INDIAN ENGLISH POETRY
The first Indian English poet, by common consent, is Henry
Derozio, who published his collection of Poems in Calcutta in 1827. But,
perhaps, even this was neither as sudden nor dramatic as it may seem today.
Indians had begun to lean English in earnest at least twenty-five years prior
to that and some had ever.
M. K. Naik in his extremely useful History of Indian English
Literature (1982) refers to Cavelley Venlcata Boriah's "Account of the
Jains" published in Asiatic Researches (London, 1809) as the first
substantial published composition in English by an Indian. This essay was
actually written even earlier, probably in 1803. Boriah's essay, twenty-eight
pages in length, uses translation, yet it retains a historical importance as
the first sizeable piece of writing in Indian English. The credit for the first
original English composition by an Indian goes to Raja Rammohun Roy, for his
essay, A Defense of Hindu Theism 1517. Indian English poetry did not
emerge suddenly, without any prior preparation; a community of Indians who knew
and used English was necessary before it could be born. Indeed, in my
Introduction to Indian Poetry in English (1993)
THE ORIGIN OF INDIAN ENGLISH POETRY
Before Indians could write poetry in English, two related
preconditions had to be met. First, the English language had to be sufficiently
Indianized to be able to express the reality of the Indian situation; secondly,
Indians had to be sufficiently Anglicized to use the English language to
express themselves" (1). Perhaps, we should spend some time trying to
examine and understand these two preconditions. After Vasco da Gama came to
Kerala in 1498, the trade routes to India over the high seas opened up. With
trade, several Indian words made their way into Portuguese, thence into
English, especially after the charter of the East India Company in 1600. The
British presence in India, however, remained marginal for another hundred or
150 years. But towards the end of the 18th century, after the East Indian
Company transformed itself from a trading company into an incipient empire, a
number of Englishmen and women began to use the English language to express
Indian themes and subject matter. It was the Battle of Plassey of 1757 which
was the turning point in early colonial history because it gave the British
virtual control of one of the richest and most populous provinces of India,
Bengal. Soon, the revenue administration also passed into the hands of the
British. This forced them to undertake a systematic study of land records and
other official documents so that they could rule more effectively. This,
coupled with a curiosity to understand a culture as rich and ancient as
India's, gave rise to a whole tradition of British Orientalist scholarship.
Indian English LiteratureMany of these scholars who were high-ranking British officials, well-trained in British universities, were assisted by native pundits and scribes in their efforts to understand and interpret Indian texts and traditions. The Asiatic Society in 1784, translated Kalidasa's Shakuntala in 1789, and demonstrated the remarkable similarities between Indian and European languages. Jones may also be considered as the "pitamaha" if not "father" of Indian English poetry because he published a series of hymns to Hindu gods and goddesses in English, thereby showing that the English language was suitable to express even such traditional Indian themes. These hymns to Caindeo, Prakriti, Indra, Surya, Lakshmi, Narayana, Saraswathy, and Ganga, though they sound quaint, bookish, and artificial today, may be considered as the real precursors to Indian English poetry.
The Anglicization of the Indians or, at any rate, of a
certain section of the Indians which came into direct contact with the British,
was an ongoing process, which grew in direct proportion to the rise of British
power in India. In the beginning, the British tried to encourage traditional
scholarship in India. Warren Hastings, the Governor General of Bengal, founded
the Calcutta Madrasa for the teaching of Arabic and Persian in 1781. Similarly,
Jonathan Duncan started the Sanskrit College in Benares in 1782. Those who
favored the promotion of native education in the classical languages of India
came to be called the Orientalists. But, by the turn of the century, the tide
of public opinion had changed in England. The Conservatives lost power to the
Liberals; utilitarian ideas were in the air. Ironically, Conservatives like
Edmund Burke had a higher opinion of Indian civilization than Liberals like
Macaulay. There was also a rise in Evangelical movements, which aimed at spreading
Christianity in India Indian English Poetry.
The Liberals and the Evangelists, then, became unlikely
allies in the mission Background of revamping Indian civilization. Both
attacked Indian civilization and Hinduism, from secular and religious
considerations respectively. Schools set up by the missionaries were already
teaching English by the beginning of the 19th century; now the imperialists too
began to champion the cause of English education in India. English was seen as
an aid to establishing the empire. In the end, the tussle between the
Orientalists and the Anglicizes resulted in the victory of the latter, signed,
sealed and delivered, as it were, in the famous Minute of Macaulay of 1835. Let
us look, briefly, at the background and the content of the Minute. In 18 13 the
British Parliament passed an Act by which a sum of Rs. 1 lac was to be set
aside "for the revival and promotion of literature and the encouragement
of the learned natives of India, and for the introduction and promotion of a
knowledge of the sciences among the residents of the British territories."
