'Indian Writing in English' By K. R. S. Iyengar : Brief Discussion In Form Of Questions And Answers

Introduction : This blog is written as a part of the Thinking Activity related to Flipped Learning of Three Prose Writers, the New Poets, and Conclusion from K. R. S. Iyengar's book 'Indian Writing in English.'

This blog is divided into three parts which all are included in the same blog :

1. Three Prose Writers

2. The New Poets

3. The Conclusion

We will take these parts in three tasks respectively.

Task 1 : Three Prose Writers :

(1) According to Radhakrishnan, what is the function of philosophy?

Answer : The function of philosophy according to Dr Saevepalli Radhakrishnan is to be experimental.

"If philosophy of religion is to become scientific, it must become empirical and found itself on religious experience. True religion, argues Radhakrishnan, remains open to experience and encourages an experimental attitude with regard to its experiential data. Hinduism more than any other religion exemplifies this scientific attitude. “The Hindu philosophy of religion starts from and returns to an experimental basis."

Radhakrishnan argues that a scientific attitude has been the hallmark of Hinduism throughout its history. In a revealing passage, Radhakrishnan explains: “The truths of the ṛṣis are not evolved as the result of logical reasoning or systematic philosophy but are the products of spiritual intuition, dṛṣti or vision. The ṛṣis are not so much the authors of the truths recorded in the Vedas as the seers who were able to discern the eternal truths by raising their life-spirit to the plane of universal spirit. They are the pioneer researchers in the realm of the spirit who saw more in the world than their followers. Their utterances are not based on transitory vision but on a continuous experience of resident life and power. When the Vedas are regarded as the highest authority, all that is meant is that the most exacting of all authorities is the authority of facts.” (Source)

(2) “Change is easy, and as dangerous as it is easy, but stagnation is no less dangerous.” Write a note on Raghunathan’s views of change.

Answer : I agree with the aforementioned statement by N. Raghunathan. The change is easy because we are free to choose what we want to be or have and on the base of our requirements and desires we change the modes through which we function in the world, but it is dangerous too as changing pre-established structures brings uncertainty and stake of losing what one possesses, stagnation above all is the most perilous thing to be in anything as the stagnant mind and machine are more riskier than the running and updating ones.

In terms of life, one is expected to change the habits and actions as per the demand of time and technology, but sticking to the debilitating precursory standards throws one into the well of ignorance of present time and thus obstructs the growth one wants to make in life-matters.

Task 2 : The New Poets :

(1) Write a note on how Kaikini differs from other Indian poets in his poems.

Answer : Prabhakar Ramrao Kaikini ‘s known (poetry) works include  Snake in the Moon (1942), Poems of the Passionate East (1947), Some of my years (1972), This Civilization, (2006)  and others. Described as an Indo-Anglian  prose poet , Kaikini  it seems in his earlier works was  very much influenced by Rabindranath Tagore’s writing style.

But, after 1937, his poems were increasingly about blood and war and even the style changed to free verse. This transition was impacted strongly by nationalism, events in the East. Goverdhan Panchal (well-known exponent of Sanskrit theater) in his introduction of Shanghai (as mentioned in Abebooks website) provides a clue.  Panchal states ” These poems will help the reader, especially the foreign reader, to understand something of the contemporary movement in this country in relation to the Indian national movement for political and economic freedom.”

How did the battle of Shanghai, the Japanese invasion impact Kaikini? Was he a witness to the bloody events? Or was he a supporter of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, who had visited Shanghai around this time?  The political awakening and national identity question had swept a nation  and the unfolding war that reached India as well was perhaps expressed by this poet, looking for his country’s freedom from all kinds of imperialism. Or was the book title more of a creative metaphor? (Source)

(2) Write a critical note on the poems by Nissim Ezekiel.

Answer : Nissim Ezekiel, the founder and father of modern Indian English poetry was born in a Jewish family on 16 Dec 1924. He is accepted as main poet in the history of Indian English Poetry. K. N. Daruwalla rightly says; “Nissim Ezekiel was the first Indian poet to express modern Indian sensibility in a modern idiom.” Indianness is an important element and a major theme in the poetry of Nissim Ezekiel. He uses English language skillfully as medium of expression in his poetry to create awareness about the Indian social problems. Nissim Ezekiel being the father of modern as well as post independence Indian English poetry has discussed Indianness in his poetry because he has declared his intentions to be rooted in India. The paper is an effort to known Indianness in the poetry and to know his deep rooted connections with Indian culture and its people. The Indian environment and culture provide the supernatural as well as the infrastructure for the post independence Indian English poetry to prof. V.K. Gokak Indianness is “A composite awareness in the matter of race, milieu, language and religion.” We can also say that it is one’s feeling of being Indian. Nissim Ezekiel is aware of Indian Social reality. His poems are marked with romantic mood and a reasonable description of Indian milieu. Ezekiel is called the poet of typical Indian environment.

