Derozio (whose earlier family name was de Rosario) continues to hold my attention. While he is identified as "an Eurasian of Portuguese origin", it's a bit hard to imagine an "Eurasian" writing Indian nationalist verse (see below). Wonder if there was a Goa connect there?
[Of course, Dean Mahomet probably predates him as the first Indian writer in English: http://books.google.com/books?id=Y9NJRBIxrUQC&pg=PA133&lpg=PA133&dq=Henry+Derozio+Goan&source=bl&ots=xFU0JgLoK_&sig=HNs8ldg6Y2NGjj_0PJ7UjtzyduM&hl=en&ei=ZBGtS9GcAdLBrAee1PGmAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CBgQ6AEwBTgK#v=onepage&q=Henry%20Derozio%20Goan&f=false ] By some coincidence, got a chance to review his book about a dozen years ago: http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/india/fisherm2.htm http://www.cse.iitk.ac.in/~amit/books/mehrotra-2003-illustrated-history-of.html Hindu College and Derozio Henry Louis Vivian Derozio (1809-31), was an Eurasian of Portuguese origin, widely read on topics from the French revolution to Robert Burns. He became a lecturer at the Hindu College (now Presidency college), where he was able to attract a talented group of students by the force of his free thinking ways, and the brilliance of his closely-reasoned lectures. The group would often meet at Derozio's house, defying their hindu upper-caste backgrounds by eating pork and beef, and drinking 'tumblers of beer'. He edited several magazines where apothegms like this would appear: He who will not reason is a bigot, he who cannot reason is a fool, and he who does not reason is a slave. Cast off your prejudices, be free in your thought and actions. Break down everything old and rear in its stead what is new. The Indian management group at Hindu college eventually took offense to his iconoclastic ways, and he was compelled to resign in 1831. The same year he contracted cholera, and despite the loving care by his proteges, he was to die at the meager age of 22, which became part of his mystique. Among Eurasians, he argued for closer integration with the interests of native Indians. His poem The Harp of India, may be one of the first nationalist poems in English: Oh! when our country writhes in galling chains When her proud masters scourge her like a dog; If her wild cry be borne upon the gale, Our bosoms to the melancholy sound Should swell, and we should rush to her relief, Like some, at an unhappy parent's wail! And when we know the flash of patriot swords Is unto spirits longing to be free p.47 -- Frederick Noronha Books from Goa :: http://goa1556.goa-india.org