The Fakeer of Jungheera

The Fakeer of Jungheera is a long poem written by Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, first published in 1829. ^[1] The poem is 2,050 lines long, and was published when Derozio was only 19. ^[2] It is notable for being the first long poem written by any Indian in the English language, ^[2] and forms a central part of Derozio's legacy as one of the founding Anglo-Indian poets. ^[3] The poem tells the tragic story of a young woman named Nuleeni, who has been brought to her late husband's funeral pyre to commit sati when she is rescued by a band of thieves led by her childhood friend, the titular fakir. Her father convinces the nawab of Rajmahal to recapture her with his army; in the ensuing battle, many die, including Nuleeni and her lover. ^[4] The poem has been compared to Lord Byron's so-called "Turkish Tales" like The Giaour and to Letitia Elizabeth Landon's poem "The Improvisatrice." ^[1]

References

1. Black, Joseph; Conolly, Leonard; Flint, Kate; Grundy, Isobel; Lepan, Don; Liuzza, Roy; McGann, Jerome J.; Prescott, Anne Lake; Qualls, Barry V.; Waters, Claire, eds. (4 December 2014). The Broadview anthology of British literature (Third ed.). Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. ISBN   978-1-55481-202-8. OCLC   894141161.
2. Paranjape, Makarand R. (2013). ""East Indian" Cosmopolitanism: Henry Derozio's Fakeer of Jungheera and the Birth of Indian Modernity". Making India: Colonialism, National Culture, and the Afterlife of Indian English Authority. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. pp. 41–64. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-4661-9_3. ISBN   978-94-007-4660-2.
3. Gokak, Vnayak Krishna, ed. (1970). The Golden Treasury of Indo-Anglian Poetry: 1828–1965. Sahitya Akademi. ISBN   81-260-1196-3.
4. Chaudhuri, Rosinka (2004-08-01). "An Ideology of Indianness: The Construction of Colonial/Communal Stereotypes in the Poems of Henry Derozio" . Studies in History. 20 (2): 167–187. doi:10.1177/025764300402000201. ISSN   0257-6430. S2CID   162248483.