Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Dept. of Linguistics
Univ. of Delhi, Delhi
1.0 Background:
The use of English for poetic purposes is not a recent phenomenon. In fact in the 19th and early 20th
centuries it was the dominant form, though it had echoes of the British Romantic and Victorian traditions.
It is only after the 1950s, i.e., after independence that it began to acquire a distinct Indian voice through
greater innovations and creativity. The innovations it must be acknowledged have been present in fiction
from the 1930s. The choice of English, an associate official language, or at best a second language,
as a medium for creative purposes has disturbed many. B. Rajan (1992: 79) feels that English is a
language imposed upon India rather than nourished by its soil while there are at least 15 major native
Indian languages nourished by the soil. In fact, Buddhadeva Bose was the first to emphatically state that
in post-independence India there is no place for creative writing in English. What disturbs Bose the most
is that while Indian poets composing in English in 19th century tried to become English poets in every
sense of the term, the contemporary Poets insist that they are Indians writing in English (1963: 4). He
finds this preposterous for English is not an Indian but a foreign language which is unsuitable for poetic
expression. David McCutchion too holds a similar view and perceives the use of English as a barrier
against real insights into the Indian mind and circumstances (1973: 15). Another accusation is that
Indian writers in English write to suit a foreign audience. An ideological twist is also given by some who
are apprehensive of the position of power of the English language, or some who consider it solely as a
language for intellectual discourse. Anyhow, in order to refute Buddhadeb Bose, P. Lal had sent a
questionnaire to hundreds of practising poets in India writing in English. The large number of responses
received has been published by Lal in his Modern Indian Poetry in English: An Anthology and a Credo.
The responses proved at least that substantial creative work was going on in English in India. However,
most creative writers in English emphasize that English is at home in India and India at home with
English, that their poetry is Indian English.
Raja Rao (1963: vii) in the famous foreword to his first novel Kanthapura (1938) wrote one has to
convey in a language not ones own the spirit that is ones own ? English is not really an alien language
to us. It is the language of our intellectual make up ? like Sanskrit and Persian were before, but not of
our emotional make up. We cannot write like the English, we should not. We can write only as Indians.
The parallel with Persian is apt. We Indians have been quite good at adapting the language of our
intellectual make up for expressive purposes as well, but in the process the language gets nativized. In
the case of Persian in India, the Iranians termed the Indianised variety as Sabke-Hindi. It is for this
reason that Kachru (1983:3) views Indianization of English as a repetition of The linguistic history of the
sub-continent. It is, perhaps, in this sense that R.K. Narayan, another significant writer of fiction, notes
that IE is a legitimate development and needs no apology, and that the language is now undergoing a
process of Indianization (1965: 123). Elsewhere he considers it an absolutely swadeshi language
(1974: 57) for it has flexibility enough to adopt the complexion of our life and assimilate its idiom. In
present day bilingual India there are many who write only in English and hence Pritish Nandy (1973: 8),
in his Indian Poetry in English Today declares that English is a language of our own, yes, an Indian
language, in which we can feel deeply, create and convey experiences and responses typically Indian.
A poet like Kamla Das in her Introduction to The Old Playhouse and other Poems (1973) is conscious
of Indian bilingualism, for she says:
In fact the situation is quite paradoxical, that IE poetry did not seriously begin to exist till after the
withdrawal of the British from India. It is only after independence that Indians began to take greater
freedom with the language and began shaping it into an effective instrument to give expression to their
native experience. Also, another fact that needs to be kept in mind is that before independence the IE
was not considered as part of the main-stream languages, but in the post-independence period its
existence for creative purposes has begun to be recognized, for organizations such as the Sahitya
Akademi present their annual awards to Indian writers in English as well. In pre-independent India the
hostility to English arose from its colonial associations and from the fear that it could supplant other
Indian languages. Today IE is only one of the many languages forming the Indian linguistic prism.
