SOURCE: "Indian Ethos in Sarojini Naidu's Poetry," in Perspectives on Sarojini Naidu, edited by K.K. Sharma, Vimal Prakashan, 1989, pp. 78-113.

In the following essay, Raizada discusses Naidu as an Indian poet—rather than an Indian writing English poetry—and reassesses her work in those terms.

I

With the change in literary fashions, critical attitudes and critical values also change. The canons of criticism which are highly esteemed in one age are discarded in favour of new ones in another. In the changed perspective, the great writers of the preceding age wane into mediocity in the succeeding one, and old idols become new abhorrences. The new aesthetics which evolved in the wake of modernism in the European literature during the inter-war years, depedastalized many literary demi-gods who were looked upon with awe and inviolable reverence by the earlier generations. Even the greatness of Shakespeare for whom Arnold has...