I went to visit the Patna Book Fair today (11/12/2007). And trust me, I was impressed. A voice blaring on the loud speaker told me that it was the second-largest book fair in the nation – second only to Kolkata’s book fair – and I was inclined to believe it. Some of the best publication houses had their stalls and had chosen to come up with some rare collections and publications at concession rates, much to the bibliophile’s delight.
Stall after stall I walked slowly, almost awed by the collection. I had not read many Hindi books after Hindi stopped to be a part of my academic curriculum nearly ten years ago. A beautiful feeling of nostalgia washed over me as I recalled the half-forgotten names like Yashpal, Sumitranandan Pant, Krishan Chandar, Mohan Rakesh, Jayshankar Prasad, Mahadevi Verma, Subhadra Kumari Chauhan – whose short stories, essays and poems had been part of my syllabus. More names popped up before my eyes that I remembered hearing in my grandpa’s literary discussions with his friends. Fanishwarnath Renu, Jainendra, Aashapurna Devi, Ramvriksha Benipuri, Harimohan Jha. Then some familiar names, with unfamiliar books. Munshi Premchand, Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar', Maithilisharan Gupt, Surykant Tripathi ‘Nirala’. (Arey ye bhi unki kitaab hai? You get the feeling?)
As I heard my grandpa exchange pleasantries with the stall-keeper, I rued.
Hitherto, I have considered my library a nice big fat one, having everything from Mahabharata to Julius Caesar and from Mirza Ghalib to Gulzar.
I rued that I had ever thought my library to be complete.
Hitherto, I have thought that I have done justice to Hindi – my grandpa did not let me read English until I was twelve years of age, and had mastered my mother tongue. And it is not for nothing that my post graduate classmates call me ‘naniji’ till date.
I rued that I had thought I had done justice to Hindi.
For my library missed the books and short stories and poetry written by the gems I named above! Where I should have possessed the complete works of most of these men and women of glory, I had only Dinkar’s Rashmirathi! How did I even dare to think that my library was complete? True, my grandpa has most of those books in his own library, but I hadn't explored even 1o% of his collection, thinking there was all the time in the world and that I should try to buy something that he did not have.
What had I been reading in the name of Hindi all my life? Translated works from English and vernacular Indian languages! Fie on thee, Miss Singh!
And then another shocking truth hit me.
All the names on display were old names. All the names were parts of fond memories.
I began to wonder why the 21st century had failed, until now, to yield its pound of young flesh to Hindi Literature – and since the thought had come on the heels of my own inadequacies, I got my answer fast enough!
Who reads Hindi these days? I asked this of myself.
The Premchands, the Dinkars, the Yashpals, the Mahadevi Vermas are asking the Vikram Seths, the Anita Desais, the Arundhati Roys –
Who writes in Hindi these days?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
24 comments:
I liked the tune of this post.
And I have been subjected to the same treatment too...
And I feel there are many good books written in regional languages which we would never read.
When I learnt Assamese I read two of the best books of my life.
Do not you think, to write in Hindi, somebody would have to read Hindi first.
I feel the problem lies in people not reading...
Do not you think, to write in Hindi, somebody would have to read Hindi first.
That is exactly what I think. I was pitying myself for my lack of knowledge of Hindi authors, and then immediately later wondered why people were not writing in Hindi. Publishers are businessmen who won't supply that which is not in demand. We are not reading in Hindi anymore. As for vernacular languages - the less said about un-fashionable languages like Assamese and Maithili, the better! It is a very very sorry state indeed.
u just forgot but last month u complimented me dat i have a fresh fragrance of this language....... so heres d answer to ur last question of d post.....
:-)
while i tended to agree with u here at first.. but later while still reading the post, it just occured to me, HINDI is actually not very important as a language, as it is not a very old or widely understood.
And so i'd rather have more ppl writing in english, being read by more ppl..
And what is there to feel bad for li'l versions of what we call languages.. They become just another means to devide ppl..
