india author m 1- a-nan - University of Wollongong

egression” and the “re-enactment ... of the terms of the mind ... to awaken the Indian to the
disgrace of his condition”. Wanting to write “intensely personal poems”, Daruwalla
nonetheless downplays art in favour of experience. He uses open form with variable lines and
employs laconic wit shocking in its frankness.
Das, Deb Kumar
BHATNAGAR, O.P. "The 'Candle that Discovered Darkness': The Poetry of Deb Kumar
Das" in DWIVEDI, A.N ed. Studies in Contemporary Indo-English Verse Bareilly: Prakash
Book Depot, 1984:62-71.
Das, Gurcharan
NAIK, M. K. "The Three Avatars of Henry Lawrence: A Study of Gurcharan Das's Larins
Sahib." The Literary Criterion 12, nos.2 & 3 (1976): 29-36.
Total artistic confusion vitiates the play, because Des allows his protagonist to enact
three incompatible roles alternately: Lawrence the enlightened empire-builder who admires
what is good in Indian life and character; Lawrence the "Lion of the Punjab" who
unconsciously identifies himself with Ranjit Singh, the last Sikh king; and Lawrence the little
cog in the wheels of the East India Company machine, who meekly accepts his transfer out of
the Punjab. The play has many minor virtues--the speech of the Indian characters has a
realistic regional flavour, and the minor characters are quite convincing.
VENUGOPAL, C.V. "Larins Sahib." In Perspectives on Indian Drama in English, edited by
Naik, M.K. & S. Mokashi-Punekar, 165-79. Madras: OUP, 1977.
Gurcharan Das's first published play may not be a perfect drama, but it has elements
which ensure stage success--a fine grip over dramatic technique, effective dialogue, exotic
historical settings, and plenty of action.
Das, J.P.
SRIVASTAVA, K.G. "J.P. Das: An Appraisal" in DWIVEDI, A.N ed. Studies in
Contemporary Indo-English Verse Bareilly: Prakash Book Depot, 1984:123-28.
Das, Kamala
AGRAWAL, ISHWAR NATH. “The Language and the Limits of the Self in the Poetry of
Kamala Das” in SINHA, KRISHNA NANDAN Indian Writing in English 1979:138-146. xref
Asks why we should respond to Das’s isolated self “shouting in a hall of mirrors”. Focuses on
“the man-woman relationship” (best dealt with in The Old Playhouse) but is unsympathetic to
“Women’s lib crusaders” and sees ‘Das’ and her lovers as “unable to rise above their ego”.
Whitmanesque technique lacks breadth of vision and fails to rise above prose. When they
“escape from the surface-self” (as in “Lines addressed to a Devadasi”), poems are more
successful.
BREWSTER, ANNE. "The Freedom to Decompose: The Poetry of Kamala Das" Journal of
Indian Writing in English 7.1&2 (1980):98-107. Reprinted in SINGH, KIRPAL ed. Through
Different Eyes: Foreign Responses to Indian Writing in English Calcutta: Writers Workshop,
1984: 137-150.
The poems of a woman defined in her personal relationships, sensitive to “inadequacy,
mistrust or lack of communication” and expressed through “the tactile world of sense
experience.” They become, too, a vehicle for exploring “the interaction of consciousness with