People's poet: Remembering Ramdhari Singh Dinkar on his 50th death anniversary

Satyapal Sehgal

Ramdhari Singh Dinkar was born in 1908 in a socially upward but economically weak family in Bihar. He died on April 24, 1974, at Tirupati — as an esteemed national poet, but dejected, disillusioned and depressed inside. He cherished literary eminence as a Jnanpith awardee and also political power.

He was a Rajya Sabha MP from Bihar as a Congressman (1952-64). Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, in the long preface he wrote for Dinkar’s popular historical treatise ‘Sanskriti Ke Chaar Adhyaay’ (The Four Chapters of Culture, 1956), referred to him as a friend and colleague. He also remained Vice-Chancellor of Bhagalpur University for some time.

Potent verse

Samar shesh hai, nahi paap ka bhaagi keval vyadh/Jo tatasth hain, samay likhega unka bhi apradh.

The battle is on, the hunter is not the only sinner/Time shall also write the crime of those who sit on the fence. — From ‘Samar Shesh Hai’

Faavde aur hal raajdand banane ko hain/dhusartaa sone se shringaar sajaati hai. Do raah, samay ke rath kaa gharghar-naad suno/sinhasan khali karo ki janta aati hai.

Spades and ploughs are ready to wrest state power/the wretched is decorated with the wealth. Give way, listen to the sound of the time chariot/vacate the thrown, people are coming. — From ‘Sinhasan Khali Karo Ki Janta Aati Hai’

Dinkar departed as a conscientious, emotional poet who championed the cause of people throughout his life. He is perhaps the most quoted Hindi poet in modern times when it comes to expressing social and political movements, particularly in the Hindi heartland.

Recall his immortal lines — ‘Sinhasan khali karo ki janta aati hai’ (Vacate the throne, people are coming) and ‘Jo tatasth hain, samay likhega unka bhi apradh’ (Time shall also write the crime of those who sit on the fence).

A rebellious zeal and a passion to write ‘power poetry’ were ingrained in him from the beginning of his poetic career. In ‘Kurukshetra’ (1946), his epic on the great war, he advocated ‘yuddh’ and violence if that was the last resort to get justice. That is what Bhagat Singh preached and practised. Like him, Dinkar spoke forcefully for equality if the world desires peace.

He continued writing firebrand poetry in many of his collections like ‘Hunkar’, ‘Renuka’ and ‘Dvandva Geet’, written in the pre-Independence period. He was summoned by the British courts for his writings. Being a government servant, he was transferred regularly as punishment. He threw away the yoke of service and never looked back.

In the struggle for Independence and later, he was the people’s voice who spoke to power. ‘Jantantra ka Janm’ (The Birth of Democracy), written in 1952, demands a democracy which is truly for the people, by the people, of the people. He sought social and economic uplift of the beleaguered working classes, the poor, the downtrodden and the Dalits. The charm of living in Delhi and being an MP could not take away from him the closeness he felt towards the shanty towns and villages. For that, he had to differ with the party leadership. Nevertheless, he knew that the language of poetry was the most liberated place in the world of communication. That was the real nature of his politics as the ‘national bard’.

His deep concern for the Dalits has not been fully underscored. ‘Rashmirathi’ (The Rider of the Chariot of the Light, 1952) is the story of Karna, the much maligned person from ‘Mahabharata’, a great warrior but still an outcast. Dinkar recited this beautiful epic before the deity in Tirupati, before begging for death. He died the next day.

Dinkar deserves an authentic and well-researched biography, one like ‘Awara Masiha’ (The Vagabond Angel) on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay by renowned writer Vishnu Prabhakar.

There was another side to Dinkar’s extremely political personality. A soft, yearning and passionate lover was lurking inside him, looking for beauty, sensuality and beyond. The revolutionary in his poetry overshadowed the romantic in his equally adored and appreciated epic ‘Urvashi’ (1961) and anthology ‘Raswanti’ (1939).

‘Urvashi’ gave Hindi a new term — ‘kamadhyatm’ (spirituality of sex). The epic is about the well-known mythical character Urvashi and King Pururava. The story about their love affair is said to be mentioned in many Puranas and epics. At times, the book is an emphatic and bold statement on sexuality and desire. The work ran into controversy, but was published by literary journal Kalpana. It was compiled as a book, ‘Kalpana ka Urvashi Vivaad’, edited by Gopeshwar Singh, in 2000.

Do you remember Robert Jordan, the leading man of the great English novel ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ (1940) by Ernest Hemingway, who is both an intense fighter for democracy and also an ardent lover? That may somewhat explain Ramdhari Singh Dinkar and his poetic stance.

He is our philosopher and thinker to make sense of ‘what is India’. To read his mind, read ‘Sanskriti ke Chaar Adhyaay’. It can be studied along with Nehru’s ‘The Discovery of India’. Belief in the composite culture seems to be the essence of Dinkar’s persona and pen. His pan-India acclaim needs to be decoded. There could be several reasons for it: his assertive and unambiguous content; his command over Hindi; his talent to pick up appropriate and hard-hitting words; his complete dominance over the metre. His imagination was ever-flowing and he was never short of issues that he felt needed to be taken up. In his lucid language, these would reverberate in the memory of his listeners and readers.

The illustrious Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko (1932-2017) said in very simple words: “Literature has to serve as a moral control of politics.” The poet Ramdhari Singh Dinkar persisted and insisted on it.