Issues of Contemporary Indian Poetry

Issues of Contemporary Indian Poetry

Dr. Satyakam Borthakur
Director i/c, Centre for Studies in Journalism and Mass Communication
Associate Professor,Department of Assamese
Dibrugarh University

1.0 Introduction: Defining Indian literature is complex due to its
diversity and uniqueness. Due to the language variegation and ethnic mosaic
of the country, it is quite difficult to delineate Indian literature in a
few words. It is very interesting to note that there are 22 scheduled and
18 non-scheduled listed languages present in India and 1,652 other
languages are also used by different groups of people of this country. In
spite of this variety, Indian literature is always celebrating
it'sexquisiteness reflected through its concord within the multiplicity.
Therefore Radhakrisnan has rightly said that 'Indian literature is one
literature, written in different languages'. This sense of harmony is
possible because of the common ethos that has been shared by the Indian
people from the ages. Indian poetry is not also far away from this
commonness. The plurality in Indian poetry is quite visible, but the
common issues are also quite vibrant in Indian poetry.The term contemporary
in the context of Indian poetry cannot denote any particular time frame.
Neither the term can refer to a certain year to mark as the milestone to
define the subsequent period as contemporary. However, the post 50s period
of Indian society is the basic context for contemporary Indian poetry and
it has passed through different waves of social political happenings.
Therefore, the term 'recent Indian poetry' has been used here in a flexible
manner which will cover some selections of the post 50s period. Emphasis is
given on those poets who are still offering their contribution as senior
poets and the others, who has emerged as significant voices of contemporary
Indian poetry. A few significant poets of the post 50s period will be
quoted inthe relevant context of contemporary poetry.

2.0 Objectives:

1. To find out the major issues of contemporary Indian poetry
2. To discuss about the common issues that has been emphasized by
the poets of different Indian languages
3. To discuss about the context of contemporary Indian poetry

3.0 Discussion: It has already been mentioned that the term Indian
literature invites some complicated questions. Due to the diverged
languages and cultural parallels, the scholars often question the validity
of the term Indian Literature. It is also asked that whether the term
Indian literature refers to a singular or plural meaning. In this
reference, V. K. Gokak has said, "It has to be Indian because it has to be
truly universal and greet its compeers in the domain of world
literature."[1]K. Satchidanandan has rightly commented on the issue through
these words: "Going through the various movements that have together shaped
Indian literature, one is struck as much by their variety as their common
sources and concerns. The plural and the singular seem to co-exist here in
a dialectical relationship rather than as irreconcilable
antinomies."[2]These comments are applicable in terms of Indian poetry too.
The foundation of contemporary Indian poetry evokes from the post-
independence Indian experiences. The changes occurred in material life due
to rapid urbanization and the labyrinth of the novel feelings has created
an environment which is not similar to the experiences of the society which
was busy with the dream of independence. Also, it contradicts the age old
Indian basics established by the classical Indian literature, which is
reflected through religion, philosophy and spirituality. The
destabilization of the customs and erection of parallel establishments to
replace the monotonous concept of a traditionhas influenced the whole
society at large.In this context, the system of understanding the reality
has also been restructured and the values and morals of human life have
also been re-interpreted. The Indian people closely observed how the dream
of independence became mockery and how the subalterns of the society had to
face the poorest condition of life after getting independence. The
camouflaged colonial sentiments also created discontentment among the
members of general Indian society. In the post ninety periods, the Indian
society passed through some more significant changes, which occurred due to
the implementation of a globalised economy. Also, it is to be mentioned
that due to the modern education and technological advancement, Indian
people came closer to the international society during recent decades. This
gap has been reducing gradually. Indian poetry of contemporary age has
reflected all these socio-economic and socio-political changes, which
occurred in pan-Indian society. In this backdrop, the issues of
contemporary poetry have some common features in-spite of regional
diversity. It is true that, there are some regional issues which have been
highlighted by the Indian poetry written in different regional languages as
well as the Indian English poetry written with the regional experiences.
But the general features of contemporary Indian poetry are also equally
significant.Satchidanandan has categorized the contemporary Indian poets
into two major categories, ie. The high modernist and the avant-garde
poets. According to him, the high modernists of the earlier decade tried to
resist the commodification of the individual by a dynamic assertion of
individual identity. On the other hand, he identifies some poets as avant-
garde poets. The second category poets are ideologically committed to
Gandhism and Marxism, or indigenous social movements; all of whom
impatience with the system and an eagerness to transform the order, though
they may differ when it comes to the question of means.[3]Without arguing
in any points some major issues of contemporary Indian poetry are discussed
below:

