Gentlemen Poets In Colonial Bengal (seagull)

Extensive historical research and a detailed exam-ination of the English poetry written by Indians in the nineteenth century in its social, historical and political contexts, reveals the engagement of the colonized with one of the implements of colonization, the English language. This study shows how the intertextuality that existed between this body of verse and concurrent Orientalist scholarship on the ancient Indian her-itage resulted, ultimately, in a complex appropri-ation, by the Indians, of British scholarship on India for nationalist, literary, social, and personal ends.

The author examines works by Henry Derozio, Kasiprasad Ghosh, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, the Dutt family, and, in conclusion, the poems of Toru Dutt and Tagore.