Independence and Indian poetry

Introduction

Poetry is the oldest form of literature. It is a creative and aesthetic activity having three major components- experience, beauty and emotion. Poetry is an art of communication experience. As such, the communication must be in a language that is close to the poet and the experience must be genuine. India is a vast subcontinent. Many languages found in India has its own literature, some very rich.

We have a rich history of language and literature in several languages hindi, english, urdu are some of them. This paper will give you a glimpse of beautiful journey of Indian poetry from pre-independence to post-independence era. To understand the development of Indian Poetry and its proper perspectives, it is necessary to consider its origin and continuity. We have divided this content into two parts: Pre Independent and Post Independent. A group condemns the poetry written before independence while some hail the poetry written after 1947. For instance, V.K. Gokak in his introduction to ‘The Golden Treasury of Indo-Anglian Verse’ and also in his studies ‘Indo-Anglian Poetry’ traces the growth and progress of Indian English Poetry. He classifies the pre independent Indian poets as neo-symbolist and neo- modernist. The neo-symbolists have mysticism and neo- modernist’s vision is coloured by humanism. The notable names in pre- independence poetry are Derozio, Toru Dutt, M.M. Dutt, Aurobindo, Manmohan Ghose, Tagore, Naidu, Harindranath Chattopadhyay and R. C. Dutt. While when it comes to hindi poetry, Hindi-Literature in Pre-Independence India produced some rather important documents that articulated writers' active political involvement at a time of rising Indian nationalism against British colonialism. The works exhibit a unification of culture and politics, in which culture became the basis on which was waged the complex struggle for India's freedom. Writers began to carve out an imagined Indian identity, visualizing a nation free of foreign domination and one in which democracy and brotherhood would prevail. Their search manifested itself in numerous ways: patriotic stories that idealized and glorified India's past, stories urging Hindu-Muslim unity, and stories that exposed and recognized problems relating, among other things, to the exploitation and abuse of peasants, labor, and other marginalized classes under colonial rule. Hindi literature in pre-Independent India thus evidenced all these various factors. While when it comes to urdu poetry Meer, Dard, Ghalib, Anees, Dabeer, Iqbal, Zauq, Josh, Jigar, Faiz, Firaq, Shakeb Jalali, Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, Shair, Mohsin, Faraz and Faizi are among the greatest poets of Urdu who created a beautiful world of urdu poetry. The language of Urdu got its pinnacle under the British Raj, and it received official status. All famous writers of Urdu language including Ghalib and Iqbal were given British scholarships. Following the Partition of India in 1947, it found major poets and scholars were divided along the nationalistic lines. However, Urdu poetry is cherished in both the nations. Both the Muslims and Hindus from across the border continue the tradition.