A Journal of Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya

Replying to this, Gandhiji in ‘Young
India’ said— “ the poet lives in the future,
and feels, we too, should do the same.
He sketches the beautiful picture of the
morning bird before our appreciating eyes.
The bird who soars in the skies sings with
rapture. But these singing birds have already
fed themselves for the day, their tired
wings have taken rest as well, and fresh
blood runs in their veins. But I have the
misfortune to see those birds of flight
whose wings have become so weak, that
they cannot soar in the sky. In India
the human bird who pretends to sleep
under the sky at night, is very weak. And
when he gets up at morn he is weaker
still. For millions of people living under
the sky of India, their lives are either
an endless waiting or a dejected stupor.
Under the prevailing conditions, it is
impossible for me to offer the consolation
of Kabir’s Bhajans to the suffering millions”.
If, anyone has accurately portrayed
with compassion, Gandhiji’s hungry, starving
birds, capable of soaring the skies,
but groveling beneath, it is Premchand.
Like Gandhiji, Premchand too, was concerned
with the existing reality.
Premchand’s gaze was focused on reality
of his motherland, where, millions of people
were passing through a phase of endless
stupor, living in a state of unconsciousness.
Unlike his contemporaries, he could not
enjoy the luxury of leaving his suffering
millions behind, in order to soar in the
rainbow-colored skies, and bask in its
glorious beauty. Premchand lived in ground
reality and hence renounced high flights
of imagination. In order to depict reality
vividly, he took the risk of adopting realism
in an age that was chiefly romantic.
Namwar Singh, born 1926, at village Jeeyanpur, Varanasi, is the most
prominent literary critic of Hindi. His scholarly stature is revealed
in the literary discourses he has undertaken. His views have often
resulted in creating a point of departure to the stereotypes of literary
thought. He has been professor of Hindi at Sagar, Jodhpur and Jawaharlal
Nehru Universities, where he is professor emeritus as well. At present
he is Chancellor of M.G. Antar-rashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, Wardha
and Chief Editor of ‘Alochna’ a quarterly magazine of literary criticism.
He writes pre-eminently in Hindi. Some of Dr. Namwar Singh’s published
works are: ‘Bakalam Khud: Hindi ke vikas mein apbhransh ka yog’;
‘kahani, nai kahani’; ‘kavita ke naye pratiman’; ‘doosri parampara
ki khoj’; ‘chhayavad’; ‘vad, vivad, samvad’; ‘kehna na hoga’; ‘alochak
ke mukh se’; ‘Hindi ka gadyaparva’; ‘zamane se do do hath’; ‘kavita
ki zameen aur zameen ki kavita’; ‘premchand aur bhartiya samaj’.
He lives in New Delhi. He has received a great number of literary
honours.
44 :: January-March 2012