The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1916-12-02

set the heart aflame with deep rel1-
gious, social and political questions
They have brought into play passion
and fire and deep emotion which must
give rise to a great literature.
" 1t Is always fascinating to stand
at the birthplace of a great stream,
as 1T flows from it's source. The new
literary movement, in almost all the
provinces Of India, is mostly 1mlta-
tive. English ideals predominant.
What we write is Western and not
Eastern. The events are the same
but the environment has changed.
The characters are developed in the
modern fashion, and even style and
expression are subordinated to ap-
proximate Western models. In old
provinces like Bengal or Bombay, the
people have turned from rivers or
English literature to freshly found
fountains of their own. Great poets
like Tagors have brought to life an
impassioned literature, retaining the
loneliness, simplicity and fine melody
of the old, but animated by new and
positive influence. Tangore's songs
are like f1re-tipped arrows dipped in
honey, sweet and strong at the same
time.
SIN Northern India, which is the
land of Guru Nanak and Kabir, the
literature was essentially religious.
The poets were hymn writer's, who
raised their voices in gentle devotion,
seeking communion with God, in
obedience to a set Of large religious
ideas, which have emancipated the
minds Of men from the tentacles of
Pantheism. Faith in a personal God
restored the dignity and the impor-
tance of the personal soul. Biz Singh,
the first Punjabi writer of our times,
has all the delicate feeling and tender
grace Of clustered contemplation. He
has a gracious love Of natural beauty
and a keen Joy in a quiet and a lovely
world. His imagination, however,
does not soar; he seems to have set
for himself limits which he cannot
and will not transcend Men and
women in the villages are beyond his
reach. They have their stories and
their songs, passing from lip to lip
and drawing together all the passion
Of the soul as contributaries> with all
their light and heat and variety.
1.-THE mental invasion Of the East
lis more potent than the physical con-
quest. The new ideas are dominating
working in q quiet way and changing
the manner and form of our Itera-
ture. The spirit from within is NOV
Ting in response to neV demands. A
great poet has risen in the Punjab
whose poems are consecrated to the
ideas of new time. Iqbal has initial
ed new era in Urdu poetry. He COM
bines the imaginative philosophy of
the East with ardent aspirations of
the West Like Moses he smote the
rock and fresh streams of poetry have
1eapt out in response; on whose swift
and translucent surface we can hard
1y breathe. He does not sing of self
effacement, but holds forth self af-
f1rmation as essential to self preserva-
ton. The life value of self affirma-
ton he illustrates in a poem Of great
dignity and grace, "A thirsty bird
might mistake diamond for drop
of water, but it cannot make it a
source Of life to itself, while it sips
the soft morning dew from the paint
ed petals Of flowers which lose their
own brief existence in the yielding
The coal in essence is the same as q
diamond, and yet coal feeds the fam
ing furnace while the diamond adorns
the crown In poem Of keen
strong, rousing power he draws the
moral that self-affirmation is the key
to self-preservation.
"Iqbal in this poem has broken
away entirely from the canons of &C.
| copied opinion. He is the precursor
Of great events in the domain of lit
erature. He Is the poet Of reality
close to the very truth OF things, fr
contradistinction to metaphysics and
mere sentiment. His force, anger
even gloom and freedom from mystic
reticence, make him a spirit of power,
His ambition is to set the heart burn
ing like a candle, to be consumed
and yet in the very process of burning
to illuminate the path for the unsee.
| ing eye.
HE p1unges into the whirlpool OF
thoughts. hopes and passions, joys
| and sorrows, and brings forth int
life main ideas, silent so long, Of re.
| ligious, social and political we'll be.
ing. with unshackled freedom, truth
| and fervour. Iqbal, Tagore and 9th
ers are precursors Of a new move.
ment. What will India make Of it
What will the new movement make OF
| the new literature? It is not for me
to prophesy. The words Of Iqba
| ring clear: e4
The world will witness when from
| my heart springs the storm Of
| expression;
My silence conceals the seed Of stor.
ed aspiration