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In a recent paper, Jahan Ramazani makes a valid point - and a point made less often in mainstream critical circles in the USA and the UK than in those of postcolonial criticism - about the dominance of 'single-nation genealogies' in studies of modern and contemporary poetry in English (Ramazani, 2006, p. 332). Strangely, the case of 'Indian English poetry' can be seen differently: Indian English poetry has been far too readily and uncritically inserted into the moulds of 'transnationalism'. Perhaps this was inevitable, given its 'name'. After all, while critics talk (mostly) of English, American, Irish, Scottish, Canadian or, even, Jamaican poetry, we talk of 'Indian English' (or, earlier on, 'Anglo-Indian' and 'Indo-Anglian') poetry. Its very 'name' inserts Indian English poetry into 'transnational' networks, and while this insertion is correct and necessary up to a point, it can also be misleading and unfair to the distinctive character of Indian poetry in English if taken too far.

But this insertion starts quite early on. After all, as V. K. Gokak famously remarked, 'Indo-Anglian poetry was born under a Romantic star' (Gokak, p. 19). At least historically, when the first significant Indian English poet (Derozio) started writing, major British Romantics such as Byron and Wordsworth were still alive. The Romantic star obviously twinkled in the West, and cast its light on Indian English poetry. But it did not twinkle there in the same way as in the West. Far ...