Renee Speaks

One needs to read the poetry of Indian poets like Nissim Fatima, P. Lal, Kamala Das, Krishna Srinivas, Pritish Nandy, Keshav Malik, Jayanta Mahapatra, Maha Nand Sharma, Shiv K.Kumar, R.K. Singh, Dwarkanath, K.N Daruwalla, Syed Ameeruddin and H. Kabadi to know some interesting about post-Independence Indian poetry. There are also some well known Hindi poets like I.K. Sharma, Mani Rao, Maria Netto, Angelee Deodhar, Bibhu Padhi, P. Raja, K. Ramesh and R. Rabindranath Menon. These poets have carefully and imaginatively written a brief span of about 240 pages about the origin and poetic scenario in the first half of 19th century. It also includes the second half of 19th century which is before Independence.

The Indian English poetry offers a larger coverage and has its own history and distinct identity and maturity for spreading its fragrance far and wide. Hundred of new names were mentioned during the survey of the rapid growth of Indian poetry  during the period 1971-1985. The names of few persons includes like K.V.S. Murty, S.C. Saha, Jayanta Mahapatra, O.P. Bhatnagar, Syed Ameeruddin, I.K. Sharma, Baldev Mirza, A.C Sahay, Laxmi Naraynan Mahapatra, HS Bhatia, TV Reddy, and many others.

To find room for 1480 collections of more than nine hundred Indian English poets, the authors as obvious have tried to be comprehensive. All the established poets along with the ignored poets were mentioned by them. Rizvi and Rizvi are quite fair and thorough in their presentation. It’s after the end of colonialism in the year 1970 when it makes a refreshing reading and offers a fuller picture of Indian poetic creativity.