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www.the-criterion.com The Criterion: An International Journal in English ISSN 0976-8165

Vol.III Issue III 1 September 2012

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Cultural Complexity in Nissim Ezekiel’s Works

John Wesly Associate Professor of English,

Dept of Science and Humanities, Loyola Institute of Technology and Management,

Dhulipalla, Satenapalli, Guntur Distt,(AP) India.

& N. D. R. Chandra

Professor, Dept of English, Nagaland University Kohima Campu,

Nagaland, India.

I

Nissim Ezekiel avails himself the composite culture of India to which he belongs, he considers himself to be an Indian and therefore his roots are deeply planted in the country of his birth. Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from ‘colere,’ meaning "to cultivate") generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance. Cultures can be understood as systems of symbols and meanings that even their creators contest that lack fixed boundaries, that are constantly in flux, and that interact and compete with one another. Cultures are externally affected via contact between societies, which may also produce -- or inhibit -- social shifts and changes in cultural practices. War or competition over resources may impact technological development or social dynamics. Additionally, cultural ideas may transfer from one society to another, through diffusion or acculturation. In diffusion, the form of something (though not necessarily its meaning) moves from one culture to another. For example; hamburgers, mundane in the United States, seemed exotic when introduced into China. "Stimulus diffusion" (the sharing of ideas) refers to an element of one culture leading to an invention or propagation in another. "Direct Borrowing" on the other hand tends to refer to technological or tangible diffusion from one culture to another. Diffusion of innovations theory presents a research-based model of why and when individuals and cultures adopt new ideas, practices, and products. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture)

Indian culture treats guests as Gods and serves them and takes care of them as if they are a part and parcel of the family itself. Even though we don’t have anything to eat, the guests are never left hungry and are always looked after by the members of the family. Elders and the respect for elders is a major component in Indian culture. Elders are the driving force for any family and hence the love and respect for elders comes from within and is not artificial. An individual takes blessings from his elders by touching their feet. Elders drill and pass on the Indian culture within us as we grow. (http://www.indianchild.com/culture%20_1.htm)

Also culture refers to a state of intellectual development or manners. The social and political forces that influence the growth of a human being defined as culture. Indian culture is rich and diverse and as a result unique in its very own way. Its manners, the way of communicating with one another, etc. are one of the important components of Indian culture. Even though we have accepted modern means of living, improved our lifestyles, our values and beliefs still remain unchanged. A person can change his way of clothing, way of eating



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture

http://www.indianchild.com/culture%20_1.htm

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and living but the rich values in a person always remains unchanged because they are deeply rooted within his heart, mind, body and soul which we receive from our culture. People from centuries have been influenced by culture. The Muslim rulers came to India and brought with them their customs, food, clothing, religion and traditions. Even the Bene-Israel people who landed in Kerala brought with them their customs and traditions and influenced the people of India at that part of the country. Ezekiel is well acquainted with the pluralist culture of India and the problems arising out of it. "The regional cultures have hardly any interest in one another and are more involved in their own identity questions than in those of an all-India culture." (Ezekiel 1992: 75)

Ezekiel notices that there are three cultures like high, low and middle class cultures and in all them there is a common core which he terms as "general culture." This culture has been disastrously affected by many forces coming in the form of region, state, tribe, caste, community and sect. To save this from further decay it is necessary to make a balance between such forces which result in unequal distribution of economy. Ezekiel stresses the need to develop the true modern spirit which modifies ideas, institution, and practices according to the needs of the changing times and challenges. Ezekiel’s background made him a natural outsider but it was also a fact that in other countries he was a foreigner but in India he was an Indian.

