The Literary Management of Multilingualism in Postcolonial India: The Sahitya Akademi and the Case of Tamil New Poetry (original) (raw)
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As a primary identity marker, language is a seminal issue in the critical analysis and appreciation of poetry. In the case of Indian English poetry; this has been a site of debate and conflict with a complex history of negotiations and experimentation. A poet like R. Parthasarathy, with his dual linguistic inheritance of Tamil and English and his poetic expression of the dialogue between these two languages in the crafting of a milestone in modern poetry, gives us a very interesting insight into how post Independence Indian English poets negotiated the minefield of criticism to write in their own unique voices. R. Parthasarathy is one of the most prominent voices among post Independence Indian English poets who talk about the dilemmas of a bilingual poet at great length. There are basically three dimensions to his articulation of these conflicts and his search for a resolution. The first of these is the image of English as a colonial legacy and its impact on the creativity of the poet. He also discusses the adequacy of English to speak for him and his cultural self. The next dimension he discusses is his return to Tamil, first in its contemporary form and then its ancient form as found in the classics of the language. Finally, he attempts a dialogue between his English and his Tamil self to overcome schizophrenic agonies and craft a new poetics. As a primary identity marker, language is a seminal issue in the critical analysis and appreciation of poetry. In the case of Indian English poetry; this has been a site of debate and conflict with a complex history of negotiations and experimentation. A poet like R. Parthasarathy, with his dual linguistic inheritance of Tamil and English and his poetic expression of the dialogue between these two languages in the crafting of a milestone in modern poetry, gives us a very interesting insight into how post Independence Indian English poets negotiated the minefield of criticism to write in their own unique voices. In his seminal introduction to Ten Twentieth Century Indian Poets, Parthasarathy explores this issue in detail and writes, "An important characteristic of Indian verse in English in the mid-twentieth century has been its emergence from the mainstream of English literature and its appearance as a part of Indian literature. It has been said that it is Indian in sensibility and content, and English in language. It is rooted in and stems from the Indian environment, and reflects its mores, often ironically."[1] He goes on to add that he sees the "quality of the experience" expressed by the poets in English as one of the problems that beset this writing. A problem is the "idiom" used by these poets. In this regard he feels that most of the poets have not been able to find "an adequate and above all, a personal language" and "they have not been able to extend the resources of the Indian language or even Indianize it." [2] The other poet who has spoken at length about the use of English by Indian writers is A.K. Ramanujan. He says, "We"re split linguistically in so many ways. In our house for instance, we spoke Kannada outside and Tamil downstairs. Indoors/outdoors, child/adult, library/bedroom cut through us, don"t they?" For himself, the poet feels that the only solution seems to be "to be oneself in the language one uses…to find a voice which is one"s own, however cracked or small, sick or normal, which follow one"s twists and turns, falls and rises and stumbles, in one"s "climb to one"s proper dark"-though the climb may be like a monkey"s on a greased pole, two feet up and three feet down." [3] The central issue, which this paper will explore, has little or nothing to do with whether the poets should or should not write in English. It can now be taken as said that the language has chosen the poets and there is no value attached to the medium per se, but the value comes from the efficacy of its use in the crafting of the verse and the expression of experience and emotion, in an acquired language. This paperendeavours to