Focusing specifically on the poetic construction of India, ‘Mapping the Nation’ offers a broad selection of poetry written by Indians in English during the period 1870–1920. Centering upon the “mapping” of India – both as a regional location and as a poetic ideal – this unique anthology presents poetry from various geographical nodal points of the subcontinent, as well as that written in the imperial metropole of England.
The anthology’s selection defines India in various ways: as being against Britain in loyalty and/or critique; in “exile” in or through memories of England; through a reconstructed past; through satirical or earnest depictions of her contemporary politics; through depictions of the subcontinent’s landscape and scenery; through her various regions and their inhabitants, customs, cultures and religions; or through odes to British and Indian literary figures and politicians. This rich bounty of content is complemented by an equally detailed array of auxiliary notes, including annotations and appendices of poets’ prefaces, assessments of other contemporaries, and a collection of formerly lost archive material.
As becomes evident, the diversity of India’s imagining by her poets during this period corresponds to the diversity of her inhabitants and geography. In grouping its poetry according to region of publication, this anthology makes a structural innovation that negotiates the politics of locality, nation and empire by acknowledging the importance of all three terms in constructing an Indian national and cultural identity during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