Famous Hindi writer Rajendra Yadav once said that his magazine HANS , which was originally started by Munshi Premchand and reestablished by him in 1986, is surviving because of Bihar. The success of Book Fair in Bihar shows our enthusiasm towards book reading .
However there is another aspect of it, during last book fair probably rajendra yadav himself or Late Kamleshwar told – "Bihar ke log ek aadat ki tarah sahitya padh rahe hain" . Probably he is correct- "mujhe bhi nahi lagta ki hamari mansikta mein bahut pariwartan aa raha hai".
But I am hopeful, things will change . Questions raised by you are significant. I think there are people who will read hindi literature and continue to give patronage to it. But the quality of literature which is being written now a days is certainly a concern .
I always had great time during book fair, because I am an avid reader of hindi literature. And book fair always had a lot to offer to me. I never missed any during 1997-2005,and I have quite a rich collection, thanks only to the Book fair.
I would be immensely grateful , if some one let me know of some book shops in Bangalore who have good collection of hindi literature.
@ Geetika
:) But try to keep the sms lingo away
@Viv
No, its not about the political issue or the dividing quality of a language. Think only in its pure aesthetic sense. The less you write in a language, the closer you go toward killing it.
Even if you talk of the political side - Hindi is not just any language -its the National language of the world's largest democracy! And with Indians spereading to all corners of the world, it is expected to reach other corners of the world.
(I will not be available on the net for 2-3 days. So if your comments fail to get published meanwhile, don't worry :) )
@Kabir
Very true
The Patna Book Fair is great
Thank god that there are still some people who care about hindi
Hindi books and Patna book fair. Aah, you made me quite nostalgic. As you write, it must have been in Gandhi Maidan, instead of PP colony, right! But, I miss those roadside vendors who sell second-hand or pirated books ;) behind Gandhi Maidan (Baakarganj-Regent side). have found and got so many books there!
p.s. - people still write in Hindi (sometimes me too) but the problems are- decreasing audience, reach(due to publishers, media, and bookstores), and unavailability. Hindi is a very rich language and I am fortunate that my literary life started from Hindi.
Regards,
Abhisek
I have pondered about this a lot of times. One of the many reasons that Hindi books aren't so popular is that the people who are capable of buying and promoting them, prefer English books.
Secondly, From what I've gone through in my school course in Hindi, most of the writers use a very complicated version of Hindi. It will take a modern Premchand to revolutionize Hindi books. If such a person exists, however, he would require a lot of funding.
@Sushmita - Wish I were a publisher honey!
@Abhishek - Say tell me, can I blog in Hindi? I had typed this entire thing in Hindi - but Hindi in Roman script becomes a bit irritating.
@Alok - True, the problem is Hindi is losing its respect. Its not being considered an elite language anymore.
@All - It is an observation that most of the Hindi authors came up from UP, Bihar belt. Now that these states are nearly always at the bottom-most rung of literacy may be a reason behind the dwindling richness of the language?
A point to be considered here is - Hindi newspapers cater to a larger portion of public in this belt - in the interiors, I rarely find Times of India or Hindustan Times on sale. Which implies that Hindi isnt dead here. Just needs a little push, huh?
This is blog was crying to be written.Thanks Deepti.
Being a Bengali,I've read more Hindi literature than I'm sure you, Kabir, Abhishek,Alok or anyone who claims to be a Hindi literature connoisseur.
Hindi definitely is a very rich and an adjusting language because it has an inherent power to digest and assimilate words from other languages and that's what keeps Hindi ticking, almost like English.
The names you've mentioned are stalwarts of Hindi Sahitya. But you forgot to mention some more excellent names like Sur,Tulsi & Kabir from Bhaktikaal, Bihari and Jaysi from Ritikaal, apart from Nirala and Pant, there's Mahadevi Verma and Jaishankar Prasad from Chayavaad era, and ofcourse two three more great names from Modern Hindi Lit.Agnyeya, Nirmal Verma, Manohar Shyam Joshi(Novelists) and also Muktibodh besides Kedarnath agrawal,Trilochan and Samsher(Poets).
