Cite this Interview
MLA:
Hasan, Anjum. “Questions on the ‘State’ of the ‘Art.’” Indian Writing In English Online, 20 Feb 2023, indianwritinginenglish.uohyd.ac.in/anjum-hasan/ .
Chicago:
Hasan, Anjum. “Questions of the ‘State’ of the ‘Art.’” Indian Writing In English Online. Febbruary 20, 2023. indianwritinginenglish.uohyd.ac.in/anjum-hasan/.
Q. To quote poet and publisher P. Lal from his questionnaire sent in the 1960s to an earlier generation of Indian English poets: “What are the circumstances that led to your using the English language for the purpose of writing poetry?” And of course, is such a question relevant to today’s poets, several decades after Lal’s query?
Anjum Hasan: English is a given and to go on doubting it is to obscure the more important question of how to judge what is being written in the language. So many decades of poetry in English later we still don’t have enough conversations about form, matter, style and value. Even the question about language is not really a deep question. I think it ought to be not why we write in English but how we write in English in a multi-lingual reality, often with more than one language in our heads and certainly in our environments.
Q. In addition to poets from the Anglo-American canon, has your poetry been influenced by Indian English poets of an earlier generation (whether the 19th century pioneers like Derozio and Toru Dutt, or early 20th century poets like Tagore and Sarojini Naidu, or those from the post-1947 generation like Nissim Ezekiel, Kamala Das, and A.K. Ramanujan)? Do you consider your poetry a part of this two-hundred-year-old tradition?
A.H: Yes of course. And also later poets such as Sujata Bhatt, Mamta Kalia, Tabish Khair, Robin Ngangom and so on.
Q. What are your views on a readership/audience for Indian poetry in English? Does such a thing exist outside English classrooms and literary circles? How much of a consideration is the readership in your poetic process?
A.H: The readership is small but it’s there. My only collection of poems, Street on the Hill, published by the Sahitya Akademi in 2006, is still in print. A few copies sell every year.
Q. Do you read, write, or translate poetry in a language other than English? If yes, how does it influence your poetry in English?
A.H: I read a little poetry in Hindi and Urdu but most of my reading is in English. I think I have stayed with English for too long, and am just starting now to return as it were to reading more in my mother tongues.
Q. Have you ever taught poetry in a class, at a workshop, or in an informal setting? If yes, which aspects of poetry do you think can be taught?
A.H: I do teach poetry on occasion. Most of the “teaching” involves reading good – or what I consider good – poems together as I find that many young or even older people interested in writing have read very little. But what surprises me every time is the receptivity to poetic language once one starts to unpack it.
Q. What are your views on the poetry that appears today on such popular social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram?
A.H: I don’t read them often but there seems to be a difference between using these platforms to share published work and being encouraged by the ease of sharing to toss off poems for instant consumption and easy forgetting.
