MODERN INDIAN ENGLISH POETRY :-

Modern English poetry in India is one of the many new literatures which
began to emerge at the end of the Second World War, after the end of
colonialism. Unlike Africa and Caribbean, creative writings, modern Indian
poetry in English did not have an obvious direct relationship with the cultural
movements that had led to national independence. The emergence of modern
English poetry was a part of modernization which included urbanization,
industrialization, mobility, independence, social change, increased in
communication facilities (in the form of films, television, radio, journals and
newspapers), national and international transportation networks, mass education
and the resulting paradox that as an independent national culture emerged and it
also participated in the internationally modern, usually westernized world.

Gradually with passing time the English language poetry became more
Indianized in nature. The change that came about reflected the change in
mentality that had ushered in among the Indian poets. Such Indianisation had
been proceeding for several generations and is prominent in the poetry of
Kamala Das and Pritish Nandy and present although more nuanced in the work
of Keki N.Daruwalla it is more likely to be felt in the verse of Nissim Ezekiel
and Jayanta Mahapatra or in the kind of rapidly expressed ironies found in the
poetry of Ramanujan.
 The modern poets as a group tended to be marginal to traditional Hindu
society not only by being alienated by their English language education but also
more significantly by coming from such communities as the Parsis, Jews and
Christians or by being rebels from Hinduism and Islam or by living abroad.
Many of the writers came from the families that had already been partly
westernized or that moved extensively during their childhood.

There are identifiable periods when Indian English poetry took new
directions. In the early 1960s poets, like, Kamala Das and Ezkiel, focussed on
the actuality of personal and family life; on the other hand, the experimental
poetry of Mehrotra, Kolatkar, Nandy, Chitre and Mahapatra began to appear in
the late 60s and early 70s. A renewed more detailed satirical and yet
compassionate focus on communal and family heritage had become an
important trend in the modern English poetry in India. It can be said about the
modern Indian poetry in English that with every passing decade an increasing
immediacy and heightened awareness of actual Indian experience is noticeable.

In the beginning it seemed that modern Indian verse was indebted to

British as well as to a few European models but in the present age it reveals an
awareness of most of world literature including contemporary American, South
American and older Indian devotional verse in regional languages.

An important characteristic of modern Indian English poems is that they

have an openness which is especially noticeable in the middle portions of the
poems and the association that is created in the poems is very logical in nature.
The narrative which is generally used in the poem has become an experience
itself instead of an example in an argument. In modern Indian poetry in English
there has always been a confessional tradition which was particularly noticeable
in Ezekiel's poetry.
 Besides the immediacy, experimentation, openness and self revelation of
modern Indian poetry in English there has been noticed an increasing interest in
long poems as a means of going beyond the fragmented vision and isolation
associated with the short lyric. Such long poems can be called closest modern
culture which can come to the shared national and communal values and
experience of the classical epic. In fact the distance between the modern
sceptical individual and the traditional beliefs of a community is however the
subject of this modern equivalent of the epic.

When we talk about Indian English Literature, it is obvious to mention

Indian English Poetry since it is the oldest form. The typical and actual India is
beautifully being carved and described by Indian poets who write in English. A
new form of English Poetry had been discovered by Indian Poets by using
Indian culture, traditions, issues etc and made the world know about them.
During the pre-independence era, poets tried to be English style and pattern of
the by few of the copying the native English poets, they lost their identity by not
paying heed to their own potential.

When the Britishers came to India, they brought their culture, language
and religion along with them which resulted in the writers and poets trying their
hands in this foreign language and they are famed as well as reputed till date.

Indian English differs from Western or native English in a number of like

theme, language, style of writing, imagery etc. The poems were written in
Indian English get more connected to Indians because it is for the Indians and
by the Indian. But when a poet writes for foreign audiences, they the Indian
touch in the poem makes it worth reading. The first Indian English poet, is
Henry Deregio, who published his collections of poems in Calcutta in 1827.
But, perhaps, even this was neither as sudden nor dramatic as it may seem
today. Indians had begun to learn English in earnest at least twenty-five years
prior to that and some had ever.

