India Progressive Writers Association; *7:Arxicm
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 124 936 CS 202 742 ccpp-.1a, CsIrlo. Ed. Marxist Influences and South Asaan li-oerazure.South ;:sia Series OcasioLal raper No. 23,Vol. I. Michijar East Lansing. As:,an Studies Center. PUB rAIE -74 NCIE 414. 7ESF ME-$C.8' HC-$11.37 Pius ?cstage. 22SCrIP:0:", *Asian Stud,es; 3engali; *Conference reports; ,,Fiction; Hindi; *Literary Analysis;Literary Genres; = L_tera-y Tnfluences;*Literature; Poetry; Feal,_sm; *Socialism; Urlu All India Progressive Writers Association; *7:arxicm 'ALZT:AL: Ti.'__ locument prasen-ls papers sealing *viithvarious aspects of !',arxi=it 2--= racyinfluence, and more specifically socialisr al sr, ir inlia, Pakistan, "nd Bangladesh.'Included are articles that deal with _Aich subjects a:.the All-India Progressive Associa-lion, creative writers in Urdu,Bengali poets today Inclian poetry iT and socialist realism, socialist real.Lsm anu the Inlion nov-,-1 in English, the novelistMulk raj Anand, the poet Jhaverchan'l Meyhani, aspects of the socialistrealist verse of Sandaram and mash:: }tar Yoshi, *socialistrealism and Hindi novels, socialist realism i: modern pos=y, Mohan Bakesh andsocialist realism, lashpol from tealist to hcmanisc. (72) y..1,**,,A4-1.--*****=*,,,,k**-.4-**--4.*x..******************.=%.****** acg.u.re:1 by 7..-IC include many informalunpublished :Dt ,Ivillable from othr source r.LrIC make::3-4(.--._y effort 'c obtain 1,( ,t c-;;,y ava:lable.fev,?r-rfeless, items of marginal * are oft =.ncolntered and this affects the quality * * -n- a%I rt-irodu::tior:; i:";IC makes availahl 1: not quali-y o: th< original document.reproductiour, ba, made from the original. * 1),1, 1:, -h- 1F- -h:- -t,*.m.-4t-60,,,k.***:.-**A*i4A4.****,,,******v*****gk***A****.A4x****** . S DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF r EDUCATION AFEN RE-PP° E E T. ,F,../F "OM / O. CP r N . , ,f c ,t. cE Or MARXIST INFLUENCES AND SOUTH ASIAN LITERATURE Volume I ;)erIe- )(_ a 1n.IJPiper No. 23 Winter 1974 Published Asian Studies Centel Michigan State University East Lansing, Michigan CARLO COPPO:A FDITOR CONTENTS VOLUME I FOREWORD THE ALL -INDIA PROGRESSIVE WRITERS'ASSOCIATION: THE EUROPEAN PHASE Carlo Coppola 1- THE PROGRESSIVE WRITERS' MOVEMENT ANDCREATIVE WRITERS IN URDU Ahmed Ali 35 A PERSONAL VIEW OF THE PROGRESSIVEWRITERS' MOVEMENT 45 Frabhakar Machwe BENGALI POETS TODAY: THE CONFLICT OF SELF AND THE WORLD Amitendcanath Tagore 55 INDIAN POETRY IN ENGLISH AND SOCIALISTREALISM 61 R. K. Kaushik SOCIALIST REALISM AND THE INDIAN NOVEL INENGLISH 89 R. K. Kaushik MULK RAJ ANAND: THE NOVELIST AS NOVELIST Marlene Fisher 117 JHAVERCHAND M'EGHANI: THE PEOPLE'S POET Gopalan V. Gopalan 131 ASPECTS OF THE SOCIALIST REALIST VERSE OFSUNDARA4ANDUMASHANKAR JOSHI 147 Panua Ndik SOCIALIST REALISM AND HINDI NOVELS Yogendta K. Malik 159 SOCIALIS1 REALISM IN MODERN HINDI POETRY 177 Anjani Kumar Sinha COMMENT ON MOH N RAKESH AND SOCIALISTREALISM 193 Frederick W. Blackwell THE EvoLrrioN OF YASCPAL FROM SOCIALISTREALIST TO HUMANIST L,rinne Friend 201 FOREWORD It is obvious to any student ofmodern South Asian literatures that Mrxism, together with its literaryhandmaiden, Socialist Realism, has left a profound impres,fion onboth the form and content of theseliteratures. While there are a number of studies in theindividual languages dealing with Marxism and its effects on that particularliterature, there is not, to my knowledge, a study, either in a South Asianlanguage or it English, which traces the development of this estheticsin its various guises across linguistic boundries on the subcontinent.Allusions to the fact that all, or nearly all, South Asian literatures were affected invarying degrees and for varying lengths of time by Marxism are plentiful; the"hows," "whys," and "wherefores" are generally left unanswered. colicction, then, is a small start -- the merest &top in the proverbial buAct towards answering these questions on an all-South Asia level. It is hoped that these essays will prompt other scholars topick up where we have left off and to proceed in such a way as to produce afull, comprehensive pl:.ture of the effects of Marxism inthe literatures of South Asia. Hopefully, we will not have to wait too long for such a picture to emerge. The immediate genesis of this volume was a panel entitled"Socialist Realism in the South Asian Context" held at the Twenty-FourthAnnual Meeting of the A:,,,iation for Asian Studies held in New York on29 March 1972, As organizer and chairman for the panel,I solicited a total of forty papers dealing with various aspects of Marxist literary influence. and morespecifi- illy Socialist ReAlism, in India, PekisLan and Bangladesh. Clearly such a large number of papers could not be accomodated atthe meeting itself. How- ever, those which could be presentedwould serve as a nucleus for a collection which would later be published. In