About:
Fredoon Kabraji was the son of Jehangir Kabraji, an Indian civil servant, and Putlibai. It is unclear exactly when he first came to Britain, but a brief autobiographical note in his edited collection of Indian poetry in English, This Strange Adventure, tells us that he studied journalism at the University of London, which suggests he probably arrived in the mid-1920s. Further, a website which includes information about the genealogy of the Kabraji family states that he married Eleanor M. Wilkinson in Britain in 1926. In his autobiographical note, Kabraji represents himself as a drifter, trying his hand at art, journalism and poetry, after losing interest in the farming career that his parents had chosen for him, and failing to complete a degree. He also writes that 'he grew up to adore England and everything English'.
As well as being a poet in his own right (he had two volumes of poems published by Fortune Press), Kabraji was a book reviewer, contributing to the magazines Life and Letters and the New Statesman, among others, as well as the editor of the above volume of poetry, published by the New India Publishing Co. in 1947.
Published works:
A Minor Georgian's Swan Song (London: Fortune Press, 1944)
(ed.) This Strange Adventure: An Anthology of Poems in English by Indians, 1828-1946 (London: New India Publishing Co., 1947)
The Cold Flame: Poems (1922-1924, 1935-1938, 1946-1953) (London: Fortune Press, 1956)
Example:
'Introduction', in Fredoon Kabraji (ed.) This Strange Adventure: An Anthology of Poems in English by Indians, 1826-1946 (London: New India Publishing Co., 1947), pp. 6-7
Content:
Here Kabraji discusses the issues raised by Indian poets writing in English, situating this poetry in relation to trends in English poetry, as well as the specifics of the work of some of the poets selected.
Contributions to periodicals:
Reviews:
H. N. Brailsford, New Statesman, 1948 (This Strange Adventure)
Secondary works:
King, Bruce, The Oxford English Literary History, vol. 13, 1948-2000, The Internationalization of English Literature, Ch. 1 'The End of Imperial England, 1948-1969' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)
Relevance:
In this extract Kabraji deftly subverts the conventional hierarchies of English and Indian poetry and language, by claiming that it is the English that miss out because of their failure to read Indian languages. Further, his description of the linguistic skills of some of the contributing poets positions English as an additional language of theirs.
Precise date of death unknown:
Precise 1st arrival date unknown:
Dates of time spent in Britain:
From the mid 1920s until at least the 1950s
