BioGecko Vol 12 Issue 03 2023 ISSN NO: 2230-5807 1175 A Journal for New Zealand Herpetology Challenges and Complications in the Rise of Comparative Literature in Indian English Poetry: A Historical Analysis through Eminent Institutions of India Tarika 1 , Dr. Rupali Jain 2 , Dr. Prem Shankar Pandey 3* 1 Assistant Professor, Satyawati College (E) University of Delhi 2 Assistant Professor, Satyawati College (E) University of Delhi, India 3* Assistant Professor and Technical Editor Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science, Chennai, India Email: 1 tarika.english@satyawatie.du.ac.in, 2 rupalijain.english@satyawatie.du.ac.in, 3* techeditor@hindustanuniv.ac.in Abstract This paper aims to examine how ideas of Indian ‘Modernity’ in Indian English poetry evolve simultaneously with the development of the Comparative Literature methodology paradigm within the postcolonial English department and the late twentieth century publishing culture. The article draws on the work done by critics like E. V. Ramakrishnan, Aijaz Ahmad, Amiya Deb among others to track the development of the Comparative Literature departments at premier universities like Jadavpur University, Calcutta, along with the rise of the postcolonial imperative as a critical paradigm in the canonical, theoretical space and the simultaneous opening up of the public sphere to Indian English poetry through the various little magazine movements. The comparative literature paradigm enables a parallel study of these historical, material trajectories, which sometimes intersect in rhizomatic ways and at other times, seem to be completely cut-off from each other. This paper makes a comparative study between the trends archived in the history of a Comparative Studies Department at Jadavpur University as being representative of the developments in Academic spaces in the country with institutional support from institutions like UGC and the Sahitya Akademi, and the rise of specific idioms in the Indian English poetry anthologies as being symptomatic of the same historic moments. The research will bridge the gap in the existing comparative literature in Indian English Poetry. Keywords: Indian English Poetry, Canon formation, Comparative Literature, Post-colonial, Little- magazine movement. 1. INTRODUCTION This article examines how some material conditions of the Indian socio-historical landscape beginning from the 1950s onwards shaped the way in which the concepts of Indian modernity were defined and then appropriated by Indian English poetry writers. The institutional affiliation and patronage of certain trends in literary and theoretical spaces provide the cultural impetus, validation for certain kinds of literary definitions to take shape, instead of certain others. E. V. Ramakrishnan states that the 50s and 60s were the decades of centralization of power by the state so that educational and cultural institutions were set-up throughout the country (Ramakrishnan, 39). These institutions became the sites of the practice of culture and its representations with sanction as well as financial patronage being provided by the state. These institutions in turn legitimized the cultural identities validated by the state and its political implications in the socio-cultural sphere. The tensions between the democratically represented masses, which related to the performativity of the oral traditions and the high textuality of canonized and classical traditions are at the heart of the debate. Sudipta Kaviraj called this a move in opposition to one which was instituted in the social sphere by the national independence movement in which the differences between the vernacular cultures were “transcended” and amalgamated in favor of establishing a homogenized collectivity. The setting up of these