A Sheaf of Old
Letters
Mangal Murty
Technology seems to
be overtaking itself by leaps and bounds. Its now an age of SMS texting and
video calls.Letter-writing has been a thing of the antiquity. The telegram is
already dead and the postman has now become a ghostly figure. Letter-boxes are
no longer familiar landmarks on city streets. But this IT-revolution has also
added a special aura and sanctity to old letters of the ‘paper and ink’-era as
collectibles for – if we may call them – epistolists, or ‘letter-lovers’.
Literary letters,
of course, are a class apart. And the older they be, the more precious they
become. There is a whole genre of literary letter-writing, like writing
diaries, in world literature. In Hindi literatue, too, there have been two
inveterate letter writers - ShivapujanSahay and Banarasi Das Chaturvedi - who
were also great collectors and preservers of literary letters. Their own
literary and journalistic careers spanned practically more than half of the
last century which was also the golden era of modern Hindi literature, and their
collections of letters run into several thousands, and are also, luckily, quite
well-preserved in national institutions. Recently, a voluminous selection of
literary letters (nearly 1,700 letters) from the valuable collection of
AcharyaShivapujanSahay have been published in the last three volumes of the
ten-volumeShivapujanSahaySahityaSamagra
(SS). These three volumes contain a representative selection of letters from
all sections and levels of the modern Hindi literary world (c.1910-1970) which
reflect not only the literary but also the entire spectrum of the larger
concerns of this most important era of Hindi literary and socio-political
renaissance (‘Navjagaran’).
Not only in Indian
history but also in world history the 20th century was a century of
horrendous wars, national revolutions and emancipations. The period of the
literary renaissance in Hindi literature especially, and in literatures in the
other Indian languages as well, was coeval with the Indian freedom movement.
And one of the seminal issues in that national movement was the issue of a
national language – a language that could break the stranglehold of the
reigning English language that had the stigma of a ‘language of slavery’. The
only language among all other regional languages in India, with the most
far-reaching spread in the subcontinent, was Hindi that had the full
potentiality to serve as the national language.
The story begins in
the 30s when Gandhi had launched his Civil Disobedience movement with his Salt
Satyagraha. The whole country from one corner to the other was convulsed with
the spirit of freedom and patriotic fervour.In Bihar,Rajendra Prasad was in the
vanguard of the movement. As early as 1921, he had started a nationalist Hindi
weekly ‘Desh’ to propagate the ideals of the freedom movement among the masses.
In 1923, a politico-literary Hindi weekly ‘Matwala’had alsostarted publication in Calcutta.
ShivapujanSahay, one of its editors and leader-writer, had earned fame for his
scathing editorials and satirical articles, and short witty and sarcastic
comments on topical issues of the socio-political sphere. Working generally as
a freelance writer and journalist in the early part of his career, he had moved
to Banaras by the late 20s, and thenfor a year to Sultanganj in Bihar in 1931,
where he was editing ‘Ganga’, a literary monthly published by the Banaili Raja
Krishnanand Singh. RajendraBabu must have known Shivji from the ‘Matwala’ days
and in the following letter he requests him for his similar satirical notesand
articles for ‘Desh’
.
1.Rajendra Prasad to Shivapujan Sahay [Patna to
Sultangunj: 2.7.31]
Dear Shivapujan Bhai : Your kind letter reflects your generosity
just as I had expected. I shall now await a personal meeting also. I know, in
‘Ganga’ you have to do everything. But only hard workers can do more; not the
idle lot. Though I hesitate to add to your already heavy burden, yet I can
hardly restrain my eagerness to ask for your articles for ‘Desh’. Please write
whenever you can for it. ‘Desh’ is in dire need of literary articles. In our
country, we are not yet in a position to devote a journal to a single domain.
Our poor people can hardly afford to subscribe to one journal for reading. They
must get all kinds of mental food from that single journal. ‘Desh’ will be too
happy to publish literary articles. If such articles have not been published so
far, it’s only because literary writers have never sent such contributions to
us till now. And I dislike publishing matter just to fill columns, or add to
items; I detest cheating our subscribers by such tricks. If you could send some
satirical notes or witticisms of 80-90 lines on a weekly basis – nothing could
be better than that. What could be more entertaining than the articles you
write in lighter vein!
