- Write a note on S. Radhakrishnan's perspective on Hinduism?
As an academic, philosopher, and statesman, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888-1975) was one of the most recognized and influential Indian thinkers in academic circles in the 20th century. Throughout his life and extensive writing career, Radhakrishnan sought to define, defend, and promulgate his religion, a religion he variously identified as Hinduism, Vedanta, and the religion of the Spirit. He sought to demonstrate that his Hinduism was both philosophically coherent and ethically viable. Radhakrishnan’s concern for experience and his extensive knowledge of the Western philosophical and literary traditions has earned him the reputation of being a bridge-builder between India and the West. He often appears to feel at home in the Indian as well as the Western philosophical contexts, and draws from both Western and Indian sources throughout his writing. Because of this, Radhakrishnan has been held up in academic circles as a representative of Hinduism to the West. His lengthy writing career and his many published works have been influential in shaping the West’s understanding of Hinduism, India, and the East.
In 1896, Radhakrishnan was sent to school in the nearby pilgrimage center of Tirupati, a town with a distinctively cosmopolitan flavor, drawing bhaktas from all parts of India. For four years, Radhakrishnan attended the Hermannsburg Evangelical Lutheran Missionary school. It was there that the young Radhakrishnan first encountered non-Hindu missionaries and 19th century Christian theology with its impulse toward personal religious experience. The theology taught in the missionary school may have found resonance with the highly devotional activities connected with the nearby Tirumala temple, activities that Radhakrishnan undoubtedly would have witnessed taking place outside the school. The shared emphasis on personal religious experience may have suggested to Radhakrishnan a common link between the religion of the missionaries and the religion practiced at the nearby Tirumala temple.
It is in this historical and hermeneutic contexts and with these experiences informing his worldview that Radhakrishnan encountered a resurgent Hinduism. Specifically, Radhakrishnan encountered the writings of Swami Vivekananda and V.D. Savarkar’s The First War of Indian Independence. The Theosophical Society was also active in the South Arcot area at this time. The Theosophists not only applauded the ancient wisdom they claimed to have found in India, but were persistent advocates of a philosophical, spiritual, and scientific meeting of East and West. Moreover, the Society’s role in the Indian nationalist movement is evidenced by Annie Besant’s involvement with the Indian National Congress. While Radhakrishnan does not speak of the Theosophists presence at this time, it is unlikely that he would have been unfamiliar with their views.
What Vivekananda, Savarkar, and Theosophy did bring to Radhakrishnan was a sense of cultural self-confidence and self-reliance. However, the affirmation Radhakrishnan received from this resurgence of Hinduism did not push Radhakrishnan to study philosophy nor to interpret his own religion. It was only after Radhakrishnan’s experiences at Madras Christian College that he began to put down in writing his own understanding of Hinduism.
- According to Radhakrishnan, what is the function of philosophy ?
Radhakrishnan located his metaphysics within the Advaita (non-dual) Vedanta tradition (sampradaya). And like other Vedantins before him, Radhakrishnan wrote commentaries on the Prasthanatraya (that is, main primary texts of Vedanta ): the Upanisads (1953),Brahma Sutra (1959), and the Bhagavadgita (1948).
As an Advaitin, Radhakrishnan embraced a metaphysical idealism. But Radhakrishnan’s idealism was such that it recognized the reality and diversity of the world of experience (prakṛti) while at the same time preserving the notion of a wholly transcendent Absolute (Brahman), an Absolute that is identical to the self (Atman). While the world of experience and of everyday things is certainly not ultimate reality as it is subject to change and is characterized by finitude and multiplicity, it nonetheless has its origin and support in the Absolute (Brahman) which is free from all limits, diversity, and distinctions (nirguṇa). Brahman is the source of the world and its manifestations, but these modes do not affect the integrity of Brahman.