About the Poet (Kamala Das) :-

Kamala Das (1934-2009) was one of the major Indian English women
poet and short story writer. Kamala Das is known for her short stories in
Malayam and for poems in English. Her writings are more popular for the open
use of vulgarity and sexuality. 

About Life:

Kamala Das was born on 31st March in Punnayurkulam in Thrissur District at

Kerala in 1934. Her father was V.M Nair, editor of a Malayam daily titled
Mathrubhumi and mother, Nalappatt Balamani Amma, a Malayali poetess. Most
of her childhood was spent at Calcutta and at their ancestral home in
Punnayurkulam. 

At the age of 15, Kamala got married to a bank officer, Madhava Das who was
very supportive and encouraged her to writing interests. Her love for writing
developed at an early under the influence of her uncle, Nalappatt Narayana
Menon, a writer.

She soon started writing and publishing in both English and Malayalam and
founded her name among her contemporary writers. After falling in love with
an Islamic scholar and a Muslim League MP, Sadiq Ali, Kamala Das converted
to Islam renaming herself as Kamala Surayya.

Kamala Das breathed her last on 31st May 2009 at the age of seventy-five at
Pune hospital. She was buried at the Palayam Juma Masjid located at
Thiruvanathapuram with full dignity and honor.

Conversion to Islam: -

Kamla Das alias Madhavi kutty(31 March 1934 – 31 May 2009) was a
notable, major Indian English poet and littérateur and at the same time a leading
Malayalam author from Kerala, India. She converted to Islam at the Age of 65
after falling into the false love of Sadiq Ali , aged 38 who was a Muslim league
MP.

Nobody didn't knew about what it happens, and can't imagine why, but
suddenly aristocratic, upper-caste Hindu Kamala Das, lover of Sree
Krishna(Hindu God), descendant of rajas, decides to embrace Islam.. On 16
December 1999, at the age of 65, amidst a storm of controversy, in a one minute
home ceremony, she converts

The reason that she gave for moving out of the fold of Hinduism. the
traditional religion of her ancestors. was: There is too much freedom in
Hinduism. I am lonely and need the solace of a protective religion like Islam
and a merciful God like Allah".
 "Two plain reasons. One is the Purdah. Second is the security that Islam
provides to women. In fact, both these reasons are complementary. Purdah is
the most wonderful dress for women in the world. And I have always loved to
wear the Purdah. It gives women a sense of security. Only, Islam gives
protection to women. I have been lonely all through my life. at nights, I used to
sleep by embracing a pillow. But I am no longer a loner. Islam is my company.
I slam is the only religion in the world that gives love and protection to women.
Therefore, I have converted".

Kamla said to an interviewer.. ""Islam is the religion of love. Hindus

have abused and hurt me. They have often tried to scandalize me. I want to love
and be loved."

In her novels and autobiography she wrote much about eroticism and the
need of sex for woman… She married at age of 15 to a 35 year old man, and
literally got raped in the first night.. We have to believe that she wasn't satisfied
by her husband and she was yearning for true love…. That's why after her
husband's death, when sadiq came into her life she easily gave up …But sadiq
was determined to convert kamla to Islam by playing the love saga.. It has to be
believed that he has got mental and physical support in playing the role . He
never loved her truly, but he just wants to convert her to Islam… It was clearly
a sign of LOVE JIHAD…. Yes, Kamala das was one of the earliest victim of
love Jihad, which is still happening in kerala. According to Government records
about 9000 Hindu girls got converted to islam by falling prey to the false love
of muslim boys. Most of them undergone through the same fate of Kamla Das.

Later, Madhavikutty(Kamla) felt it was not worth it to change one's

religion and said "I fell in love with a Muslim after my husband's death. He was
kind and generous in the beginning. But I now feel one shouldn't change one's
religion. It is not worth it.".

But It was Too Late for her ,for another conversion back to Hinduism . She
lived and died rest of her life as a Muslim painfully

Literary career:

Kamala Das is known for her short stories in Malayam and for poems in
English. Her use of explicit tone of sexuality and vulgarity makes her stand out
among others. She is often compared to women poets like Marguerite Duras and
Sylvia Plath for her use of direct tone. 

Her first book of poetry titled Summer In Calcutta (1965) deals with the themes
of love, betrayal and anguish. She published an autobiography titled, My Story
(1976) at the age of 42. It was originally written in Malayalam and later
translated to English. 

Some of her well known stories include Pakshiyude Manam (1964),

Neypayasam (1991), Thanuppu (1968) and Chandana Marangal (2005). Among
her novels, Neermathalam Pootha Kalam is well received by the readers. 

Some of her works in English are The Sirens (1964), Summer in Calcutta
(1965), The Old Playhouse and Other Poems (1973), Alphabet of Lust (1977)
and many others.

Kamala Das has read her poetries at different places such as University of
Duisburg-Essen at Germany, University of Bonn, University of Duisburg,
University of Kingston, Jamaica, Singapore, Frankfurt Book Fair and South
Bank Festival at London.

Her works have been translated in different languages such as French, Spanish,
Russian, German and Japanese. She was the Vice chairperson in Kerala Sahitya
Academy, chairperson in Kerala forestry board, President of the Kerala
Children’s Film Society. 

Awards and achievements:

Kamala Das has been awarded several awards for her contribution in the field of
literature and art. She was awarded Asian Poetry Prize in 1998, Kent Award for
English Writing from Asian Countries in 1999, Sahitya Akademi Award in
2003 and Kerala Sahitya Academi Award in 2005.

Her Last days 

Kamala Das breathed her last on 31st May 2009 at the age of seventy-five at
Pune hospital. She was buried at the Palayam Juma Masjid located at
Thiruvanathapuram with full dignity and honor.

Some of her major works are:-

 1. Alphabet of Lust - 1976 (Novel).
2. My story -1976 (Autobiography)
3. A Doll for the child Prostitute - 1977 (short stories)
4. Padmavati the Harlot and other stories - 1992 (short stories)

Some of her poetry collections:-

1. The Sirens -1964

2. Summer in Calcutta - 1965.
3. The Descendants 1967
4. The Old Play house and other Poems – 1973
5. The Stranger Time - 1977

Kamala Das as an bold poet :-

Kamala Das is one of the bold contemporary Indian women poets. She is
one of the major poets in Indian English poetry mainly known for her fiery
voice and transparency in her poems. Her poetry is characterized by frankness,
clarity and openness. The reflects her Restlessness as a sensitive woman moving
in the male-dominated society. Her poetry reflects the images of disease
destruction, helplessness, frustration and rejection.

Love is a great tragedy, which she had to face in her whole life. In her
poems we can see search for true love of sexual relationship. She in her poems
confesses a number of things related to her own self. Love and sex occupies a
very important place in Das poetry. In fact, it is the search of true love which
inspires her to write and expresses. her feelings and sufferings. Kamala Das
poetry picture of her own is a experience and as this be? and observation.
 Kamala Das as an Confessional Poet:

Kamala Das is pre-eminently, a confessional poem and, in this respect.

She may be regarded as an outstanding. Indo-Anglian poet. A confessional
poet" is one who takes the reader into confidence, about her personal and
private life, and reveals those facts of her life which an ordinary person, even if
that person be a poet, would keep strictly to herself because, of the delicate
nature of those facts. A confessional poet has shed all her inhibitions and to
write frankly, candidly and in an outspoken manner, thus defying, the
restrictions and restraints which the social code and the conventions of society
impose upon her.

