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HINDI Review Aalochak Ke Mukh Se
– Namwar Singh
Aalochak Ke Mukh Se, edited by Khagendra Thakur is a representative collection of five lectures delivered by Namwar Singh in Patna for the Pragatisheel Lekhak Sangh. A die-hard Marxist, Singh is not only combative in style and content but also so convincing so much so that all confusion clears up in the course of his lecture. All the lectures in the book were delivered in the 1980s. Even long after Marxism has lost the political battle to be the champion of the downtrodden, the tenets remain relevant just as problems that Marxism attempted to solve have remained. Appropriately, the first lecture deals with Marx and literature and establishes the relationship between the two. Not many followers of Marx would know of how deeply he was influenced by the myth of Prometheus. Lenin too thought that the philosophy propounded by Marx was as momentous for mankind as the gift of fire given to mankind by Prometheus. Plato was considered anti-poetry, yet he became a source of inspiration to the Romantic poets. Similarly, Marx too was considered inimical to creativity but he has been the inspiration to creative artists the world over. Lectures on Munshi Prem Chand and Acharya Ram Chander Shukla are complementary to each other. Acharya Shukla, renaissance in Hindi literature and the various stages of Munshi Prem Chand’s writings form virtually the history of the first half of 20th century India as well as a prophesy of the times to come. The last lecture in the
collection deals with the dilemmas faced by the critics and the need to
understand the various processes the critic goes through before arriving
at a particular opinion. Reasonably priced, the book is a valuable
addition to the repertory of the students of literary criticism.
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There are not many
people who have influenced Hindi literature as much as Dr. Namwar Singh.
At ease with the written and the spoken word, he has been in the
vanguard of progressive literary movement. Because of his clarity of
thought, erudition and felicity with the spoken word, from his early
days as a historian of literature, he has been much sought after for
delivering lectures. He has successfully carried the ancient Indian
tradition of the footloose scholar, losing no opportunity to dispel the
darkness of ignorance. With the missionary zeal he has tried to combat
conservatism, individualism and the thralldom of customs.