II

Ezekiel’s poetry consists of culture as a major factor that is responsible his individual’s isolation and loss of identity. Such things such as race, habitat, dress, food, language and sensibility can hopelessly estrange people from one another. Whites are generally regarded as superior to blacks, browns and yellows, so in Nalini the fact that a white (an American) has told Nalini that he liked her paintings is enough for her (and Raj and Bharat) to believe they are worth an exhibition. What the credentials of this American is a question that is never asked. Natural habitat has much the same effect. Bharat's speech to Raj in the first act of Nalini easi1y explains why he says in act II: "I'm unreal. I am nobody. I am nothing ... I'm an Indian, I'm not an Englishman." The relevant speech in the first act is as follows:

Bharat: We are the busy, active men of the city. We are all in good jobs. Our houses are well furnished. We read good books-foreign books of course. We are not slaves of caste. We are not superstitious. We don't spit (He imitates a loud, clearing of the throat, and spits). We don't make loud, gurgling sounds when we drink our tea or soup. (He imitates the action, exaggerating). Our marriages are not arranged for us. We don't dream about dowries. We are not communalistic, provincial or parochial. I could go on like that for an hour. It is good that we are not what we are not But what are we? Liberal, modem, advanced, progressive, Indians? Are we Indians? And if we are not Indians, what are we? (1969: 16)

It is the city as a cultural unit distinct from the village that is here responsible for Bharat’s predicament. In that sense a person may belong to the city and yet be a villager in his attitudes. But if lifestyles in the city and the village are in such marked contrast to each other as to make upper-class urban men feel they are un-Indian. It is not surprising that miss Ganguli in The Sleepwalkers has to write plays (much to the amusement of Mr. and Mrs. Morris) not for Indian audiences as a whole, but for village folk solely. Moreover, the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Morros are amused at this proves in itself that people from relatively



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homogenous culture must never comprehend lands like India, where there is unity in diversity. He knows that “culture doesn't consist only of literature and philosophy and art, and it is certainly not required by adhering to the beliefs of the past, and conforming to its institutional demands. Its living presence is indicated in behavior, by rich and poor alike, and there are universal human standards by which it may be judged." (1992: 101) He has devoted his whole life to the development of this general culture of tolerance and moderation.

When Nissim Ezekiel stayed with Alkazi, Raj Rao says that “He did not experience much of a culture shock, as he had read enough about England throughout his six years in college.” ( 2000:70) But one thing is sure that Ezekiel went through a ‘climate shock’ because it was in the season of November that he arrived and winter was setting in, with its spine chilling icy cold winds. With the colonization of British in India culture came to India. People imitated their lifestyle, dress, customs, traditions, religions attitudes and the way of life. The important aspect is the English language, which has become part and parcel of our culture and masses. Ezekiel exposes the structure patterns, grammatical mistakes and the flaws of some people in his poems. The poem “Soap” illustrates the language which Ezekiel used even more effectively.This type of language can be heard particularly when we travel across the country side:

That shopman he’s giving me soap

but I am finding it defective version.

so I m saying very politely----

though in Hindi I am saying it…….

that shop man is saying

and very rudely he is saying it,

What is wrong with soap? (Ezekiel 2005: 269)

The use of superfluous words and dropping of articles, prepositions and connectives are some of the other characteristics used by Ezekiel in the following poem:

Do not write a letter

without order refreshment

Do not comb

Hair is spoiling floor

Do not make mischiefs in cabin

Our waiter is reporting

Come again

All are welcome whatever caste

If not satisfied tell us



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Otherwise tell others

God is great. (2005: 240)

Ezekiel exposes the language of the common man in a funny way. People like to speak English and like to be heard of. They do not mind; if they are speaking the right language without grammatical errors. Here we see the influence of the western culture on the people. The selection and the use of words, which are the main building blocks of poetry is a crucial importance to the poet. In other words; we see the poet forcing himself using colloquial style of language in few of his poems. Very few Indian poets in English have shown the ability to form, organize their experience into words as good as Ezekiel. In one of his poems “On Meeting a Pendant,” he expresses his care for proper words:

Words, looks, gestures, everything betrays

The unquiet mind, the emptiness within…

But spare me words as cold as print, insidious

Words, dressed in evening clothes for drawing rooms. (2005: 8)

