Separated by the sea

A NTHOLOGIES of anything can be pretty hard to review and none more so than when the subject matter is poetry. In this particular instance the poems are the work of Indian-origin poets scattered around the globe, each with their personal insight honed by the location in which they live or lived. 

In this rather hefty paperback edition of 60 Indian Poets, compiled and edited by Jeet Thayil who is a noted poet himself, an incredible amount of effort has been put into proving that Indian poets writing in the English language are just as capable of plying their trade as those other nationalities for whom English is their mother tongue. 

Not everyone agrees with this point of view. W.B.Yeats, for example, who early in the 20th century viciously criticised Rabindranath Tagore’s usage of English, wrote in a letter to a friend: ‘Tagore does not know English, no Indian knows English. Nobody can write music and style in a language not learnt in childhood and ever since the language of his thought’. Yeats seems to have completely overlooked the fact that his own childhood language was Scottish Gaelic. 

Long decried by so-called purists like Yeats and by critics including Buddhadeva Bose who felt that Indians should be restricted to writing in their native languages, India has nevertheless produced some remarkable English language poets and it is from amongst these talented men and women that Jeet Thayil has taken his pick. Although, if he had managed to convince the copyright holders to give permission for the inclusion of works by Agha Shahid for example, then the scope would have been far broader. 

As it is though, Thayil has attempted to define 55 years of ‘Indianness’, starting in 1952 with a selection of compositions written by the noted poet Nissim Ezekiel (1924–2004) who was a member of the small Bombay community of Marathi-speaking Bene Israeli Jews. Ezekiel achieved international fame for his highly skilled, often humourous, craftsmanship. The book then moves on to such lit erary giants as Dom Moraes, a Roman Catholic, and Arun Kolatkar, yet another Mumbai resident. All of them, incidentally, passed away in 2004. 

This ambitious book also brings together the writings of contemporary Indian-origin poets from such diverse locations as Australia, UK, Hong Kong, Canada and the United Sates as well as the length and breadth of the Indian subcontinent itself. 

Sudesh Mishra, born in Fiji and settled in Australia, tends to concentrate on maritime issues; Mamang Dai from Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh paints extraordinary eulogies to water and light; Tabish Khair from Bihar, now resident in Denmark, recalls the warm climes of his ancestral home balanced against the northern cold; and Mukta Sambrani, a native of Pune now living in California, writes on some very strange issues indeed. 

Then there is a fine selection of poems by the well known novelist Vikram Seth, author of that mammoth tome A Suitable Boy and An Equal Music which show an extremely skillful handling of mood and narrative although bordering on the depressive at times. 

Female poets include Mani Rao of Bombay who often takes a jagged look at sexuality; Karthika Nair from Kerala, currently resident in Paris, who takes an ironic look at illness; Melanie Silgardo, originally of Bombay now living in London, astonishes with her violent turn of phrase; as does Menka Shivdasani of Mumbai with her spirit conflict. 

However it is the ever readable, somewhat wry Eunice De Souza from Pune, the recognised queen of immediate form, who — at least in this reviewer’s opinion — steals the show as the following short extract from ‘Miss Louise’ demonstrates: She dreamt of descending curving staircases ivory fan aflutter of children in sailor suits and organza dresses till the dream rotted her innards but no one knew: innards weren’t permitted in her time. 

All in all, 60 Indian Poets showcases the high calibre of work being produced by Indian writers in English around the world, and their subject matter, be it Indian, American or whatever, is as diverse as can possibly be. Thayil has included poetry for everyone in this timely anthology and has more than adequately shown that Indian English poetry has most certainly come of age. 

The book also includes three essays. The first one is by the editor himself under the title ‘One Language, Separated by the Sea’. Bruce King has written an essay on Ezekiel, Moraes and Kolatkar, while the third essay by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra asks ‘What is an Indian Poem?’ A selection of remarkable black and white photographic portraits by Madhu Kapparath serves to add a touch of visual appeal to this selection of intriguing poetry. ¦