There are very good Hindi writings today as well.You can read Krishna Sobti, Kamleshwar, Alka Saravgi, Manager Pandey, Ved Raman etc.
In addition to Hindi being the National and Official language it is the Lingu Franca of India that is the link language.Things are looking up for Hindi since the market demands that Hindi be the language of the trade and businesses. So there's nothing to be scared that Hindi is being Marginalised.
Hindi can take care of itself and despite Arabic/ Persian/ English made the Official Lang. at some point in the history, it really couldn't be suppressed.What we need is patronage and more clever marketing.
Like Ashutosh Rana, other Hindi lovers like Manoj Bajpai, Amitabh Bacchhan, and other good celebrities should endorse it through media.
Btw, loved this blog.Thanks Deepti.
"claims to be a Hindi literature connoisseur"
I think I made this amply clear that of all the people you mentioned June, I am not a connoisseur by a long shot! :) That is why I missed the names you mentioned. If this blog was awaited then your comment was awaited too :)
You are darned right - marketing, and a clever one at that, is what it needs!
Hindi is not just any language -its the National language of the world's largest democracy!
what a joke dipti.. oops deepti ji..!:)
as one of ur later comments say.. most hindi writers are from UP and Bihar.. ne wonders..?? are'nt they the only (ok.. add chattis garh and jharkhand nad my poor rajasthan) using hindi.. other states are using there vernacular.. we even publish advertisements in gujrati, marathi, punjabi, bong, so on and so forth..
i like the verity of words and expressions hindi has.. far better than english.. sure i agree, writing in hindi is far more expressinve than in english..
"most hindi writers are from UP and Bihar.. ne wonders..?? are'nt they the only (ok.. add chattis garh and jharkhand nad my poor rajasthan) using hindi.."
UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhatishgadh, Rajasthan and you missed MP - that makes 6 states where Hindi is the spoken language. Any other vernacular language is spoken in only one state. That was precisely the reason why Hindi was chosen as the official language.
"what a joke dipti"
Yes - when you look at the plight of the National language it does feel like a joke. Though instead of being one, it's something entirely opposite.
More reason why we need the clever marketting.
If for nothing else then so that when the H.D. Devegowdas of down south come to address the nation on 15th Ausgust they make a better show of it!
BTW, The popularity of Hindi down south has increased more. What with so many students and job-seekers settling in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai the auto wallas, fruit vendors and bus conductors have improved. And everyone loves Bollywood, remember? Trouble with this is - they can understand/speak the language but not read it. Which throws another hurdle in the path of the developement of the language.
Deepti, Hindi is not the National language of India, India does not recognise any national language, I think.
As far as I know, India has two central official languages, Hindi and English.
The state can have any language as its official language, and some of the states have more than one official language.
I think, these official languages are all recognized by the Union, and as such, Hindi is our national language is a delusion, perhaps.
Article 346 of the Indian Constitution recognises Hindi in Devanāgarī script as the official language of central government India. The Constitution also allows for the continuation of use of the English language for official purposes. Article 345 provides constitutional recognition to "Official languages" of the union to include any language adopted by a state legislature as the official language of that state. In effect, there are "Official Languages at the state and center level but no one "national language". Until the Twenty-First Amendment of the Constitution in 1967, the country recognised 14 official regional languages. The Eighth Schedule and the Seventy-First Amendment provided for the inclusion of Sindhi, Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali, thereby increasing the number of official regional languages of India to 18 [17]. Individual states, whose borders are mostly drawn on socio-linguistic lines, are free to decide their own language for internal administration and education. In 2004, the government elevated Tamil.[18][19][20] to the newly created official status of "Classical Language", followed by Sanskrit[21] in 2005. The Constitution of India recognises 22 languages, spoken in different parts the country, namely Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Meitei, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. Hindi is a official language of the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttaranchal, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Tamil is a official language of Tamil_Nadu, Puducherry and Andamon nicobar islands. English is the co-official language of the Indian Union, and each of the several states mentioned above may also have another co-official language.