His “Very Indian Poems” have aimed at depicting characteristic Indian attitudes. There is not much irony used to make fun of or mock at, but it just enlightens us of an essential stratum of our society. Guha says: “This is the ill-educated or the half-educated Indian who flaunts his little learning in English unabashedly and dangerously. Moreover, the need to communicate in English, however badly is inherent in the Indian Psyche.” (1986: 19) The poem describes the use of Indian English in a humorous way it even speaks of ‘peace’ and ‘non-violence’ the speaker is preoccupied with his concerns for the non-violence as vital progressive tense. Ezekiel's experimental poem, "A Very Indian Poem in Indian English,” clearly visualizes the reality of situation in Indian society. It enacts a real situation for the use of Babu Angrezi or what we roughly call it today ‘Indian English.’ Dwivedi says: “The poem comes to concentrate on the gross mistakes made frequently by Indians in the application of the present continuous tense in place of the simple present, their omission of articles, and their wrong use of adjectives and adverbs.” (2004: 31) Explicitly, Ezekiel uses English here as mostly Indians do, not as the British colonizers did. In the opening stanza of the poem “A Very Indian Poem in Indian English,” Ezekiel says:

I am standing for peace and non-violence.

Why world is fighting, fighting,

Why all people of world

Are not following Mahatma Gandhi,

I am simply not understanding

Ancient Indian wisdom is 100% correct.

I should say even 200% correct.

But Modern generation is neglecting—



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Too much going for fashion and foreign thing. ( 2005: 237)

Apart from the grammatical mistakes made by them, Indians are prone to exaggeration in speech (as '100% correct' is raised to '200%). The politician here wants to share his beliefs and habits to the younger generation. The comparison of “ancient wisdom” to the “modern generation” and increasing passion among our Indian youngsters in acquiring foreign fashion is written in the last line of the above poem.

Some of the best poems of Ezekiel have undeniable pictorial quality. These are the beautiful definitions of visual arts. The poet has the capacity to turn the abstract into concrete in no time the poem “In India” gives us a best example where he presents the image of the city in the poem entitled “In India:”

Hawkers, pavement sleepers,

Hutment dwellers, slums,

Dead souls of men and gods,

Burnt-out mothers, frightened

Virgins, wasted child

And tortured animal,

All in noisy silence

suffering the place and time,

I ride my elephant of thought,

A Cezanne slung around my neck.” (2005: 131)

This poem displays a rather wretched picture of India, and its multi-culture facet where a country populated by beggars, hawkers, pavement-sleepers and others. For Ezekiel impressions are of first importance as they were to ‘Cezanne’ here Ezekiel is very particular about impressions because he worked from some time as an art critic.

Another significant aspect of Ezekiel’s art is his colour symbols. The ‘elephants’ painted by “Jamini Roy” are said to be ‘purple’ and cats are given ‘almond eyes’ and ‘the birds are blue aristocrats.’ Also the “The Paradise Fly Catcher” has a ‘mask of black, with tints of green.’ One bird of the same species was shot down and “it lay with red and red upon its white, /uncommon bird no longer in the mud.’ (2005:139-140) Raizada points out that: “Ezekiel is one of the few modern Indian English poets who have made rich use of imagery and symbolism in their poems.” (1992: 179) Moreover, Ezekiel is capable of changing words into powerful metaphors, image and symbols as the present situation demands. Ezekiel’s image is characterized by originality, freshness and boldness. He used different devices to weave evocative and picturesque images. One of the most common of these devices is to introduce a suggestive epithet and pair it with a mental attitude or an objective or experience. There are such numerous images in his poems as is evidenced by picturesque phrases like “Virginal Veracity” (A Time To Change), “primal quiescence,” (A time to change), “insidious words” (on meeting a pendant), “jazzy cheerfulness” (something to pursue), “wine-dark sea” (a time to change), in the collection of verses entitled A Time To Change; “paralyzing flow” (the



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stone), “Bleeding streets” (Song), “dream-window” (Boss), “the threshing thighs,” “the singing breasts” (Two Nights of Love), “tidal apprehensions,” “damning wisdom” and “silence/a whisper of eternity” (speech and silence), “adult anger” (The child), “tip-toe speeding past” and “virgin dawns” (songs for spring), “darling day” (day), “sky sobbing” (Episode), “half-boiled critic” (second theme and variations), “drum-emotion” (the recluse), “laughing love” (Question) in Sixty Poems; “soothing lie” (wisdom), “stiff sartorial fence” (in the queue) in The Third; “kindred clamour” (Urban), “sweet disaster” (Commitment) in The Unfinished Man; “wooden wives” (In India) and “sweet sex” and “bird-soft” (Beachstone) in The Exact Name.