2.0 Nativization:
Coming to the linguistics of the situation Braj Kachru was amongst the first to identify and delineate the
boundaries of the nativised variety of English which he terms IE (Indian English) or in a more larger
canvas SAE (South Asian English). Kachru (1986: xiii) not only perceives SAE as an additional
linguistic arm in the culture of creativity, but also that the South Asian creative writers showed a need
for nativization of English and emphatically related the process of nativization to questions of identity
and local contexts (1986: 17). He believes that Nativization must be seen as the result of those
productive linguistic innovations which are determined by the localized function of a second language
variety, the culture of conversation and communicative strategies in new situations, and the transfer
from local languages (1986: 21). The resultant variety of English is considered as an interference
variety, since, in the second language variety used, there is a clear linguistic and cultural interference
from the first language and culture of the users (ibid.: 19). The contextual innovations can be identified
at both descriptive and pragmatic levels. While at the level of descriptive analysis phonetic,
phonological, lexical, collocational and grammatical features can be identified, at the pragmatic level
occur historical and functional styles. Since the user of the non-native variety is a bilingual, creativity is
manifested in different kinds of mixing, switching, alteration and transcreation of codes. The
nativized variety reveals the use of native similes, metaphors, transforming of personalized rhetorical
devices, transcreation of idiomatic expressions, use of culturally dependent speech styles and peculiar
syntactic devices. What is happening is that the cultural semiotics of English as developing in India is
gradually moving away from the cultural semiotics of the standard British English. According to Kachru
literariness as a result of bilingual creativity resides in a blend of two or more linguistic textures and
literary traditions. Such contact literatures manifest a range of discourse devices and cultural
assumptions distinct from the ones associated with the native varieties of English (1986: 161). This is
similar to Thumboos (1976: ix) assertion that language is remade, where necessary, by adjusting the
interior landscape of words in order to explore and mediate the permutations of another culture and
environment.
the Indianness of English through their attempts to portray Indian realities. This involves a
demonstration of their control and dexterity in using the language and in the process foregrounding
English. The foregrounded language reveals the innovation and creativity of the poets. The remaining
part of this paper attempts to focus on the creative elements in Indian English poetry of the post
independence period.
It needs to be pointed out in the beginning that languages are part and parcel of the cultural semiotic
whose signification provide a distinct identity to a speech community. Their use of the language is
intimately tied up with their socio-cultural beliefs and aspirations. R. Parthasarthy, like all other Indian
English poets is also acutely conscious of this and aptly states in his poetic idiom :
In the process of nativization/ Indianisation, the English language can be seen to have not only lost color
but taken on other localized colors. These can be perceived to have occurred at both linguistic and
pragmatic-symbolic levels. While the linguistic level involves a formal look at phonological, lexical and
syntactic forms, the pragmatic-symbolic level consists of culturally dependent expressions as can be
seen in the use of similes, metaphors etc. and in the transcreation of local idiomatic expressions leading
to the creation of unique cultural images.
Over a period of time the post independence poets broke away from the hold of traditional rhythmic
forms. For example, the later Ezekiel, in poems like In Retrospect, abandons the regular metre and
begins to write in free verse. Consider the lines below:
Ezekiel manages to break away from traditional verse in his Very Indian Poems in Indian English. In the
dramatic monologues representing language use at a point somewhere below the central point in the
cline in bilingualism, perhaps the rhythm is generated by the accentual ? syllabic structure of the verse
as in the opening lines of The Patriot :
The rhythm in such lines can only be appreciated if it is read in syllable-timed free verse. Further,
contemporary IE poetry in free verse comes close to the mainstream modern poetry in most Indian
languages, such as the nayi kavita of Hindi or puthuk Kavitai of Tamil or Vachana Kavitam of Telugu
which too utilize free verse and prose rhythms.
Dhananjaya, Treta (J. Mahapatra), Ghanshyam (Kamla Das), Bharatmata (Arvind Mehrotra), Yaksha,
Kartikeya (K. Daruwala), Hindoo, Gita, Madurai (A.K. Ramanujam) etc.
4.2.3 Compounding:
IE had to invent these compounds to capture the unique Indian experiences both political and sociocultural. E.gs:
Floor-crossing, bullock-cart, cattle-fair, drought year (K.N. Daruwalla), marriage procession (P. Lal),
prayer-lamp (Kamla Das), funeral-pyre (J. Mahapatra).
