The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Debate on first Hindi story

WHAT is the first story written in the Hindi language? The debate seems to be endless and confounded.

For many years the debate centred on the first story in the language in chronological terms until a section of researchers sought to direct the enquiry into what they called the first modern story in the language.

There are more than a dozen stories involved in the debate like ‘Rani ketaki ke kahani’ by Insha Allah Khan (1803), ‘Ek jamindar ka Drishtant’ by Rev J. Newton (1887), ‘Indumati’ by Kishori Lal Goswami (1900), ‘Ek tokari bhar mitti’ by Madhav Rao Sapre (1901) and ‘Usne kaha tha’ by Chandra Dhar Sharma Guleri (1915) in this debate.

Interestingly, for different reasons these are all claimed to be the first stories of the Hindi world.

Noted Hindi critic Ajay Tiwari says: “Since story is a modern genre of literature, the first story should be searched out in the modern context and not just in terms of chronology”.

Veteran critic and former Reader of Hindi Literature at Delhi University, Dr Vishwanath Tripathi, disapproves, saying chronology is too important to be disregarded. “There may be differences on the first modern story in Hindi but as far as the first-ever story is concerned ‘Rani ketaki ki kahani’ is to be taken as the first story in Hindi until new finding shows otherwise”.

Former Head, Hindi Department, Delhi University, Prof Nityanand Tiwari shares Tripathi’s view. “You must give credit to the person who had attempted first in this field. And Insha Allah Khan’s ‘Rani ketaki ki kahani’ is the first story in the language”, he argues.

Writer Pankaj Singh has a different opinion. He says ‘Rani ketaki ki kahani’ is a story of medieval ages and since story is a modern genre, ‘Ek tokari bhar mitti’ takes the pride of place as the first story in Hindi because it has all essential elements of a modern story.

But the elements of modernity give rise to another debate with Ajay Tiwari arguing that ‘Ek jamindar ka drishtant’ is the first story in the context of modernity.

According to Tiwari, a narrative qualifies as a story when it revolves round the interaction of characters with their surroundings. He also emphasises on the element of realism in this connection.

Prof Nityananda Tiwari has a different viewpoint still. He says realism need not be the hallmark of a story. Many stories are imaginary and they stand on their own right. “In my opinion”, he says, “a story may contain an imaginary situation provided that the situation is elaborated honestly”.

Tripathi adds a new dimension to the debate, saying that ‘Rani ketaki ki kahani’ is a kind of a short novel too. He says earlier this story was known as ‘Udaybhan charit’ and in those years ‘charit’ (biography) was written in the form of short novels.

“It is more close to the story despite this form as it has almost all those elements which a story should have. No doubt there are many developments and events which make it a story of medieval character”, observes Prof Tiwari.

But medieval or modern is not a free term. As Govind Prasad. Reader, of Hindi Literature, JNU says: “Modernity is a relative term and it is always attached with the context. In one context opposing the classical is modernity, in another context stories written in the Premchand era called modern while in other terms it may have another kind of character”.

“Actually, it is believed that story as a genre is a contribution of European literature and in that term, story is a modern genre. But before following this view blindly, we must remember that for centuries we have had a strong tradition of story-telling and ‘katha-sahitya’. Panchtantra, Puran and Hitopadesh are some of them. We have adopted the genre according to our needs and traditions. And ‘Rani ketaki ki kahani’ is one of the best examples of it”, says Prasad.

Because of its medieval character the new generation of critics of Hindi literature do not want to include the story in their debate. But despite all it is an interesting fact that in many universities, including Delhi University, the story is included in the syllabi of graduate and postgraduate level courses as the first Hindi story.

Although JNU does not have the story in its syllabus, according to Prasad, “it does not mean that we do not discuss the story in our classes. This is an important story and it helps students understand the development of story as a genre”.

It is interesting that the next available story, ‘Ek jamindar ka drishtant’ was written after an interval of 84 years in 1887.

According to Dr Ajay Tiwari, story is a genre which was developed in the Bhartendu era and ‘Jamindar ka drishtant’ is the first story.

But Prasad says it is true for genres like drama and essay but as far as story as a genre is concerned, Bhartendu cannot be given credit.

Pankaj attributes the whole confusion to inadequate research into the history of Hindi literature. “Objective criticism is still rare in Hindi literature”, he rues.

Other teachers and critics, too, including Prasad and Dr Hari Mohan Sharma, Reader, of Hindi Literature, Ram Lal Anand College, Delhi University, share the same views.

“It is very difficult to reach at a common point on the issue, at least in the near future. In fact, it is interesting to note that most of the teachers have no idea of the issue, says Dr Sharma.