Sometimes Ezekiel creates vivid images by the use of suggestive words in the proper context and associations. Words like “explodes” in the lines “… the modest bearing/of a shy girl explodes in furious dreams” (sometimes to pursue, A Time to Change), “roost” in the line, “Returning home to roost at last?” (“Nothingness”), “ossify” in “….facts/which ossify the spirit’s bones” (“speech and silence”), “ground” and “bogged”, “both life and art/are ground and bogged incrudity” (Prayer—1), “trapped” in “closer to the great within/ where love is trapped” (A song, a violin,” Sixty Poems), “clumsy” and “gropings” in “But clumsy to the normal sight/are gropings of the inner light” (two adolescents), “petrified”, “the rational pursuit petrified/beneath intemperate sky” (Division, The Third) “tracked” and “moves/ in circles tracked within his head” (Urban,” The Unfinished Man) and “sears” and “the Indian landscape sears my eyes (Background Casually, Hymns In Darkness), not only acquires figurative significance but also unfolds the situation vividly and conveys the idea most effectively.

The poet weaves vivid and picturesque images by the use of apt images and metaphors which are mixed with skill in the use of Language. Each poem is distinctive in image and derives the images from different sources. The images of coldness, rottenness, dimness, sickness, clamour and burning passions, are used to present the picture of city from different angles. According to K.D. Verma, the Nature images are the archetypal symbols: “They project a pastoral vision of a fully refulgent and harmonious life, a pattern in which man enters into sacred communion with his cosmos, including objects of nature, as a metaphorical condition of his integrated humanity and of his desire to foster a community of being.” (1976: 231) Ezekiel’s structural vision is visible in the below poem:

Summer blossoms on a tree

Red and red against the green

Which fixed the mood of might-have-been. (2005: 42)

In fact ‘red’ and ‘green’ are the contrasting colours which are binary opposition through which the poet established ‘reconciliation of opposites’ in the poem. Further, he moves towards the world of nature time and again to draw fresh and vital images of hills, river, wind, skies, moon, and rain in his poetry.

In the poem “Song to be Shouted Out” we come across Ezekiel depicting the family problems in India. Where, the wife yells at the husband on his coming home in the evening. The husband describes this situation:

I come home in the evening



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And my wife shouts at me:

Did you bank that cheque?

Did you buy those tickets?

Did you ask if cheese is in stock or not?

What do you do all day? (2005:278)

And the husband replies back like this:

Shout at me, woman!

Pull me up for this and that

You’ re right and I’m wrong.

This is not an excuse,

It’s only a song.

It’s good for my soul

To be shouted at.

Shout at me, woman!

What else are wives for? (2005: 278)

Such type of situations is recorded by Ezekiel only to make his poetry effective and readable. This poem gives a clear understanding that wives of this kind exists in India. The questions are lightheartedly and ingeniously answered: “You‘re right and I am wrong./this is not an excuse,/its only a song.” The concluding line “what else are wives for?” are not only funny but also profoundly sad. Beneath the façade of humour lies the pathos of compassion. In the Poem “At the Party” a person is addicted in attending parties, largely because they are excellent hunting grounds for women. Ezekiel brings about the western culture showcased in these parties, where drinks, food and other anti-social; elements happen easily at the parties. The poem “At the Party:”

He curbed his abstract insights with a will

His proper answers softer than the drinks,

And scrutinized the women for the kill,

But as the evening moves, his spirit sinks.

Parties have a perilous music, he

Heard it later echoing in his head,

Resolved to go again, as thought to sea,

And gaily waste his breath—or so he said. (2005: 98)



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In the poem “Portrait” we see this “large sprawling town” has its typical vulgarities, scenes like these “jazzy picnics/ cooking on a smoky stove,” common picture in the urban climate. The bootleggers outlaws, outcasts “beggars come from all parts of the city, the poet call these things as “vulgarities.” Cities turn out to be the breeding grounds for crime and anti-social activity.