In this vein, Radhakrishnan did not merely reiterate the metaphysics of Śaṅkara (8th century C.E.), arguably Advaita Vedanta’s most prominent and enduring figure, but sought to reinterpret Advaita for present needs. In particular, Radhakrishnan reinterpreted what he saw as Śaṅkara’s understanding of maya strictly as illusion. For Radhakrishnan, maya ought not to be understood to imply a strict objective idealism, one in which the world is taken to be inherently disconnected from Brahman, but rather mayaindicates, among other things, a subjective misperception of the world as ultimately real.
This section deals with Radhakrishnan’s understanding of intuition and his interpretations of experience. It begins with a general survey of the variety of terms as well as the characteristics Radhakrishnan associates with intuition. It then details with how Radhakrishnan understands specific occurrences of intuition in relation to other forms of experience — cognitive, psychic, aesthetic, ethical, and religious.
Task - 2 The New Poets
- "An Indo - Anglian poet strives for self expression in English. Explain.
The Indo-Anglian writer, in the sense of what he has to be rather than what he necessarily is at the moment, is a new faith in transition. He is the choice and the choice and the instrument of a phase of history which, in turn, is only a piece in the jigsaw of human events. What he can do: what he can say: what he can be: what he can achieve. These define Phim as no other facts or failings can. And on this is built hope, and commitment, and adventure...
The whole point about the Indo-Anglian phenomenon, surely, is that it is a dialect of he mirror mind rather than of the tongue focus of the It is the destinies in the Indian tradition, the classic Indian and the grafted Western; and, in the ultimate analysis, may prove to be more real than either.
to a future that is already in a process of becoming. The Indo-Anglian poet is, no doubt, knotted in his particular and peculiar perplexity. An Indian, he strives for self-expression in English. But he is, for this reason alone, no more a slave of oddity than a man trying to fly (like the bird) in an aeroplane of his contriving or diving (like the fish) in a submarine. Or a man driving a car or pushing a bicycle instead of walking-or walking at all instead of shambling on all fours; or a man talking (even in his mother tongue'), instead of merely making sounds like an animal. And Indo-Anglian poetry is not quite so much of a rarity as it is too readily taken for granted. Several of the poets in the various regional languages Balamani Amma, K. M. Panikkar, Umashankar Joshi, V. K. Gokak, P. S. Rege, B. S. Mardhekar, Arun Kolhatkar, Dilip Chitre, Abburi Ramakrishna Rao, 'Sri Sri', Srinivas Royaprol, Buddhadeva Bose, Sudhindra- nath Datta, Jibanananda Das, Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar', A Sri- niva: a Raghavan, Amrita Pritam, Prabhjot Kaur, Narendra K. Sethi, for example-are efficiently bilingual. In the anthology, Modern Indian Poetry, edited by A. V. Rajeswara Rau, out of the 70 poets included, as many as 25 are either Indo-Anglian poets or poets with an adequate enough knowledge of English to translate into English verse their own original work in one of the regional languages. Again, in the anthology, Modern Assamese Poetry edited by Hem Barua, 9 out of the 26 poets included in the volume are responsible for the English renderings from their own work. The ratio would be substantially the same in the other languages as well. Thus the filiations between English and the modern Indian languages are quite close, and purposive bili gualism is much more widespread than partisans are generally prepared to admit.
- Write a critical note on the poems by Nissim Ezekiel.
Nissim Ezekiel is said to be essentially an Indian poet writing in English. He expresses the essence of Indian personality and is also very sensitive to the changes of his national climate and he voices the aspirations and the joys and sorrows of Indians. It has been opined, that the Indo - Anglian poets are of two factions. The neo-modernists and the neo-symbolists. The outlook of the former is coloured by humanism and irony and that of the latter is imbued with mysticism and sublimity, but a perfect blend is achieved by the two groups in the realms of beauty. A perfect example, of anlndo - Anglian poet, who was able to arrive at a synthesis between the two factions of poetry, is none other than Sarojini Naidu, for she took her stance in the neutral, middle ground, between the sacred and profane sphere of poetry4 she was at home in both the worlds and found them united in the realms of poetry.
