A Journal of Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya LANGUAGE DISCOURSE WRITING Volume 6 July-September 2011 Editor Mamta Kalia Kku 'kkafr eS=kh Published by Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University Hindi : Language, Discourse, Writing A Quarterly Journal of Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya Volume 6 Number 3 July-September 2011 R.N.I. No. DELENG 11726/29/1/99-Tc © Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya No Material from this journal should be reproduced elsewhere without the permission of the publishers. The publishers or the editors need not necessarily agree with the views expressed in the contributions to the journal. Editor : Mamta Kalia Editorial Assistant : Madhu Saxena Cover Design : Vazda Khan Editorial Office : A-73, Lajpat Nagar-I New Delhi-110 024 Mob. : 9212741322 Sales & Distribution Office : Publication Department, Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya Post Manas Mandir, Gandhi Hills, Wardha - 442 001 (Maharashtra) India Subscription Rates : Single Issue : Rs. 100/- Annual - Individual : Rs. 400/- Institutions : Rs. 600/- Overseas : Seamail : Single Issue : $ 20 Annual : $ 60 Airmail : Single Issue : $ 25 Annual : $ 75 Published By : Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, Wardha Publication in charge : Dr. Birpal Singh Yadav, e-mail : [email protected], Phone : 07152-232943/9272132803 Circulation in charge : Mr. Dan Singh Negi, e-mail : [email protected] Phone : 07152-232943/9665145282 All enquiries regarding subscription should be directed to the Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, Wardha Printed at : Ruchika Printers, Delhi-110 032 (Mobile : 09212796256) 2 :: July-September 2011 LANGUAGE DISCOURSE WRITING July-September 2011 Contents Heritage Modern (Post-War) Hindi Poetry S.H. Vatsyayan 7 Short Story The Story of two Bullocks Premchand 20 The Old Toy Maker Upendra Nath Ashk 32 Cremation of a Jungle Swayam Prakash 38 Tamarinds Prem Kumar Mani 45 Poetry Two Poems Bhavani Prasad Mishra 5 1 Three Poems Kailash Vajpeyi 60 A Poem Meira Kumar 63 Do Not Sell Me, Papa! Jitendra Rathore 66 Discourse Nagarjun’s Poetic Arena Namwar Singh 7 0 Has Hindi been defeated by English Shivapujan Sahay 7 6 Rural Travesties : Shukla’s Rag Darbari Rupert Snell 83 July-September 2011 :: 3 Premchand’s Views on Hindu Muslim Unity Madan Gopal 108 Nagarjun’s ‘Balchanma’ : A Socioloy of Literature Perspective Subhash Sharma 1 1 7 Towards Establishing Enduring Ties Between India and Japan Through Literature Teiji Sakata 123 Language Translation As A Dialogic Activity Minu Manjari 130 Films Modi And His Films Amrit Gangar 145 Book Review Shrilal Shukla’s Raag Darbari Rupert Snell 153 Hindi Alochana Ka Vampaksha Nilima Mishra 1 5 7 4 :: July-September 2011 Editor's Note The world of writers and writing is quite unique. It undertakes a voyage of exploration with very little plan or project. The writer is moved by an inner rhythm and often he is as surprised as the reader by the discoveries he makes while developing a daydream. A writer’s craft and conviction can generate life and breath in some of the most remote situations. Thus we have Premchand personifying two bullocks and giving them the highest human attributes in ‘do bailon ki katha’. The short story acquires the status of a fable in this regard. The conclusions are natural and humane without any attempt at sermonising, Upendranath Ashk uses the symbol of clay toys in an equally dexterous manner bringing alive the short story in a very natural way. Swayam Prakash is equally deft at conveying a message in ‘Cremation of a jungle’. We acknowledge S.H. Vatsyayan Agyey’s presence in Hindi by bringing you his rare article on post war modern Hindi poetry that was first published seventy four years ago in 1937 in The Vishwabharti Quarterly in two instalments. It is not always easy to reconcile with Agyeyji’s views on poets and poetry but he was different to the point of being disturbing. Shri Bharat Bhardwaj, editor ‘Pustak- Varta’ has unearthed this archival material for which we feel grateful to him. S.H. Vatsyayan ‘Agyey’ intrigues us as much by his writings as by his persona. He assumed many identities as if one proper noun was insufficient for him. It is said Vatsyayanji acquired the Agyey identity through the correspondence between stalwarts like Premchand and Jainendra Kumar. The cusp of this classic christening could be traced in his revolutionary days when Agyey was behind bars. He wrote and sent a few short stories to Premchand. Premchand liked one of those and shared the experience with Jainendra Kumar. Jainendraji, said, ‘But who is the author? What’s his name?’ Premchandji said, ‘I cannot say who he is. You can call him Mr. Anonymous or Agyey? Thus Agyey was born. In the beginning Agyeyji did not like this name but later he adjusted to it since the Hindi heartland welcomed this pen name. In his centenary year a fresh debate has erupted about Agyey’s personality and placement in the literary world, namely what do we call him, a revolutionary or a reactionary, a patriot or a spy? Much has been written July-September 2011 :: 5 for and against the proposition. As writers we draw some solace from Faulkner’s views that a writer’s responsibility is totally to his art, he will be completely ruthless if he is a good one. In our poetry section we have classic and contemporary poets like Bhavani Prasad Mishra, Kailash Vajpeyi, Meira Kumar and Jitendra Rathore. Our great scholar Dr. Namwar Singh writers about Nagarjun’s poetry and he picks some unusual poems of the poet. Younger critic Subhash Sharma has some revealing observations on Nagarjun’s first novel ‘Balchanma’. Much has been done to establish and propagate Hindi in foreign universities by western scholars. Rupert Snell holds a unique place in this galaxy since he took up the task of analysing Shrilal Shukla’s different and difficult novel ‘Rag Darbari’. His views as a reviewer on the novel’s translation are equally important. Shrilal Shukla’s novel is one such work of art that has provoked varied research not only in Hindi but in other languages of the world. The latest laurel for Shrilal Shukla is that he has been honoured with Jnanpith Award for the year 2009. The Films column appears after a hiatus because of space crunch. Contributors are welcome to send us on line articles on language, films and books at [email protected] Visit HINDI on Internet: www.hindivishwa.org 6 :: July-September 2011 MODERN (POST-WAR) HINDI POETRY S.H. Vatsyayan The Periodising of poetry, indeed of literature in general, must ever remain an arbitrary process. Providence does not move in well defined steps, its movements are rather like the formless undulating progress of the snail. The process of division becomes more arbitrary and even dangerous when one talks of a ‘period’ that is too recent to Heritage be placed in perspective and examined in retrospect. Yet this arbitrary division has its reasons as well as its uses, and is generally intelligible to everyone. Each arbitrary period has certain characteristics of form, of content, of tone, purpose or ideal. Two poets of the same period examined at close range may not only be very different from each other but may even have affinities with a poet or poets belonging to a different period; yet it will be discovered that in some essential respect they are of a kind. This essential is the spirit of the age. In all poetry of any worth, there are discernible two governing influences—the poet’s own per- sonality, and the spirit of the age. The personal quality of a poet is obvious to the sensitive reader from the first; the spirit of the age is rarely understood by the age itself. This spirit becomes apparent only when one period is examined in relation to its predecessors and when an attempt is made to understand the forces and influences working on the poets of each age. The subject of the present paper is ‘Modern (Post-war) Hindi July-September 2011 :: 7 Poetry’ The writer is fully aware that his to young men to come to the rescue of choice is not a happy one. The task of the Empire, Indian youths did not take tracing out definite lines of progress in to the army, if only because the gov- the present labyrinth of conflict and con- ernment in India has always been sus- fusion, of inert apathy and electric urgency, picious of the educated Indian youth. is one that would have appalled Daedalus, Be that as it may, the fact remains and it is nothing short of impudence in that the monster of war did not cast its the present writer to hope to perform dark shadow over Indian literature. And it in any measure of success. In failure though a few isolated attempts at picturing he will not even have the satisfaction of the naked realities of war may be found knowing that the subject was thrust upon in contemporary literature { chiefly in him. Yet he was one author and a rep- fiction), so far as the majority of our writers resentative of his age himself, he will, are concerned the war might not have even in failure, have expressed two of taken place at all. the characteristics he will presently ex- amine: namely, a perplexity with the The utility, therefore, of fixing the war problems of an age that moves too fast, as a dividing point between two periods a perplexity bordering on despair; and may not be immediately apparent. Yet an almost overweening self-confidence any one who has watched Indian affairs which is in reality the instinct of self- at all carefully cannot but notice that the preservation seeking the last resort of de- indirect influence of the war brought about spair.