Ezekiel uses rich treatment of language to depict his message in some of his plays. There is a passionate and consciousness of beauty which emerges from the female form, and backs up the episteme on which different segments of Ezekiel’s drama rest. Nalini, as she appears in the second act of the play which shares her name, is slender, sweet, tall, fair, the wearer of a short, low-cut backless Choli and the owner of a figure of some splendour, among other things. Bharat undresses her with great tenderness and skill. He first flicks her Palav off, and then unbuttons her Choli, slides it down her arms, after that, unwinds her sari and removes her petticoat and finally unhooks and takes off her slight bra. The grandeur of her naked body inspires Bharat to exclaim, “Your body is more beautiful than the greatest art in the world” (1969: 29). The play deals as some of the Ezekiel poems do, with the deception that is so intrinsically part of the institution of marriage, the pain, the anger and the hurt that martial relationships engender, the dangers of being damned in that domestic game and, above all, the contrast between marital and extramarital relationships.

Ezekiel is fond of claiming that his poetry consists of exciting natural life, he observes natural life so much. The flora and fauna that walk into his poetry are those, which cannot be noticed even by the most casual observer. Cashew-nut trees, mangoes, grass, squirrels, cats, worms, moths, serpents, toads, scorpions, lizards with an occasional flycatcher thrown in make up much of the natural life in it. In the poem “The Visitor,” the poet hears a crow craw three times and believes with the “folk belief,” expects that an unusual visitor would appear, perhaps “An angel in disguise.” When a visitor actually does show up, his purpose is only to kill a little time. Down through the ages in Indian culture, people follow this superstition; if a crow caws there is going to be a visitor. What we find here is that life is fully accepted on its mundane level. Here Karnani puts in this way: ““The Visitor” shows Ezekiel’s fine gift as a verbal portraitist…we expect so much, but what turn out are the most casual and the ordinary. What a difference between the expectation and the actuality!.” (1974: 80) The situation has been nicely depicted in his poem “The Visitor:”

Three times the crow has cawed

At the window, baleful eyes fixed

On mine, wings slightly raised

In sinister poise, body tense

And neck craned like a nagging woman’s,

Filling the room with voice and presence. ( 2005:137-138)

In the poem “Ten poems In Greek Anthology Mode,” Ezekiel gives the description of Red-tapism. It is best defined and the satire on officialdom demonstrates how persons are involved in the net. It forgets to distinguish between their office duties and their personal lives. They conduct themselves mechanically so much, so that even a solemn institution like marriage gets the typical treatment in their hands. The poem “The Railway Clerk” inscribes reality:



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When the female railway clerk

Received an offer of marriage

From her neighbour the customs clerk,

She told him to apply in triplicate,

And he did. ( 2005: 275)

The portrait of a typical clerk is funny, but is also touching because of the clerk’s helplessness. The clerk talks of “bribe” where in India it is a common sight, and he feels bad that no one is offering him. He is also surrounded by work culture, works hard and “never neglecting my responsibility,” but “discharging it properly” for this he is not getting appreciation from his Boss. His office condition is horrible, adding to this his “children are neglecting studies”. The clerk pours out his woes and is completely surrounded by tensions and problems. In the words of K.V. Surendran: “His poems are known for that tension between the urban and the primal very often with a reconciliation of the opposites” (2000: 263) as Ezekiel asserts:

My job is such, no one is giving bribe,

While other clerks are in fortunate position,

And no promotion even because I am not graduate. (2005:184-185)

The poem “Night of the Scorpion,” is extremely significant in the study of the Indian content in Ezekiel’s poetry, where the poet’s mother is stung by a scorpion. This is a typical family situation where the world of superstition and the world of science collide at loggerheads. Commenting on this poem Wiseman opines as: “Night of the Scorpion” remains an interesting and valid poem, containing a fascinating tension between personal crises and mocking social observation, but the discrepancies of form confuse the tone, which swings between the natural and colloquial reporting of experience and more removed literary formality.” (1980:142) The poem evokes superstitious practices and enacts an impressive ritual in which Indian cultural scene is brought out:

I remember the night my mother

Was stung by a scorpion. Ten hours

Of steady rain had driven him

To crawl beneath a sack of rice.

