A Journal of Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya

Sahai, Nagendra, Bhagwat Sharan Upadhyay
and Ram Swarup Chaturvedi recognized
Agyeya as a revolutionary writer. Many
Hindi critics, a huge number of Hindi readers
and students have liked ‘Shekhar : Ek Jivani’
very much and this is corroborated by
the fact that this novel is still popular
among young generation and many young
researchers have re-discovered many
nuances of this novel in many universities
of India and abroad.
It is notable that Agyeya openly spoke
for individual freedom at any cost and
he evaluated any person, organisation,
government or society by this parameter.
Once he vividly remarked, “Freedom is
the foundation wall of other values.
Freedom is the goal of human being as
well as the evidence of his humanity.”
Shekhar, the hero of the novel, is as much
modern and revolutionary as Agyeya
himself was. Since his very childhood he
was a rebel and negated worldly comforts
and desired the liberation of the self from
the worldly comforts and also desired the
liberation of the self from the worldly
affairs. Needless to say that the sources
of his revolt are existentialism and
modernism - and these are obviously
associated with romanticism. He used to
be bored with the short stories with moral
teachings. He did not consider anything
impossible, sinful or unethical. In this novel
the patriarchy has been challenged in
different ways as the hero openly states
to destroy the conspiracy of distrust in
women and of considering them as sinful.
The educated heroine, Shashi, is married
to an administrative officer, Rameshwar,
despite her unwillingness. Once Shashi stays
at night with her cousin (Shekhar) and
therefore her husband and in-laws blame
her of loose character and oust her from
their house. Her kidney gets damaged due
to Rameshwar’s beating and kicking and
later she dies. Thus the cruel patriarchal
system destroys the intellect, freedom and
dignity of a woman. However, it is surprising
that the novelist depicts Shekhar’s character
as a revolutionary rather than Shashi’s
when the latter stays at night with the
former. Further despite her unwillingness
Shashi was married to Rameshwar at the
advice of her mother and when she went
to Shekhar for blessing, he was annoyed.
But often Shekhar thinks of her welfare
in order to prove his greatness - and
this fact corroborates his individualistic
existentialism. Similarly, when Shekhar goes
to a prostitute and a half - naked girl
begs him for money by catching hold of
him, he, seeing flowers of kumud being
sold nearby, suddenly remembers the
natural beauty of Kashmir and runs away
from there. Here he does not question
and revolt against the social evil of
prostitution-which symbolises patriarchy—
rather he simply escapes. This shows the
cowardice of the hero because he is an
angry youngman as in most of Hindi movies
but his anger is not properly channelised
for a cause of major social change. Actually
his rebel character does not struggle with
the existing circumstances of exploitation
and subordination. His words are not
transformed into deeds. Thus there is
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