Indian Women Poets

Alluring slogans like "Feminism is Dead" are not really relevant in the context of developing societies like India where this 'ism' has not really even been born. Unlike the West where excesses and eccentricities of some women_ libbers have resulted in 'backlash against feminism', India, with her skewed gender-ratio and increasing heinous crime and violence against women, stands much in need of such revolutionary and consciousness-raising literature which is instrumental in creating a gender_equal and egalitarian society. The issue of ' female identity' in one form or another has become an inevitable part of the contemporary Indian literary and critical discourse.

Recent Indian Women Poets have added a new dimension to the Indian writing in English. Their works depict the changing position of women in the contemporary Indian society. They write with a sense of intuition, interpretation, and evaluation of contemporary social, political, and economic realities and exhibit texts that reflect on their responses to a variety of experiences.

Female Fantasia in Indian English poetry, 2015

The subject of this article is to capture the voice of feminine sensibilities and confessionality in women poets and their poetry; while the article aims to select two female writers Kamala Das (1934 -2009) and Imtiaz Dharker (1954 for the abridgement of this research. Kamala Das and Imtiaz Dharker represent that part of the feminine sensibility, through their poetry, which arouses a peculiar kind of curiosity and self identification among the readers. The mystical flavour of feminine issues, that they lay bare, as well as the identities they portray brings out the complexities of being a woman. Although their works depict the predicament of the self, they also problematize the world of men and their polarized narratives. The poetic expression of fantasia by men and women are radically different; which is stylistically and thematically dissimilar because of their biological and sociological difference in the society. The male fantasia in poetry indulges in various stylistic features and shared thematic domains concerning the world of men, while female fantasia in poetry revolves around the myriad thematic articulations concerning the domestic life, societal interactions and the self of a woman. But what needs mention as a footnote, is with a very few number of published poetries by women poets, which are positively reviewed and filtered by editors (mostly male critics) coupled with the individual oeuvre of every women poet; research in this dimension becomes increasingly complex. The concept of 'fantasia' in this research, means a genre of literature -verse, which is not in a particular form, but articulated according to the unrestricted feelings of fancy by the poet, incorporating several themes, familiar or unfamiliar in nature. The modern and post modern reflection of fantasia, are coloured and opinionated on the equation between the self and the

The present paper tries to analyse the study of selective works of Indian writers in English with a purpose of exploring the space for women in patriarchal society. Indian English writings by women attempt to tussle with living realities of women of various strata of society and endeavour to project life in all its complexities. Women writers have proved themselves as silent protesters. They have given vent to their feelings of protest in their poetry. In pre-independent India, Toru Dutta, Sarojini Naidu and a host of other poets produced the best kind of poetry. Meena Alexander and Sujata Bhatt have written poetry on their surroundings. Kamal Dass pours out her sensual longings, frustrations, humiliations and triumphs in her poems.

2011

Indian poetry in English by women has undergone several phases of experimentations in terms of themes and expression in the last sixty years. Remarkable changes in domestic, professional and public spheres are responsible for the depiction of varied hues and colours of human life on the poetic canvas. A host of stylistic and thematic novelty has marked the growth of Indian poetry from its inception during colonial days down to the post-independence and post-modern periods. Increased metropolitan activities, urbane lifestyles , globalization, discotheque and café culture, hi-tech gizmos and gadgets for communication, internet along with exposure of mass media and the recent inter-disciplinary advancements in the fields like sociology, physiology, psychology and anthropology have not only broadened the mind-sets of the people but have also revolutionized the modern life and literature. The present paper is a critique of the poetry by Mamta Kalia, Sudha Iyer and Imtiaz Dharker. These three women represent three successive generations of women-poets. Mamta Kalia wrote in seventies, Sudha Iyer wrote in nineties while Imtiaz Dharker started in eighties and is still penning poetry. All these women-poets exhibit resistance towards the orthodox social and religious codes which debilitate woman's spirit and negate her identity outside the role of a mother/wife/lover. Kamala Das is indisputably the first Indian woman-poet who shocked and mesmerized readers with her highly original, confessional, uninhibited and severely introspective mode of poetic expression. Deriving inspiration from Das, the women poets started questioning the patriarchal system and began to articulate resistance and self-confidence through their writings. All the three women poets under study have marked skill in the use of language and creative expression, characterized by variations in versification, metre, line-length, syntax and use of other poetic devices. The critical appraisal of their poems includes the discussion on their innovations of style, form and technique. Mamta Kalia has published two volumes of English poems so far, namely Tribute to Papa and Other Poems (Calcutta: WW, 1970) and Poems' 78 (Calcutta: WW, 1978). To her,

