fहndi - Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya

names. For them the past of India is a'foreign' thing. Because of their influencemany intellectuals in Hindi belt see Hindiassociated with 'Hindu' they do not seeKabeer's condemnation of feudalism, tothem he seems to be immersed in lovepoetry only. And Hindi neo-awakeningappears to them 'Hindu' neo-awakening.They could see only caste and man'sadoration of it. Bhartendu, Premchand andNirala all appear to be villains to them.It is not that whatever facts are put forwardthey are wrong. Rather whateverconclusions they get from those facts arewrong, because many other facts areignored.This is not a discussion between pastand present but it is imposing present onthe past. In the world of thoughts this isthe fashion today. This is 'use and throw'relationship with the past which nevercreates anything. It survives only onbreaking. He tries to seek his thought'shome like a snail or oyster shell, findssupreme bliss in narrowness. There will beharm if he steps out of it and if he extendedhis criticism only a bit he senses danger.This is what imperialism wants, i.e. to takeout the spine of any culture so that peopleforget their long struggle against feudalismand imperialism. He says like old colonialistthat your past is decaying, burn it.The political aggression of the past onthe present is resurrections, and theaggression of present on the past issubalternism. The interaction between thefgndi •past and present is possible only when firstwe believe that everything in past is notgood or everything in the past is notrubbish also. When the communalawakening of the anti-intellectual scholarswho go to the past with some politicalmotive, for the consideration of politicalpower they look at the past as a floatingblanket in the river. Had it been a bearthey would have caught it. They feel theydo not get anything out of it, they wouldrather wish to leave it, but it's not possibleas it would not leave them. Now thesalvation is possible only by killing the bear,or may be the disciple has to jump intothe river to destroy it.The writings of Ram Vilas Sharma aresuch discussion between past and presentwhich takes us towards love for life,opposition against injustice, logic, labour,culture and national reawakening. For himpast is not only a few ancient scripts, somemirror or a chanced quail in his hand. Hegoes to the past with his communalismand nationalism. For him Hindu race andIndia both are important. Definitely he sees'national' and 'rational' by combining themtogether. In his criticism he carries togetherthe basic abstracts of both racial awakeningand intellectualism of neo-awakening.Actually only then there can be intimatecritical interaction between the past andpresent. The type of relations Ram VilasSharma makes with the past is where thatpast changes our concerns with it. Makingretail relationship with past is different fromApril-June 2013 :: 45