Search for
National Identity
in Early Modern Indian Poetry
“ARUDRA”
Ancient
The
avaricious agents, the scheming senior merchants, the fighting factors of the
East India Company secured Firmans, acquired
rights to collect taxes, conquered territories and interfered in the infights of the Indian princes to sow the seeds of an empire.
The later Governors-General expanded the gains. The victory at the Battle of Plassey (1857) gave practical sovereignty over Bengal,
To
govern a land of such magnitude with different religions and diverse customs of
castes, creeds and cultures, the East India Company required its Civil Servants
to learn the local languages and through the knowledge of the vernaculars understand
the land and the people. Ever since the inception of the East India Company,
its Agents were transacting their business through the Indian interpreters and
translators. The various Brahmins, Vakeels, Hejeebs, Pundits, Munshis and
Banias of the Company were assisting
the inquisitive white scholars to study the sacred books of the East and
discover the ancient glories of
The
several Indian savants employed as subordinate servants of the Company were
rediscovering the spiritual unity of
With
the preachings of Ram Mohun
Roy the search for the National Identity was initiated. By the word nationality
we mean a historically constituted stable community of people, formed on the
basis of common language, territory, economic life and psychological make-up
manifested in a common culture. These requirements were not fully provided by
The
Indian National Congress was founded in 1885 and Allan Octavian Hume
(1829-1912), a retired English Civilian, was designated as its father and
founder but as C. Y. Chintamani observed the idea of
a national assemblage for definitely political ends was conceived by a number
of persons which materialised in 1885. The number of
delegates, then called representatives, to the first session was only
seventy-one and at the fifth session at
When the Indian National Congress was carrying its “constitutional agitations” by submitting humble petitions for the development of self-government in India by the expansion of the Central and Provincial Legislatures with the admission into these bodies of a larger number of popularly elected Indian representatives with enlarged powers over the financial and general administration of the country and the British rulers said that “India was conquered by the sword and by the sword it shall be held.” When the Moderates were meek, the Extremists were eager to preach the doctrines of self-help and the necessity of rousing the masses was felt. Bal Gangadhar THak (1856-1920) thundered in 1895 and questioned, “Whose is the Congress? Of the people, of the classes or of the masses?”
To
arouse the masses, poetry is the best implement and appropriate meaningful
words of a poem can become the slogan of the nation. “Vande
Mataram” the immortal song of Bankim
Chandra Chatterji (1838-1893) had become the anthem of
the National Congress. The concept of Mother India had taken root. The several
slogans of the Indian National Congress like Vande
Mataram, Swadeshi, Swaraj, Purna-Swaraj and Quit
India show the various stages of development in the nation’s thinking.
These slogans inspired the poets all over
Chilakamarti Lakshmi Narasimham (1867-1946) was the very first prominent Telugu poet to plunge into the political mainstream. He was a regular visitor to all the sessions of Indian National Congress and a participant of the various District Conferences, since 1894. In the first conference of Godavari District, Chilakamarti composed and recited 14 verses and got a standing ovation. Like all the Moderates, Chilakamarti was also loyal to the Crown and in the prefatory verse he praised the White Rulers for unification of India but in the rest of the verses he painted the burdens of bondage, miseries of the middle classes and the plight of the peasants and workers. He sang about the tyranny of taxes, troublesome bribes and need for action to achieve relief from servitude.
Chilakamarti’s verses travelled the entire length and breadth of Telugu districts by word of mouth and many Harikatha exponents were singing these political verses in their devotional discourses to reach the people in those days of meagre mass communication media. Gurazada Venkata Appa Rao (1862-1915), the father of modern Telugu literature, who was writing in English in those days, was requested to translate Chilakamarti’s verses into English.
When Bipin Chandra Pal (1858-1933), the fiery orator and inspired prophet of vigorous nationalism, toured the Telugu districts with his soul-stirring speeches, Chilakamarti translated five of his speeches and sang an impromptu verse, which became immortal:
Indians are its lamenting calves
whose mouths are tied very tight,
milking away are the crafty cowherds white.
This
single verse spread like wild fire and was written on the walls of Andhradesha. When Lala Lajpat Rai was deported to
To a man who serves his country with sincerity
Prisons are moon-stone bowers
fetters on wrists are garland of flowers
wretched gruel is a soup of milk
and coarse blankets are silk shawls.
Our
all the natives are virtual prisoners
If arrested and put in the jail O! brother,
He is changed from one room to the other!
Gurazada Venkata Appa Rao, who did not aspire to join the ranks of Telugu
authors, was mainly writing in English except for his play Kanyasulkam
(1892) in Telugu, which he wrote to champion the causes of social reform
and spoken Telugu. Gurazada was a keen observer of
the national scene and was disgusted with the Moderates. He attended the
Tell me not in scornful numbers
Congress is an ‘empty’ show
For though many a delegate slumbers
Seats are ‘full’ in every row.
