Negotiating Identity: Indian English Poetry
in the Context of Colonial Language Politics
Mitali Mishra
Associate Professor
Department of English
Lady Shri Ram College
New Delhi, India
Abstract:
This paper investigates the politics of
English poetry writing within the framework of Commonwealth literature,
focusing on the implications of Homi Bhabha’s theories of mimicry and
hybridity. In the postcolonial context, the act of writing in English often
embodies a complex negotiation of cultural identity, reflecting both the
remnants of colonial legacy and the assertion of new national narratives.
Bhabha’s concept of mimicry illustrates how postcolonial writers engage in a
dual process of appropriation and resistance, crafting identities that both
emulate and challenge colonial discourses. By analysing some English poetry in
India, this study highlights how these writers navigate the intricacies of
cultural hybridity, revealing the ambivalent relationships between language,
power, and identity. This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of how
English writing in the Commonwealth serves as a site of cultural negotiation
and political expression, reflecting the dynamic interplay of tradition and
modernity in postcolonial societies.
Keywords: Commonwealth Literature, Cultural Identity,
Ezekiel, Mimicry, Postcolonial
Poetry
Introduction
The introduction of the English language in
India can be traced back to the era of British colonial rule, during which it
was employed as a mechanism for administration and governance. This colonial
influence established a linguistic hierarchy, positioning English as the
language of the elite while relegating indigenous languages to subordinate
roles. Following India’s independence, English maintained its significance,
emerging as a key language in the realms of education, governance, and commerce.
A pivotal moment in the establishment of English education in India occurred
with the presentation of Macaulay's Minutes on Indian Education in 1835.
Thomas Babington Macaulay advocated for the promotion of English as the medium
of instruction, positing that this would facilitate access to Western knowledge
and cultivate a class of educated Indians capable of serving as intermediaries
between the British colonial authorities and the local population. This policy
emerged against the backdrop of earlier educational initiatives, such as the
Sanskrit College founded in Calcutta in 1824, which primarily focused on
traditional Indian languages and texts. Macaulay’s advocacy resulted in the
establishment of English as the primary language of higher education and
administration, effectively marginalising regional languages and fostering a
Westernised elite.
By the mid-19th century, institutions such as
the University of Calcutta, established in 1857, further solidified English as
a dominant language in academia. The impact of Macaulay's Minutes extended
beyond educational policy; it also set the stage for ongoing discussions
regarding language, identity, and power in postcolonial India. Bruce King in
his introduction to Literatures of the World in English writes that
there are “different national literary traditions with values and histories of
their own” but “each literature is a part of world English literature, and
shares in the heritage of British writing” (King 20-21). This reflects
Macaulay’s colonial agenda to form “a class of persons, Indian in blood and
colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect”
(Macaulay 249). Gauri Vishwanathan aptly notes the clear relationship “between
the institutionalisation of English in India and the exercise of colonial
power”, highlighting the connections between curricular selection and the
desire to dominate and control. (Vishwanathan 3).
Commonwealth
In the 1950s, the term
"Commonwealth" was introduced as a non-political descriptor for
"literature in English originating from countries and colonies
historically connected to Great Britain" (Macleod, 2003). A significant
conference on Commonwealth Literature took place in Leeds in 1957, which
coincided with the establishment of Section XII, specifically dedicated to the
study of literature within the Commonwealth. This was followed in 1961 by the
publication of a survey entitled The Commonwealth Pen: An Introduction to
the Literature of the British Commonwealth, which examined the literary
productions from these regions. In 1965, Oxford University Press further
formalized the discipline with the launch of the Journal of Commonwealth
Literature. In his inaugural address at the Commonwealth Literature Meet at
the University of Leeds, Norman Jeffares asserted that literature should
transcend local or regional confines and aspire to engage with international
audiences. Here, "international" can be interpreted as a euphemism
for the English-speaking first world. The development of Commonwealth
literature showcases a rich array of perspectives that engage with and navigate
the legacies of colonialism, shedding light on various cultural identities and
social conditions. Analyzing this body of work offers profound insights into
the intricacies of post-colonial stories and their capacity to question
prevailing narratives. Ultimately, the lasting impact of these writings fosters
continuous discussion and critical analysis, deepening our comprehension of
both historical and modern global landscapes.
