National conference on Indian English poetry: Toru Dutt to Vanavil K. Ravi
Aligarh : The Department of English, Aligarh Muslim University, in an attempt to celebrate and honour Indian English poetry and poets, beginning from Toru Dutt to Vanavil K Ravi, is organising a two-day national conference on May 1-2, 2023 at the Conference Hall, Faculty of Social Science.
The debate over English in India is as old as its inception in the country in the early nineteenth century. Indian English literature and language has been recognized widely-in all genres from theatres to novels to poetry. The transformation from Macaulay’s justification in ‘Minute on Indian Education’ to impart formal education to the Indian natives in English to David Crystal’s affirmation that Indian English will soon be one of the most spoken forms of English in the world, we have surely come a long way. The emergence of a huge canon of modern Indian English poets, in such a short span of time, has confirmed that the struggle, as Marshall McLuhan would put it, between the medium of communication and the message conveyed, has been well addressed through Indian poetry over the years.
At such a critical juncture, it becomes imperative to organise a conference on Indian English poetry, discussing, analysing and recording Indian sensibility, myths and legends and focus on its historicity and contemporaneity at the same time. The key highlight of this national conference is that it is the first in-person conference of the department post pandemic and is ready to host paper presenters from more than 15 different universities and colleges encompassing more than 45 presentations over the two days.
As a part of the national conference, a pre-conference event for the students of the Department of English was also held to shed light on these prominent poets and their poetics. Distinguished speaker, Prof S.Z.H. Abidi (Head, Department of Languages, Integral University, Lucknow and former Head, Department of English and Modern European Languages, Lucknow University) presented a lecture on “A talk on Indian English Poetry” on Saturday, 29 April, 2023 through online mode where he spoke extensively about the nuances of Indian writings in English, particularly poetry.
Prof. Abidi started his talk by tracing the historical continuity and evolution of Indian English from Colonial writings in India to New Literature to Post Colonial literature. He stressed on the aspect of imitation and search for ‘Indianness’ as key components of Indian poetry. He asserted the role of history, culture and language as the major postulates to understand the age and poetry of the time. Beginning from Henry Derozio to Prof. Ranu Uniyal’s poems, he touched upon all major poets and their poetical concerns. He acknowledged Tagore as a true ‘modernist influencer’ and Kamala Das’ poems as ‘breaking with the past’, thereby framing their own literary traditions. In his lecture, he also counted the merits of the literary publisher, Writers Workshop, founded by celebrated Indian poet, P. Lal and its role in publishing Indian authors of post-Independence era. He concluded his talk by establishing a link between community, religion and gender and its essence in writing poetry.
The main event, on May 1 and May 2, will have luminaries like Prof. Sukrita Paul Kumar, University ofDelhi, New Delhi, Prof. Ranu Uniyal Pant, University of Lucknow, Lucknow, Prof. Ameena Qazi Ansari, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi and noted English and Tamil poet Vanavil K. Ravi along with many other scholars and researchers. To add to that, the inaugural session of the event (01 May, 2023) will also see the Book release of Prof. Sami Rafiq’s “Translation of Farozaan: A Collection of Moin Ahsan Jazbi’s Urdu Poems”, by the Vice Chancellor, Aligarh Muslim University.
The Convener and Co-convener, Prof. Munira T. and Dr. Md. Saquib Abrar with their organizing committee consisting of teachers like Prof. Rubina Iqbal and Dr. Muneer A. Kuzhiyan along with the teachers of the department and student volunteers, are organising the entire event under the guidance of the Vice Chancellor Prof. Mohammad Gulrez and the Chairperson and Organising Secretary, Prof. Mohammad Asim Siddiqui. For the outstation participants, the organizing team has also arranged for a heritage walk around the campus.