Stripteasing Her Mind ,  and Exuding Autobiography

Kamala Das has a lot to confess in her poetry , and she does so in the
most candid manner conceivable . Indeed, her poetry has no precedent so far as
her frankness and candour in revealing herself to the readers are concerned . She
has expressed her intense desire to confess in a very graphic manner by saying
that she must “striptease” her mind and that she must exude autobiography .Her
confessions pertain to her poetry is a confession of her relationship with her
husband , and of her extra-marital sexual relationship .The themes of must of
her poems are live or lust , and marriage relationships. The themes of most of
her poems are  love or lust, and marriage . In dealing with these themes , she
hides nothing , and in dealing with this subject matter , she makes use of
language freely , without any scruples, and even unabashedly . The orthodox
reader would even accuse her of being immodest, shameless, or brazen in her
use of the language through which she lays dare the secrets of her private life .
Her poetty is the poetry of introspection, of self-analysis, of self-explanation,
and of sel-revelation.

Her Confessional in the Poem Entitled Ther Feaks :-

In the poem ThevFeaks, Kamala Das describes. a sexual experiences and

the feelings which accompanied it. Her feelings, as she lay in bed with a man,
were ambivalent. She did experience the gratification of her sexual desires at
the time but she felt disappointed by the lack of any 33 love or affection for her
body nimbly enough, but not with the kind of urgency and passion which would
arouse in her a yearning for an emotional union with him. in addition to
desiring, the gratification of her lust. This poem clearly shouts her frankness in
dealing with the subject of sex. She is so frank here as to call herself a freak and
to confers that subject of sex. She so frank here as to call herself a freak and to
confers that, in order to save her face, she flaunts at times, a grand, flamboyant
lust.

The Confessional in the Poem Entitled The Sunshine Cat :-

The poem, The Sunshine Cat, is taken from the collection of poems titled
Summer in Calcutta (1965). It shows the difference between lust and love in a
very convincing manner. It is a personal poem having universal implications.
The poet has approached the tragic consequences of the life of lust wherein
there is no space for emotional and spiritual satisfaction. She has adopted the
female perspective for highlighting the predicament of a helpless and frustrated
woman in the modern male-dominated society.

In this opening passage of the poem, The Sunshine Cat, which can be
read in full here, the poet highlights the disastrous consequences of the life of
lust which often end in destruction and death. It shows that only real love can
give a person emotional and spiritual satisfaction.

The poem realistically deals with the pathos of a forlorn woman who
failed to get real love in life. She was sexually ill-treated and exploited by those
whom she loved and were known to her. They indulged in lust but denied her
the emotional and spiritual thrills of love. She particularly referred to one
person among them whom she really loved but got nothing in return.

Unfortunately, the man i.e. her lustful husband overlooked her emotional
needs and limited himself to the gratification of his lust only. Ironically, he was
not only selfish but also a cowardly person. He never bothered to have an
emotional rapport with her. He neither loved her nor used her but remained a
ruthless watcher only who kept a close watch over her relations with other men.

This passage shows the difference between lust and love in life. For
Kamala Das, lust is limited to the gratification of sensual desires only. It is a
one-sided relationship in which the emotional needs of the other partner in
sexual-relationship are sadly overlooked. It is a momentary relationship in
which no lasting unification is possible. Love, on the other hand, is a timeless
spiritual relationship. It is a confessional poem in which the poet highlights the
tragic consequences of forced arranged loveless marriages. It is full of pathos in
which the poet’s sufferings seem to have no end.

The female persona, in the poem, suffered physically as well as mentally

at the hands of her husband who neither loved nor used her. She loved him but
her love was not reciprocated. She was suspected of having affairs with other
men by her selfish and cowardly husband.
 The men she approached for genuine love turned out to be cynics, having
no faith in the goodness of human nature. They were in no way different from
her selfish and lustful husband. The men she chose for getting genuine love
were cynical, having no trust in the basic goodness of human nature. She clung
to their chests overgrown with new hair like great-winged moths and buried her
face into the smells of their skins.

She submitted herself to their young greed to forget the longing for real
love. But they too proved selfish and cruel like her husband, for they could offer
her nothing but lust. She frankly admitted that it was not in her nature to love
anybody. Being frigid, she had lost all her relevance as a woman in their eyes.
Maximum, they could be kind and helpful to her in case of any emergency.

In these lines, the poet becomes totally fed up with her marital as well as
extra-marital relationships in life. She was shocked to learn that all her lovers
had neither love nor lust but only lip sympathy for her.