4.2.4 Reduplication:
Reduplication is a usual feature of Indian languages to indicate whenever intensity is needed to be
imparted to experience. E.gs:
The reduplication in the last example expresses the speakers concern for money.
Leapleapleaping
Whirlwhirlwhirling
Boomgloomblooming
(Sri Sri: Forward March)
marksroublesdollarspoundsyenslirasfrancs
(A.Mehrotra: Bharatmata A Prayer)
The former example iconises the youth marching forward to destroy an old world and create a new one.
Their impatience and their zeal is aptly captured by the fused forms. The latter example is indicative of
all kinds of money pouring in.
Indian English poetry is also marked by some interesting collocations. Some of them appear to be
spurred by local expressions. Examples: defective version (of soap), sound habits, How is your health
keeping? vulgar thing, make mischiefs, a common glass (i.e. the same glass), progress progressing
(N. Ezekiel), pious pretence, fiery violence, (J. Mahapatra).
The collocations appear to be somewhat arbitrary, at times indicating the lower middle class status of
the speaker/character.
This captures the most pervasive element of Indian English, which has an almost pan-Indian sweep.
While speakers of Standard British English may find it a bit funny but it is not so to most speakers of IE.
4.3.3 Interrogatives:
The interrogative forms not beginning with an auxiliary are often heard in IE. Egs.
This is because of the influence of the mother tongue where question formation does not depend on the
movement of the auxiliary.
In fact articles and prepositions are a grey area in this variety of IE usage.
The non-standard variety lacks the appropriate forms of the reporting verb as well as the appropriate
tense forms of the pronouns. It is also marked by the non use of declaratives in the indirect narration.
Egs.:
There are some other peculiarities of this variety of IE as well which are exploited by Ezekiel, e.g. the
use of no as tag question:
In fact, just now only has become a common expression representing immediacy in IE.
There are also a few instances of code switching as in----
Everywhere temples
Splash in the morning the hymn
Of Shankara fluting to their ears:
bhaj govindam bhaj govindam
(R. Parthasarthy : Speaking of places).
Code switching occurs because the poet introduces an Indian expression, which is almost not
translatable, for to translate bhaj govindam (an invocation for God) would be almost sacrilegious. An
instance of code-mixing can be seen in the lines below:
Amrita refers to nectar but with all its mythological associations it packs far more meaning into the simile
An excellent example expressing the rural sensibilities occurs in N. Ezekiels poem Night of the
Scorpion. The superstition and folk belief which exist in Indian society, turns out to be a favourite theme.
Nisim Ezekiel handles this theme with superbs irony and subdued mockery in this poem. In the poem
the mother is stung, the nationalist and sceptical father tries every curse and blessing/powder, mixture,
herb and hybrid as the peasants swarm around to console her, offering advice of ritualistic and faith
healing kind. The mothers reaction to her own suffering, Thank God, the scorpion picked on me/ and
spared my children is typically an Indian concern for the children. . Ironically she rejects both the
responses that of her husband and that of the villagers. The poem creates an authentic rural ambience.
Another example of the English language being moulded into the form of a prayer, though ironically,
occurs in Bharatmata ? A prayer by Arvind Mehrotra. The first five lines are interesting:
O BHARATMATA
O SOCIALIST MOTHER INDIA
O BRIGHT STAR
O LAND OF THE PEACOCK & THE LION
LAND OF THE BHRAMPUTRA & THE HIMALAYA
OF THE BRAVE JAWAHAR
OF THE MIGHTY GANDHI
HOMAGE TO THEE.
The glowing invocation is followed by a series of repulsive images that represent the squalor and the
warped thinking of some Indians. Though the poem is titled Bharatmata (i.e. Mother India), it in fact
turns out to be a poem of protest by undercutting the technical acquisitions by individuals and the
country. Also to be noted in the contrast is the fact that while the invocation is in capital letters the
remaining poem is in the lower case. This highlights the contrast between the conventional invocation
and the actual realistic situations, and this adds to poignancy of the poem.