Parting with his poison—flash

Of diabolic tail in the dark room—

He risked the rain again. (Ezekiel 2005:130)

The news spreads like wildfire, and the villagers mostly “peasants” come as group of superstitious people who believe that the sins of the previous birth will be burnt away as a result of the effect of the poison. They also chant “the name of God a hundred times” this shows the superstitious condition of the typical Indian village life. Raghu opines that: “The



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poem achieves a striking authenticity by bringing together, for the first time, the six elements that dominate the mimesis, in Indian poetry in English, of the Indian reality: poverty, superstition, violence, suffering, duplicity and communal effort.” (2002:49) The first part of the poem is drenched with superstition, which represents this rural Indian culture, and a little bit of violence that of the scorpion bite. The speaker’s father, though “a skeptic” and “rationalist,” tries every curse and blessing; so much so that one is forced to question the genuineness of his skepticism and rationalism.

In the poem “Island” he sadly reflects on what has become of his native city, which is Bombay. He reflects harshly on the city’s harshness, but evokes sympathy for himself and to the city. He reminds us to the fact that he is no more an alien but belongs to the city Bombay. He finds his roots where he is, even half an outsider from Indian cultural scene owing to his Jewish background and upbringing and lack of touch from Hindu religious beliefs and customs. In the poem “Island:”

How delight the soul with absolute

Sense of salvation, how

Hold to a single willed direction?

I cannot leave the Island,

I was born here and belong. (Ezekiel 2005: 182)

The consciousness of being an outsider in India because of his Jewish parentage and his own sense of physical frailness created certain problems for him in early life as he confesses himself. In another poem “Latter Day Psalms,” Nissim Ezekiel is caught up between the belief and opinion. He is often described that his ancestors are aliens and have come to India as a seed crushers. We can see his minority perception in the following poem:

Cast off, scattered for a

thousand years, where shall

we live in peace with our

neighbours? (2005: 256)

Here Ezekiel envisions a secular future in which justice and peace will finally prevail. In his ceaseless attempt to define himself, the poet thus sits on the hyphen of his dual kinship, all the time he tries to identify with the sense of belonging to the reality on both sides, so as to arrive at the much sought-after cultural polarities. Naik puts out: “repudiating ancient faith, admitting the presence of evil in life, and yet finally asserting that man will somehow endure.” (2001: 143) In another Poem entitled “London” Ezekiel speaks about the struggle within:

Sometimes I think I ‘m still

In that basement room,

I want to leave that room,



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the paraphernalia

and go into something

so public and anonymous. (2005:198-199)

In the poem “The Room,” he creates a room of his own, where he says that his “door is always open” but “cannot leave.” He asserts that he was given an open chance to move out of this country when the country Israel was formed in 1949 to immigrate to the place of his ancestors but he rather chose to stay, because he was numbered among the minorities and he wants to stay as he mentions:

To live in this room

without a fever or exaggeration

proves beyond my means,

my ready cash of doctrine

and deliberation. The door

is always open

but I cannot leave. (2005: 206)

In an interview with Frank Birbal Singh he says: “No, I am an Indian national I was born in India; my tribe of the Jewish community has lived in India for 2,000 years. If I had rejected my Indianness, which some other writers obviously have done, and if I had decided that I am so much of an outsider that I have to settle down in London or New York, and then, even if I did write about India, I don’t know if I could be regarded as an Indo-English Writer. There would be some problems in that situation, through there are marginal cases. (1986: 134) He affirms that he is very much an Indian and that his roots lie deep in India: “I am not a Hindu,” (Ezekiel 1976:5) and says of himself “my background makes me a natural outsider! Circumstances and decisions relate me to India.” In other countries, I am a foreigner. In India I am an Indian.”

III

In Ezekiel’s Poetry we see that he is substantially alienated from the core of Indian ethos, Ezekiel is acutely aware of this fact and that is why he has spent most of his life in highly westernized circles in cosmopolitan Bombay. With Marathi (on his own admission) as his first language which is being his mother tongue and English as his second mother tongue. Ezekiel's quest for integration made for a restless career of quick changes and experiments. The cultural complexity is the theme in this work and thus central to Ezekiel's work and colours his entire poetic universe. This explains his early fascination for Rilke, though he learnt his poetic craft from Eliot and Auden, whom he frequently echoes in his early verse. Ezekiel experiments with many different solutions to his problems and comes out with a poem and an answer for his readers.