Nissim Ezekiel is one of the greatest poets of India writing in English. He is considered as the father of modern Indian English poetry. Nissim Ezekiel has developed great inclination towards his country India, its landscapes and its social milieu. He was born in a Jewish family but embraced India as his country. He not only loves his country but also the city, Bombay in which he lives and because of this love he does not want to leave his city. C. D. Narsimhaiah say, “… to the extent he (Ezekiel) has availed himself of the composite culture of India to which he belongs, he must be an important poet not merely the Indian context but in a consideration of those that are writing poetry anywhere in English." In an interview with Frank Birbal Singh he says, “I am an Indian national I was born in India; my tribe of the Jewish community has lived in India for 2,000 years. If I had rejected my Indianness, which some other writers obviously have done, and if I had decided that I am so much of an outsider that I have to settle down in London or New York, and then, even if I did write about India, I don’t know if I could be regarded as an Indo-English Writer. There would be some problems in that situation, though there are marginal cases.” Nissim Ezekiel’s poetry is full of Indianness. ‘Background Casually’ is one of the biographical poem written by Nissim Ezekiel which shows his loyalty towards India. Some of the lines from the poem are as under:

'The Indian landscape sears my eyes I have become part of it To observe my foreigners. They say that I am singular, Their letters overstate the case. I have made my commitments now.

This is one, to say where I amAs others choose to give themselves.In some remote and backward place.My backward place is where I am.'

Nissim Ezekiel being the father of modern as well as post independence Indian English poetry has brought an innovative change in Indian Poetry. He not only loves India but also the city of Bombay in which he lives. Indian sensibility is an important element that Nissim Ezekiel uses in his poetry to express his thoughts and feelings. Indianness is one of the major themes in Ezekiel’s poetry. Nissim Ezekiel, because of Indianness is deeply connected with India, its people and culture. (Source)

Task 3 : The Conclusion :

(1) Write a note on the changing trends in Post-Independence Indian Writing in English.

Answer : Indian Literature after Independence of the country witnessed some major changes in terms of literary writings. Indian independence may be a historic event for its socio-political significance. But according to some writers, this event has had an outstanding impact on the creative writing done in various regional languages of the writers. India's nationalism at the point before independence was a nationalism of grief and mourning. Thus, most of the new age writers through their writings portrayed the terrible fake world that was based on the western modernism. However, in a country like India, the vast culture of the past does not go off completely. With the independence of the country the cultural rhythm of the past certainly broke down as a result of modernistic experimentations. Rabindranath Tagore, Sarat Chandra Chatterjee, Vallathol Narayana Menon, Munshi Premchand, Mardhekar and Iqbal, to mention a few towering peaks in the Indian literary scene in the first half of this century, had given their best before independence.

Post-independence India did see greater awareness on the part of the reading public as well as the government of the existence of many more and richer languages and literatures, beyond the limited periphery of one's own mother-tongue or province. Some states entered a big way by giving prizes and awards and much translation work was encouraged. Writers received the opportunity of visiting new places and publicise their works. All this, with all its limitations, did stimulate a literary climate. Further, the industrial and scientific advancement throughout the country after independence also had an impact on Indian literature. In spite of the new vistas opened to the writers in the form of writing for the new mass media like the film, the Radio and TV, the character of Indian literature continues to remain feudal, romantic, pastoral, idyllic and medievalist. Interestingly, the post independence literature of the country showed signs that permanent literature springs out of great tragedy.

