Indian English Novels: A Casteist History Poem by Bijay Kant Dubey

Indian English novels,
What to say about
If English itself is not our own,
Desi not, videshi,
Indian not, English?

English heroines not,
But Indian wives,
Shy mistresses,
Uncouth characters the fellows
Of our studies,
Blunt and dolt characters.

They do not undergo changes
As are dolt,
As are blunt,
Uncouth and illiterate people,
The rustic characters,
The bogus Indians,
Mahamurkhas.

And the translator-novelists
Of the Indian saga
Of hunger, poverty and unemployment,
A study in scarcity and human want,
Struggle and suffering of characters.

Indian villages of characters Ramayanan and Mahabharatan,
Of Kaushalya, Sumitra and Kaikeyi and Manthra,
Ram and Sita and Bharat,
Ram and Ravana,
Yudhishthira, Drona, Arjuna and Eklavya,
Draupadi and Duryodhana.

Mahatma Gandhi in the suit and boots
Emulating the Englishman,
Smiling with the White disciples in his ashrama,
Nehru with a red rose
Talking to Edwina,
Rajendra Prasad in khadi vest and dhoti a kissanbhai.