If you’re also caught up in the tug-of-war between the history of Mughals in India and of that of the Rajput kings stirred by current politics, Rajendran’s poetry of the French colonial past in Pondicherry will come as a great relief! Steeped into French phrases, fictional and historical instances of war, whispers of conquest and betrayal amongst colonialists, and the Dubash’s loyalty towards the French governor, will hold you by the hand and take you into a hitherto untapped past of 18th century Pondicherry during the Carnatic Wars. This is not to say that it is going to be an easy journey into unravelling the historical details encrypted in poetry, in fact, on the contrary.
The poetry collection which starts with over 30 poems stretched across a decade in Pondicherry, offers an insight into the lives of natives and colonials, couched in multilingual verses with heaps of historical references. Hence, for someone who is picking up a poetry book for the first time, this section of poems may dissuade them from reading any further. On the other hand, if one dedicates themselves to parallel research alongside these poems, one is in for a treat! For instance, a poem like ‘Coja Petrus Uscan’ drove me away from the book and into the history of the Marmalong Bridge, the first ever bridge that was built across the Adayar river in Chennai, significantly responsible for the expansion of the city. Uscan’s devotion towards St Thomas that led to the construction of the bridge was torn asunder by the Anglo-French politics as also alluded in the poem. While both wanted Uscan’s loyalty and suspected otherwise, his tragic death left a legacy that is still alive in Chennai, although not unaffected by historical appropriation of it.
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