Indian poets writing in English have earned their space on the global stage, forging new paths and moulding the language to suit the Indian landscape, concerns, and themes. When Nissim Ezekiel crossed new frontiers with his 'A Time to Change' in 1952, it was recognised as one of the first significant books of postcolonial poetry in English; decades later, however, sceptics continued to ask why Indians insisted on writing in English and not in their mother tongues. An exasperated Saleem Peeradina said to me in an interview soon after his debut poetry collection First Offence appeared in 1980, "This question should be outlawed!" Mercifully, though such discussions may still linger in some academic circles, the issue no longer merits attention, at least among poets.
The BigBridge Book of Contemporary Indian Poetry
Indian poets writing in English have earned their space on the global stage, forging new paths and moulding the language to suit the Indian landscape, concerns, and themes. When Nissim Ezekiel crossed new frontiers with his 'A Time to Change' in 1952, it was recognised as one of the first significant books of postcolonial poetry in English; decades later, however, sceptics continued to ask why Indians insisted on writing in English and not in their mother tongues. An exasperated Saleem Peeradina said to me in an interview soon after his debut poetry collection First Offence appeared in 1980, "This question should be outlawed!" Mercifully, though such discussions may still linger in some academic circles, the issue no longer merits attention, at least among poets.