3 Review(s)

Indian Response to T.S. Eliot is an anthology studying the various aspects of Eliot’s work, principally in the light of Indian thought. The book includes articles by Indian scholars and the collection, as a whole, both extends and deepens our understanding of Eliot’s genius and thought. The focus throughout is on original approach rather than a mere collection of critical opinions. Most of the articles are characterized by a close critical analysis of Eliot’s poetry, plays, and criticism. A major theme of this book has been the exploration of the Indian element in the work of Eliot; there are also articles dealing with formal similarities. Comparisons have also been made between Eliot’s poetics and Indian poetics. A special feature of this book is the study of Eliot’s relation to our native poetry, e.g., Hindi, Kannada, and Bengali. The book also contains articles on the teaching of Eliot’s poetry in the Indian context. The influence of Indian philosophy on T.S. Eliot can be seen in his magnum opus, The Waste Land, the poem, which won him the Nobel Prize in 1948. In this poem, he has employed literary and cultural allusions from the Western canon, Buddhism, and the Hindu Upanishads. The poem shifts between voices of satire and prophecy featuring abrupt and unannounced change of speaker, location, time, and conjuring a vast and dissonant range of cultures and literatures.