Of Many Indias: Alternative Nationhoods in Contemporary Indian Poetry

Abstract

K. Satchidanandan studies contemporary Indian poetry that militates against the monolithic idea of a past or projected “Indianness” and asserts the plurality of alternative nationhoods. The author affirms that the quoted poems are context-sensitive while also containing within them the desire to be free of class, caste or gender to arrive at a society where cultural difference springs from creative regional and linguistic contexts. The poets he has chosen believe that it is necessary to problematize the concept of India in order to fight its oppressive implications and to re-contextualize poetry in order to build a free democratic society. In the context of the threat of a forced homogenization and cultural globalization, difference becomes the key concept that defines the poetry of the Indian avant-garde.