Anjali Nerlekar (2017) āāIndianā doesnāt exclude meā: An interview with Eunice de Souza, inĀ Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 53:1-2
Anjali Nerlekar: A common theme I find in poets of your generation is that youāre going back to much earlier literature to look for literary connections or heritage.Ā
Eunice de Souza: Well you know, that was mainly because everybody keeps going on about everything they donāt like being from the west. And the second thing is that we are not genuinely England. My thesis was about that ā the critique in the postcolonial culture. And there are absolutely horrendously backward ideas of what āIndian-nessā consists of. So I spent years reading everything I could about what āIndianā was supposed to be. And in the end, you donāt really find anything.Ā
AN: There is no one definition or it should be left unstated?Ā
E de S: No, no, it is often stated. M.K. Naik says, someone like Ramanujan, because heās a Hindu, can be Indian. You know what I mean ā they treat Ramanujan as a Hindu poet. So he has access, emotionally and otherwise, to certain traditions and myths and so on, which we donāt have. Thatās complete crap.
AN: You have been critiqued by some for having co-opted āIndianā for all English poetry ā the interpretation being that you equate Indian to English.
E de S: I have never done that. Iām just saying, Indian doesnāt exclude me. You know, in all these fantasies, where authors in English are scribbling in their elegant drawing rooms, while in reality, the garbage can across the street smells up again ā I said please come visit where I live and negotiate dead rats and garbage. You know, itās a kind of fantasy world you imagine the English writers living in. Iām amazed at the extent to which they go on and on about it. I went to a seminar once, and Rajendra Yadav was supposed to talk about Hindi writing, yet he spent the entire lecture ranting about writers in English. I mean talk about what youāre supposed to talk about! My blood boils when I hear an Indian talking about āIndian cultureā. This is a primitive impulse, finding something coherent and limited and saying, āThis is Indian cultureā, and everybody else is excluded.Ā
AN: And that naturally brings us to religion in your poems, especially with the references to the Catholic Church.
E de S: Well thereās that little poem āConversation Pieceā:
My Portuguese-bred colleague
picked up a clay shivalingam
one day and said:
Is this an ashtray?
No, said the salesman,
This is our god.
(de Souza 2009, 14)11
Darryl DāMonte, who was the editor of the Times of India, published a couple of my poems in a supplement they had begun publishing. One of the angry letters sent to me at the time asked me, āWhat if we mistook the crucifix for a fork?ā I donāt understand this, but this is dangerous.
I guess I am looking at religion but I am not part of it. I am aware of it and I know that people need it. I donāt need it myself, but lots of people do.
AN: Is this because of your background, how or where you were raised?Ā
E de S: Yes, the ideas of hell and sin are so deeply rooted in us, that even though I am not religious at all, I still sometimes have these feelings about the possibilities of hell. Also a sense of guilt and responsibility. This is true of every Catholic woman I know. It may also be true of others but the Catholic woman always feels she can never do enough.