The female persona was totally disillusioned by her husband as well as

her other lovers. None bothered to satisfy her emotional-cum-spiritual needs.
After being released from their clutches, she left for room to relax on her soft
bed, and started shedding copious tears due to the cynical and hostile attitude of
her lustful lovers. She feared that she would go mad in this tensed state of mind.
She had built walls of tears around her, and enclosed herself within their
boundaries. Being self-lost and dejected, she had consciously alienated herself
from the main stream of life.

Frustration in love is always disastrous. It disturbs a dejected lover

mentally and creates a vacuum in his/her life. The female personal frustrations
in marital and extra-marital relationships have a disastrous impact on her life.
She loses all her balance of mind and undergoes intense emotional and
intellectual sufferings. She opts for a life of isolation and loses all interest in
life. It is an autobiographical passage which has a direct bearing on the life of
Kamala Das.

In these lines, the life of the female persona is all destabilized due to her
frustrations and disillusionment in love. She was shocked to learn that she had
no relevance as a woman, having any dignified identity. She had finally realized
that all her self-styled loves were cynics having no love for her.

Her husband locked her up in the morning in a room full of books. A

streak of sunlight penetrated into the room and it lay there near the door. It
looked like a yellow cat meant to be her constant company. But soon the winter
season set in. One day, while her husband was locking her in the room, he
visualized the streak of light that seemed like a cat, reduced to a very hair-thin
line.

By the time he returned home in the evening to take his wife out of
confinement, he discovered that she was cold and on the verge of death. She had
lost her youthful appearance, freshness, and fascination. Moreover, she had lost
the very urge to participate in the sexual act due to the non-stop sufferings and
humiliations which she had undergone at the hands of her cynical husband.
Finally, she had become useless as an object of sexual exploitation.

Life of isolation and humiliation always ends in premature destruction

and death. The poet felt suffocated in the life of confinement and lost her
balance of mind. It compelled her to snap all her ties with the external world.
She was totally dehumanized and lost her relevance as a woman, unfit for
sexual purposes. All types of lustful relationships, marital or extra-marital, share
a common tragic fate.
 That there is a poem entitled " The Sunshine cat which she complains
about the pain and the sufferings which, first her husband and then the many
other men with whom she had a sexual experience, caused to her. She accuses
her husband of having been a selfish. and cowardly man who neither loved her
nor used her properly but who was a ruthless watcher of her sexual act with
other men. she had her utmost to please ther sexual partners by 8/clinging to
their hairy chests, but they all told her that they could. only gratify her sexual
desires but could not love her. The consequences was that she lay in bed sexual
desire but could not love her.

A Feminist in her Confessional Poems :-

Kamala Das as a confessional poet has rendered some valuable service to

the female sex making theme conscious of their dormant desires and their
suppressed discontent with her. husbands from the sexual point of view. She has
thus given a sort of incentive to women to assert themselves or at least not to
suppress themselves. In these confessional Poems Kamala Das appears as a
feminist: indirectly advocating the liberation of women from the conventional
social restraints and taboos.

Kamala Das is always aware about her female identity and she is vocal
about her need and rights. Das talks about the purpose of her autobiography, My
Story":-

I needed to disturb society out of its complacence. I found the

compliance. a very ugly state. I wanted to make women of my
generation feel that if men could do something wrong, they could
do it themselves too. I wanted them to realize that they are equal. I
wanted to remove gender difference. I wanted to see that
 something happened to society, which had strong inhibition and
which only told lies in the public.

Two Confessional Poems Expressing Her Feelings as a Mother:

Two of Kamala Das poems contain her feelings as a Mother the poem
entitled Jaisurya expresses. her feelings of exultation when she in going to give
birth to a child and her feeling of pride when the chind coes out of the darkness
of her womb into this bright world lit by sunlight. During the child birth,
Kamala Das felt that to her at that time neither love was important nor lust, and
that the man or men, who had been betraying her by gratifying their lust and
then forsaking her, did not matter to her at all. She found child birth to be a
glorious phenomenon. The other poem about her motherhood has the title of the
White Flowers.