Its possible to gain a proper perspective of the development of Indian feminine poetic tradition, only if it is considered with reference to the changing position of women in India. The very term Women poets implies an attempt to isolate women poets from men poets, and consider them in a group only on the basis of sex, some critics have wondered as to whether there is anything like feminine sensibility, feminine experiences and feminine ways of expression. The feminine character is made up of certain psychological traits as well as certain socially conditioned ones. All these features set them apart as a group. They moreover do not accept the duties which are traditionally allotted to women, in the male dominated society, and assert their new identity as independent, individualistic and conscious participants in experience. Thus these women poets do mark' the evolution of the Indian feminine Psyche from the tradition to modernity.
Nissim Ezekiel occupies an important place in post-Independence Indian English literature. He has wielded a great influence as a leading poet, editor and an occasional playwright. Besides, he is a well-known critic. Sometimes he also emerges as a politician in the guise of a fighter for cultural freedom in India. Ezekiel held many important positions. He was for many years a Professor of English in Bombay University. He is a noted name in the field of journalism. In this capacity he was editor of many journals including Poetry India (1966-67), Quest (1955-57) and Imprint (1961-70), He was an Associate Editor to the Indian P.E.N., Bombay.
As a man of letters Nissim Ezekiel is a 'Protean' figure. His achievements as a poet and playwright are considerable. K. Balachandran writes, "The post-Independence Indian poetry saw its new poetry in the fifties. Among the new poets A.K. Ramanujan, R. Parthasarathy, Shiv K. Kumar, Kamala Das, Monica Verma, O.P. Bhatnagar, Gauri Deshpande, Adil Jussawalla, Ezekiel occupies a prominent place. His versatile genius can be found in his poetry, plays, criticism, journalism and translation." Nissim Ezekiel has done a good work in Indian writing in English. He has written many volumes of poems—A Time to Change (1952), Sixty Poems (1953), The Third (1959), The Unfinished Man (1960), The Exact Name (1965) and others. His plays Nalini, Marriage Poem, The Sleep-Walkers, Songs of Deprivation and Who Needs No Introduction are already staged and published. He has also edited books Indian Writers in Conference (1964), Writing in India (1965), An Emerson Reader (1965), A Martin Luther King Reader (1965) and Arthur Miller's All My Sons (1972). His literary essays published in magazines and papers are innumerable. The notable among them are 'Ideas and Modern Poetry' (1964), 'The Knowledge of Dead Secrets' (1965), 'Poetry as Knowledge' (1972), 'Sri Aurobindo on Poetry' (1972), 'Should Poetry be Read to Audience?' (1972), 'K.N. Daruwalla' (1972), 'Poetry and Philosophy,' 'Hindu Society' (1966). He has written essays on art criticism 'Modern Art in India' (1970), 'How Good is Sabavala?' (1973), and 'Paintings of the Year 1973' (1973). His essays on social criticism Thoreau and Gandhi' (1971), 'Censorship and the Writer' (1963), 'How Normal is Normality' (1972), 'Tradition and All That a Case Against the Hippies' (1973), 'A Question of Sanity' (1972) and 'Our Academic Community' (1968) are varied and auto telic of his wide interest.
Ezekiel is an editor of several journals encouraging writing poetry, plays and criticisrm He also asked many writers for translation, affecting the theory and practice of the young poets. The writers like Rilke and W.B. Yeats influenced Ezekiel. Like Yeats, he treated poetry as the 'record of the mind's growth.' His poetic bulk indicates his growth as a poet-critic and shows his personal importance. Chetan Karnani states, "At the centre was that sincere devoted mind that wanted to discover itself. In the process, he managed to forge a unique achievement of his own."