i. The warren of Urbanization: Indian poets of contemporary age have been
encountered with the complexities of urbanization. The Indian cities have
developed a modern urban culture during the post independence period and
the globalization has added new aspects to this modern city life. The poets
of contemporary India are very much concern about the convolution of urban
culture.From the stalwarts of the contemporary poets, like A. K. Ramanujam
(Kannada and English), K. Ayyappa Panikar (Malayalam), Shrikant Verma
(Hindi), U. R. Anantha Murthy (Kannada), Nilamoni Phukan (Asamese), Sankha
Ghose (Bangla), Shakti Chattopadhyay (Bangla), Kedarnath Singh (Hindi),
Keki N. Daruwallah (English), Dilip Chitre (Marathi), Ashok Vajpeyi
(Hindi), Chandraprakash Dewal (Rajasthani), Sitakant Mahapatra (Odia), J.
P. Das (Odia), Namdeo Dhasal (Marathi), Sitanshu Yaschandra (Gujarati) etc.
have played vital role in depicting the multilayered effects of
urbanization in Indian Poetry. Also the name of Adil Jussawalla (English),
Arvind Krishna Mehrotra (English), K. Satchidanandan (Malayalam and
English), Anamika (Hindi), Eunice de Souza (English), Joy Goswami (Bangla),
Nilim Kumar (Assamese), Bipuljyoti Saikia (Assamese), Gieve Patel
(English), Gagan Gill (Hindi) etc can be mentioned as the promising voices
depicting the urban complexities of Indian Society. For example, Hindi poet
Kedarnath Singh has closely observed the happenings of the urban society
and successfully sketched picture of new life through his verses. In the
poem 'Broken down Truck' he excellently narrates how the machines became
the decider of human existence. The metaphorical representation of the
machine became dominant in this poem in depicting the issue of lost of
individuality in urban life. He says,
The broken down trucks still standing there
Staring at me
I wonder
If it wasn't standing there
how difficult it would've been for me to know
that this is my city
and this
is my home
Bangla poet Shakti Chattopadhyay was quite vocal about disappearing of the
conventional establishment of the society. The agony of losing the
tradition is a major issue of urban human life. Therefore Shakti
Chattopadhyay expressed his desire to be burned out in the riverside,
because,
Because, a time may come may come
When fire by riverside becomes insufferable
And the corps may ask
For a thimbleful water.


Death is no success, no success, then
(Death)


Kamla Das is also vocal in the same issue in the same tune. She said,
Life's obscure parallel is death. Quite often
I wonder if what I seem to do is living
Or dying
(Life's obscure parallel)
Adil Jussawalla is actively depicting the experiences of contemporary
society through his lines.


Violence is a culture found on playgrounds.
Cities fall to let their children breathe.
(A Bomb-site Seen from a
Railway Bridge)
Above lines prove the cruelty of modern life and the noxious results of the
urbanization. This is not only because of the change of livelihood; rather
it is the transition of human feelings from simple to more and more complex
and the process is gradually progressing. Therefore, the feelings of Shakti
Chattopadhyay or Kamala Das represent an earliest stratum of the process of
transformation. Life is commodified in the modern world and the fear that
carried by Shakti Chattopadhayay has been transformed into reality. The
value of life became equivalent to the value of an ordinary product and
everything is being judged through materialistic outlook. Therefore A. K.
Ramanujam offered obituary to a father with the following words:
Father, when he passed on,
left dust
on a table full of papers,
left debts and daughters
a bedwetting grandson
named by the toss
of a coin after him
(Obituary)
In the same poem, he also uncovers the grief caused due to grip of urban
expansion and material outlooks. He offers the obituary to a father whose
death is also a symbol of the life where people are the product of
materialism. He writes'
To hold their parentheses
everything he didn't quite
manage to do himself
Like hiscaesarean birth
in a Brahmin ghetto
and his death by heart-
failure in the fruit market
(Obituary)