The partition of India did sear a poignant scar in the souls of many writers, particularly in Punjabi literature, Urdu literature, Hindi literature, and Bengali literature. Many moving short stories and poems have been written on this subject by authors like Amrita Pritam, Kartar Singh Duggal, Krishan Chander, Khushwant Singh, Premendra Mitra and Manoj Basu, to mention a few names. The martyrdom of Mahatma Gandhi was another such event, about which soul-stirring poems were written by Vallathol Narayana Menon, Wamiq Jaunpuri, Bhai Vir Singh, Shivmangal Singh Suman and others. Hardly there was any mentionable little classic produced during this period. Some progressive critics oversimplify the situation by saying that the Indian writer comes from the lower middle-class, which is facing several physical and financial hurdles. One of the functions of literature is to elevate but nothing seemed to inspire them. But after 1948 there were several tragic events, but hardly any great literary piece was written. It was commonly believed that Indian independence did not bring any special bloom in the meadow or the field of literature. There were many successful novels written before the independence of the country, which won Sahitya Akademi Awards, and were even translated in English and Russian and several other languages. An identity crisis developed among the writers and poets of the fifties and sixties, the age considered as 'dark modernism'. The particular identity crisis of the writers and the clash between traditional cultures and western modernity is mostly found in the writings during those days. The concept of experimentation also developed under the western influence. It emerged as a chase for new values and their sources. (Source)

(2) How do the writers of Post-Independence Indian Writing in English try to project the image of ‘Mother India’ or "national identity" in their writings? Explain with examples.

Answer : Identity is a multidimensional word. In psychology and sociology, identity is a person's conception and expression of their individuality or group affiliations (such as national identity and cultural identity). Identity may be defined as the distinctive characteristic belonging to any given individual, or shared by all members of a particular social category or group. The term comes from the French word identité, which finds its linguistic roots in the Latin noun identitas, -tatis, itself a derivation of the Latin adjective idem meaning "the same." However, the formation of one's identity occurs through one's identifications with significant others (primarily with parents and other individuals during one’s biographical experiences, and also with 'groups' as they are perceived). These others may be benign such that one aspires to their characteristics, values and beliefs (a process of idealistic-identification), or malign when one wishes to dissociate from their characteristics (a process of defensive contra-identification) (Weinreich and Saunderson, 2003). Theorist Erik Erikson coined the term identity crisis and believed that it was one of the most important conflicts people face in development. According to Erikson (1970), an identity crisis is a time of intensive analysis and exploration of different ways of looking at oneself.