Published under the patronage of Banaili
Maharaja, how does ‘Ganga’ connect with a poor country like ours? Yet ‘Desh’ is
ready to help ‘Ganga’ in whatever way you suggest, even in the interest of
provincial affinity. But how do you propose to carry on publishing special
numbers like ‘Gangank’ and ‘Vedank’? Instead if you could publish ‘Marxank’,
that would, of course, be wonderful. The only fear, however, is that you
publish ‘Marxank’ today and the Maharaja goes tomorrow!...[Incomplete letter]
Files of ‘Desh’ are
not available to confirm whether ShivapujanSahay complied with the request or
to what extent, if he did. But he soon left ‘Ganga’ and went back to Banaras to
edit the literary fortnightly ‘Jagaran’ which after six months was taken over
as a political weekly by Premchand. From Banaras, ShivapujanSahay moved to
Laheriasarai in 1933 for editing ‘Balak’, and thence, in 1939, to Rajendra
College, Chhapra where he taught as Professor of Hindi till 1949.
The early 40s were
a period of great turbulence with the ‘August Revolution’(1942), the Bengal
Famine (1943), and the great catastrophic Second World War (1939-45), leading
ultimately to India’s independence in 1947. Most of the Congress leaders,
including Rajendra Prasad, along with thousands of the rank and file were
lodged in jails during 1942-45. The political situation in 1941 was extremely
volatile, with the horrors of the War in Europe and Asia. On the national
political scene a very large number of young men were deeply involved in
political activities, and all journals, even literary ones, were dedicated to
the cause of the mass movement.
In Patna, Prafull
Chandra Ojha ‘Mukt’, a youngHindi journalist and writer, was editing ‘Arati’ a
monthly literary journal. The journal was aggressively nationalist in temper
and had RajendraBabu’s patronage. ‘Mukt’ was also serving as a literary
assistant to RajenBabu. The ‘Hindi-Hindustani’ controversy was at its peak
during this period. The Hindi nationalist press was awash with articles
opposing the propagation of the artificially manufactured ‘Hindustani’ in place
of Hindi as the national language.ShivapujanSahay also had written a long
editorial note on the subject in one of these journals (SS: 3.27) around the
same time. All Hindi litterateurs of Bihar like Raja Radhika Raman Singh,
Dinkar, Benipuri, et al were all opposing the imposition of ‘Hindustani’ as an
artificial substitute for Hindi as the national language. RajendraBabu, though
a strong supporter of Gandhiji’s patronage of Hindustani, also had his latent
sympathies with the views of the pro-Hindi camp. The two letters sent to
RajenBabu are now difficult to trace, but Mukt’s letter to Shivji gives an idea
of their content. In 1941, Shivji was Professor of Hindi at Rajendra College,
Chhapra.
2.Mukt to ShivpujanSahay [Patna to Chhapra:
31.8.41]
BhaiShivapujanji. I am writing these lines to
you as desired by Respected RajendraBabu. He is not in good health to reply to
you personally. Yesterday when I went to [Sadaqat] Ashram, he showed and talked
to me about the letters of yours and Raja Saheb’s regarding Hindustani. He
thinks that any statement issued by him now would only lead to a new
controversy. It will serve no good purpose, but may only lend undue importance
to the opposite party. Babu says that presently we are only neutral. And it
would be better to solve the issue remaining neutral. He agrees with Raja
Saheb’s suggestion that we should have a dialogue with the leaders of the
opposite party, individually or collectively. Babu proposes to go to Wardha on
the 2nd, provided his health and the weather permits it. If he doesn’t go, he
would like to meet the opposite party people. By then, may be Raja Saheb also
comes and you will also have to be there. And if he goes to Wardha, it can be
only when he returns. Your letter has already reached Babu, and Raja Saheb also
has sent your letter to him, and now he
is conversant with all the aspects after reading them….Affectionately: Prafull.
ShivapujanSahay had
studied Persian and Arabic upto his Tenth class and switched over to Hindi only
in his Eleventh class. He was well-versed in Urdu and Persian literture. While
teaching in Rajendra College, Chhapra, he had read a paper on the famous Urdu
poet ‘Akbar’ Ilahabadi in the annual function of the College Urdu Literary
Society that was later published in the College Magazine (1945) which Shivji
himself edited. In that paper he had written:
“Hindi and Urdu are
like their own sisters. Their relationship is very old and strong. But Urdu has
not yet embraced Hindi in its loving arms as much as Hindi has done to Urdu….In
Hindi today we have (translations of) a large number of Urdu writings easily
available. So much so that we can talk and have interesting discussions about
Urdu literature for hours together only through the medium of Hindi…. The
history of Urdu literature has been written in Hindi in a commendable manner.
Very good editions in Hindi have already been published on famous Urdu poets
like Meer, Daag, Ghalib, Zauk, Nazeer, Hali, Akbar, Chakbast, et al.”
And one of the
she’irs of Akbar quoted in that paper is particularly relevant in the context
of communal amity.