The values of the modern people have been changed according to the changes
of the social system. Material, cultural and theoretical changes are
becoming prominent in the modern urban society. Therefore the mode of
accepting or explaining the values of life has also diverged from its
traditional dimension. Rapid growth of machine-base culture and shifting of
life from peasant to urban culture created a situation of re-evaluation of
everything related to body and mind. The poets of this age have shifted the
traditional depiction and reproduction of nature in the form of reception,
reevaluation and restructure natural realities. Therefore the space between
the rural and urban civilization has been visibly produced in the form of
modern poetry. A. K. Ramanusam expressed this feeling in the following
lines:


Animal bring us tranquility. Cats
Sleep through the war. Dogs ignore your sister's
Cancer, forgive betrays and rations
While all morning a man cannot bear his own
Betrayal after sleeping with two women.
(On not learning from
animal)
In this complex situation, the identity of a person became multilayered. It
is not that people are accepting gracefully everything what has been
happening. But it is unavoidable, because it is related to life. Even the
term individuality has lost its singular meaning and it has been starting
to carry pluralistic outlook. The individuals are becoming different
individual for different individual according to different situation. Gauri
Despandey nicely sketched this problem in her verses:


I find
Myself an onion
Layers after layer of seeming meaning
And intent, sufficient by itself
Leading to the heart
(The self Portrait)
The transformation of our society from romanticism to modernism is a result
of thedevelopment of the societal system. Hence the conflict between the
modernist and progressive became very prominent with more intense than to
the conflict between the romantic and progressive ideologies.
Satchidanandan says,

The modernists refused to accept the conservative sensibility of the
progressivists who were close to the Romantics in style as well as
their simplistic understanding of human life and their optimism that
seemed facile before the complex contradictions of development, while
also fighting the clichés of a sentimental Romanticism. Poetry came to
be seen more as a revolt against the oppressive sense of futility and
the alienation of the individual that haunt the modern man.


ii. A New look to the life: It is not true that everything has been
finished by the happenings of the society in the recent age. But it is the
interpretation how people are accepting or rejecting the changes. The
definition of life has got some new aspects and the concept and
interpretation of life have been changed. For example, during the medieval
age the life of a middle aged or old man was guided by the philosophy of
spirituality. In the romantic age the aspects of the age were somehow
judged through the eye of emotion. But in the recent time, Indian poets
have started to define the predicament related to life with the view of a
separate individual. The age old concept of spirituality has been replaced
by material outlook and poets are also consciously using these metaphors to
determine the individual notions. For example, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra has
interpreted the natural age related developments of life with the following
lines:
Sometimes,
In unwiped bathroom mirrors,
He sees all three faces
Looking at him:


His own,
The grey-haired man's
Whose life policy has matured,
And the mocking youth's
Who paid the first premium.
(Approaching Fifty)
The contradiction of the facts mentioned in these lines uncovers the
materialistic and self style definition of life which is a product of some
familiar situations. The prominent concepts of Indian philosophy has been
re-examined by the poets of new generation and some new elucidation has
been introduced. For example, the matters related to religion have been re-
verified and poets are eager to declare the end of the traditional concepts
and introduction of new thinking. Poets like Keki N. Daruwalla deals with a
similar issue with the following words:

A Sufi is he who as he enters
a Bangladeshi fake tandoori eatery in Brixton
thinks he is in Moti Mahal or Khyber.
…………………..


