Sunday, April 20, 2008

'If' and the process of writing

Shashi Tharoor wrote a scathing article on Rudyard Kipling's poem ‘If’ in last week’s Sunday Magazine edition of ‘The Hindu’. As he himself confesses, this is not the first time he has had “a few unkind things” to say on Rudyard Kipling.

Tharoor candidly acknowledges the poem as a favourite in his younger days. “…..he certainly had a way with words, and the words in this poem were not only inspirational, they were rhythmically recitable — and they rhymed pretty well too.”

Tharoor further goes on to introduce the historical context when the poem was written by Kipling. And concludes “So what many see as an inspirational poem full of stirring aphorisms for young people to live by is in fact little more than an apologia for an imperialist misdeed.” “It is time to retire this poem from our curriculums. It is time to relegate Kipling to the darkest recesses of our history, where he and his ilk belong.”

But it makes me wonder whether such a step is warranted in the first place…..

Yes, despite having won the Nobel Prize for Literature way back in early 1900s, Kipling is now widely regarded as an imperialist and racist. The ‘white man’s burden’ will haunt him forever, I suppose! No doubts about that. But how about appreciating literature for literature’s sake?

The poem by itself does not talk about the historical context to an average reader and is quite an inspiring read by itself. It is merely a beautifully written poem consisting of words intricately woven together, taking a moral high ground. I suppose it is for this very reason it still finds a place in English textbooks and students recite it in poetry competitions. Lines of the poem are quoted to this day especially the (evergreen!) famous lines put up at the entrance of the Centre Court at Wimbledon :
“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;”

Each writer writes on various topics of his/her interests – on a general as well as at a specific level. There is almost always a background which spurs the creative instincts of a writer and in my view, this holds true for most works of art- perhaps it can be extended to the process of creativity? Would n’t there be a tipping point when one starts doing something ? Or an incident which provides the initial spark (and/or general context) to write about a particular feeling in relation to that incident? Is n’t that how the process of writing flows ? And is n't this process of putting words on a piece of paper – be it a poem, novel, short story, play or any other form – quite internal to the writer who is, of course guided by his/her ideologies, beliefs, socio-economic and cultural backgrounds, among others, which then serves as a background for that piece of writing ?

PS : The poem “If” happens to be one of my favourite poems (I had posted it on this blog as well) and I feel a surge of inspiration flowing through my veins everytime I read it. I cannot however deny that I did not know the historical context (vaguely) or about Kipling’s imperialist leanings. Not given to any of the views attributed to Kipling, I merely choose to separate the historical context from stopping my enjoyment of what I feel is a good piece of literature.

PPS : In a modern day context, I honestly wonder if if I would react in a similar way to a beautiful piece of writing by say –for example - Osama Bin Laden or Prabhakaran, Bal Thackeray or even George Bush. And therein ends the similarity!

1 comment:

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