Indian English Poetry : Macaulay
Thomas Babington
Macaulay, as Member of the Council of India, headed the committee, which looked
into the question of how this money was to be spent. His Minute of 2 February
1833 was decisive in tilting the scale in favour of English education. Macaulay
shows his poor opinion of Eastern civilization by declaring that "a single
shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India
and Arabia." Macaulay, quite truthfully, admitted that he had himself had
no knowledge of Sanskrit or Arabic, but that he had formed this opinion, on the
basis of the translations he had read and the learned experts he had consulted.
At any rate, Macaulay's assertion reflects not only imperial arr6gance and
self-assurance on an astonishing scale, but also his faith in the
transformative role of English in India. He says that English can do for India
what the revival of classical learning did for Europe during the renaissance or
what the languages of Western Europe did for Russia. For him, English had
civilizing and modernizing mission in India. Macaulay was already aware of the
growing power and spread of the English language and almost anticipated its
present eminence. He also observed that Indians seemed to have a special
affinity for English, a language they mastered more easily than other Europeans
themselves. He hoped that the new education system would "form a class of
persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, morals,
and in intellect." Macaulay was also an extremely practical man, who noted
how scholars of Arabic and Sanskrit had to be paid to study these languages,
while the demand for English was actually increasing day by day.
Macaulay, despite his imperial agenda, in fact had a good
deal of support from Indians themselves. Rammohun Roy, one of the leading
intellectuals and social reformers, had helped establish an Association to
promote European learning and science as far back as 1816. The next year, the
Hindu College, the first modem institution of higher education in India, was
founded. When the debate over the future of education in India was raging, Roy
wrote a letter to Lord Amherst, the then governor-general. In this letter of 11
December 1823, Roy protested against the establishment of a Sanskrit College in
Calcutta and pleaded instead for "a more liberal and enlightened system of
instruction, embracing mathematics, natural philosophy, chemistry and anatomy,
with other useful sciences." Roy's letter, no doubt, had a profound and
far-reaching effect because we find distorted echoes of his letter in
Macaulay's minute itself. But a careful reading of Roy's submission shows that
what he wanted was modem, technical education, and not necessarily English
literary education. Roy, in fact, favoured primary and secondary education in
the vernaculars, but also wanted Indians to learn English and progress in modem
learning. What Macaulay delivered instead was a more textual and literary type
of education, with very little emphasis on practical arts and technical
subjects.
In 1857 the three universities of Calcutta, Bombay and
Madras, one in each of the three presidencies of the Empire, were established.
With that, English education became deeply entrenched in India. As Macaulay had
desired, a new class was created who were perfectly at home both in the English
language and English culture. Naturally, it was from this class that Indian
English writers came.
Social and Political Changes
INDIAN ENGLISH POETRY, The Portuguese intervention in India was essentially
different from the British because it was, informed by a different type of
imperial ideology. Military conquest, conversion, and profit-in that
order--were its motivations. In other words, it was a more traditional form of
imperialism. In areas such as Goa where Portuguese rule was consolidated, the
native culture was altered more radically than where British colonization
thrived. The Portuguese conquest of Indian territories was accomplished with
much more bloodshed and naked violence than the British. What the Portuguese
sought to do was to impose their own religion and culture on the Indians, so as
to create a new kind of society in the East. In the ultimate analysis, their
impact was limited when compared with the astonishing success of the British
Empire that followed it. Background One reason for this is that the conquest of
India could not be effected merely through an assertion of cultural or military
superiority. When Britain conquered India later, it was not just another
country or culture defeating ours; that is, it was not just the triumph of
Britain or Europe, but of modernity. Britain won because it was, powered. By a
different kind of engine and a different kind of energy. Ascendant Europe had
learned to capture the hidden powers of nature itself; the Industrial
Revolution of the 1780s and the years of preparation which preceded it, gave
Britain a technological, military, and therefore cultural, advantage over India
which was, perhaps, unprecedented. Though Portuguese rule gave way to British
rule, it did make a significant impact on the mind of India and Europe. For
nearly a 100 years, things Eastern in general came to Europe mediated through
the Portuguese language and people, most early Indian lexical borrowings in
European languages, including English. That is, the first Indian words in
English came via the Portuguese language. But on the Indian side too, Europe,
especially Roman Catholicism, came to be nativised in a unique new community in
Goa. This community of Indian Christians played an important role in the
modernization of India. Our first Indian English poet himself.
Indian English Poetry Henry Derozio
Henry Derozio,
belonged to this community. Derozio is probably a shortened version of
Derozario, a common Portuguese surname, which several converted Hindus adopted.