The crisis of identity has always enjoyed a defining significance in the thematic framework of the Indio-Anglican novels. The novels of R. K. Narayan, Mulkraj
Anand and Raja Rao redesigned the techno-thematic fabric of Indian English fiction and laid the foundation of the new Indian English fiction. The post-colonial age represented by these three novelists was chiefly a quest for identity along different dimensions of socio-political and economic order of India. The novels of Mulkraj Anand explored the thick congested fabric of Indian life and structured his fiction with unquestionable authority. The crisis of identity plays vital role in the cast of the narrative of Anand. His novels like The Untouchables and The Coolie explore the hidden dimensions of human psyche along socio-economic and cultural dimensions. Barkha’s dramatic reaction to the situation when the modesty of his sister is attempted by a Brahmin aptly illustrates the agony of identity crisis at a socio-cultural level; the man must have made indecent suggestions to her: “I wonder what he did. Father of fathers, I could kill that man. I could kill that man (The Untouchables).” Narayan (1935) explores the idea of the crisis of identity along various dimensions. Almost all his novels are based on the idea of the crisis of identity and the consequent efforts to locate them. His first novel, Swami and Friends (1935), has the seeds of the same theme manifest in form of children’ pains and pangs. The other novels are also structured on the same idea explored along different dimensions. A reference to The Dark Room is obligatory as the crisis of identity plays a very important role. All the three major characters suffer the crisis of identity in their own ways. Ramani is torn apart between marriage and infatuation. Savitri endures all the pains and alienation of a conventional, male dominated family set-up. Shanti Bai is the new representation of identity crisis. She is ‘married to an unscrupulous husband’ but rejects identity with him and escapes to Madras’. It is, however, interesting to note that the identity crisis of Savitri continues to grow more and more piercing. The last scene of the narrative elucidates the perpetuity of the crisis of identity when she feels like calling her one time aid but realizes her helplessness and withdraws (Brockmeier and Carbaugh, 2001). It can easily be inferred that Savitri in the beginning is same as Savitri in the end (Narayan, 1958). The Guide is another major novel of Narayan. The East-west confrontation plays decisive role in the cast of the narrative and thus the crisis of identity owes its genesis to this ideological conflict. Both the major characters- Raju and Rosiespend their life locating their identity, and the search remains an effort in vain. The Vendor of Sweets is the most poignant representation of the identity crisis that owes its genesis to the conflicting values of the east and west. In this stream a powerful entry is of Anita Desai who gave a new dimension to the search of identity. The novels of Anita Desai mark a parallel stream in the history of Indian English fiction. It is however undeniable that her novels have been knit around the complex idea of identity crisis with a female character on the focus. Her first novel- Cry the Peacock published in 1964 is an important landmark in history of Indian English literature. Anita Desai added impetus to the feminist wave that came into critical notice since the advent of Nayantara Sehgal in the horizon of Indian English writings. She explored a world subsisting within the world and located the fragmentation of the protagonists’ identity. The protagonist of her first novel- Maya is a wrecked soul who longs for her identity realized in terms of marital harmony but never succeeds. In her second novel- Bye Bye Black Bird the crisis of identity is born of the conflict between the spirit of place and the protagonist’s soul. The incompatibility between these two dominant forces constitutes the dynamics of the action and the nature of the narrative. The crisis of identity and efforts to locate it along the finite dimensions of the narrative is the kernel of the techno-thematic frame work of her novels. In Custody (1984) and Clear Light of the Day (1980) - her most celebrated novels, have another revelation of the perennial quest for identity which is put to stake under the chafing pressures of the cultural forces and the efforts to relocate it becomes a painful enterprise. The spirit of eighties was spearheaded by Salman (2003, 2011) Midnight’s Children published in 1980 and Shame published in 1983. Both these novels are knit around the idea of identity crisis which owes its birth and life to the direct collision between individual and history. The Satanic Verses published in 1988 (Salman, 2011) explores the religious identity of an Asian expatriate in England. In Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1991) by Salman (2010), he takes the identity of a writer on the focus of the thematic structure and knits the narrative. The success of these novels firmly established the prominence of identity crisis in the thematic set up of the Indian English fiction. The novels that hit the literary horizon capture our attention for the prominence of the theme of identity crisis. Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines is another masterpiece published in the same decade. It also explores the identity of the protagonist against the backdrop of the Indian culture and heritage. The Shadow Lines is a story told by a nameless narrator in recollection. It is a non linear tale told as if putting together the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle in the memory of the narrator. This style of writing is both unique and captivating; unfolding ideas together as time and space coalesce and help the narrator understand his past better. It is a story of a middle class Indian family based in Calcutta. The boy narrator presents the views of the members of his immediate and extended family, thus, giving each a well defined character. However, Tha’mma, narrator’s grandmother is the most realized character in the novel, giving a distinct idea of the idealism and the enthusiasm with which the people worked towards nation building just after independence. (Source)

Khushwant Singh presents patriarchal family head, hold, power and relations in „Train to Pakistan‟. The man, Lala Ram is the head of Hindu family carries all kind of powers and its hold. The women inform to the dacoits, I tell you Lalaji is not in. He has taken the keys with them. We have nothing in the house.‟ (TTP: 8) RK is head of the family in Deshpande‟s MO not aware about his position but his wife Gayatri tries to maintain his headship. She arranges special chair, towel, etc. for RK which no one permitted and dare to share it. The entire household revolved around RK – Gayatri arranged it that way – but he never seemed to be aware of it. (MO: 77), Here, wipe your hands‟. But aware of Gayatri‟s eyes which warned us not to take the towel, we would say, „It‟s okay, Kaka‟, and go out to wipe our hands on the „janata towel‟, as BK called it. (MO: 77) Similarly, Kamala also takes care of BK and his all comforts and giving his place as husband and father as head of the family. I never saw BK doing any chore in the house; even his Scotch, soda and ice were placed before him by Kamala, … (MO: 92) Another woman, Vasu placed her husband, Badri Narayan at paramount place in the house. She believes that he is the annadata, the "breadwinner‟ and respectable. She muttered at the end of each meal ‘Annadata sukhi bhava’, (MO: 122). Children are prominently known by father‟s identity and not by mother's. "Are you Badri Narayan's daughter?‟ (MO: 128) Men follow the patriarchal customs which bound him to carry his headship, power and simultaneous responsibilities. Devayani‟s father, Vasant not ready to accept his wife‟s money for daughter‟s marriage as head of the family (CD: 63). Here it is notable that Constitution of India (Aticle 39a) gives equal rights to
women and men to have means of livelihood. (Source)

Thank you!