“Folk is Mother, Classical
is Father”: Keki N. Daruwalla
An
interview with Keki N. Daruwalla
Debabhuson
Borah
A critically acclaimed Indian poet and novelist in
English, Keki N. Daruwalla (b. 1937) was born in pre-partition Lahore. He
joined the Indian Police Service in 1958 and was in the Cabinet Secretariat
until his retirement. Daruwalla has ten volumes of poetry, Under Orion
(1970), Apparition in April (1971), Crossing
of Rivers (1976), Winter Poems (1980) and The Keeper of Dead (1982) to name a few; two novels including For
Pepper and Christ (2009) and five short
story collections to his credit. His works have been translated into different
languages such as German and Spanish. He won the Sahitya Akademi award in 1984
for The Keeper of Dead. Daruwalla is a
recipient of the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1987. He was awarded the Padma
Shri in 2014. As a keen student of English literature, he had spent a year in
Oxford as a Queen Elizabeth House Fellow during 1980-81. In 2015, Daruwalla
returned the prestigious Sahitya Akademi award protesting the ‘ideological
collectives in the country that have used physical violence of the worst sort
against authors’. Daruwalla currently resides in Delhi.
The interview was conducted via email in 2018.
Image Courtesy: The Hindu (Daruwalla, Keki N. "Keki N Daruwalla." The Hindu, Literary Review, 10 Sep. 2016, https://www.thehindu.com/books/literary-review/The-grass-is-like-me/article14630741.ece.)
Sir, how would you assess the journey as a poet that
began with your first venture, Under Orion?
It is for critics and
readers to say how they treat my poetic voyage. My poetry has become more
cosmopolitan, is interwoven with other literatures from other languages, I have
of course also grown—you can't be the same person at 30 and at 60 or 70. My
later poetry—Night River, Map Maker and Fire Altar need to be read by people. They are the real me, not the
earlier works. I also lay great store by the new poems in my Collected Poems 1970-2005.That will
answer the questions. Also, Naishapur and
Babylon, my latest collected poems from 2005 to 2017.
How did your job in the police service contribute to your
creations? Is the violence in your poetry a result of your experience as a police
officer?
I remained in the
police for 11 years only. Am 80 now. Why are you critics focused on 1/10th
of my life? It influenced my first two books. But both poetry and fiction have
grown wider. I consider myself a fiction writer today, a novelist. Poetry
is secondary. Hardly write it anymore.
You once said that poetry for you is first personal, exploratory
and therapeutic. What about its social dimension?
Too wide a question. I
stick to what I said—poetry is exploratory, a way of discovering your inner
impulses—which come out even as you write. I have become more personal in my
poetry—have started talking of things as they affect my personal life and dream
world.
You returned the Sahitya Academy Award. Is the situation
now better? Do you really think that Indian democracy and secularism are in a crisis?
Situation is much worse. After
Kalburgi’s murder, we returned our awards. Now Gauri Lankesh was killed by the
same pistol and the same sanstha.
Rationalist Hindus are being killed. Gauri Lankesh wrote against the BJP. So
she was killed. I don’t say the BJP had any hand in it. It is just how fanatics
of the right wing have started thinking and behaving. “Now the country is ours,”
they think and they feel they can get away with anything. Secularism and
democracy are being upheld only by the courts, good sections of the media and
some writers. [A] girl of the Bakarwals was killed in J&K [sic]. Things are slightly better with Kambara as
President. His predecessor was useless, a pawn of the rightist elements. We
wrote a stiff letter to the Academy when Damodar Mauzo, the Konkani poet from
Goa, a soft spoken gentleman was threatened, and the Goa police on their own
gave him protection. We wrote a very stiff letter. Mr. Chandrasekhara Kambara
replied very positively. There is an atmosphere of hate and violent victimization
in the country. Gauri Lankesh is an example.
What inspires you to write? Your favourite poets and
writers?
What inspires me to write? Ideas, as
they come. These days I am writing more fiction, have almost left poetry unless
something like the murder of Gauri Lankesh or that young girl of the Bakarwals
was killed in J & K , and the killers were supported by two state ministers
of the BJP.
My favourite poets and writers these
days are Ranjit Hoskote, Arundhathi Subramaniam, Imtiaz Dharker, Jeet Thayil. I
find Indian novelists fairly poor. Arundhati Roy came out with a good first
novel, but did not like her succeeding novels. Others—I don’t wish to name
them—are pretty disappointing.
What is 'tradition' for you? Why did you start writing in
English?
My tradition is English literature and
poetry from the great Bard and the Romantics down to the 20th century.
I only know English well enough. But I speak good Hindustani, Punjabi and
Gujarati.
From your contemporary fellow poets like Mahapatra,
Ramanujan and others, whose poetry strikes you the most? Any poet in the
Diaspora?
Ramanujan, Dom Moraes, Nissim Ezekiel are
favourites. Also Adil, Eunice, Saleem Peeradina and some poems of Kamala Das.
In the Disapora—Seshadri, Ravi Shankar.
English has become unavoidable in India. Many young
writers now prefer to write in English for the glamour attached to it. Don't
you think that the hegemonic spread of the English language has been commencing
a threat to the indigenous languages? What will be your suggestion to make the
regional literature potent?
English, especially now with the
computer, and the world becoming a global village, is getting the kind of
supremacy it did not have earlier. Don’t grudge it. Don’t whine. No suggestions
for making regional literature powerful. Yes, don’t imitate what is happening
in European languages. You may borrow a current, but nothing more. Regional
literature is based on the language, and its traditions. And these need to be
followed, even the folk traditions. Folk is mother, classical is father.
Nissim Ezekiel remarked on your poetry that such a
bitter, scornful and satiric tone has never been heard before in Indian English
poetry!
I have left scorn and bitterness behind.
But society in India is in such a mess, communalism is so rife, violence is so
widespread that satire comes out naturally. I am speaking as a fiction writer[,]
that I am.
Do you read any Assamese author?
Sorry, I do not read any fiction or poetry
in other Indian languages. Have no time. I did a 10 hour a day job for 40
years. Where was the time to delve into other languages?
You said to me over the phone that you were quite busy with
your new book. Congratulations in advance and thanks so much for sparing your
valuable time! The last curiosity—'Gulzaman's Son' is one of my favourite
poems, the poetic persona is perhaps not you!?
No, Gulzaman is not me. And thank you!
With thanks to Debabhuson Borah, Assistant
Professor, Department of English, Majuli College.