Francis Derozio, Henry's fither, is referred to as "a native
Protestant" in Church records and also as a Portuguese merchant. Both
these clues suggest that Derozio's father was a product of the Indo-Portuguese
encounter. Other Indian English poets such as Dom Moraes, Eunice de Souza, and
Charmayne D'Souza also belong to this community of Goan Christians.
Portuguese colonialism in India failed, or at any rate
succeeded only partially. One reason for this was that it was very
narrow-minded and limited in its approach and methods. In a sense, then, it a
presented the conservative face of Europe. In Europe itself, the hegemony of
the Roman Catholic Church, which had conspired to divide the vast territories
of the New World, between two countries, Spain and Portugal, was being
challenged. Both the Dutch and the English were challenging Spain, as the
rising tide of Protestantism was challenging the Roman Catholic Church itself.
The charter of the East India Company took place during the reign of one of
Britain's greatest monarchs, Queen Elizabeth, as did the defeat of the Spanish
Armada in 1588 by Britain, which marked a decisive point in the rise of British
power. Over the next 250 years, Britain would emerge as the greatest power not
only in Europe, but also in the whole world. British imperialism backed as it
was by a more modem and secular outlook, started by concentrating on trade. It
had a policy of non-interference with the religious and cultural traditions of
the people it conquered. Conquest itself was not the aim to begin with but was
almost thrust upon the East India Company in its fight to protect its trade
interests. The volatile political situation after the fall of the Mogul empire
gave John Company (as the East India Company was popularly known) a unique
opportunity to meddle in the affairs of the warring Indian princes. The Company
Poetry used its leverage as a seemingly neutral outsider to its advantage.
After its trading settlements in Surat and Hoogly were attacked, it began to
fortify them and to arm itself. It raised an army mostly by recruiting local
mercenaries and training them in modem, European methods of warfare.
The Battle of Plassey in 1757
The Battle of Plassey in 1757 in which a small but
well-trained army of Indians, led by a small band of British officers under
Robert Clive, defeated the huge but divided army of Siraj-ud-Daula, the Nawab
of Bengal. The model of this battle can be seen in that uniquely Indian tribute
to the Raj, the Victoria Memorial, in Calcutta. It has already mentioned how
the Battle of Plassey inaugurated a series of military victories for the
British, culminating in an almost unprecedented paramount over the whole of the
Indian sub-continent. It was through this conquest that India bore the full
brunt of Western or, more properly, modem culture.
This impact was as extensive and thoroughgoing as entirely to transform Indian society. Such an upheaval, perhaps, had no parallel in Indian history. Even the impact of Muslim rule in India had arguably been less farreaching. It is not for us to analyses or describe this impact in great detail. That would not only be outside the scope of such a course, but also somewhat tangential to our central concern, which is with Indian English poetry. After all, you may say that Indian English poetry does not really engage directly with British colonialism or with several of its effects, which we have been trying to understand just now. True, there may be few poems exclusively about racism, imperialism, nationalism or what we may call the "master narratives" of our times. But nearly every poem in our course will deal with these issues, either directly or indirectly. For instance, there are a great number of contemporary poems on poverty, violence, the urban condition, and so on. Well, these realities arise partly out of our colonial heritage. In fact, the condition of India, which was and remains a major preoccupation of our thinkers, scholars, intellectuals, and artists, was very much on the mind of our first Indian English poet, Derozio.
This impact was as extensive and thoroughgoing as entirely to transform Indian society. Such an upheaval, perhaps, had no parallel in Indian history. Even the impact of Muslim rule in India had arguably been less farreaching. It is not for us to analyses or describe this impact in great detail. That would not only be outside the scope of such a course, but also somewhat tangential to our central concern, which is with Indian English poetry. After all, you may say that Indian English poetry does not really engage directly with British colonialism or with several of its effects, which we have been trying to understand just now. True, there may be few poems exclusively about racism, imperialism, nationalism or what we may call the "master narratives" of our times. But nearly every poem in our course will deal with these issues, either directly or indirectly. For instance, there are a great number of contemporary poems on poverty, violence, the urban condition, and so on. Well, these realities arise partly out of our colonial heritage. In fact, the condition of India, which was and remains a major preoccupation of our thinkers, scholars, intellectuals, and artists, was very much on the mind of our first Indian English poet, Derozio.
He wrote sonnets
lamenting the fall of India. It is precisely this fall, from which we have yet
to recover fully and which was the major outcome of the colonial intervention.
Let me clarify that to regard colonialism from such a standpoint is by no means
innocent. It is informed by its own politics, which to some may seem outdated
or even dangerous. For a variety of reasons, it has become difficult to espouse
a simplistic nationalism in these days. Indeed, that is not my intent.
