ABSTRACT
In this essay, Gopinath Mohanty traces the reception of Rabindranath Tagore’s poetry in Odisha and uses this as a lens to provide an insightful perspective on the development of modern Odia poetry. Gopinath minutely examines several factors which help one explain why the poetry of Tagore, in spite of the acclaim it achieved worldwide, could not exert a powerful and shaping influence on modern Odia poetry. For one thing, the devotee’s intense longing for a union with the formless divinity, which constitutes a major theme in Tagore’s poetry, was already familiar to Odia readers on account of their exposure to the poetry written by premodern mystics. Moreover, the fact that western education had not spread widely in the first half of the twentieth century, explains why Odias remained overwhelmingly partial to traditional forms of literature and gave a lukewarm response to Tagore. Another source of resistance to Tagore’s influence lies in the reluctance to emulate literatures from other regions in the context of growing assertion of Odia identity in the early twentieth century. Around the same time the anti-colonial nationalist movement and an increasing awareness of class conflict promoted by Marxists began making their presence felt in Odia literature. As a result, a growing emphasis on action shaped the outlook of many Odia poets and diminished the possibility of Tagore’s contemplative inwardness influencing them. Even when a few poets, like the members of the Sabuja group, chose to imitate Tagore’s poetic style, they were spurned as escapists and some of them themselves consciously outgrew his influence. Gopinath discovers and illuminates key aspects of the Odia literary tradition through selective absorption and rejection of external influence.
