GENTLEMEN POETS IN COLONIAL BENGAL: EMERGENT NATIONALISM AND THE ORIENTALIST PROJECT By Rosinka Chaudhuri, Seagull, Rs 550 For those who enjoy academic theorizing, Gentlemen Poets in Colonial Bengal, is a book to relish. It deals with the complex nature of the colonizer-colonized relationship in 19th century Bengal and the author, Rosinka Chaudhuri, offers a fresh perspective. Her theory counters current notions in post-colonial literary studies which suggest that English education had been imposed upon a voiceless colonized people. In the introductory chapter, Chaudhuri points out that 'Post colonial studies, when examining the beginnings of English education in India, has always emphasized the colonizer's role in the operation of power.' She also refers to 'the sly establishment of English education for Indians' that recent writers mention. Chaudhuri argues that it was the colonized who sought out English education for a number of reasons. The author takes up the body of 19th century English verse to establish her point through a series of cogent arguments, presented discursively. The poetry - including works by Henry Derozio, Kasiprasad Ghosh, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Toru Dutt and Rabindranath Tagore, among others - is analysed less in terms of its literary value than in the context of its social, political and historical background. Early 19th century-poetry reflects an interaction between the colonizers and the colonized. This genre of poetry was a derivative of contemporary Orientalist poetry written by English poets like Byron, Campbell, Moore and others. Initially, in emulating the Orientalists, the gentlemen poets of early 19th century Bengal expressed their admiration for the English. The poems of Derozio, for example, dream of a utopian society where the individual is free from the shackles of existing religious dogma. But, interestingly, they do not question British imperialism. But how does the subversion take place through poetry? Orientalist scholarship glorified ancient Indian heritage and pointed to contemporary degeneration. Gradually in the changed climate of growing nationalist feelings - Chaudhuri attributes the moment of transition to the Ilbert bill agitation - the initial emulation took on a different role. Chaudhuri cities two poems to illustrate the point - one by Michael Madhusudan Dutt and the other by Rabindranath Tagore. She writes, 'One of the sonnets...enumerates the virtues of what Madhusudan perceived England to be; it is remarkable for its parallel with a later description of another utopia by Rabindranath Tagore... Madhusudan describes his vision of an idealized Britain: 'For I have dreamed of climes more bright and free/Where virtue dwells and heaven-born liberty...' The sentiments that Madhusudan records about a heavenly Britain are turned around and expressed in a very similar manner, but for the future of India, almost a century later by Rabindranath Tagore in 'Where the mind is without fear, and the head is held high.' ' Chaudhuri's discourse is interspersed with history, political commentary and snippets of social life, including that of the poets. For example, we come to know about Derozio's youthful charm and conversational skills that made him the central figure at any party. Chaudhuri also draws from the rich archive of Indo-Anglian verse.