DEPICTION OF INDIAN MEN AND SOCIETY THROUGH INDIANNESS: INDIAN WRITING IN ENGLISH S.T.

MUTHU MARI ______________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT Indian writing in English is a significant product of Indian culture and ethos on one hand and the western language, English on the other hand. It is a fact that Indian poets write for both the Indian readers as well as the western readers. But, most of the Indian poets use Indianness in their work to present a colour picture of their idea and it is to be noted that it is not easy to define Indianness clearly. Indian poets in English deal with so many concepts like patriotism, nature, relationships, etc. One of them is their social concern by portraying their fellow native men and their society as they are. Nissim Ezekiels poem Night of the Scorpion describes the male chauvinistic attitude of the husband and the empathetic neighbourhood and the love and affection of the suffering mother. A.K.Ramanujans poem A River describes the selfish attitude of modern man and his insensitive attitude and inactiveness towards the sufferers. Both the poems unveil the nature of domineering, loving, superstitious and helpful country men and degenerated, passive, selfish modern men. Both the poems talk about the two extreme and different nature of Indian men which are like two opposite poles. In both the poems, the poets use Indian setting and imagery, Indian mens activities, doings and their customs to reveal their idea. This paper is aimed at analysing the Indian poets use of Indianness to describe Indian men and society.