UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Cold War Poetics of Muktibodh: a Study of Hindi Internationalism, 1943-1964 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/16r585zd Author Goulding, Gregory Young Publication Date 2015 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California e Cold War Poetics o“ Muktibodhś a Study o“ indi Internationalism, 1Ś43-1Ś64 bffl Gregorffl Yoffng Gofflding A dissertation sffbmited in partial satisfaction of the reqffirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophffl in Soffth and Sofftheast Asian Stffdies and the Designated Emphasis in Critical heorffl in the Gradffate Difiision of the Unifiersitffl of California, Berṭeleffl Commitee in chargeś Professor Vasffdha Dalmia, Chair Professor Robert Kafffman Professor Laflrence Cohen Professor Michael Mascffch Professor Vasffdha Paramasifian Fall 2015 e Cold War Poetics o“ Muktibodhś a Study o“ indi Internationalism, 1Ś43-1Ś64 Copfflright 2015 bffl Gregorffl Yoffng Gofflding 1 Abstract The Cold War Poetics of Muktibodh: a Study of Hindi Internationalism, 1943­1964 by Gregory Young Goulding Doctor of Philosophy in South and Southeast Asian Studies Designated Emphasis in Critical Theory University of California, Berkeley Professor Vasudha Dalmia, Chair My dissertation deals with the poetry, short fiction, and critical writing of Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh (1917­1964). In my dissertation I argue that Muktibodh's work—in spite of or even because of its conscious affiliation to a Marxist idea of international revolution and progress—presents a critique of postcolonial modernity rooted in the experience of the post­Independence middle class. Through an account of the ways in which his writings were able to bring into poetic life a range of issues—not least the imagination of an alternative globality in the wake of Indian independence—a picture emerges of the hopes and anxieties of an emerging lower middle class beginning to speak on a global stage. My work relies on a methodology of close readings of Muktibodh's work with an attention to the formal qualities of language, situated in a theoretical understanding based upon Critical and Postcolonial Theory. In my first chapter, I discuss the life and reception of Muktibodh, who has been a central figure in Hindi literary criticism since his early death in 1964. In the first part of this chapter I examine Muktibodh's life and career, with special attention to the influence of Central India and its distinct literary culture. I then examine Muktibodh's reception, focusing on two main stages. In the first, roughly within the decade after his death, Muktibodh's works are seen as a referendum on debates over aesthetics and politics that dominated Hindi criticism in the 1950s. In the second, which takes place in the late 1970s, Muktibodh is seen as a uniquely prophetic figure, even as he is reinterpreted to fit contemporary concerns. The second chapter of my dissertation examines Muktibodh's interest in science and technology. This interest, typically overlooked in criticism of Muktibodh, brings into light Muktibodh's engagement with the discourse of science and technology in the context of the Cold War. In this chapter, through the examination of his poetry and fiction, I show how Muktibodh used the language and thematics of science and technology to raise questions about India's new relationship to the international. 2 The third and fourth chapters of this dissertation analyze in detail the formal evolution of Muktibodh's poetry towards the “Long Poem” for which he is most known. By tracing the sources of the Long Poem both to the influence of the Chāyāvād [Romantic] poet Jayshankar ​ Prasad, as well as the influence of modernist Marathi poetry on the bilingual Muktibodh, I show how Muktibodh's long poem emerges as a unique form in Hindi modernism, one rooted in the literary culture of Central India in which he worked. This chapter therefore demonstrates the complex networks through which Hindi poetry developed. In my fourth chapter, I compare “Aṁdhere meṁ,” which is Muktibodh's most well­known long poem, with the more obscure “Bhaviṣyadhārā.” This chapter shows how “Aṁdhere meṁ,'' even as it depicts a nightmarish version of contemporary reality, takes as its subject the role of the autonomous imagination in engaging with the world. These chapters, in analyzing Muktibodh's long poem, point towards the possibilities of a formal analysis of modernist Hindi poetry, and its importance for understanding larger trends in intellectual, cultural, and literary history. The final two chapters take up Muktibodh's views towards realism and genre, issues that are present in the discussion of the long poem, but emphasized here in an investigation of his short fiction and criticism. In the fifth chapter, I use an analysis of several of Muktibodh's short stories in order to examine his ideas about genre, and the problem of a post­Independence reality in