A Different History Sujata Bhatt Analysis

‘A Different History’ by Sujata Bhatt is a poem that deals with identity, especially one’s cultural identity, in a post-colonial setting, specifically, India. There is also a strong link made between power and language in the poem, and how an oppressor’s language is imposed upon the suppressed. The poem is divided into two distinct stanzas, both of which are formatted differently and focus on different topics. The use of enjambments, repetition, sibilance, personification, and vivid kinesthetic and visual imagery in the poem depicts the poet’s plight about the loss of her cultural identity, and portrays how language is closely connected to power, as has been explored in the following essay.

Bhatt begins by claiming that the ancient Greek

Through the use of enjambments, she contrasts the words ‘sin’ and ‘sacred’, hence emphasizing just how offensive it is to be insolent towards books. The word ‘sin’ is then repeated in the succeeding lines; this anaphora displays, almost like a rulebook, the respect one is expected to have towards books and knowledge. Moreover, the violence of the words ‘shove’ and ‘slam and ‘toss’ is depicted through the visual shift of the subsequent lines. However, the use of sibilance in ‘sin to slam’, ‘sin to shove’, and ‘sin to toss one carelessly’ is unusual, for sibilance is euphonic and hence used to describe something pleasant. However, it is used here to describe violent actions, thus perhaps implying how one may unintentionally perform these actions, such as ‘toss’ or ‘shove’ a book aside without thinking twice. Bhatt then goes on to instruct the reader about the proper manner in which books should be handled; the use of ‘Sarasvati’, the Hindu goddess of knowledge once again brings in the poet’s culture and religious upbringing, and personification used in ‘without offending the tree’ and ‘whose’ depicts how important and esteemed nature is in Indian culture. Thus, the poet highlights the significance and power of language in her own culture and upbringing, and the large role it plays in her habits, mannerisms and beliefs, even

Moreover, the power in language can be seen through the line ‘a long scythe swooping out/ of the conqueror’s face’, for the ‘scythe’ alludes to the tongue of the conqueror. This metaphor thus shows how forceful and violent language can be, even if it is not physically so. Additionally, the poem ends on a defeated note; the fact that the ‘unborn grandchildren’ will ‘grow to love that strange language [the oppressor’s language]’ creates a feeling of inevitability – that no matter what happens, the generations to come won’t even have an active choice, but will end up loving the oppressor’s language. Also, the word choice of ‘love’, instead of the children being forced to use the oppressor’s language, suggests how westernization is glorified and venerated in post-colonial countries, whereas the once-oppressed people don’t see their language and culture with admiration anymore, and prefer the English culture instead. It’s like even if the oppressed get their freedom back, they will always be oppressed by the language that was once forced upon