Hindu-Muslim
ekhaindono, yani ye dono Asia-eehain.
Hum-watan,
hum-zubano, hum-kismat, kyonnakah dun kibhai-bhaihain.
(Hindu-Muslim are
one as both are Asians. Living in the same country, speaking the same language,
having the same destiny, why should they not be called brothers indeed!)
The following
letter refers to that published paper.
3.Rajendra Prasad to ShivapujanSahay[Delhi to
Chhapra: 4.4.42]
Dear ShivapujanBabu. I had read your article on
poet ‘Akbar’ (Ilahabadi) in the Chhapra College magazine. There you have
written that many of the writings of Urdu poets and writers have been published
in Hindi in Nagari script. In course of a conversation with MahatamaGandhiji when I told him that many of
the Urdu works have been published in Nagari script, he asked me to give him a
list of such publications and the places where they are available. Please send
such a list directly to him at the earliest at Sevagram in Wardha or to me at
Patna as soon as possible. Mahatmaji wants such a list only because he wants to
know how far Hindi-knowing readers, who don’t know the Urdu script, can
familiarize themselves with Urdu literature easily. He may even want to get all
such books. Hope all is well there. I shall be in Patna in a couple of days.
Yours: Rajendra Prasad.
Gandhiji, Rajendra
Prasad, Nehru, Patel and all the top Congress leaders were put behind bars for
three years (1942-45) during the War, and it was in Bankipur (Patna) jail that
RajenBabu continued writing his ‘Atmakatha’ where he devotes a long chapter on
the ‘Rashtrabhasha’ question. The issue of a national language had remained of
prime importance throughout the past decades of the freedom movement. English
never was nor could ever be the language of the common masses in India,
especially when more than eighty percent of the population lived in remote,
backward rural areas. The question of Hindi as the only viable national link
language to replace English had always been uppermost in the Congress agenda.
Rajendra Prasad
himself had been one of the most ardent votaries of Hindi as the only feasible
national language right from the beginning. As early as in 1926,he had presided
over theannual convention of the Bihar Provincial Hindi SahityaSammelan held in
Darbhanga, where hehad particularly focused on the essential unity between
Hindi and Urdu as two varieties of the same language, not so much as used by
common people in their day to day life, as in their written or literary
manifestations. And again, in 1936, presiding overthe 25th annual
convention of the A.I. Hindi SahityaSammelan, he emphasized the fact thatin
most of the northern provinces, in urban or semi-urban areas, both these
varieties of the spoken Hindi-Urdu were hardly distinguishable,one from the
other, in their use. Naturally, this spoken form of Hindi-Urdu as used in
common parlance, with proper popular support, could well be developed within a
reasonable time into a link language which even the people in the south could
be willing to accept as the national lingua franca.
RajendraPrasad’s 27-page long speech in Hindi at the Nagpur
Sammelan was a brilliant exposition of the argument in favour of this widely
used Hindi-Urdu variety, of late designated as ‘Hindustanu’, as the most suitable
– even in terms of numbers or dispersal of speakers - to be adopted as the
national link language or ‘Rashtrabhasha’. As he writes in his Autobiography(Englsh version, Penguin,
2010: p.408) :
“We want one
language for the whole country as a practical necessity. English can never be
that language. Hindi is the only language, I think, on which the mantle of
national language can fall, call it by whatever name you like – Hindi, Urdu or
Hindustani. It will not, of course, displace the regional languages which will
continue to be developed and hold the field in their respective regions. The
national language will be used only in all-India and inter-state affairs….
[And] I reiterate that our national requirements will be best answered by a
simple Hindi which will freely adopt words from all the Indian languages and
dialects. (p. 408)
For RajendraBabu
the new nomenclature of ‘Hindustani’ was less important than the affinity
between Hindi and Urdu in their popular form of everyday use. He had, perhaps,
deliberately chosen to write his ‘Atmakatha’ in a form of Hindi which could
easily be seen as a model of such fusion of Hindi and Urdu.
In 1946, soon after
his release in Patna, RajenBabugave the early chapters of his ‘Atmakatha’ for
serial publication in the newly launched Hindi literary monthly ‘Himalaya’
edited by ShivapujanSahay and RamvrikshaBenipuri. In the next five issues of
the journal, these early chapters from the ‘Atmakatha were published in their
un-edited form. Later, he requested ShivapujanSahay to edit the whole book
which was to be released during the Meerut Congress (1946). The following
letter refers to the first part of the ‘Atmakatha’ published in ‘Himalaya’ in
its un-edited form.
