Fredoon Kabraji

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Fredoon Kabraji (Gujarati: ફરીદૂન કબીરજી; 10 February 1897 – 1986) was an Indian poet, writer, journalist, and artist of Parsi descent.[1][2][3][4]

Life and work

Fredoon Jehangir Kabraji[2][3] was a Parsi born in India on 10 February 1897. His father was Jehangir Kabraji, an Indian civil servant, and his mother was Putlibai.[1]

Initially, his parents wanted him to pursue a career in farming, but growing tired of this, he moved to Britain perhaps around the mid-1920s,[1] and married Eleanor M. Wilkinson there in 1926.[1]

Kabraji studied at the University of London, but failing to secure a degree, he became a self-confessed "drifter, trying his hand at art, journalism and poetry".[1] As well as having his poetry published, he also contributed to periodicals such as New Statesman and Nation and Life and Letters Today,[1] and journals including The Political Quarterly.[5]

Kabraji and his wife went back to India where they had two sons, and a daughter, Cynthia (Kashfi).[4] The family returned to Britain in 1935, not long before the outbreak of World War II. Their daughter Cynthia later married the Afghan writer and thinker Idries Shah, an associate and friend of the poet Robert Graves.[4][6] Shah's father, Ikbal Ali Shah published two of Kabraji's poems, "The Lovers" and "Tulip", in his 1933 work The Oriental Caravan: A Revelation of the Soul and Mind of Asia.[7]

According to letters archived at St John's College Library, University of Oxford, Kabraji corresponded with Robert Graves and first met him in 1925.[8] Archives at the University of Victoria and California Digital Library also confirm later correspondence with poets John Betjeman[9] and Walter de la Mare.[10]

Politics

Kabraji spoke out against British colonialism and poverty in India, and he supported Mahatma Gandhi's non-violent protest and the Quit India Movement, which demanded an end to British rule in India.[11][12]

Offices

Kabraji was listed among the Vice-Presidents and Representatives of the colonial branches of the Empire Poetry League, under Bombay.[13] The League was founded in 1917[14] and was operational for around 15 years.

Works

Books

  • Rain in My Heart: Forty Poems{{#if:Sett|, Sett}. Fortune Press(1940)[15]
  • Fredoon Kabraji (1944). A Minor Georgian's Swan Song (Fifty-One Poems). London: Fortune Press.[1][16][17][18][19]
  • Fredoon Kabraji (ed.) (1947). This Strange Adventure: An Anthology of Poems in English by Indians, 1828–1946. London: New India Publishing Co.[1][20]
  • Fredoon Kabraji (1956). The Cold Flame: Poems (1922–1924, 1935–1938, 1946–1953). London: Fortune Press.[1]

Contributions to books and anthologies

  • Anthology of Modern Indian Poetry{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. John Murray: The Wisdom of the East Series(1927)
  • An Anthology of English Poetry: Dryden to Blake{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Henry Holt and Company(1930)
  • The Oriental Caravan: A Revelation of the Soul and Mind of Asia{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. D. Archer(1933)
  • From Overseas—First Series: An Anthology of Contemporary Dominion and Colonial Verse{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Merton(1924)
  • Indian Poetry in English: An Anthology{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Atma Ram(1984)[21]
  • Early Indian Poetry in English: An Anthology: 1829-1947{{#if:De Souza|, De Souza}. Oxford University Press India(8 July 2010). ISBN 978-0195677249

Journal articles

  • Ambassadors of a Wider Commonwealth [2 parts]. Eastern World({Template:Year).

Articles in other periodicals

  • [{{{url}}} Creative Literature in English by Indians]. Sunday News of India.

