Discuss the development of Indian
English Poetry in the pre-independence period.
Answer: The Indian English Poetry began
with romanticism. It started with verse romances and lyrics written in romantic
verse. The origin of Indian poets in English have shrouded the dim pre-history
of the Indo-Western encounter centuries prior to the birth of derozio. The
first of these two conditions, the Indianization of the English language, began
much before the Anglicization of Indians. The Indians writing in English can be
dated from the landing of Vasco Da Gama in kerala in 1498. The second being the
Anglicization of the Indians, began in earnest when the british became a
powerful colonial power in India. This happened more than 150 years after the
East India Company was chartered.
Prof. V.K Gokak has divided the
Indo-Anglian poetry roughly into six periods. They are from 1825-1850,1851-1875,
1876-1900, 1901-1925, 1926-1950, 1951-1965. The periods from 1876-1925 may be
called the period of Indo-anglian romanticism. In India the poetry first began
in Bengal, the province in which the British had a stronghold. The pioneers of
Indo-anglian literature were men of education and the majority of upper class,
who assumed the role of interpreting the ethos and culture of India to west through
imaginative literature. The growth and development of Indian poetry is a result
of many experiments and struggles for tradition, independence, innovation and
imitation. Right from the beginning all most all the poets of Indian origin
writing in English were found to be containing two streams, foreign influences
and Indian elements in poetry.