solicitiag thdse papers I tried to keep a number or point:, in mind. First, that as _57 South Asian languages as p' S1ble should lie repr.,sented. Hence, at least one, and in some cases two United States I we:c soll,ited from scholars not only for the and South Asia, but from Europe and Canada as well. IL most instances, a br gad survey was sought from one sC-rolar, then another wasasked to write a ple,_e on a more particular genre or even on aparticular author. bile nest :,0:t in this arrangement, as it turned out, were dealing wit!) 1;terrture- rhe so(_ood point considered was that as many diverse points of view shoeI he reprented: Marxist, non-Marxist, anti-Marxist, etc. Hence, -hulni!, with widely diYeigent points of view including the then highest- r,tning r)embot flit India Pr-Ngressi,,_ Writer:;' Association, the late Zaheer, an! ttit f(Q-c2MOSt American Marxist historian -- were asked to pipers or A third point was that not onlyscholari,, but writers who were involved in the leftist literar movcAents in;,,,uth Asia, saould be approa_hed them Ahmed Ali and Prabhakar for pieces. Hence, maor literary figuce-,, Among Machwe, were asked co submit articles which,it was understood, would take the form of -reminiscences or memoirs. artistic genres -- Lastly, i felt that not only literature, but other such as theatre, films and painting should also be treated in this same general context. Hence, specialists in each of these area were approached. Since nearly everyone asked to write a paperagreed .te do so, the situation seemed ideal. However, as the deadline for papers approaches, not evenhalt ot those promised arrived. In addition, a number of participants withwhit could be termed Marxist views either withdrew orsimply refused to communicate further- on the question of the panel and papersfor it. Thus the gaps which appear in this collection are northe result of a lack of perspective or good intentions, of careful planning or foresight, but werethe result of something will appear at some later else. Hoperully some of these other "promised" essays SIN., tor, indeed, one would like to knowabout Marxist influences in Tamil, Kannada and Oriya, one would be interested inlearning of the Socialist Realist elements in the poetry of Qa2i Nasrul Islam,Samar Sen and the Bengali Naxalite poets; one would like to be able to connectSocialist Realism in Malayalam to the short stories of Muhammad Bashir; inaddition, one would like to be informed ot IL Marxist aspects ot the film(song,3 of SahirLudhianvi and the movie scripts of,Khwaja Ahmed Abbas, etc., etc. In the meantime, we do have in thearticles 'presented here a wo:Ilth of information, facts andinterpretations regarding Maixism and Socialist Realism in SouthAsi:In literature Originally, this collection was to have beenentitled "Socialist Realism However, in the South AsianContext," the same name as the New York AAS panel. the nature and scope of these papers are notconfined strictly to the literary doctrine of Socialist Realism, hut, in fact,address themselves for tho most Hen,,, part to the larger, broader phenomenaof Marxism and Marxist influences the present title. In arranging these artiLles for publication,several conflicting criteria were used. First, the good manners of the editormight be called into question tor having placed his articlefirst. This piece on the earliest phases ot the Progressive Writers' Association does,however, lend a historical perspective to the MAtement and to much otwhat is said in subsequent articles. Because Ali and Prabhakar Machwe were associatedwith the Progressive Writers' Association either directly or tangentially, theirarticles have been bet apart tram the others as primary sourcesrather than as pieces of scholarship, the remainder of the articles are categorizedaccording to the language group with which they deal. Within this rubric, the more general articlehas been placed ttrst, followed h',the more specific. If this criterion was not applicable, then the articles under the language werelisted alphabetically according to the author's last name. lhe language groups were then alphabetizedin the and biblThs tpuit ";anner con' -ii nly ',oath Asi,tn Li te cary ii Following the articlt,- md !lary Lago, For the s,ke a- 0' a % H at '1111),:.1.,_ h 1e enj the roster fromthe Association 1 t H or .3, IR, lar IV and more accor it t.)1 in tr ri 1 it cIt. in. vernacular wojks, titles, names nge of footnote and 1) 0)1iographical it -; L tar lv, i 1 ("''(1 in the vaz ions articles. My initial impulse , y 1 1 i nn to regularize footnotes and trans- !, i a. l ,ontrIhutor litetati,ls ord:11 to a slugle model. Such an idea, while rather engaging impractical from :1 1min btrtspetive5 proved to he not only highly polnr, oI rimo and the editor's sanity, but also crueland unjust t, ,,,don whom I had already imposed rather h2avil with demands Hence, the to: mi expan:-41oi,-,, deadlines and other such requests.