The Influence of English on Gujarati Poetry (An Old and Rare Book)

This slender volume of some two hundred and fifty printed pages is the outcome of about six years of hard work, twenty thousand pages of rough notes. five typewritten drafts with constant re-writing and revision, until it reached its final form in which it was presented to the M. S. University of Baroda in 1963 -with further cuts in its present printed form. In undertaking a self-imposed task of this nature, unlike the common run of our single-track dissertations, I was virtually battling on two fronts, since I had to have more than a nodding acquaintance with the entire span of both modern Gujarati and English poetry. My twenty years' teaching experience here stood me in good stead. Though this has already earned me my doctorate, it is not for me to say how far this publication would interest or enlighten serious-minded students of this very significant phenomenon of the impact of English poetry on modern Gujarati poetry, in particular, and mutatis mutandis on Indian poetry or literatures in general.

I have to thank Prof. C. M. Shukla, with whom I initially took up this project and Prof. V. Y. Kantak, who subsequently, saw it through. To both of them, I am indebted for their stimulating and generous guidance. I am grateful to Miss Khandwala, the University Librarian, S.N.D.T. Women's University, Bombay, and her co operative staff for preparing the Index for me. My sincere thanks also go to Dr. Umashanker Joshi, Vice-Chancellor, Gujarat University, who in spite of several things on his hands, has kindly written a Foreword to this book. Finally, I am grateful to the U.G.C. for making available the financial support for the publication of this book.

The literatures of the various Indian languages suffered a veritable sea change under the impact of the English language. Col. Jarvis is looked upon by Narmad as the writer, responsible for ushering in the new era in Gujarati litera ture in 1828, with his prose writings. It is, however, Narmad himself and his elder contemporary Dalpatram, who as real pioneers, negotiated with their copious outpourings in verse as well as prose the transition from the old to the new. What is most surprising is that one of the greatest of the medieval (e. pre-modern) poets, Dayaram, who was alive till 1852, was, for all we know, blissfully oblivious of the fact that Dalpatram had already attained a new poetic voice and eighteen year-old Narmad had in 1851 raised the curtain on the modern age with his address on the Uses of forming Associations".

The incorporation of the University of Bombay in 1857 was an important phenomenon that contributed to the consolidation of the gains of the cross fertilization of two cultures: Indeed, by 1887. Narsimhrao's Kusummala had shown that the Western lyric was firmly planted in the literary soil of Gujarat. The poet had announced his intention in the preface that he aimed at giving poems akin to those in Palgrave's Golden Treasury. He gave, among other things, a translation of Shelley's The Cloud and a similar poem in Gujarati entitled 'Chanda-(The Moon).

The University graduates came under another powerful influence also. The European scholars had acclaimed Sanskrit literature as one of the world's richest. Sanskrit staged a return to the new generation of Indian scholars via Europe. It restored their sense of self-respect, impressing as it did on their minds that at least culturally they were not insignificant. This Sanskritic dimension accounted for much of the richness of the New Poetry.

Persian, the language of the former Muslim rulers, was studied by a section of the literary and political elite till the end of the 19th century. In mid-19th century Narsimhrao's father, Bholanath, used to receive letters in Persian from his father. The gazal proved to be one of the popular verse-forms in the last quarter of the 19th century.

Another strong influence was that of the folk-songs. Nanalal's exquisite lyric songs, for example, owe much to the folk-inspiration.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages