Indian poetry and Indian literature in general, has a long history dating back to Vedic times. They were written in various Indian languages such as Vedic Sanskrit, Classical Sanskrit, Ancient Meitei, Modern Meitei, Telugu, Tamil, Odia, Maithili, Kannada, Bengali, Assamese, Urdu, and Hindi. Poetry in foreign languages such as English also has a strong influence on Indian poetry. The poetry reflects diverse spiritual traditions within India. In particular, many Indian poets have been inspired by mystical experiences. Poetry is the oldest form of literature and has a rich written and oral tradition.
Dominic Francis Moraes was an Indian writer and poet who published nearly 30 books in English. He is widely seen as a foundational figure in Indian English literature. His poems are a meaningful and substantial contribution to Indian and World literature.
Nissim Ezekiel was an Indian poet, actor, playwright, editor, and art critic. He was a foundational figure in postcolonial India's literary history, specifically for Indian poetry in English.
Arun Balkrishna Kolatkar was an Indian poet who wrote in both Marathi and English. His poems are known for expressing the humour in everyday life. Kolatkar is the only Indian poet other than Kabir to be featured on the World Classics titles of New York Review of Books.
Indian English literature (IEL), also referred to as Indian Writing in English (IWE), is the body of work by writers in India who write in the English language but whose native or co-native language could be one of the numerous languages of India. Its early history began with the works of Henry Louis Vivian Derozio and Michael Madhusudan Dutt followed by Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo. R. K. Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao contributed to the growth and popularity of Indian English fiction in the 1930s. It is also associated, in some cases, with the works of members of the Indian diaspora who subsequently compose works in English.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Jejuri is a series of poems written by Indian poet Arun Kolatkar. Consisting of a sequence of 31 poems, Jejuri depicts Kolatkar's visit to Jejuri, a city in Pune, which the poet visited in 1964. It was first published in Opinion Literary Quarterly in 1974, and issued in book-form in 1976. Jejuri won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1977.
Writers Workshop is a Kolkata-based literary publisher founded by the Indian poet and scholar Purushottama Lal in 1958. It has published many new Indian authors of post-independence urban literature. Many of these authors later became widely known.
Ranjit Hoskote is an Indian poet, art critic, cultural theorist and independent curator. He has been honoured by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, with the Sahitya Akademi Golden Jubilee Award and the Sahitya Akademi Prize for Translation. In 2022, Hoskote received the 7th JLF-Mahakavi Kanhaiyalal Sethia Award for Poetry.
Indian English poetry is the oldest form of Indian English literature. Henry Louis Vivian Derozio is considered the first poet in the lineage of Indian English poetry followed by Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, Sarojini Naidu, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, and Toru Dutt, among others.
Gieve Patel was an Indian poet, playwright, painter, as well as a physician. He belonged to a group of writers who had subscribed themselves to the Green Movement which was involved in an effort to protect the environment. His poems speak of deep concerns for nature and expose man's cruelty to it. His notable poems include, How Do You Withstand (1966), Body (1976), Mirrored Mirroring (1991) and On killing a tree. He also wrote three plays, titled Princes (1971), Savaksa (1982) and Mr. Behram (1987).
Arvind Krishna Mehrotra is an Indian poet, anthologist, literary critic and translator.
Jeet Thayil is an Indian poet, novelist, librettist and musician. He is the author of several poetry collections, including These Errors Are Correct (2008), which won the Sahitya Akademi Award. His first novel, Narcopolis, (2012), won the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, and was shortlisted for the 2012 Man Booker Prize and The Hindu Literary Prize.
Kekoo Gandhy was an Indian art gallerist, art collector and art connoisseur, who pioneered the promotion of Indian modern art from the 1940s. He established Chemould Frames, a frame manufacturing business in 1941, soon he started displaying works of young modern artists K. H. Ara, S. H. Raza, K. K. Hebbar and M. F. Husain in his showroom windows. This led to gradual rise of modern art movement and post-colonial art in India. Eventually Gallery Chemould, India's first commercial art gallery, was opened in 1963 on the first floor of the Jehangir Art Gallery.
Anand Thakore is a poet and Hindustani classical vocalist. Elephant Bathing, Mughal Sequence and Waking in December are his three collections of verse. He received training in Hindustani vocal music for many years from Satyasheel Deshpande and Pandit Baban Haldankar of the Agra Gharana. He is the founder of Harbour Line, a publishing collective, and Kshitij, an interactive forum for musicians.
Quest was a quarterly and bimonthly Indian journal published between 1954 and 1975 and featuring 20 years of independent India’s publishing history.
Adil Jehangir Jussawalla is an Indian poet, magazine editor and translator. He has written two books of poetry, Land's End and Missing Person.
Santan Rodrigues was a Bombay (Mumbai)-based poet writing in English. He is rated as one of the prominent poets who has written in the language from Western India.