Indian Writing in English
Through the 1950s and 60s Indian writers in
English and their counterparts writing in Indian regional languages fought over
the place of Indian writing in English in postcolonial India. At one end of the
spectrum, we have B. Bose cried out that Indo-Anglican poetry is the “outcome
of the Anglomania which seized some upper-class Indians in the early years of
British rule” (Spender and Hall 141-42). P. Lal affirmed that “only Indian
writing in English can hope to attain the ‘Indian’ flavour which is the
cosmopolitan flavour” (xxiv). Around the mid-1970s, the emergence of
bi/multilingualism among writers and the spread of the practice of translating
from and into English led these two factions into a more symbiotic
relationship. A few examples from among Indian poets writing in English at the
time include A.K. Ramanujan (Tamil, Kannada), R. Parthasarathy (Tamil), Arun
Kolatkar (Marathi), Jayanta Mahapatra (Oriya). This practice “maintained the
complicated tensions between English and the Indian languages, but it also
helped to “rehabilitate” English as a culturally necessary and historically
inescapable component of the national literary system, and to “domesticate” it
in a network of linguistic interdependence” (Dharwadker 94).
English Poetry in India
By the end of the twentieth century,
postcolonial poetry writing could be divided into two categories
generationally. About 130 of those who wrote between 1940-1970, are covered in
the anthology collected by P. Lal Modern Poetry in English: An Anthology and
a Credo (1969). Among the prominent names here are Keki Daruwalla, Nissim
Ezekiel, A. K. Ramanujan, R. Parthasarathy, Dom Moraes, Adil Jussawalla, and
Jayant Mahapatra. The second generation was published in Canada, Australia and
America after gaining prominence there. These include Vikram Seth, Agha Shahid
Ali, Meena Alexander, and Chitra Divakaruni. This group is global making it
unclear whether they are claiming their Indian-ness or India is equally
claiming them. In the 1950s and 1960s, there was a general perception of poetry
as a depoliticised aesthetics. The writing tended to focus on notions of self
and subjective experiences, while the question of the use of the English
language was deeply embedded in the cultural politics of nationalism. It
continued to be seen as a foreign language of domination. A group of Indian
writers writing in English were stung by this attack on their patriotism and
responded by writing prose and poetry emphasising their indigenous inheritance.
The narrative poems took as their subject matter material from epics, myths and
legends. A few examples of these would include Derozio’s ‘The Fakir of
Jungherra’ (1829), Madhusudan Dutt’s ‘The Captive Ladie’ (1849), Toru Dutt’s Ancient
Ballads and Legends of Hindustan (1882) and Sri Aurobindo’s ‘Urvasie’
(1898).
In ‘The Fakir of Jungherra’,Henry Louis
Vivian Derozioexplores themes of social injustice and the conflict between
tradition and modernity through the story of a wandering ascetic. The narrative
vividly highlights the tensions in colonial India, reflecting both the
struggles of the individual and broader societal issues through the story of
Nuleeni and the Fakir. Michael Madhusudan Dutt, the founder of modern Bengali
poetry, in his English poem ‘The Captive Ladie’, described the story of
Oriental history in English: Rudra, Kali, Agni, Lakshmi, Saraswati. In his
introduction to Toru Dutt’s poem Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan,
Edmund Gosse praised her as a genius and said about this work “When the history
of the literature of our country comes to be written, there is sure to be a
page in it dedicated to this fragile exotic blossom of song.” (Gosse, Gutenberg
xxvii) The subsections of the poem provide an obvious insight into the subject
matter and include- Savitri, Lakshman, Dhruva, Sindhu, Prehlad and Sita.
‘Urvasie’ is celebrated as the only apsara to be named in the Rigveda (c
1500-1100 BCE). There is a dialogue between her and her husband Pururavas. The
poem delves into the complexities of their love, highlighting the tension
between earthly attachments and spiritual aspirations, ultimately reflecting on
the nature of human emotions and the quest for higher consciousness. Aurobindo's
work is rich with symbolic meaning, blending mythology with philosophical
insights. “Aurobindo alone had the necessary 'character' capable of forcing a
direction” avers Ujjal Dutta while dismissing Indo-English poetry as having no
“major talent” (Dutta 35).
