between Calcutta and Amritsar 2. When the British relinquished control of India.
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RUSHDIE: [ENGLISH IS AN INDIAN LITERARY LANGUAGE] / 254 1
One of the points I want to make is that what I've said indicates, I hope, that Indian society and Indian literature have a complex and developing relationship with the English language. * * *
English literature has its Indian branch. By this I mean the literature of the English language. This literature is also Indian literature. There is no incompatibility here. If history creates complexities, let us not try to simplify them.
So: English is an Indian literary language, and by now, thanks to writers like Tagore, Desani, Chaudhuri, Mulk Baj Anand, Baja Rao, Anita Desai3 and others, it has quite a pedigree. * * *
$ a
In my own case, I have constantly been asked whether I am British, or Indian. The formulation 'Indian-born British writer' has been invented to explain me. But, as I said last night, my new book deals with Pakistan. So what now? 'British-resident Indo-Pakistani writer'? You see the folly of trying to contain writers inside passports.
One of the most absurd aspects of this quest for national authenticity is that?as far as India is concerned, anyway?it is completely fallacious to suppose that there is such a thing as a pure, unalloyed tradition from which to draw. The only people who seriously believe this are religious extremists. The rest of us understand that the very essence of Indian culture is that we possess a mixed tradition, a melange of elements as disparate as ancient Mughal4 and contemporary Coca-Cola American. To say nothing of Muslim, Buddhist, Jain,5 Christian, Jewish, British, French, Portuguese, Marxist, Maoist, Trotskyism Vietnamese, capitalist, and of course Hindu elements. Eclecticism, the ability to take from the world what seems fitting and to leave the rest, has always been a hallmark of the Indian tradition, and today it is at the centre of the best work being done both in the visual arts and in literature. * * *
* *
* 4 * As far as Eng. Lit. itself is concerned, I think that if all English literatures could be studied together, a shape would emerge which would truly reflect the new shape of the language in the world, and we could see that Eng. Lit. has never been in better shape, because the world language now also possesses a world literature, which is proliferating in every conceivable direction. The English language ceased to be the sole possession of the English some time ago. * * *
3. Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), Bengali Indian fiction and nonfiction writers. poet; G. V. Desani (1909- 2000), Nirad C. Chau-4. Dvnasty of Muslim emperors who reigned in dhuri (1897-1999), Mulk Raj Anand (1905- India, 1526-1858. 2004), Raja Rao (b. 1909), Anita Desai (b. 1937): 5. Jainism is one of India's oldest religions.
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2542
JOHN AGARD
b. 1949 John Agard was born and raised in British Guiana (now Guyana) and attended a Roman Catholic high school there, before immigrating to England in 1977. Along with his own collections of poetry, steeped in Caribbean wordplay, rhythms, and idioms that are vivified especially in oral performance, he has also published verse collections, plays, and stories for children. In 'Listen Mr Oxford don' he represents his use of West Indian Creole as political and poetic rebellion, while playfully acknowledging, for all his defiance, the complexity of his relation to the Queen's English.
Listen Mr Oxford don
Me not no Oxford don? tutor me a simple immigrant from Clapham Common 1 I didn't graduate
5 I immigrate
But listen Mr Oxford don I'm a man on de run and a man on de run is a dangerous one
io I ent? have no gun don't I ent have no knife but mugging de Queen's English2 is the story of my life
I dont need no axe
15 to split/ up yu syntax I dont need no hammer to mash/ up yu grammar
I warning you Mr Oxford don I'm a wanted man 20 and a wanted man is a dangerous one
De m accuse me of assault on de Oxford dictionary/ imagine a concise peaceful man like me/
25 de m want me serve time for inciting rhyme to riot but I tekking it quiet down here in Clapham Common
1. In Brixton, a part of London settled by Afro-2. English regarded as under the queen's guardi- Caribbean immigrants. anship; hence correct.
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DORI S LESSIN G / 254 3 30I'm not a violent man Mr Oxford don I only armed wit mih human breath but human breath is a dangerous weapon 35So mek dem send one big word after me I ent? serving no jail sentence I slashing suffix in self-defence I bashing future wit present tense and if necessary am not I making de Queen's English accessory/to my offence 1985
DORIS LESSING
b. 1919 Born in Persia (now Iran) to British parents, Doris Lessing (nee Tayler) lived in southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) from 1924 to 1949, before settling in England. Her five-novel sequence with the general title Children of Violence (beginning with Martha Quest, 1952) combines psychological autobiography with powerful explorations of the relationship between blacks and whites in southern Africa. Her combination of psychological introspection, political analysis, social documentary, and feminism gives a characteristic tone to her novels and short stories. These elements are effectively combined in her novel The Golden Notebook (1962), which explores with unexhibitionist frankness the sexual problems of an independent woman while at the same time probing the political conscience of an ex-communist and the needs and dilemmas of a creative writer. In the early 1970s,