4.Banarasi Das Chaturvedi to ShivapujanSahay.
[Tikamgarh to Patna: 28.2.46]
Dear ShivapujanSahayji. My regards. Got the
inaugural issue of ‘Himalaya’. I am reading it slowly. I don’t believe in a
formal response. I shall, of course, review it in ‘Madhukar’ but only after
going through it wholly…I liked greatly respected RajendraBabu’s ‘Atmakatha’.
It fully reflects his simple personality. I like such style of writing. There
is no touch of affectation anywhere. No elaborate pretentiousness. All
narration is simple and straightforward. I shall write in detail about it
later. But one thing struck me as a little odd. The incidents that happened to
the MaulawiSahab with the gun and the
bull were merely practical jokes and it would have been only proper if (respected)Babuji
had only added a sentence at the end there that these pranks with the
MaulawiSahabwere done only for childish fun at that time and were, perhaps, not
in good taste. People in our country have a penchant for attributing motives
and bad intention to such incidents, and as the MaulawiSahab was a Muslim, it
might easily be misconstrued… I wouldn’t be surprised if some Muslim critic
observes that RajendraBabu took pleasure in getting Muslims trampled by bulls
or terrorized by sudden gunfire…Benipuriji’s editorial note on ‘Hindi and Hindostani’
in the issue is fully justified…
In the rest of the
letter Chaturvediji comments on the various other articles and poems published
in this issue.And he also refers to
Benipuri’s editorial note on ‘Hindi-Hindostani’ published in this same
inaugural issue where Benipuri wrote: ‘We should not get flustered by Mahatmaji’s
propagation of ‘Hindostani’; on the contrary we must welcome the endeavour
because it will only broaden the path of Hindi’s advancement.”
In fact, the
national language controversy had two
facets. Besides the Hindi-Hindustani controversy which was rife among the
supporters of Hindi as the national language or official rashtrabhasha, there was also a wider and more acrimonious debate
that had been going on in the Constituent Assembly from day onebetween members
from the north and the south on the issue of Hindi versus English. A compromise
formula had been settled upon to allow English to be used along with Hindi in
the inter-state affairs till 1965. But the dominance of English, in spite of
the compromise settlement, continued to irk the proponents of Hindi. A number
of votaries of Hindi, including Ramdhari Singh ‘Dinkar’, had been elected to
theRajyaSabha. ‘Dinkar’ was a powerful orator in Hindi, but his experiences as
an M.P. in this regard were quite frustrating as he writes in the following letter
5.Ramdhari Singh ‘Dinkar’ to ShivapujanSahay
[Delhi to Patna: 30.5.52]
Respected Shivji. Your encouraging letter. No
importance is given here to a speech in Hindi. Attention is paid only to Hindi
speeches of people like, RajendraBabu, Jawaharlal, Tandanji, et al. Owing to
the convenience of reporting, people prefer to give their speeches in English.
Till now I have been able to speak only once, and scores of people
congratulated me on that day. But PTI took only five lines from it and
Searchlight not even as much. Hence, our coming here was very necessary. We may
have to struggle hard, but there’s no cause for despair. We only need blessings
of people like you. Yours: Dinkar.
In 1950
ShivapujanSahay left Chhapra to join as Secretary, Bihar RashtraBhashaParishadin
Patna where he served till September, 1959. RajendraBabu also was serving his
last term as President, and had been honoured with an Award for his
‘Atmakatha’ by theParishad in 1954, and
again with the ‘VayovriddhaSahityakar’ (Senior Litterateur) Award in 1959. He
had earlier donated his former Award back to Parishad for charitable purposes,
and wanted to do so again with the second Award. His donations of the two Award
amounts with some additional amount from his own side were meant to serve the
larger cause of Hindi. The following letter and its reply by
ShivapujanSahaythow light on RajendraBabu’s abiding love for the cause of
Hindi.
6. Rajendra Prasad to ShivapujanSahay [Camp
Bhuwaneshwar to Patna: 28.3.59]
Dear ShivapujanBabu. Got your letter and the
receipts for the award which I am returning after signing them. I would like to
have your advice on one issue. I wish to utilize this award amount in some
project that could contribute to the service and propagation of Hindi. It would
be better if it could be for the non-Hindi speaking areas. Kindly think over it
and suggest some good scheme where this amount could best be utilized. I want
your personal advice for this and not any official suggestion from the
Parishad. If you could give more than one suggestion, it would be still better,
so that I could choose the best idea to utilize this amount. If necessary, I
could also add some more amount to it. I will decide only after I get your
reply, so please reply soon. Yours: Rajendra Prasad.