A Sufi never marches
with reality in line;
he is always a step ahead
or a step behind.
(Defining a Sufi)


iii. The Sense of seclusion and lost of human bondage: All individuals of
the modern world are isolated. The lost of thetraditional structure of
society has emerged,questions over the reputable process of formation of a
society. People are living in a society where they have lost the basic
characters of a folk society, like sharity, spontaneity or tradition.
Isolation is the fundamental base and back-strength of the modern
literature. Contemporary Indian poetry has nicely picked up this aspect of
modern life and highlighted some core issues related to the inner courtyard
of the modern people. Eminent Assamese poet Nilamoni Phukan and Ajit Baruah
skillfully depicted this issue in their poems. The superstructure behind
the poems of Ajit Barua is nothing but an endless travel of an isolated
individual through the never-ending experience of life. The experience of
reading the verses of Nilamoni Phukan definitely gives a sense of isolation
of modern personality. People are judging their existence according to the
need of their own only. People do not attempt to share the feelings of the
masses at lot or the whole concept of mass is somehow vanished. Eunice de
Souza had made a significant comment through his lines of poetry:
'I'm lonely," she says.
I dream of her.
It's the best I can do.
(My Mother Feared)


Recent day society has its own conception about the relation of human life
and the bondages of heart. People became habituated with the realities of
life which equally full of association and dissociation. The concept of
love became more concerning to the self and the expected emotions of
disjointing have also been thinned. Poets are very aggressively looking
into the matter and expressed the realities of new life. Adil
Jussawallaexpresses these facts through the following words of a virtual
situation
I've told you now. We're quits and we must part.
Should you be waiting for me tomorrow
And I never come, pretend that I know
I'm in light; end of a game squarely packed in my heart
Where all ends and kings and pretences start.
(Poker-Faced)

People are dissociated from each other in the modern world. Everything in
the modern life's is precise and measured. Therefore, it has no colour and
no taste. Attor Ravivarma strongly expressed this situation:
My sittings, my looks, my gestures-
All, all are precise, measured
Like those of a Kathakali cost.


Colourless, tasteless, odorless,
Changing Shape, with the vessel—
That unique purity
That me
(Sitting)

iv. Gender issues: Gender is a major issue raised by many poets of
contemporary Indian poetry. Kamla Das have boldly started the tradition of
discussing the issues related to gender through the verses. After her,
poets like Eunice de Souza, Mamta Kalia, Tara Batel, Imtiaz Kalia, Gauri
Deshpande, Meena Alexander etc have incorporated the issue of gender in
their poetry. In the modern world, the issue of gender is not limited
within the arena of the freedom of women. Rather the issue has been
expanded to the question of existence and rights of a gender. Even the
issues of Transgenders or Homosexuals became relevant for the poets. They
accepted it as a question of self existence and fight against the customary
bindings over the gender existence. Mamta Kalia has raised her voice
against the tendency of suppression over the women folk and expresses her
desire to establish the self identity by breaking the customary barriers:
I want to pick my nose
in a public place
I want to sit in my office chair
With my feet up
(Compulsions)
Some contemporary poets are quite vocal about the issue related to feminine
identity. The patriarchal society has been continuously treating the
feminine sex as the other class and they have been always kept in a
marginal position. Therefore, the desire of the women to establish her
identity by keeping her head up ('pick my nose'), is not limited within
that only. The structure of the society has been deciding everything
according to the wish of the male sex only. In this context Satchidanandan
expressed his feelings with some strong words:
Girls' love poems have
Seldom escaped fire:
father's fire, brother's fire,
even mother's, an heirloom.
…………………..
Of course , Sappho:
she was saved only as
her love poems were
addressed to women.
(Burnt Poems)


It is also to be noted that some poets glorifies the matter with some
inventions about the strength of women. Hindi poet Anamika is quite
sensitive in this matter:
Girls are wind, the sun and the good earth
They have no homes
(Without a Place)

v. Critical approach towards the system:All human beings are a political
being. The ruling as well as the societal politics has always played a
vital role in making human being active and reactive. The societal
developments are nothing but the results of societal politics. Therefore
the society has created some issues which are to be addressed seriously.
Some of the contemporary poets of Indian literature have engaged themselves
to divulge the naked truths of social life. U. R. Ananthamurthy wrote some
strong message of protest against the system in the form of verses. In a
poem he says,

The Spinner Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Strode in and wore out
His handmade scandals, and with them
The glorious British Empire


The scandals that the miser wore on his last day
Which still had wear in them
Are still there
(Gandhis Scandals)