Nissim Ezekiel
Nissim Ezekiel, a
seminal figure in Indian English poetry, emerges as a distinctive voice that
intricately weaves themes of identity, urban experience, and cultural
dislocation into his work. Born in 1924 in Bombay to a Jewish family, Ezekiel’s
poetry reflects a profound engagement with the complexities of postcolonial
India, encapsulating the tensions between tradition and modernity. His
exploration of existential dilemmas, often set against the backdrop of a
bustling urban landscape, offers insights into the human condition while
simultaneously addressing broader socio-political issues. He works with the
everyday realities of India that are accessed only through English without
feeling alienated. He constructs an India and the speech of Indians that seems
transparently transferred in English. In ‘Night of the Scorpion’ (1965), the
unselfish love of a mother bitten by a scorpion is conveyed by writing the poem
through the bewildered gaze of the son. The poem records the feelings as well
as the superstitions that follow the bite of the scorpion. The mention of the
home with its “mud-baked walls” in the village, “sack of rice”, “peasants”, and
“candles and lanterns” situates the narrative within a familiar cultural
backdrop. “The peasants came like swarms of flies/ and buzzed the name of God a
hundred times/ to paralyse the Evil One”- highlights the communal aspects of
life in rural India as well as familial bonds and religious beliefs. “Edinburgh
Interlude, Lightly” depicts the typical stand-off between a mother-in-law and
the daughter-in-law, arguing over the share of domestic labour and the typical
Indian husband insisting that “If you quarrel with my mother, you quarrel with
me”.
Nissim Ezekiel's ironic use of Indian English
in "The Railway Clerk," "Very Indian Poem in English," and
"Goodbye Party for Miss Pushpa T.S." serves to highlight the
complexities of identity and cultural negotiation in postcolonial India. In
‘The Railway Clerk,’ the protagonist's frustrations reflect the absurdities of
bureaucratic life, while the use of Indian English emphasizes the disconnect
between aspiration and reality. As Sarang notes, Ezekiel evokes the penury,
tedium and filial duties of the clerk who is not a graduate. (Sarang 45). The
empathy in these lines is obvious for the clerk who says, “My job is such, no
one is giving bribe/ While other clerks are in fortunate position/ and no
promotion even because I am not graduate. /I wish I was bird.”
In ‘Very Indian Poem in English,’ Ezekiel
playfully critiques the attempt to convey Indian themes through a Western
medium, revealing the limitations and peculiarities of this linguistic choice.
The irony is compounded by the poet persona’s obsession with a foreign language
as he claims- “Ancient Indian Wisdom is 100% correct/I should say even 200%
correct/ But modern generation is neglecting-/ Too much going for fashion and
foreign thing”. Meanwhile, ‘Goodbye Party for Miss Pushpa T.S.’ showcases a
humorous yet poignant farewell, illustrating how Indian English becomes a
vehicle for expressing genuine emotions within a distinctly Indian context.
“Miss Pushpa is smiling and smiling/ even for no reason but simply because/she
is feeling.” Writing about the poem
Irshad Gulam Ahmed writes that it is a “brilliant comic poem, it reflects the
poet's commendable sense of humour. It may be viewed as a dramatic monologue of
a unique kind. Ezekiel has wonderfully captured the living speech of a section
of the middle-class English-speaking society in India” (Ahmed 165). But he also
cautions against reading the parody of Indian English too simplistically. He
says, “the specimens of this variety of English that he presents mimic and seek
to dismantle the illusory megalith of 'Indian English', often founded on
postcolonial excess and misdirected nationalism” (Ahmed 165). Ezekiel's
reflection on Indian English thus serves both as a commentary on the hybrid
nature of Indian identity and a celebration of the language's adaptability,
inviting readers to appreciate the nuances of cultural expression in a
postcolonial landscape. His ironic tone encourages a critical engagement with
the language, revealing its potential for both clarity and confusion in
articulating the Indian experience. Ezekiel reiterated his commitment to Indian
society and culture in the poem, ‘Background, Casually’, when he says: “I have
made my commitment now/ This is one: to stay where I am,/ As others choose to
give themselves/ In some remote and backward place. / My backward place is
where I am.”