Congress is earnest! Congress is real
Self-Government is its goal;
Is always good for the human soul
In the Congress field of battle,
In constitutional strife,
Indulge internal rattle,
Never lift a chair for tife.
Lives of all Moderates remind us
We should wisely keep from crime;
Open sedition only finds us
Shelter in far-off clime.
Let us then line up and speaking,
Speaking at a furious rate;
Not always some benefit seeking,
Learn to be loyal and to wait.
Gurazada in 1910, at long last, had taken to writing in Telugu and in a brief but beneficial period of a mere five years, had enriched every branch of creative writing, be it a poem, play, short play, short story or essay, with his deep understanding of the medium and the contemporary problems. In his ever-green poem Desa Bhakti Gurazada started the search for National Identity and fully visualized its shape and scope. Since he was well acquainted with the Western political philosophy, he was able to voice the aims and objects of the nation. If it was Rousseau who had first identified the “nation” as the “people” not the sovereign, it was Gurazada who defined that a country means its people but not the mere soil and national wealth is produced from people’s toil. Since Gurazada’s Desa Bhakti was not chauvinistic in its tone, it took some decades to be identified as the modern manifesto of nationalism. Because the Communists in the ‘Forties had popularised it, this great poem was suspect in the eyes of the establishment.
Rayaprolu Subba Rao (1892 - 1984) the leading “modern” Telugu poet, like Kerala’s Kumaran Asan (1873-l924) was influenced by Rabindranath Tagore and was the harbinger of Romanticism in Telugu literature. The subjects taken up by both Rayaprolu and Asan were similar and the approach was same. Both the poets, besides their Romantic poems, had written lyrics of social concern. Rayaprolu’s popular Janmabhoomi was popular instantly, because of its national chauvinism, which was befitting the mood of the people in the struggle for freedom.
Like Karnataka’s B. M. Srikantiah, many Telugu poets, along with Rayaprolu, were translating poems from the English language and several patriotic verses were also seen among them.
If
Kerala’s Mahakavi
Vallathol (1878-1957) was obsessed with the sad
thought that Kerala was torn into three pieces –
Let our hearts thrill with pride
On hearing the name of “Bharat”
Let our blood boil in our veins
On hearing the name “Kerala”.
Rayaprolu resembles Vallathol in this respect. He is the proud son of two mothers, Bharata-Mata and Telugu-Talli. It was the Andhras that first started the agitation for linguistic provinces and Rayaprolu, as the Poet Laureate of Telugu nationalism, sang the glories of bygone ages:
It was the Telugu language
That transformed the Tamilians into musicians
The swords made by us
Could not be endured by our enemy hordes,
Telugu culture was able to get people
Take an abiding interest in her graces
With her dark tresses the Telugu-land
Made the earth a land of milk and honey.
The great, glorious history of the Andhras
Is not dead, is not dead,
If you have any sympathy
Tear our hearts, and see the vital spring.
This proud proclamation of Rayaprolu was recited by many persons on various occasions and the Telugus loudly applaud every time. Almost all the major and minor poets of that period, in their hundreds, followed Rayaprolu to praise the Andhra sub-nationalism.
Viswanadha Satyanarayana (1895-1976), who received the Jnana Peeth Award in 1971, sang
about the Andhra Prasasti and Andhra Paurusham in the early days of the Andhra movement and equalled Rayaprolu in his
regional rhapsodies. Viswanadha reminded his readers
of the old days when the Andhras claimed the entire
The wise counsel of Gurazada, who asked the people to look forward, prevailed. He said:
The good in the past is very much meagre
If you lag behind you’d be a back-number.
Gurazada, like
Basavaraju Appa Rao (1894-1933) was a true follower of Gurazada and did not attempt versification but sang the lyrics of liberation. But for the personal calamities and his premature death he clearly could have equalled Tamil Nadu’s Subramania Bharati (1882-1921) in stature and sensitiveness. But the gap was filled by Garimella Satyanarayana (1893-1952) the brave bard of the masses.
Gerimella, after his graduation, was training for his L. T. degree in 1920. He heard the call of the country and give up his studies to plunge into the freedom fight. In folk metres and rustic idiom be wrote many songs. His famous song became the war cry in various stages of the movement:
We don’t want this white Bossism, Oh! Lord!
We don’t need this white Bossism.
Garimella was imprisoned for writing this song of sedition but he could not be gagged. He wrote many more songs on national issues and sang them in many villages. There were scores of other contemporaries of Garimella whose contributions were recently compiled into an anthology.
The early modern poets visualised the national integration and Bharati’s immortal song “In the glittering moonlit waters of River Sindhu.........” is the best example of that vision.
After
achieving