7. ShivapujanSahay to Rajendra Prasad [Patna to
Delhi: 6.4.59]
Most Respected [RajendraBabu]. Received your
letter of 28 March, 1958, in which you have so kindly asked for my personal
suggestion regarding the proper utilization of the award amount. I consider this
a great honour and privilege bestowed so graciously on me.
Meanwhile, I would also like to point out that from
the‘Atmakatha’ award amount you had gifted back to Parishad, adding Rs one
thousand to it from your own side, the Parishad has established a special fund
as ‘RajendraNidhi’. The Bihar government was requested to give a matching grant
of Rs 10,000 per annum as a supplement and it has, for the present, agreed to
give Rs 8,000 per annum. From this special fund the Parishadhas started givingone
time financial assistance to indigent literary persons ranging from Rs 250 to
1,500. Rules have been framed for the same in accordance with your expressed
wishes when you had gifted the award amount and these rules have also been
approved by the Bihar government. Accordingly, after due and proper enquiry,
needy literary persons are being given financial assistance for medical
treatment, daughter’s marriage, book publication, etc.
This year the Parishad’s Control Board has
decided also to give an annual award of Rs 1,000 to a non-Hindi writerfor his deserving
book in Hindi, either original or translated in Hindi, published during the year.
One of the following suggestions may be
considered for this year’s award.
1. A Hindi writer from
a non-Hindi area can be honoured with a ‘Rajendra Award’ of Rs 1,000, to be
given out of this fund, if he publishes a translation of a well-known and
valuable Hindi work in his language of that area.
2. A ‘Rajendra Award’
of Rs 100 to 250 can be given out of this fund to a non-Hindi student passing
and securing the maximum marks in thehighest
Hindi examination conducted by the RashtrabhashaPracharSamitis of the
non-Hindi areas, AkhilBharatiya Hindi SahityaSammelan (Prayag),
RashtrabhashaPracharSamiti ( Wardha), Hindi Vidyapeeth (Deoghar),Kashi Hindi
Vidyapeeth, etc.
3. A
‘BadrinathSarvabhashaMahavidyalaya has been established in the name of
AcharyaBadrinathVarma by the Bihar Hindi SahityaSammelan and has been running
for the last two years, in which regular courses are taught in Russian, German,
French and Telugu. For this project the Bihar government has given a grant of
Rs 17,000. There is also arrangement for teaching Hindi to non-Hindi students
under this programme, though no such non-Hindi student is yet enrolled there.
However, many students from the non-Hindi areas learn Hindi in the Vidyapeeths
at Deoghar and Mandar. A ‘Rajendra Scholarship’ of Rs 100 per month for only two years can be given
to non-Hindi students exclusively taking Hindi courses in those Vidyapeeths. As you had asked for immediate
suggestions, I am submitting some ideas that came readily to mind. I hope one
of these suggestions would surely suit your intent. Humbly yours: Shiva.
Only five months
later ShivapujanSahay was made to retire. But his dedication to the cause of
Hindi – its viability as the national language, its continuing struggle against
the clout and sway of English in the national sphere, its rapid strides of advancement
against the challenges posed by English as a global language, the constant
enrichment of its literary stock – deepened further. The fight to secure for
Hindi its rightful place as the national language, to popularize it in the
non-Hindi areas of the country and to enable it to supplant English as soon as
possible went on with increased fervour. But just when the 15-year period of
continuance of English as a subsidiary language to Hindi was coming to an end,
the government buckled under political pressure to give English a fresh lease
of limitless extension, and there was again a clamour in the Hindi world
against the move.
Once more, like the
last flicker of the lamp, during the last few months of his life,
ShivapujanSahay wrote an article, published in 1962 in the famous Hindi weekly
‘Dharmayug’, in which he expressed his anguish about the government’s imprudent
move to lend a kind of perpetuity to English. Only a small quotation from that
article should suffice here. (Read the full translated article in HINDI,
Jul-Sep, 2011.)
Our heads bow down in shame to find our
populist government pleading for the inexorability of English. But those who
now rule us, who hold the reins of government in their hands, it’s their logic
that must be seen as impeccable. It’s an eternal principle that the power of
governance can be held only in an iron fist. Even so, there can be no
authoritarianism in a democratic set up. But had this been a reality, the voxpopuli
of the Hindi-speakers would not have gone absolutely unheard. One has a
distinct feeling of contrition in calling oneself the citizen of a country
which holds its language and script to be incapable of national use and shows
its helplessness by accepting the efficacy of a foreign language for its
domestic purposes.
Published: HINDI, Jul-Sep, 2013
www.hindivishwa.org