Indian English Poetry has seen desirable changes post independence triggered by factors such as Globalization. It's far reaching consequences has shifted the notions of language and identity and the ways of articulations. The notion of Indianess change when notions of identity and existence find new horizons. It was inevitable then that the tinge of pessimism that was part of the early Indian English Literature give way to fresh approaches. Consequently, the Indian English Literary scene especially poetry has become experimental with the changing times. In this regard, Sudeep Sen remarks in the essay " New Indian Poetry: The 1990s Perspective " The most striking features of the new generation of poets are their range of concerns and themes and their use of language. They use English as an Indian as well as a global language, without the "peculiar hang-ups" exhibited by many in the earlier generations…. Thankfully, the last traces of archaic forms of British English have finally vanished. The new generation of poets is unafraid, motivated, clear sighted, and they use English with a sense of ease. Their language, style, rhythms, and forms are inventive, original, and contemporary.(273) This beginning of change was marked in the 1960's by the entry of poets such as Nissim Ezekiel, Dom Moraes, Jayanta Mahapatra and many more. They did revolutionize the terrain of Indian poetry in English; however what is striking is the emergence of Women Poets. Beginning with Kamala Das, Indian English Poetry became a horn of plenty with writers such as Kandaswamy and many more. They brought to their verses modernist and post modernist nuances, explicitly and expertly speaking about the changing contours of language and identity. The margins began to shift and new realms to their existence came alive through Poetry and the madness that it invokes. Poetry, with its exhortations of fluidity and open – endedness becomes a new tool to voice out the 'margins'. Creativity here is a merging of the public and the private and something beyond that. They were a far cry from the poetry of the Toru Sisters and Sarojini Naidu which according to Jenny Booth mimicked 19th century diction, sentiment and romanticized love. Post 1960's the Indian Women Poets writing in English stood out by highlighting their difference. Ironically this was the reason why they were suppressed in the beginning. They found a way of articulation through this hyphenated language which is as ambivalent as they are. At this juncture the thoughts of Luce Irigaray about a genuine feminine language, emphazising difference comes up. She says in " The Sex which is not One " : One must listen to her differently in order to hear an ' other meaning' which is constantly in the process of weaving itself, at the same time ceaselessly embracing words and yet casting them off to avoid becoming fixed, immobilized.. .. Her statements are never identical to anything. Their distinguishing feature is contiguity (Greene 87). This fact shines through in the poetry of these poets. In addition to this, the impact of globalization and the subsequent phenomenon of cosmopolitanism led to the creation of an identity which according to the LUMINAIRE 36

Writers Editors Critics, 2022

In an infamous interview at the Royal Geographic Society in 2011, V. S. Naipaul had, in denigration of women writers, said, “I read a piece of writing and within a paragraph or two I know whether it is by a woman or not.” If writing by a woman is so readily identifiable, what does it reveal about writing as a gendered act? What does it mean, then, to write like a woman? In order to write like a woman, is it sufficient to identify oneself as one? Does the woman writer as a category exist? This paper attempts to focus on the woman poet in Indian English Poetry, a genre largely marginalised within the history of IWE because of cultural scepticism regarding its ability to respond to the double challenge of proving its loyalties to the Indian cultural sensibility on the one hand and to the English language on the other. Asserting that the woman poet has always been an unignorable presence in the IEP canon, this paper hopes to establish the possibility of a distinct tradition of women poets within it. Keywords: woman, poetry, feminism, body, patriarchy, tradition, culture

(UP) INDIA (UP) INDIA Rabindra Nath Tagore, a noble laureate, beautifully pours out his overwhelmed heart in his much praised literary work "Where the mind is without fear" in which he exhibits his vision of a hassle free nation by bestowing his heartfelt reliance on the master of the Universe. From a Feminist point of view, this poem is appreciated as an inspiration for the woman race to improve their social status and economic status. Women of India need to come out of their narrow domestic walls by increased means of education and social justice. This thought provoking poem also conveys the idea of eliminating the dreary desert sand of dead habits like Sati System, Dowry, and Child Marriage etc from our Indian Culture to uplift our Indian Woman. Our Woman will actively support and participate in the nationalist movement and secured eminent positions and offices in administration and public life in free India. This research article aims at stimulating the country to raise the voice for the freedom of women. It channelizes the empowerment of women by directing their efforts towards perfection.

Indian literature cannot be defined by its linguistic singularity; rather it celebrates due to its plurality. It is the literature which is being written in different languages of the nation. Therefore various attempts have been made by the scholars to discuss about the ethos behind the literature written in different languages. The contemporary Indian society is undergoing through some significantly rapid changes, therefore the depiction of the issues reflected in literature is also changing. The societal politics is in a position that the tradition of India has also been challenged. The colonial legacy and the fight to re-establish the identity was a common feature of the post-independence Indian literature. But the neo-colonizers have guided us to such a position that we even feel ambiguous in searching the right path towards identity. The Indian poetry of the contemporary age has nicely picked up such issues of the contemporary society. In this paper, an attempt has been made to discuss about how the poets have attempted to focus about the existence of the primeval feelings of being Indian through the poems. The established beliefs on the issues like society, identity, individuality, existence etc. has been challenged by the contemporary happenings. The poets of the contemporary India has tried to focus such issues including the challenges. By citing some examples of a few contemporary Indian poets, some of the major issues of contemporary Indian poetry will come to light and this will be helpful in further discussion about the present and future of Indian poetry.

Confessional Poetry by Women Poets in Post-Modern India The literature that emerged post-independence was filled with the desperate search to find the lost identity of the self. Pre-independence literature wrote about nature and the nationalist movement, and there was not much dichotomy between the genders. The conflict arose when the feminine identity had to be asserted, especially with the rising question of how differently the genders were treated. The woman poet now had a feminine ego that could be agitated, bitter, cynical, and even sarcastic. This post-modernist theory found its roots in the fact that the norms for feminine behavior had been decided, and the woman had to follow them to be feminine. But femininity had to find its roots elsewhere, since it was not possible for women to find themselves feeling extraordinary moments of individualism, and not write differently because of it.