Essays

Eulogising the simple life and lending a voice to the ordinary and the oppressed are contemporary Hindi poetry’s primary concerns.

In the landscape of contemporary Hindi poetry, along with new poets of notable talent, are senior poets such as Shree Kunwaranarayan, Kedarnath Singh, Ashok Vajpayee, Vishnu Khare, Rajesh Joshi, Pankaj Singh, Arun Kamal, Vishnu Nagar, Mangalesh Dabral, Asad Zaidi, Gagan Gill, Kumar Ambuj, Katyayani, Anamika and Savita Singh.

Globalisation, economic liberalisation and privatisation have led to the rise of newer brutal and anti-human conditions. In resistance to consumerism, Hindi poets have been penning the splendour of the common life in their efforts to rediscover its vitality. Along with a preference towards economy of words, there is an increased awareness regarding the performance of linguistic responsibilities; the partisan approach is more exposed. Reflecting on the paradox of our complex time, Arun Kamal writes,

Look, the killer gets the throne and respect
Those who get to have a morsel of meat also get to enjoy Magahi Pan (Betel leaf).
(Saboot. Vani Publication, 1999)

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the dimension of resistance poetry underwent a change owing to the waning of the intensity of Maoism and a split in the left-wing movement. This resistance has grown in subtlety and sharpness. After the poetry of those belonging to the extreme left, such as Gorakh Pandey, Pankaj Singh, Alok Dhanwa, Venugopal and Viren Dangwal, resistance poetry has grown to be equally complex and intense. However, the assertiveness found in the poems of Nagarjuna or Dhoomil has diminished. In the works of these two poets, one can find examples of cultural resistance undertaken with a meaningful risk against the injustices of the authorities. In this vein, Pankaj Singh writes,

Wearing the events of old clothes
Memories come like the old lady
Caressing the prow of a destitute poet
Like stones coming from far away
From a turbulent river of blood.
(Aahaten Aaspaas. Rajkamal Publication, 2014)

The deep philosophical quest for an alternative form of poetic life in contemporary Hindi poetry, has replaced the abject ideology to which the older poets had committed themselves. Today, the newer poets are venturing into deep waters to seek a vision of life that will recognise the structured reality of India today. The omniscient presence of the capitalist world order and its present corporate form have shrunk the space for serious talk and contemporary Hindi poetry accepts the challenge of securing the required seriousness in content and form. It is aware of the fact that in the capitalist civilisation which rests on profit, the common person is the loser.

In its struggle to be meaningful, contemporary Hindi poetry has become international in its consciousness. One can see the images of disintegration due to the effects of post-modernity and, consequently, a gradual emanation of autonomous existential blocks like Dalit, tribal or feminist identities. One can see this emerging in the poetry of Anita Bharti, Rajni Tilak and other Dalit women poets. Although the Adivasi voice begs for the recognition enjoyed by some mainstream poets, Leeladhar Mandloi may be considered the representative poet of the tribal consciousness. After many struggles and resistance movements, feminist voices too have been established in the mainstream of Hindi poetry; their work exhibits an obvious concern for the dignity of human existence, identity and autonomy. In one of her poems ‘Whose Woman Am I’, Savita Singh writes, ‘Whose woman am I?’ and then answers,

I'm no one’s woman
I'm my own woman
I eat my own food
I eat when I like to eat
I do not take beatings from anyone
And, no one is my Lord.
(Apne Jaisa Jeevan. Radhakrishna Publication, 2001)

Since this feminist declaration, other poets too have made gender oppression a subject of poetry and the numbers of women poets have multiplied in Hindi poetry today. Women poets, by relating poetry to femininity, have generated, no doubt, a new kind of language, content and craft.

The commitment of Hindi poetry has continued to concern itself with the aesthetics of social realism, and if it has changed in its diction or candour, it is precisely because the struggle for change has intensified, albeit, expressed differently. The desire to record the entire span of human experiences, and life from these perspectives, may be found in this quote by Rajesh Joshi, that “poetry is the magic of effecting a change”. Today, Hindi poetry has grown darker, gloomier and more inward than before, with its expression of all shades of inequality and oppression. It is now inclusive of a more subtle and finer texture of thoughts. It admits many more serious strains that affect the individual as well as social life. Several life-contexts appear in diverse and innovative ways because of an increased interest in the recording and analysis of trivial incidents. Life events are described in broad and subtle terms and their international contexts are acknowledged. The surge in new communication tools and literacy rate have led to an increase in the number of poets hailing from remote areas of the country. For these reasons, the trend in feminist, Dalit and tribal poetry underlining the aspiration of recognition, has become more pronounced and developed.

In the contemporary art of poetry, a relationship between subtle insight, restrained art-discipline and intimacy of a rare kind may be observed. At the level of language and craft, the emergence of newer structures of self-consciousness has become the telos to which finer poets seem to be committing themselves. This self-consciousness seeks newer analysis rather than joining a battle cry.

Contemporary Hindi poetry has sought to preserve the profound sensibility of its art form by resisting the aggression of the state in recent years. Ashok Vajpayee writes,

We are saved from the shames
That we have not kept silent
After holding the front or losing it
Neither have we surrendered nor compromised
We fought, lost and have barely survived
This hardly is a heroic tale.
(Kavitakosh.org. 2016)

Contemporary poetry continues to highlight the travesties and blighted lives of ordinary people. Here we find narratives depicting the sufferings and stories of citizens deprived of their rights. We find portrayals of the tragedies stemming from urbanisation, displacement, deprivation, bonded and child labour. Here one finds poets concerned with the grammar of corrosion of human relations and emotions. Numerous images of poverty, hunger, injustice, exploitation, unemployment, gender inequality and malnutrition make contemporary Hindi poetry purposive in its movement. The emergence of communalism and the global challenges precipitated by it have been fiercely addressed by contemporary Hindi poetry. It is the common person who is most affected by communalism in India. The intention behind underlining the character of the ‘common person’ is to specify its ordinariness; ordinariness in the way of, say, a mechanic, an artisan, an artist, a worker and a farmer. Mangalesh Dabral writes,

And when I was asked who are you
What are you hiding inside, an enemy's name?
Any religion, any talisman
I could not say there was nothing inside me
Just a dyer, a mechanic, an artisan, an artist, a labourer.
(Naye Yug Mein Shatru. Radhakrishna Publication, 2014)

Today, Hindi poetry, by delving into mountains of indignity and inequality, shines in its concern for human freedom and dignity. It goes about this in an ordinary way but achieves extraordinary results.