Problems of Rewriting History of Hindi Literature in 21st Century

Problems of Rewriting History of Hindi Literature in 21st Century

Hindi has a very long and rich tradition of writing the history of Hindi literature. The Hindi literature is generally divided into four periods namely Adikaal(the Early Period starts from the middle of 10th century), Bhaktikaal(the Devotional Period), RitiKaal(the Scholastic Period), Adhunik kaal(the Modern Period till today). Looking at the past attempts of writing of literary history we witness many books in the name of history of Hindi literature. One such book ‘Bhaktamaal’ was compiled by Sant Nabhadas in the medieval period. From ‘Bhaktamaal’ to the modern period of Hindi literature a number of books have been written. Some small collections were written too. The ‘Istavar Da La Literature Endui Ae Endustani’ in two parts(1839 and 1847) by French scholar Garsa Da Tasi, in which he collected more then 2000 poets of Hindi and Hidustani, ‘Shivasingh Saroj’(1878) by Shivsingh Sengar, ‘ The Modern Vernacular Literature of Northern Hindustan’(1889) by George Abraham Grierson, ‘Misrabandu Vinod ’ (1913) by Misrabandhu, ‘ Hindi Sahitya Ka Itihaas ’ (1928-29) of Acharya Ramchandra Shukla and ‘Hindi Sahitya Ki Bhoomika’(1940) and ‘Hindi Sahitya: Uska Udbhav aur Vikas’ (1952), and ‘ Hindi Sahitya Ka Adikal ’ (1952) of Acharya Hazariprasad Dwivedi and a few others are the books on the history of Hindi literature. Among all these the work of Ramchandra Shukla and Hazariprasad Dwivedi is still considered most authentic and reliable one. These two writers are still considered the founders of new trends in the modern literary history and Critism of Hindi. The first systematic book ‘Hindi Sahitya Ka Itihas’ the history of Hindi literature was written by Acharya Ramchandra Shukla. He was the first Hindi critic and historian in the field of literary criticism of Hindi to evaluate Hindi literature firmly with a positive and realistic approach. We notice many books on the history of Hindi literature today but most of these have almost repeated the work done by other historians earlier. Writers like Shivadan Singh Chauhan, Ramvilas Sharma, Namwar Singh and a few others have discussed in detail and have pointed out various contradictions existed in these books and highlighted controversial issues related to the history of Hindi literature and criticism. They have also emphasized on the need of rewriting the history of Hindi literature from Marxist point of view. But no such book has been written till today which considered complete and uncontroversial. For instance the critical evaluation of Hindi 317 literature done by Ramchandra Shukla by systematically dividing the available material of Hindi literature of centuries into four Periods and naming them as Aadi kal, Bhakti kal, Riti kal and Adhunik kal has been considered the work of excellence by many writers and critics. Later many questions were raised regarding the evaluation of some of the poets and it was also termed controversial. But despite the opposition of some writers the work of Shukla is still considered satisfactory and his division of time done on the basis of different trends of Hindi literary traditions also existed till today. Today, some well known writers and critics of Hindi have criticized the approach adopted in available books. The evaluation of some of Hindi poets and writers done earlier by the famous historians and critics had been contradicted by many other writers from time to time. The evaluation of well known poet Kabir and likewise some other poets belonging to relatively weaker sections of Indian society has been the subject to of discussion on many occasions. The depiction of many Dalit characters of fiction writer Premchand and others had been challenged by some newly emerged writer and critics of that particular category. Therefore many critics feel for the need of re-writing history of Hindi literature in changed perspective of 21st century. In this paper while the role of historians of Hindi literature is bein...

Hindi has a very long and rich tradition of writing the history of Hindi literature. The Hindi literature is generally divided into four periods namely Adikaal(the Early Period starts from the middle of 10th century), Bhaktikaal(the Devotional Period), RitiKaal(the Scholastic Period), Adhunik kaal(the Modern Period till today). Looking at the past attempts of writing of literary history we witness many books in the name of history of Hindi literature. One such book ‘Bhaktamaal’ was compiled by Sant Nabhadas in the medieval period. From ‘Bhaktamaal’ to the modern period of Hindi literature a number of books have been written. Some small collections were written too. The ‘Istavar Da La Literature Endui Ae Endustani’ in two parts(1839 and 1847) by French scholar Garsa Da Tasi, in which he collected more then 2000 poets of Hindi and Hidustani, ‘Shivasingh Saroj’(1878) by Shivsingh Sengar, ‘ The Modern Vernacular Literature of Northern Hindustan’(1889) by George Abraham Grierson, ‘Misrabandu Vinod ’ (1913) by Misrabandhu, ‘ Hindi Sahitya Ka Itihaas ’ (1928-29) of Acharya Ramchandra Shukla and ‘Hindi Sahitya Ki Bhoomika’(1940) and ‘Hindi Sahitya: Uska Udbhav aur Vikas’ (1952), and ‘ Hindi Sahitya Ka Adikal ’ (1952) of Acharya Hazariprasad Dwivedi and a few others are the books on the history of Hindi literature. Among all these the work of Ramchandra Shukla and Hazariprasad Dwivedi is still considered most authentic and reliable one. These two writers are still considered the founders of new trends in the modern literary history and Critism of Hindi. The first systematic book ‘Hindi Sahitya Ka Itihas’ the history of Hindi literature was written by Acharya Ramchandra Shukla. He was the first Hindi critic and historian in the field of literary criticism of Hindi to evaluate Hindi literature firmly with a positive and realistic approach. We notice many books on the history of Hindi literature today but most of these have almost repeated the work done by other historians earlier. Writers like Shivadan Singh Chauhan, Ramvilas Sharma, Namwar Singh and a few others have discussed in detail and have pointed out various contradictions existed in these books and highlighted controversial issues related to the history of Hindi literature and criticism. They have also emphasized on the need of rewriting the history of Hindi literature from Marxist point of view. But no such book has been written till today which considered complete and uncontroversial. For instance the critical evaluation of Hindi 317 literature done by Ramchandra Shukla by systematically dividing the available material of Hindi literature of centuries into four Periods and naming them as Aadi kal, Bhakti kal, Riti kal and Adhunik kal has been considered the work of excellence by many writers and critics. Later many questions were raised regarding the evaluation of some of the poets and it was also termed controversial. But despite the opposition of some writers the work of Shukla is still considered satisfactory and his division of time done on the basis of different trends of Hindi literary traditions also existed till today. Today, some well known writers and critics of Hindi have criticized the approach adopted in available books. The evaluation of some of Hindi poets and writers done earlier by the famous historians and critics had been contradicted by many other writers from time to time. The evaluation of well known poet Kabir and likewise some other poets belonging to relatively weaker sections of Indian society has been the subject to of discussion on many occasions. The depiction of many Dalit characters of fiction writer Premchand and others had been challenged by some newly emerged writer and critics of that particular category. Therefore many critics feel for the need of re-writing history of Hindi literature in changed perspective of 21st century. In this pa...