modern school mathematics film loops.
LP43638.
Molluscs of the coral reef.
MP25870.
Monday Film Production Company.
MP25818.
Monogram Pictures Corporation.
R581550.
R581551.
 R583818.
R584640.
R584641.
R584642.
R585844.
R585845.
R588501.
R588502.
R588504.
R588505.
R591328.
R591573.
R594065.
R594066.
Montage Creations, Inc.
MP25546.
Monuments to erosion.
MP25884.
Moody Institute of Science, Whittier, CA.
MP25636.
MP25637.
Moody Institute of Science, Whittier, CA. Educational Film Division.
MP25636.
MP25637.
Moore, George.
LF164.
Moran—bike.
MP25881 - MP25882.
More about me.
MP25654.
More than a dream.
MP25966.
Mor-Film Fare.
LP43958.
Mosel, Arlene.
LP43684.
Moss Rose.
R583800.
The Most crucial game.
LP43933.
The Most dangerous match.
LP43938.
The Most marvelous cat.
LP43771.
Mother Dogfather.
LP43920.
Mother hubba-hubba Hubbard.
R582963.
Mother’s deadly helper.
LP43830.
Mother wore tights.
R584188.
Motion of stars.
MP25551.
Motion Picture Department, Brigham Young University. SEE
Brigham Young University, Provo, UT. Motion Picture
Department.
Motion Picture Division, Broyles, Allebaugh and Davis, Inc. SEE
Broyles, Allebaugh and Davis, Inc. Motion Picture Division.
Motion Pictures International, Inc.
LP43778.
Motions of attracting bodies.
MP25556.
Motorola.
MP25721.
MP25722.
Motorola Teleprograms, Inc.
MP25993 - MP25996.
Motors Insurance Corporation.
MP25513.
Mountain family in Europe.
MP25760.
A Mouse in the house.
R583371.
Movie Makers, Inc.
MP25962.
Movie of the week.
LP43713.
LP43715 - LP43720.
LP43722 - LP43725.
Movie of the weekend.
LP43712 - LP43725.
Movies go West.
MP25854.
Movietone adventures.
R593744.
R593746.
R593747.
Movietone sports review.
R593732.
Movietone’s sports review.
R593745.
Moyer, Martin.
MP25954.
MP26011.
Moyer (Martin) Productions.
MP25954.
MP26011.
Mrs. B.
 MP25651.
Mrs. Liddle/bowling.
MP25644.
Much ado about nothing.
LP43952.
Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay), champion, versus George Chuvalo,
challenger, for the heavyweight championship of the world, Maple
Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Canada, March 29, 1966.
MP25926.
Muhammed Ali versus Henry Cooper.
MP25928.
MP25934.
Muhammed Ali versus Jimmy Ellis, Houston Astrodome, July 26,
1971.
MP25932.
Muhammad Ali versus Karl Mildenberger, Frankfurt, Germany,
September 10, 1966.
MP25946.
Muhammed Ali versus Oscar Bonavena, New York, New York,
December 7, 1970.
MP25931.
Mulberry Square Productions, Inc.
LP43795.
Multiplying with fractions.
LP43748.
Munchhausen.
R584559.
Murder is a taxing affair.
LP43818.
Murder on the wild side.
LP43812.
Murder with a golden touch.
LP43828.