Shiv K. Kumar satirizes the present day politicians who are unprincipled and time?servers. In Epitaph
on an Indian Politician, he gives a very daring portrayal of the politician:
This reflects the writers total disillusionment with the political class and this is a recurring theme of all
Indian poetry in all languages.
Rain is another factor integrated into an all India cultural profile. Most of the IE poets have touched
upon rain. However, no other IE poet has written so many poems on rain as Mahapatra has done. Rain
in his poem becomes a very important metaphor. Some of his well-known rain poems are In a night of
Rain, A day of Rain, Rain Falling etc. These are in addition to a number of poems, which indirectly
deal with this theme. The rain in Mahapatra becomes a symbol of the desire in man and woman for a
physical reunion. This is common in traditional Indian literature. Mahapatra depicts one such scene in a
night of rain when love is consummated in a hut.
Apart from rain symbolizing desire, it also is a symbol of hope for a better tomorrow; and rightly so is a
country where monsoon are the lifeline of an entire society. It would be unthinkable to associate
gloominess and depression of the conventional English symbol of rain in the Indian context.
Kamala Das is another poet who presents her conflict between passivity and rebellion against the maleoriented universe. She refuses to fit in in the traditional mould of a woman. She looks for the sensuous
completeness of sexual love, this skin-communicated thing (In Love). She too mythologies her search
for true love by identifying in Radha Krishna and Vrindavan with Radha or with Mira Bai who
relinquished the ties of marriage in search of Lord Krishna, the true eternal lover, who is also the
epitome of the fullest consciousness that a human being can contemplate. Then she can say:
Mythological symbols abound in Indian poetry and the love of Radha and Krishna is an eternal symbol
of love in all Indian poetry. The IE poet would not like to abandon such a rich legend.
The poetic figures like similes and metaphors also function to express the unique Indian sensibilities and
help to create vivid images of the varied Indian life. These not only reflect the density of experience,
uniquely Indian but also make the IE poetry distinct. This also reflects the process of nativization of the
English language in India in order to aptly express the Indian experience. Some examples are being
given below:
In this example the simile in the first three lines attempts to create an image of the passive Indian village
women, while the metaphor in the remaining lines is expressive of their hope and despair.
(2) ......and
take seven steps with him that will make
him my ally.
(Gauri Deshpande, cited in Chindade 2001:10)
The seven steps in the example are a transcreation of the seven times going around the holy fire that
make a Hindu man and woman, husband and wife.
The expression binds the feet is also a transcreation of a typical Indian expression that expresses
inability to complete an action due to some reasons.
6.0 Conclusion:
It might seem astounding to say that IE poetry is the only pan-Indian poetry in an otherwise sea of
fiercely regional and linguistic loyalties. Bengali poetry is Bengali more than it is Indian, which applies to
other Indian languages as well. But a poet writing in English in India reaches out to the entire country.
Parthasarthy, Kolatkar and Mahapatra are prolific writers in their own languages, namely, Tamil, Marathi
and Oriya yet they have gone beyond their regional audiences because they compose poems in
English. Fortunately, in spite of the regional and linguistic differences Indian culture has broad and a
homogeneous texture, which allows these poets to transcend the boundaries of their regions and
express a pan-Indian sensibility.
The IE poet does this by using the resources of English, but nativizing them in the process so that the
connotations and semiotics that existed in the original language are supplanted by their new Indian
avatars. It may be noted that fiction and drama can reach out to a pan-Indian audience through
translations in different Indian languages, but poetry resists any translation. In such an environment it is
IE poetry alone that reaches out to the entire Indian society. There is indeed something unique about
this experiment. This English is second language of both the writers and the readers in India and
generally we tend to look down upon any literature in second language. But if Beckett and Conrad can
assimilate the cultural semiotics of their adopted language, it is far more easier for Indian writers, who
work in an environment where English is fast becoming the lingua franca of the whole country. This is an
experiment, which is being repeated in Africa and in the West Indies too. Perhaps Walcotts dilemma
about the use of English is a dilemma of all post-colonial writers everywhere as they nativize this
adopted language and give it the care of a foster child, and as a result English will be as much a
language of literary creativity in India as it is in Australia or Canada or America or anywhere else.
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