The poet Ezekiel has already published several volumes of poems. A Time to Change (1952) was his first book of poems. For him poetry-writing was a lofty vocation, a way of life. He treated life as a journey where poesy would be the main source of discovering and organising one's own self. In a sense, poetry to Ezekiel became a way for self-realisation. He calls life a texture of poetry. He identifies himself with poetry. So all of his volumes of verse are well-knit and they are in the poet's view, a continuation of each other. Ezekiel's experiments in prose rhythms and his fine sense of structure and metrical ability. The verse rhythms of T.S. Eliot seem to haunt his mind. Ezekiel's Sixty Poems (1953), his second volume of poems was published in 1953. But these poems are loose in structure and they are less appealing.
Task 3 : conclusion
- write a note on the changing trends in post Independence Indian writing in English
who know and can speak and read English a second language form really the "dominant minority in India. Thus the books in English published in India account for 50% of the total for all langauges, and the English news- papers and magazines command a more impressive and influential circulation than the others. For all practical purposes, English is the all-India language, in indispensable use at national con- ferences, or gatherings, whether official or non-official. The popular vogue of Hindi is of course much greater, at least in North India; but for administrative purposes, and in higher education and the higher judiciary, English still holds a paramount place. It would not be wide of the mark to say that Indo- Anglian literature has a substantial base today, and this base notwithstanding periodical scares seems likely.
During the last 20 years, and more especially during the last 10 years, the outlook for Indo-Anglian literature has become brighter than before. There are journals in English the Workshop Miscellany, Mother India, Poet, Dialogue, Transition, Levant, Contra that publish poetry and creative prose, and there are the literary pages in the papers and weekly magazines, besides serious critical journals like the Miscellany, the Literary Criterion, Indian Literature, the Literary Half-Yearly, the Indian Journal of English Studies, Triveni, Quest and several University Journals that publish reviews and critical articles. Book-reviewing, of course, is still very unsatisfactory books are sometimes re- viewed unconscionably late indeed months or even years after their publication), or reviewed perfunctorily or cavalierly or with acerbity or an excess of ill-temper but this applies to book-reviewing in the regional languages as well. On the other hand, some Indian publishers have shown enterprise of late, and even the paperback publishers seem to be thriving .
Indian is a not country", says Raja Rao, " India is an idea, a metaphysic." Explain with examples.
"India is not a country" says Raja Rao, India is an idea, a metaphysic", and in his novel he almost persuades us that he is right. By making Benares the focus of his action as it were, and by equating the Ganga with India's life-stream. Raja Rao does succeed is realizing 'national identity' in a sense not possible to a novelist whose approach to the problem is made on the wheels of a political or economic ideology. Of this novel it may be certainly said that it is neither revivalist nor imitative of Western models; it is autochthoncus, it is modern, and it does conjure up the many dimensions of India's national identity. Why then, despair of the future? For if we do not deny the need for roots, if we do not surrender wholly to the near views ignoring the remote vistas, and if we do not reject the Spirit in our excessive preoccupation with the weights and measures of the market place, then surely our sense of community with Indian and global humanity will suffer no obscuration, and our writers too will then be able to achieve complete fidelity to the Vision and Faculty Divine.
"India is not a country," writes Raja Rao, "it is a perspective." And this book explores the perspective which he calls India, its metaphysic, the philosophical underpinning that sets India apart, uniquely distinguishes its civilisation. Through fable and real-life encounters, descriptions of journeys and events, or in discussions with contemporaries, Raja Rao's quest is unceasing and single-focused: how this perspective alone can give meaning to man's daily action. He draws on a wide range of sources, including the Vedas, Upanishads, teachings of Sankara, the writings of Bhartrihari, and the poetry of Valéry and Mallarmé. There are essays that describe his meetings with Gandhi and Nehru, so too with Forster and Malraux, westerners who drew close to India. This book grew over several decades during which Raja Rao created his unique body of fiction. His readers are familiar with the philosophical quest which runs through his novels and stories. The Meaning of India paints and details the essential metaphysical backdrop of his acclaimed writing. Written in rhythmic, sparkling style which Raja Rao has made his own since Kanthapura, both simple and eclectic, expansive and precise, this book holds that India's civilisation and meaning can only be known by understanding the truth about one's own existence and that of the world.
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