But despite all this, critics are hopeful, as Prof Tiwari says the last word on it has yet to come. — PTI

Teaching bawdy verses in name of modernity
By C.D. Verma

IN the new millennium, the University of Delhi has embarked on an innovative course or providing liberal education, qua sexual education. In the name of novelty and modernity, the college dons have been asked to teach obscenity and sexuality to the English (Hons) classes. Some of the texts, prescribed in the new syllabus, being taught since the last academic year, are just unteachable, too embarrassing for both the teachers and the taught.

One of the texts, now prescribed for the 2nd year English (Hons) class, is Lysistrata. This old Greek comedy is the third and last of Aristophanes’ plays. It is a dream about peace, conceived at a time when Athens was going through the blackest and the most desperate crisis she had known since the Persian War.

The central idea of the play appertains a grand suggestion of bringing about peace between Athens and Sparta, the neighbouring City States and their allies at war for many years. Lysistrata, the heroine of the play, thinks that the salvation of Greece lies in the hands of women. She, therefore, summons a meeting of women of the warring nations, and gives a call for “sex strike”. She propounds that “sex starvation” would compel warriors on both sides to stop war. Although the theme is noble, laudable and topically relevant, yet its rendering in sexual terms is scandalising. The vocabulary is too palpable and obvious, exciting and titillating. It leaves deleterious and fallacious impact on the impressionable young minds. The use of words and phrases makes this comedy almost a pornographic book.

The following illustrations, culled from the text (Penguin Edition), substantiate the point. After dilating on the purpose of the meeting, Lysistrata eventually makes every participating woman swear the following oath: “I will not allow either boyfriend or husband ... to approach me in an erect condition ... And I will live at home without any sexual activity ... wearing my best make-up and my most seductive dresses to inflame my husband’s ordour ... But I will never willingly yield to his desires ... And should he force me against my will ... I will we wholly passive and unresponsive ... I will not raise my legs towards the ceiling ... I will not take up the lion-on-a-cheese-grater position".

No teacher, male or female, can teach the aforementioned lines, particularly when the class is a co-education one, without an awkward blush and discomfiture.

In fact, the whole play is replete with bawdy and libidinous anecdotes, outrageous to explain. Here are a few more examples:

Is it a teachable text, I ask those who finalised the new syllabus? It certainly hurts the modesty of young girls. Nobody can deny that the empowerment of women is the most desirable thing. We want our daughters, our women, to be stronger, to have a place of pride in the social hierarchy. But empowerment of women does not come through free sex, through obscenity, through sexuality. One can’t teach such subjects openly to the middle class boys and girls, in their teens, unless one taints and impairs their minds with vulgar and filthy stuff. They even can’t tell their parents what we are teaching them in the class. And if they do so, the parents would certainly raise a hue and cry in defence of their wards.

Compared with Lysistrata, Vatsyayana’s Kama-Sutra seems to be a better book. Kama-Sutra (Aphorisms on Love) is a treatise on love, on men and women, their mutual relations and connection with each other. It contains doctrines of love aimed at imparting the knowledge of 64 arts — such as painting, dancing, music, singing, cooking, etc. — to make a woman a complete housewife, and a perfect partner. It is wrong to believe that it is only an instrument for satisfying sexual desires. In sharp contrast to the modern sexual prudery, the earlier civilisations of India developed a balanced attitude towards the role and function of sex.

Another text that the university has prescribed is Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. It too connotes free sex. “For if I were to sell my belle chose/I could go walking fresher than a rose”. Can a teacher, particularly a female one, explain ‘belle chose’ (literal meaning a beautiful thing, that is the female principle) to the students. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales are by and large healthy literature. But why choose from amongst several tales The Wife of Bath’s Prologue, a smutty and pathologically morbid tale that can put wrong notions in the young minds.

Modernity means a scientific temper, a balanced outlook, a dialectical view of life. Whereas what is being taught is reactionary in the literal sense. It is not the safronisation but sexualisation of literature. Of course, hiding sex from literature is hypocrisy. But teaching obscenity and sexuality in the name of literature is also a dissembling phoneyness. Sex is relevant provided it becomes an integral part of the text, and of the subject matter (as we have in Shakespeare). Even then at the impressionable age, a little caution is required.

And then there two other texts prescribed for the First Year English (Hons) students. They are Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market and Ismat Chugtai’s Lihaf (The Quilt). About them less said the better. They deal with the theme of lesbianism.

Goblin Market is too much loaded with sexual vocabulary and connotations. “She sucked and sucked and sucked the more/Fruits which that unknown orchard bore .... Laura ... come and kiss me ... hug me, kiss me, suck my juices .... Eat me, drink me, love me, Laura, make much of me". And Chugtai’s Lihaf is no better. Suffice it to say that both Goblin Market and Lihaf remind one of the film “Fire”. But, Shabana Azmi and Nandita Dass in that film are only feeble reflections of the women indulging in lesbian relationship in Goblin Market and Lihaf.

Teaching feminist literature is alright, but feminism is not the only route to secure the rights of women to empower them.

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