which social relations seemed to resist a straightforward, realist depiction. Rather than view Muktibodh's short fiction as unfinished or stagnant, I examine the moments in these stories in which fables, frame stories, and metanarrative devices interrogate ideas of realism. The final sixth chapter of my dissertation analyzes Muktibodh's criticism, showing how he used a critique of Realism to develop an aesthetics centered on the critical imagination. Through an examination of Muktibodh's criticism across his career, I show how a contradiction between narrative and the poetic image eventually develops into an critique of realism, based on readings in Marxist and romantic aesthetic theory. My research not only contributes to an emerging scholarship of post­Independence Hindi, but also develops an understanding of the contribution of Hindi and other South Asian languages to postcolonial literature. I argue that taking account of Muktibodh's writings is crucial towards forming a model of World Literature that accounts for the experience of India following independence, and the unique perspectives on the international developed by South Asian literatures. My dissertation therefore acts as a corrective to studies of global modernism that privilege literatures written in European languages and view non­European literatures as fundamentally local in scope. In addition, by analyzing the unique way in which Muktibodh combined Marxism with a global Hindi internationalism, my dissertation reveals new ways of understanding the literary and intellectual history of the Cold War. Research that situates writers such as Muktibodh in an international context can thus help to illuminate networks of alternative, postcolonial modernisms in the twentieth century. i to Emma, flherefier fle are ii Contents Contents ii 1 Introduction 1 2 Muktibodh’s Li“e and Reception 24 3 A raph o“ Errorsś e Lan”ua”e o“ Science in Muktibodh’s Writin”s 46 4 Muktibodh’s Lon” Poem between indi and Marathi 74 5 e Possibilities o“ the Lon” Poemś Bhaviṣyadhārā and Aṁdhere Meṁ ŚŚ 6 Muktibodh’s Prose iction and the estion o“ the Real 131 7 Even i“ ey are Ima”inaryś Muktibodh’s Aesthetic ou”ht and the Obli”ation o“ the Real 153 8 Conclusion 180 Primarffl Soffrces in Hindi and Marathi . 187 Primarffl Soffrces in Translation . 188 Secondarffl Soffrces in Hindi and Marathi . 18Ś Secondarffl Soffrces in English and in Translation . 1Ś1 iii Anowled”ments his florṭ onlffl effiists becaffse of the manffl people flho hafie helped me along the flaffl. It is a prifiilege and a Ṭoffl to thanṭ them here. Mffl commitee members hafie been a constant soffrce of encoffragement, and their gffidance and perspectifie flill be fiisible throffghofft this dissertation. Mffl adfiiser, Vasffdha Dalmia, has been as great an interlocfftor as coffld be hoped for; mffl approach to the stffdffl of Hindi flill alflaffls be gffided bffl the long confiersations that shaped this florṭ. Her sffpport throffghofft mffl career as a gradffate stffdent has not onlffl made this florṭ possible, bfft has gifien me a model for lifiing a life of rigor and responsibilitffl in academia. Robert Kafffman, flho has also been mffl adfiiser in Critical heorffl, has helped me to become a beter flriter and thinṭer, and mffl florṭ flill continffe to be strffctffred bffl the foffndation in aesthetics and critical theorffl that I gained throffgh his teaching and effiample. Michael Mascffch has been a tireless sffpporter of mffl florṭ, and helped me see the larger eld of mffl dissertation at those times flhen I felt as if I had tffmbled into a darṭ flell. Efierffl confiersation I hafie had flith Laflrence Cohen has had an indelible impact on mffl proṬect; his insight has led me to nefl discofieries in the teffit and in the florld that I coffld not hafie imagined otherflise. Vasffdha Paramasifian has been a great sffpport, and mffl ffnderstanding of Soffth Asian literatffre has been immeasffrablffl broadened bffl offr readings of earlffl modern Hindi. I hafie also been lffcṭffl enoffgh to hafie been a stffdent in the Department of Soffth and Soffth- east Asian Stffdies, mffl home for nearlffl nine fflears and the site of some of mffl fondest memories. I floffld liṭe to especiallffl thanṭ Aleffiander fion Rospat, Penelope Edflards, and Jereffl Hadler; each, both in their administratifie capacitffl as flell as throffgh their ṭindness and collegialitffl, made me feel at home in SSEAS. his became especiallffl trffe, and especiallffl important, in the nal fflears of mffl dissertation, flhen I flas florṭing remotelffl from Chicago and India. Robert Goldman has been a friendlffl presence in the department since mffl rst daffls, and Sallffl Goldman has gifien me a life-long appreciation for the Ṭoffls of grammar and carefffl atention to a teffit throffgh teaching me Sansṭrit. It flas a Ṭoffl to stffdffl Hindi flith Usha Jain, both in mffl rst semester at Berṭeleffl, as flell flhen I flas rst beginning to serioffslffl read Mffṭtibodh.