[source: wiki]
Though we may say that, Hindi is our unofficial national language,for it has most number of speakers taking primary, secondary and tertiary choice. But, national symbol is that symbol which brings pride, and the secondary and tertiary speakers would not feel pride for this language.
There are few good things in India. It does not recognise any religion, and it does not have any national language, I think. For they are typecasting.
This was irrelevant here, still it required a mention, I think.
coming back to the blog, I agree with Viv, when he says, languages are our inabilities, and they do divide people, as I have seen in my life.
June,
here is a question,
Do you think when Arabic and Pharsi were made official languages, a language called hindi existed, and it had recognizable population speaking it?
I am referring to the name "HINDI" and it is a genuine question the answer to which I do not know
@Ramyangshu
Remiss of me to use the terms 'National' and 'Official' as inter-changeable. The mistake is hereby taken cognizance of, and I thank you for pointing it out.
June's answer is eagerly awaited. My one bit of contribution to her anticipated input would be - Babu Devkinandan Khatri. A man whose Chandrakanta et al are considered a low form of literature but nevertheless went so far toward popularizing the language that several people learnt Hindi to be able to read his novels. This was around the late 19th century and early 20th century when Urdu was more popular as a language and Hindi was going through a rough patch.
In essence, it took just one committed author and a few interesting plots to re-energize. May be the same can be done here.
As I mentioned before, I am expecting more inputs from June.
To be frank, I am not able to understand why the dividing capacity of a language being put up here. Wouldn't you say that's another issue?
Your view is that my hue and cry about a mere language - which is just another mode to divide people - is of little import. But there is one point worth discussing here -
Many languages have died in the past - may be one day Hindi, too will do so. But those languages died because people gradually stopped to understand them. Interesting thing with Hindi is that, such a large number of people still do understand it and even appreciate it as connoiseurs! It has, so to say, no business to die. And yet the developement in its literature is not significant, considering the past two-three decades.
WHY?
Well, I also blog in Hindi, especially my Hindi poems. see this - http://dreamworkers.wordpress.com/poetry/
You can also blog in Hindi and for that, you can use http://www.google.com/transliterate/indic as an editor where you need to type in roman fashion and you will get the equivalent in Hindi type, for example, you write TUM which then becomes तुम. Then, copy the stuff and paste into your blog editor. This is very very simple.
By the way, Hindi blogging (popularly known as "chittha") has become very popular in blogsphere and many people are blogging in Hindi these days. Besides, few websites have also been started exclusively for Hindi Blogger Community (chittajagat).
Try out! you might enjoy doing it.
अभिषेक
आपका बहुत बहुत शुक्रिया!
The answere to our questions lie with "Macaulay" who insisted on making English the medium of Education in the era of East India Company.
One of his Passage is widely quoted...
"It is impossible for us(Britishers), with our limited means, to attempt to educate the body of the people. We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population"
My Grandfather call my generation "Macaulay's Children ".
This is the reason why Parsi and Arbi were also forced on Indians by different Invaders who later became Rulers.
Deepti, I think it is a different matter altogether. Actually, my comment was intended at the additions to the main blog.
Any ways, I do not know the objective answer to this question. One language or many languages?
One language makes all literature accessible. But, can we proceed towards it?
Many languages are reality now. But that means, you can not read many creations.
Perhaps translation is one way out. But, as you wrote in a previous article, it never brings out the the real taste.
So there is another question, out of the context though.
One language for all is progression? Or having many different language is?
I am not sure..I feel, it related to the post, in a way
@Ramyangshu & Deepti
our question has been dealt by me extensively in details in two communities called "Linguistics" and "Linguist".
It is such a contentious issue that this comment slot is not enough. If you are really interested, you can go through my posts in those communities.
I used to feel the same way till i started reading some hindi literary magazines. Vaagarth, Hans etc have really fine writings in hindi. I do agree that there are probably not as many books being written today and that could be a thing to worry about. My personal opinion is that the hindi literature stands far from doomed today and what we see today is just a slump period; and with the impending resurgence in the north indian society, hindi holds a very bright future ahead.
Post a Comment