To sum up Ezekiel, in his own way, tried to express the Indian culture and ethos through making other people know that he is capable of adapting different elements in his poetry. His aspiration has been to give expression to the genius of the soul of India, to support this he



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never showed any interest to go and settle abroad. He has been the poet of the city and Bombay made himself known as a minority and remained rooted in that metropolitan soil. Except for a short period of few spells, he always remained in India and said that his backward place is where he is.

Ezekiel seems to be aware of identity problem among non-Hindus, Muslims, Parsis and Christians. He thinks that the problem of identity is important in all literary and cultural activity. He does not believe that it is possible to be a universal man without specific roots which are strengthened, accepted or revolted against. Ezekiel is not a man who could merge societies and religions, but he is a man who can interact between communities, arts, values and societies. By this fact he develops a way of adapting to a way of life in the process of enlargement. To belong to others requires an understanding of what one's own way of life is. In the words of Paul: “A writer needs a national or cultural identity, without which he becomes a series of imitations, echoes, responses; he does not develop, because there is nothing at the core to develop.”(1999:105) This realization could have made Ezekiel deliberately turn to Jewish sources and themes, as though some inner urge requires it.

His poems are themes which are touched upon all walks of life. He at times embraces religion and at the other end finds fault with it. He deeply writes about his experiences with great experiences, like the one who has travelled the length and breadth of India. Culture to him has something to do with urban India, love marriage, sexuality, identity and alienation. The mysterious and marvelous energy has influenced many over the years. His poetry represents the assimilation of culture in India, and is penned down in such an extraordinary and rich cultural atmosphere. Ezekiel occupies a prominent place among contemporary Indian poets in English. He has become a legend, a mentor to growing artists in his life time.

Works Cited:

“Culture” http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture. “Culture of India” http://www.indianchild.com/culture%20_1.htm. Dwivedi, A.N. 2004. “Decolonising English: The Poetry of Ezekiel and Parthasarathy.” The Quest. Vol. 18, No.2, December. pp. 30-39. Ezekiel, Nissim. 1969. Three Plays. Calcutta: Writers Workshop. Ezekiel, Nissim. 1986. “Interviews with Nissim Ezekiel.” Journal of South Asian Literature. With Frank Birbal Singh. Vol. 22. No. 2. (Sum-Fal). Pp. 130-138. Ezekiel, Nissim. 1992. Selected Prose. With Introduction by Adil Jussawalla. Delhi: Oxford University Press.

. Collected Poems: 2nd Edition. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Guha, Ananya Shankar. 1986. “Nissim Ezekiel’s India,” The Journal of Indian Writing in English. Vol. 14, No. 2. Jul. pp. 17-23. Karnani, Chetan. 1974. Nissim Ezekiel. New Delhi: Arnold Heinemann Publishers (India) Pvt.Ltd. Naik, M.K & Narayan, S.A. 2001. Indian Literature in English 1980-2000: A Critical Survey. New Delhi: Pencraft International. Paul. S.K 1999. “Nissim Ezekiel’s Indianness.” Punjab Journal of English Studies. Vol. 14, pp. 101-107. Rao, R. Raj 2000. Nissim Ezekiel: The Authorized Biography. New Delhi: Penguin Books India (P) Ltd.



http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture

http://www.indianchild.com/culture%20_1.htm

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Raizada, Harish. 1992. Nissim Ezekiel: Poet of Human Balance. Meerut: Ved Prakash at Dayal Printers. Surendran. K.V. 2000. “Nissim Ezekiel, The Very Indian Poet.” Indian Writings: Critical Perspectives. New Delhi: Sarup & Sons. Verma. K.D. 1976.“Myth and Imagery in The Unfinished Man: A Critical Reading.” Journal of South Asian Literature. Vol. 11, No. 3&4, Spring-Summer. pp. 229-239. Wiseman, Christopher. 1980. “The Development of Technique in the Poetry of Nissim Ezekiel.” Contemporary Indian English Verse: An Evaluation. (Ed.). Chirantan Kulshrestha. New Delhi: Arnold-Heinemann. Raghu, A. 2002. The Poetry of Nissim Ezekiel. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors.



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