The apathy of the middle class has created some serious series of problems
to our system. The position of the middle class is so complex that it
cannot play a decisive role in maintaining the healthy strength of the
society. One of the eminent Indian poet of Malayalam language, K. Ayappa
Panikar consciously deals with the issues of the middle class and also he
boldly addresses the complexities created by this class. In a poem, he
says:

We have destroyed the enemies of culture,
We have
Now we do their work
Better then they
(Philistines)
Poets of the modern world are not only conscious about the inner issues of
life, rather they are quite vocal about the external incidents. Even
international politics are also a relevant issue for the contemporary
poets. The mockery of the government system has created such an environment
where anybody can breathe freely and die freely. The hypocrites of the
society have expanded their hand towards everything. The life of the civil
society became tougher in terms of maintaining the requirements of daily
needs. The government system is quite silent, but the poets are vocal and
to some extent they also revolt against the system. One of the strongest
poets of the modern time Keki N. Daruwalla said,

the chinese spiriting away the brahmaputra
in a gargantuan theft,
and india turning into a bombay local,
asphyxiating in the smell of two billion armpits
and two billion groins-
isn't all this enough
to give us a collective cerebral bleed?
(At War)

vi. Unconventional issues: Poets have raised some unconventional issues in
contemporary Indian literature. Sometime they expressed their feelings of
loneliness and sometime they explain everything from multicultural aspects.
It is to be mentioned that the Indian society is multicultural in itself.
But the expansion of the technological outlooks and the availability of
easy communication tools have broadened the concept of society. The
multicultural issues have also been examined with new eyes. At the same
time the question of morality has also been asked by many persons in many
times. Eunice de Souza wrote a few such lines which really shocked the
minds of the conventional personalities. He said,


My Portuguese-bred colleague
picked up a clay shivalingam
one day and said:
Is this an ashtray?
No, said the salesman.
This is our god.
(Conversation)


Gieve Patel has raised the question about the position of the subalterns in
our society. He questions the ethics of the society and discussed about the
suppression of the higher class of their immediate next class. Also,he
brought out metaphors from the sites where the elites of our society
normally do not visit. To demolish the concepts of obscures or taboos came
under the scanner of some modern personalities is a challenging task and
some Indian poets has gracefully accepted this challenge.


It's your fate,
Poor slut: To walk compliantly
Before heroes! Offering
In your demolition
A besotted kind of love:
Dumb, discoloured,
Battered patches; meat-mouths
For monsters' kisses.
(How Do You Withstand,
Body?)


Poets of the contemporary age have also experimented some new styles of
narration and to expose the vulnerability of the modern life, they have
drawn the picture of helplessness of modern people. Nilamoni Phukans
symbolic interpretations of death or the aggressive words of Nilim kumar
are quite salient in depicting such matters. Kedarnath Singh has
exclusively drawn the picture of stigma of life through his poem "Cranes in
the Draught".
Crannes had no ides
Down below people live
And they call them cranes
The hand come from distant
Lands, searching for water.

Cranes in the Draught

1.4 Conclusion: From the above discussion, it became clear that the
contemporary Indian poetry has some multilayered perspectives. Poets of
contemporary age have strongly rejected the emotional baseline of poetry
and started a new tone, where the life has been reexamined with modern
outlook. Poets have nicely deals with the urban complexities and the
helplessness of the modern people. The people of the contemporary age are
isolated and therefore the modern poems are also using some issues related
to isolation. Commoditization of individuality has been addressed seriously
by the contemporary poets. The natural emotional life has got some stop-
marks in the modern world and people have explained their life as a
separate individuality not as a member of society. Therefore the
contemporary Indian poetry defies all bindings and it has only one
character, that is to break the strongest barrier of the society. The
issues raised by the poets may be diverged in nature, but it is opening the
path of explanation of modern life from different perspectives.

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-----------------------
[1] V. K. Gokak, The Concept of Indian Literature, p.114
[2] K. Satchidanandan, Indian Literature: Paradigms and Prexis, p.17
[3] 'Introduction', K. Satchidanandan (ed) Signature, p xxxi-xxxii