In those days, there were many who agreed with the British
that colonialism was a civilizing and modernizing force and therefore,
ultimately, beneficial. In fact, there were many that tended to see in it not
just a blessing in disguise but an act of providence. Some Hindu nationalists,
for instance, were of the view that British rule saved Hindus from the
domination of Muslims, allowed them to recoup their strength, and eventually
regain their lost nation. There were and are what we may term as modernizers
who also believed that British rule ushered in liberal values and helped us
reform a corrupt and decadent traditional order.
Indian English Poetry : Gandhi
Gandhi believed that traditional Indian civilization, at
least in its basic orientation, was not just sound and therefore worth
conserving, but, in many ways, superior to modem civilization. Gandhi argued
that our traditional civilization was essentially moral, or to use a more apt
term, Dharmic, as such it gave its adherents a coherent way of life. Modem
civilization, on the other hand, is inherently violent and materialistic.
According to Gandhi, it encourages vice and selfishness. Furthermore, it had
the, capacity for renewal and regeneration. As opposed to this, Rammohun Roy,
in his letter to Lord Amherst.
INDIAN ENGLISH POETRY, India was badly in need for modem, especially technical
know-how from the West. While Roy's and Gandhi's views are not necessarily
antithetical or mutually exclusive, clearly they show a different emphasis. For
Gandhi, the primary yardstick of measuring the success or the merit of a
civilization was the extent to which its inhabitants had achieved a high moral
stature. Roy was more concerned with economic and technological advancement of
the modem sort, what came to be known as development in 20th century parlance.
The members of "Young Bengal," a radical group, mostly
composed of students of Hindu College, many of whom, incidentally, were also
pupils of Derozio, advocated the destruction of the older order that is of
Hinduism itself, before anything new could come up in India. They saw India as
totally insufficient if she had to rely only on her native sources.
Rabindranath Tagore offers yet another perspective in this
debate. He advocated a more liberal, even cosmopolitan or Universalist approach.
His views are often thought of as an. Endorsement of a synthesis between the
best of the East and the West. However, as Sri Aurobindo clearly shows
in Foundations of Indian Culture, a half-baked or weak- ' kneed synthesis is
tantamount to capitulation. Later, of course, as British imperialism became
more and more repressive, Tagore revised his opinions somewhat. Though he
supported the national struggle for independence led by Gandhi, he differed
with the latter on key issues. Both often aired their differences in public but
never lost their love and respect for one another. Whatever view we may take on
the Indo-British encounter, it is important to bear in mind that British rule
in India was not just oppressive, but highly exploitative. It was an iniquitous
system in which India's surplus wealth was systematically extracted and
expropriated by Britain. The enormous inflow of capital from the colonies,
arguably, helped in Britain's own process of rapid industrialization and
development. India, as we know from our own personal experience, was
impoverished, became within the space of 200 years, one of the poorest and most
backward countries in the world. Not too long ago, it was one of the richest
and most advanced. There may have been a variety of other factors, which
contributed to India's impoverishment, but colonialism was the chief of these.
Indian English DramaINDIAN ENGLISH POETRY, A simple proof of the horrors of colonialism is the fact that throughout the history of British rule, famines struck the country with predictable regularity, almost once in ten years. The most devastating of these, of course, is the great Bengal famine of 1943 in which more than 3 million people died. Ironically, this famine was not caused by drought or crop failure, but was entirely man-made. It was caused by the British war policies. Amartya Sen, the Nobel-prize winning economist, was growing up at that time; what he saw and experienced then. Influenced his career choice and work later on. Apart from the drain of India's economic resources, which resulted in a number of ' other side effects, British imperialism almost destroyed India's belief in itself, its self-confidence. It was as if the backbone of this ancient civilization was broken; it began to see itself as a hopeless failure, a miserable wretch.
A good deal of this inferiority complex persists to this
day. India's poverty and cultural "cringe" also encouraged some of
the worst traditions and practices to gather strength. The best example,
perhaps, is Sati, which reached epidemic proportions in Bengal, precisely
during British rule. Now, it is often thought that the British took great pains
to abolish this evil and that we must be grateful to them for this. That is,
the abolition of Sati is seen as the triumph of benevolent modernity, with its
notions of human rights and equality, exemplified by British rule, over the
irrational and inhuman customs of the Hindus, who therefore are superstitious
and barbaric. But such a view begs the more fundamental question of which the
incidence of Sati rose to such unprecedented proportions during the benevolent
rule of the British. Nowjere else in India did the numbers even remotely
resemble those of British Bengal. Again, before British ascendancy, Sati was
not so prevalent even in Bengal itself.
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