Selected short poem

Template:Poemquote

Reception

In The Observer on 18 February 1945, the scholar and historian Edward Thompson criticises the "thoroughly bad" title of A Minor Georgian's Swan Song, and calls Kabraji's preface "brash" and that it would antagonise "powerful critics and versifiers".[12] Thompson does praise the poem "I Look upon Simla", which is critical of the British colonialism and poverty in India, though he notes that the poem will "hardly delight all reviewers".[12] Thompson also notes that Kabraji does not use standard metrical forms, alleging that the poet appears "frightened" by them. However he concludes that he has "no doubt that Kabraji has genius if he can find a way to express it."[12]

Writing for the Manchester Guardian on 23 May 1945, Georgian poet Wilfrid Gibson is of the opinion that A Minor Georgian's Swan Song is "unhappily titled",[19] because the author, Fredoon Kabraji "has no affiliations with any school and is an original poet".[19] The reviewer adds that although Kabraji's work "suffers at times from diffuseness, [it] is remarkable for its range and for the versatility of its technique."[19]

In A History of Indian Poetry in English (2016), editor Rosinka Chaudhuri describes Kabraji's This Strange Adventure: An Anthology of Poems in English by Indians, 1828-1946 as excellent, and "comprehensive and accommodating in its reach."[17] She writes that after the "lean" years post-independence, there has been a "resurgence of interest" in such anthologies.[17]

Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Fredoon Kabraji | Making Britain. The Open University. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Search the GRO Online Index. gov.uk(2020). Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Screenshot of GRO Record for Fredoon Jehangir Kabraji. gov.uk(14 December 2020). Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Neo-Sufism in the 1960s: Idries Shah. Center for Interdisciplinary Study of Monotheistic Religions({Template:Year).
  5. ↑ India in Transition. The Political Quarterly({Template:Date).
  6. ↑ Between Moon and Moon – Selected Letters of Robert Graves 1946–1972{{#if:O'Prey|, O'Prey}. Hutchinson(1984). ISBN 0-09-155750-X
  7. ↑ The Oriental Caravan: A Revelation of the Soul and Mind of Asia{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. D. Archer(1933)
  8. ↑ Ms letter from Fredoon Kabraji to Graves. Jisc. Retrieved 14 December 2020. Two records: GB 473 RG/J/Kabraji/1 and GB 473 RG/J/Kabraji/2.
  9. ↑ File Box 26, Folder 18 - Kabraji, Fredoon, 1945, 1 letter. University of Victoria. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  10. ↑ Walter De la Mare Papers: Finding Aid. California Digital Library. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  11. ↑ [{{{url}}} The Reformer]. Manchester Guardian(18 October 1937).
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 [{{{url}}} Poets in Session]. The Observer(18 February 1945).
  13. ↑ S.FW – Some Yorkshire Poets. sfw.org. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  14. ↑ Against the New Gods: The Speculative Fiction of S. Fowler Wright{{#if:Stableford|, Stableford}. Wildside Press LLC(2009). ISBN 978-1434457431
  15. ↑ Adolescent Agony. Thought({Template:Date).
  16. ↑ The Origins of Dislike{{#if:Chaudhuri|, Chaudhuri}. Oxford University Press(27 September 2018). ISBN 978-0198793823
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 A History of Indian Poetry in English{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Cambridge University Press(29 March 2016). ISBN 978-1107078949
  18. ↑ Mapping the Nation: An Anthology of Indian Poetry in English, 1870–1920{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Anthem Press(25 June 2012). ISBN 978-0857284419
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 [{{{url}}} Books of the Day: Recent Verse]. Manchester Guardian(23 May 1945).
  20. ↑ Man of Letters: The unlikely correspondence between Srinivas Rayaprol and William Carlos Williams. Paresh Nath(30 August 2018). Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  21. ↑ Indian Poetry in English: An Anthology{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Atma Ram(1984)
  22. ↑ Left Review | Making Britain. The Open University. Retrieved 14 December 2020.

References

  • Cultural and Philosophical Reflections in Indian Poetry in English Footprints{{#if:Arora|, Arora}. Authors Press(2016). ISBN 978-93-5207-206-4
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