:: Kishwar Desai

Last poet standing

By Kishwar Desai

May 30 : It could be called poetic justice. When Ruth Padel was recently forced to resign from her newly-acquired Oxford Poetry Professorship, two camps were immediately glowering at each other from across the fence: those who were supporters of Ms Padel, and others who were supporting the previously ousted candidate, Nobel laureate Derek Walcott.

Allegations and counter-allegations of smears and sexism are flying around and, in between, caught quite inadvertently in the headlights, is the professor of English and Chair of the Department at the University of Allahabad, Arvind K. Mehrotra.

Suddenly, Professor Mehrotra, through no fault of his, is being described in British newspapers as a "well-known poet" and his instant fame has spread far beyond quiet poetry readings, catapulting him into the heart of a raging, typically-British controversy. Because what should have been a quiet anointment of an esoteric professorial post — one which would have not even made the inside pages of a local Oxford rag — has become a full-fledged battle over a much-coveted seat. And already the body count has risen to two. There could be more bloodshed and more reputations destroyed but, as someone said, any controversy is good because it attracts attention. No doubt the book sales of all three poets concerned — whether innocent or damned — will be on the rise. This is because books of poetry, even in the UK, are bestsellers when they have sold 1,000 copies.

To be honest, how many of us (before this momentous period in poesy) would have read Professor Mehrotra and discovered that his poems are "coded messages from the unconscious, but (that) there is an exceedingly conscious hand that crafts them", according to the Fulcrum journal. It is obvious that those coded messages will have many more readers trying to decipher what lies between the lines.

The big challenge will be to decode whether, quite by default, Professor Mehrotra is now poised to be the hottest contender for Professor of Poetry?

In this era of global controversies, it is a beguiling thought that someone calmly sitting by the banks of the Ganges is causing such a rumble in the Isles.

To begin with, this looked like a quiet contest — on corner stood Ruth Padel, whose main claim to fame is the fact that she is the great-great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin. Whether his theory of evolution took into account the origins of poetry is doubtful, but nonetheless, Ms Padel was going to undertake the noble task of bridging the vast gap between the sciences and literature in Oxford, and her agenda was being looked at with great enthusiasm. She was going to embark upon a lecture series which doubtless would have led to a proliferation of scientific poets and poetic scientists. Her great-great-grandfather may have encouraged it all as a mighty step in the proper evolutionary direction. However, the road for Ms Padel was not that smooth as her main contender was a rather better-known poet, Derek Walcott. And it is now apparent that he had the vote of a larger number of supporters.

To put it in perspective, till this controversy popped up and we learnt of the disparate cast of characters before us, only 426 Oxford graduates and academics reportedly roused themselves to vote out of an electorate of more than 1,50,000. Poetry is obviously not something which sets the Oxford heart on fire, and, therefore, perhaps Ms Padel had a point when she aspired to spread the joys of the iambic metre over brains more normally consumed with litmus tests.

The contest, therefore, was more or less a straight encounter between Ms Padel and Mr Walcott — and Mr Walcott would have swept his way into the professorship. However, suddenly anonymous emails were dashed off to 100 Oxford dons alleging sexual harassment dating back to 1982. The incident involved Mr Walcott and a student. According to the allegation, a student in Harvard had said that while talking about her work (after class) Mr Walcott asked her, "Imagine me making love to you. What would I do? ...Would you make love to me if I asked you?" The student rejected Mr Walcott’s approaches and was rewarded with a "C" grade in her final examination. Then followed by another alleged case which was again buried. The two incidents have been mentioned in a book, The Lecherous Professor, and it was these which apparently created unease in the minds of those selecting the poetry professor.

Thus, somewhat bruised and battered, Mr Walcott picked himself up and walked away, leaving Ms Padel victorious. But, aha! Suddenly a journalist discovered that Ms Padel may not have been so innocent after all. In at least two recent emails to journalists, she referred to Mr Walcott’s sexual harassment case. In her resignation speech she was to regret the emails saying, "The emails were naive and silly of me. I do not believe it was wrong… but it was a bad error of judgment". The allegation now being sprung was that she may have deliberately "smeared" Mr Walcott. This fresh controversy ultimately led to Ms Padel bowing out.

Watching all this from a safe distance is Professor Mehrotra who had received much fewer votes but has been in the limelight as well, as the third candidate.

That the publicity has not been bad for all poets concerned is obvious from the fact that at the Hay Literary Festival, Ms Padel had to ask for extra security and there were long queues for her book signing. The book was, of course, Darwin: A Life in Verse.

But Ms Padel’s resignation, forced upon her by the media furore over her emails, has left many women authors and poets with a feeling of gross injustice. One writer called Oxford a "sexist little dump", while another has written that whilst it would have been wonderful to have a woman poet at Oxford, it was obviously too much for the "male groupies" to endure. Still others, meanwhile, are writing in defence of Oxford and saying that it allows women to work and study freely and is definitely not sexist.

Mr Walcott has said he is no longer in the race and did not want to think about "that awful business". Ms Padel is also out of the race. And now among the fresh names thrown up is a query whether Professor Mehrotra will consider standing again.

So far he has sounded reluctant but among his supporters is the enthusiastic and energetic author/musician Amit Chaudhuri who may yet persuade him to pick up the gauntlet.

Well, it’s certainly time some poetic license was given to India as well!

The writer can be contacted at kishwardesai@yahoo.com