Mimicry and Hybridity
The English used by Indians was often derided
for being inferior. In Ezekiel’s poems mentioned above, we can perhaps see the
use of mimicry being used to subvert the coloniser’s language. Homi Bhabha saw
resistance available in mimicry in two forms. The colonised is allowed to
return the gaze of the coloniser. Thus, Bhabha says that mimicry and
hybridisation is also the “name for the strategic reversal of the process of
domination…that turns the gaze of the discriminated back upon the eye of power”
(Bhabha, ‘Signs’ 112)In “Of Mimicry and Man”, Bhabha introduces the concept of
‘mimicry’ using Foucault’s postulation of gaze as power in Discipline and
Punish. He says that the coloniser demands that the colonised subject adopt
the outward forms and internalise the values of those in power. Mimicry
expresses the project of civilising mission to transform the colonised culture
by making it repeat the coloniser’s culture. Since this operates at the
ideological level and does not use brute force to dominate, mimicry constitutes
for Bhabha “one of the most elusive and effective strategies of colonial power
and knowledge” (Bhabha, ‘Mimicry’126). While one element of colonial discourse
envisions the colonised subject’s potential for reform and approximation to
reach the elevated level of the coloniser under the guiding hand of the
benevolent imperialist, another element that is, in fact, essential to maintain
colonial power, contradicts the push of the first element by establishing
ontological difference and inferiority of the colonial subject. Thus, the
subject can be “Anglicised” but not “English”. At the centre of mimicry then is
a destabilising “ironic compromise…the desire for a reformed, recognisable
Other, as a subject of difference that is almost the same, but not quite”
(Bhabha, ‘Mimicry’126).
Homi Bhabha's theory of hybridity is a
central concept in postcolonial studies, emphasizing the complexity of cultural
identities formed in the context of colonialism and globalization. Bhabha
posits that hybridity arises from the interplay between colonizer and
colonized, leading to new, mixed forms of identity that subvert traditional
binaries of culture and power. This idea challenges the notion of fixed,
essential identities and highlights the fluidity and ambivalence inherent in
cultural exchange. In “Signs Taken for Wonder”, Bhabha describes hybridity as a
“partial and double force that is more than mimetic but less than symbolic,
that disturbs the visibility of the colonial presence and makes the recognition
of its authority problematic” (Bhabha, ‘Signs’ 173). By neither focusing on the
coloniser (Said) nor the colonised (Fanon), Bhabha posits a relational
identity. In “Narrating the Nation”, Bhabha reinterprets the geographically
hierarchised first and third world via the metaphor of a hybrid stage. He states that “the locality of national
culture is neither unified nor unitary in relation to itself, nor must it be
seen simply as the “other” in relation to what is outside or beyond it. The
boundary is Janus-faced and the problem of the outside/ inside must always be a
process of hybridity, incorporating new “people” in relation to the body
politic, generating other sites of meaning and, inevitably, in the process,
producing unmanned sites of political antagonism and unpredictable forces for
political representation” (Bhabha, ‘Narrating’, 4)
Conclusion
Despite its dominant position, English
encounters mixed feelings and opposition within various segments of Indian
society. For many, English represents a legacy of colonial subjugation,
prompting initiatives that advocate for the elevation of regional languages. In
domains such as literature, media, and grassroots movements, there is an
increasing demand for linguistic diversity that acknowledges and celebrates India’s
rich linguistic heritage. This resistance reflects a larger quest for cultural
self-determination and the reclamation of indigenous identities amidst global
influences. As English continues to significantly shape social and political
dynamics, it is crucial to engage critically with its broader implications.
Recognizing the intricacies surrounding English can facilitate the development
of more just language policies that respect India’s linguistic plurality.
Ultimately, the challenge is to navigate the complexities of English as both a
means of empowerment and a vestige of colonial power, promoting a more
inclusive dialogue that recognizes all languages as essential to India’s
identity.
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E-Resources
https://incarnateword.in/compilations/myths-legends-and-stories-told-by-sri-aurobindo/urvasie
https://scalar.lehigh.edu/derozio/fakeer-of-jungheera-a-metrical-tale-and-other-poems-1828
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Captive_Ladie.djvu
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/23245/23245-h/23245-h.htm