English as a Medium For Indian-Writer

In a paper at Regional Conference of the Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies Control at Asian country International Centre ,New City on February23-6,1975,R.Parthasarathy , piece exposing the position of Indian writers in English reffered to the comments of American poets Allen Allen ginsberg ,Gary Snycler and Peter Onlovsky: "If we were mobster poets we would-be shoot you"(1), his threat was direct against the Indian writers’ failure to take risk with the English language.

To explain the reason behind this R.Parthasarathy says that there at least two problems which prevent Indian writers to take the risk.First is related to the kind of experience he would-be like to express in English .

Indian who use the Emglish language gets in several extent alienated . This development is superficial and this is why galore blame ‘Indian Writers in English’(IWE) as writers who present Asian country in a foreign view-point .There activity doesn’t contain a deep analysis of the Indian realities and Indian characters .

Many regional writers (many of who are even as Jnapitha Awardees) say writing in English in Asian country is a severe handicap as it tends to do their writing export adjusted .Hindi writer Rajendra Yadav puts it as : "The IWE take a tourer look at Asian country , like Pankaj Mishra’s The Romantics , wherever he is just a tourer who makes not cognize the inner psyche of folk or a much clever device Vikram Seth uses in A S uitable Boy ,the pretext of looking for a bride-groom ,which takes him to several locales and professions . It is a creatively written travelers’ manual .They travel into our culture , describe a bit of our geographics ; their total approach is a westerner’s :a third rate ‘serpant-rope trick’"

Many believe that IWE is circumscribed by what only inhabitant can appreciate :either exotica or pornography .Both these elements are visible in Ruth Prawar Jhabavala’s Heat and Dust .There is description of shrines , Sadhus ,Nawabs ,Princes and their castles on with sex and gay-parties and Hijraas .Jhabvala’s image of princely Asian country is extremely un realistic ,quixotic and pseudo-romantic .Similar is the case of Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things . B.Jaya Mohan in a recent interview to Out Look magazine (February 25 , 2002) aforesaid :"Writers like Roy are superficial and exotic .When Roy uses English to express a South dravidian idiom , it mightiness be exotic for inhabitant , but for Indians it is not really exciting ."

Still there are writers in English for whom a little praise is ready-made ,but that even as by another English writer.In an obit to R.K.Narayan in Time magazine ,V.S.Naipul writes :"His folk can eat off leaves on a floor in a slum tenement house ,hang their upper apparel on a coat stand ,do all that in correct English ,and there is no strangeness ,no false comedy ,no distance" But still regional writers believe ; " …but any Tamil writer would-be have put much life into his novels than R.K. did".

The battle of the 1st kind of problem guides us into the second and this is ‘ the quality of idiom the writer uses’ .R .Parthasarathy says that " there is evidently a time lag between the living , creative idiom and the English used in Asian country .And this time lag is not likely to diminish".

It is because the historical situation is to blame .Besides there is no special English idiom ,either .English in Asian country seldom approaches the liveliness and foible of usage one finds in African or West Indian writing , possibly because of the long tradition of literature in Indian languages .

This is explained by Kanarese d Oyen " writers in Indian language have a rich back-ground -- centuries old literary traditions,flok tales and life all round them -- the IWE only have frontyard".That’s why Ahmed salman rushdie draws fom the attribute and Hindi of Mumbai,while writers like Narayan draws from Tamil and Raja Rao from Kanarese .But still the idiom they use lacks in liveliness, because "it’s impossible to remove into English the cultural traditions and the associations of language".This is why it is not amazing that writers in English tend to over emphasize their Indianness . This besides explains why Archangel Madhusudan Dutt after publication thesis 1st book The Captive Lady(1849) in English turned to Bengali to become the 1st modern Indian writer .

While a regional writer can directly concentrate mode of writing the IWE has to face a complex problem---‘he has to go through the tedious explanations of the idioms he uses in his book ,leaving little space for creative writing’.

Perhaps Narayan was the only writer who ne'er cared for such explanations .Naipul writes (Time,June 4 ,2001) :

"There is or used to be a kind of Indian writer who used galore italics and for the excitement ,had a gloss of absolutely simple local words at the back of his book .Narayan ne'er did that .He explains little or nothing;he talks everything just about his folk and his little town for granted".

But this is not possible for every IWE writer who wants to perform an experiment in creative English writing .R.Parthasarathy explains in the context of his own position as an English writer with Tamil as his parent tongue . "English is a part of my intellectual, rational make-up Tamil my emotional ,psychic make-up"Hence it is he believes that every IWE feels that he has an excess burden to do the explanation of the idioms he uses ,and My Tongue in English Chain is a theoretical statement of this problem.

Russian scholar E.J.Kalinikova in Problems of Modern Indian Literature (1975) besides refers to this problem in G.Byol’s words :

"National colouring is like naivete’ ,if you realize you have it ,then you have already lost it […] Conception of the Indian through Indian eyes is natural,and this only determine the scope of literary subject", wherever as an English writer ofIndia tries to give .The elements in a foreign language for which the whole experience of that element is strange and in the end what is make is in Kamala Das’s words:

"It is halfEnglish,half Indian

Funny perhaps, but it is honest" [An Introduction]

To provide a compromise M.R.Anand writes in his essay Pigeon—Indian:Some Notes on Indian English Writing : "The real tests are several The 1st test is in the sincerity of the writer in any language .The second test may be in the degree of sensitiveness or individual talent".

And in what this talent lie ?Anita Desai has the answer :

"I think I have learnt how to live with English language,how to deal with the problems it creats –mainly by ignoring them"

This view is supported by Henery James –"One’s own language is one’s parent ,but the language one adopts as a career, as a study ,is one’s wife[…] she wish expect you to commit infidelities .On those terms she wish support your home well"

Perhaps that’s why IWE like Raja Rao have even their own stand as :

"We can write only as Indians[…] Time wish alone justify it"

[Introduction to Kantapura]

Every writer (especially poet) ,as galore believe ,sooner or later suffers from ‘Aphasia’ or ‘loss of poetic speech’ .His poetry ought to ,from the beginning draw a bead on to the condition of silence.This is similar to Rene’ Wellek’s notion on Endgame of Prophet Author :

"Samuel Author in Endgame has been looking for the voice of his silence"

But Wellek’s view is applicable to the living force that still come the Indian English writers’ pen on paper .

"The artist,s discontentment with language can only be expressed by language .Pause may be a device to express the un describable ,but the pause can not be prolonged indefinitely".

So, in spite of the problems related to language and diction in use , the writers must support on trying their better in carving out on them ,their creativity on experimental basis ,because that may one day lead us to wherever we are now caving to reach.

About The Author

Samir K. Dash

Presently Samir is Director of an animation firm www.anigraphs.com

For much articles by him visit www.samirshomepage.zzn.com

samirk_dash@yahoo.com

This article was announce on Gregorian calendar month 04, 2005