Voices of Dissent a Study in the Poetry of Imtiaz Dharker and Sujata Bhatt

Abstract

Before 1950s the concern of Indian Poetry in English by women was completely newlinedifferent. They generally dealt with the common issues of human concerns. Apart from newlineToru Dutt no early woman writer in English from India has glorified Indian women or newlineaddressed their problems in her poetry. Savitri has been glorified by Toru Dutt because newlineshe sacrificed herself for her husband and this theme was taken over by Sri Aurbindo newlinelater. Sarojini Naidu was not interested in women issues; she had a completely different newlinepoetic preoccupation as compared to the modern Indian women poets. The post newlineindependent Indian women poets are entangled within a broad spectrum of feminist newlineconcern that has led them to move far ahead of their predecessors. Imtiaz Dharkar and newlineSujata Bhatt, chosen for thesis are among the contemporary Indian poets in English and newlinetheir emergence on the poetic scene has marked a remarkable shift from the existing newlinetrends. Contemporary Indian poets in English belonging to different generations have newlineattempted to expose an eurocentric centralism in their own ways which incidentally newlinecorresponds to three well-defined phases of feminist movement : adopt, adapt and adept newline.The first generation Indian poets like Toru Dutt and Sarojini Naidu responded to the newlinepostcolonial situation broadly borrowing western parameter, in a critical manner, their newlinesuccessors like Kamala Das and Eunice de Souza endeavoured to reconstitute those newlinenorms in view of their changed experiences. However the strategies of the still younger newlinepoets like Rukhmini Bhaya Nayar and Meena Kandasamy who started publishing in newline1980 s demonstrate an altogether new approach to native situation. newline