Indian Culture and Political Identity in Nissim Ezekiel’s Poetry

Abstract

Nissim Ezekiel is a great Indian poet, born to the foreign descent. Though, he tries to be a citizen of India but the sense of alienation is deeply rooted in his personality. The dual act of his socio- cultural and political background made him dilemma in the poetic career, not in his life. He makes it clear in one of his interviews as ‘My background did not make an outsider but it is too easy to talk of being an outsider. I do not want to remain negative. I feel I have no connect and turn the situation to the positive ‘. In this sense Ezekeil was culturally distanced from India’s heritage in his poetry, he also tries to identify himself with Indian native culture rather than political identity. One more line supports us as ‘In other countries, I am a foreigner, in India I am an Indian. With this background, my paper focuses on Nissim Ezekiel’s talent in using the sense of Indianness, native culture rather political identity in his poetry.