The Therapeutic and Cathartic Effect of Her Confessional Poetry

Kamala Das’s confessional poetry, like most confessional poetry written

by Nissim Ezekiel, Anne Sexton, and Sylvia Plath, has a therapeutic and
catharic effect on the readers as well s on the writer herself. Confessional poetry
is written by a poet under an internal pressure in order to give vent to his or her
grievances or feeling of resentmentor a sense of the injustice experienced by
him or her. By confessing what a poet has undergone, he or she is able to obtain
some relief; and such poetry naturally brings some relief to the reader as well by
making him feel that his own sense of injustice should count for noting when
compared to the more acute and more painful sense of injustice of persons much
more important  and much more talented than he . After all , catharsis only
means the feeling of relief which a person experiences After witnessing the
spectacle of feeling of relief which a person experiences after witnessing the
spectacle of other suffering from the effects of the stress of circumstances or of
misfortunes or from a sense of guilt. All confessional art, says a critic* is a
means of killing the beasts which are within us, those dreadful dragons of
dreams and experiences that must be hunted down, cornered , and exposed in
order to be destroyed . And the poetry of Kamala Das certainly tends to kill
such beasts in herself and, incidentally, similar beasts in us. According to
another critic, Kamala Das’s poetry is replete with a powerful force of catharsis
and protest . This is so, says this critic ,because of Kamala Das’s intensely
confessional quality and her ultra-subjective treatment .Kamala Das raises her
confessional traits to the level of a specific universal appeal. The struggle of
herself ultimately becomes the struggle of all mankind, and herein lies her forte
(or her special power),matter to achieve some sort of victory over pain and
defeat. Poems of this kind are glosses on the triumph of life. Because of the
absolute confessions made by a group of poets in their poetry, particularly in
America (such poets as Robert Lowell, Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, and John
Berryman ) they have raised themselves to a level know as confessional poets ,
and Kamal Das’s place is certainly secure in the ranks of these poets. Even
suicide is a subject they are ready to confess. In one of his poems, John
Berryman appears to ponder over, and mastermind , his suicide; “It all centred
in the end on the suicide/In which I am an expert, deep and wide.” In the same
nein, Sylvia Plath writes in a famous poem;”  Dying/Is an art, like everything, is
clearly contemplation suicide as a means of escape from the frustration, is
clearly contemplating suicide as  means of escape from the frustration of life.
Kamala Das’s poetry has a cathartic effect because, the more poignant her
confessional tone is, in poems like The Sunshine Cat and My Grandmother’s
House, the greater is the cathartic effect.
Conclusion.

Like other confessional poets, such as Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, Emily
Bronte, Maya Angelou, Das makes her own life, her personal emotional
experiences, disillusionment and frustrations the center of her poetry. It’s a
confessional poet she depicts with phenomenal frankness the wrongs,
exploitations, oppression and humiliation that she endured I faced in the male
dominated society. Sexual humiliation and exploitation is one of the main
subjects of her. Writings. Her poems beautifully describe how she fails to
incorporate / blend the inner and the outer, the body and the soul. Das frankly
writes about love, sex, failures, marital relations, extramarital sex, emotional
sterility etc. She is considered one of the first Indo- English poets who adopted
the method of confessionalism in her poetry.
References:-

1. Indiannetzone.com Moden English Poet in India

2. Indiaonline.in Kamala Das, Writer and Poet Kamala Das

3. Blogerhttp://beyond the drama.blogspot.com Friday, Oct,12,2012

4. Feminisminindia.com Kamala Das – The Mother Of Moden Indian

English Poetry/ # Indian Women in history, By Sheryl Sebastian. Mar 31,
2017.

5. AK Explained- You tube.

6. Braidoth, Rosi. Locating the Subject. Nomadic Subject: Embodiment and

sexual Differences in contemporary Feminist Theory.”Mary Eagleton, Ed
Feminist’s literary ileory- A Reader. 2”d. U.K: Blackwell, 1996