• Dr. Jyoti Syal

Henry Louis Vivian Derozio merits the place of a torch-bearer in the literary canon comprising of Indian poetry in English. He is one of those intellectuals who have their roots in the state of Bengal. One of his significant contributions which make him stand in the league of the haloed freedom fighters is his revolutionary fervour. Anyone who traces the trajectory of his abjectly short-lived corporal existence can be judiciously opinionated about Derozio’s potential to have bloomed into an active patriot leading India’s aspirations to be the master of its destiny in a world that had tasted a freeing of the human spirit through the lasting outcry of liberty, equality and fraternity emanating out of the French Revolution in 1789. Had destiny granted Derozio time to live for even three full decades, the revolutionary in him would have come to the fore as he died at the age of twenty two. This can be claimed on the strength of one’s understanding of the brief span of five years that this teenager was granted to work and establish himself as a teacher, poet, journalist, ideologue and champion of women’s rights. At the time of his demise, he had almost done with all the activities enumerated above and was feverishly turning into a revolutionary spirit. Derozio’s revolutionary sensibility is deeply influenced by Romantic poets. The ideas and modes of expression may have been borrowed, to some extent, from the contemporary English poets but the sentiments and spirit are genuine. Derozio was a pioneer and related to Indian Renaissance which was the result of the impact of British rule, their exploitation and expansion of empire. It was the awakening of national consciousness of people with new light and new thought.This reawakening or Renaissance spread the seeds of patriotism for national interest. In creating this national interest or to awaken patriotism in the minds of people, poets and writers played a significant role. During this phase of Derozio’s life when the Hindu society in Bengal was undergoing turmoil, Derozio wrote poems suffused with the spirit of nationalism and rationalism. Derozio had a burning passion for freedom and an intoxicating urge for liberation from all kinds of bondages. The present paper is an attempt to analyse Derozio with respect to two of his poems- The Harp of India and Freedom to the Slave.

Nationalism, revolution, Renaissance, patriotism

"Henry Vivian Derozio, A Revolutionary and a Patriot: A Study of his Selected Poems", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no.168-177, June-2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1906C28.pdf

"Henry Vivian Derozio, A Revolutionary and a Patriot: A Study of his Selected Poems", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no. pp168-177, June-2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1906C28.pdf