Rohit Kumar
Ramdhari Singh Dinkar is a poet of radical nationalist stream of thought of post ‘Çhhayawad’ period. During the period, when the entire nation was vehemently protesting against colonialism and the British brutality with the native Indians, the poets of ‘Chhayawad’ were indulging in writing ‘Juhi ki kali’ (Bud of Jasmine), ‘Pallav’ (New Foliage) and ‘Neehar’ (Fog) etc. Their ‘Chhayawadi’ mind (the mind which lived in the realm of shadow) had hardly any care, concern and anguish for the pangs of native Indians. This led Dinkar to term ‘Chhayawadi’ poets as ‘Poets in exile’. He, castigating those poets, wrote, ‘O Poets in exile! Your lyrics are the lyrics of collar, tie and clean clothes. In them is the fragrance of perfume and scented oil, not the wet-earthen smell. In them one finds the colour of lipstick and chemical mixture, not the greenery of the new tender leaves of poetry. Dinkar’s poem started a huge revolution against the elite poetry of ‘Chhayawadi’ poets which was extremely intangible, over-imaginative and which also lacked social reality and national consciousness.
Dinkar is a poet of both beauty and revolution but he firmly believed that when the
motherland is enchained and people are hungry then it can hardly be the time for the worship of beauty. He moved on the path of revolutionary poetry. His poem ‘Himalaya’ included in ‘Renuka’ is the originating point of his poetic genius as well as the portrayal of his nationalist temperament and extreme love for his motherland.
There is a long list of Dinkar’s nationalist and patriotic poems but ‘Delhi and Moscow’ is perhaps the finest example of his radical nationalist temperament in which he completely exposes the hollowness of LeftIntellectuals’ opposition to the ‘Quit India’ movement of 1942. Unfortunately, this intellectual hollowness of left intellectuals continues unabated even today, rather it has exponentially increased in recent times. The ‘Quit India’ movement was a kairotic moment in the fight against colonial forces. This was also the period of the second world-war. In the beginning, Hitler had entered into a compromise with Stalin but later he breached the compromise and attacked Soviet Union. Because of this the Indian communists started supporting the British and opposed the ‘Quit India’ movement. They supported the colonialists against the nationalists. Remember this extreme irony that the intellectual lineage of the same pseudo intellectuals keeps claiming today that the nationalist organization RSS didn’t play any role in the Indian freedom movement. Only perhaps God, in whom they unfortunately don’t believe, knows where from they derive their moral authority and logical potential to claim so.
This was the period when the Indian intellectuals had divided themselves into two blocks of nationalists and communists. Hitler had declared that it would only require ten weeks for him to capture Moscow. The Russians put up a stiff resistance. The German army had kept St. Petersburg besieged for three years but couldn’t capture it. The communists of the entire world saw in it a great retaliatory struggle. The Indian Poet Shiv Mangal Singh Suman, who had a strong inclination towards communism had written:
“जब बहादुरी की चर्चा हो, एक नाम हो स्टालिनग्राड,
जब न बंधे-बंधे हिम्मत तो एक नाम लो स्टालिनग्राड”
(Whenever there is a talk of bravery, give it only one name, Stalingrad,
When you feel defeated, take only one name Stalingrad)
After the failure of the Germans to reach Moscow, Shiv Mangal Singh Suman had written in a tone of celebration that:
“दस हफ्ते दस साल हो गये, मॉस्को अभी भी दूर है”
(Ten weeks have lengthened into ten years but Moscow is still far).
This was a period of great moral and intellectual crisis for India. The time around in which the fight against the colonialism was at its culminating point and the shackles of slavery were about to be broken, then for Indian communists, the independence of Delhi didn’t matter much, for them Moscow was more important. It is against the background of such a moral, intellectual and ideological crisis that Dinkar showed his own towering moral and intellectual courage and affirmed his commitment to Delhi through his popular poem ‘Delhi and Moscow’. It was probably in response to Suman’s Moscow glorifying poem ‘मॉस्को अभी दूर है’.
Marxism stands for internationalism by rejecting nationalism. Its commitment is to the world philosophy of Marxism. During this period Soviet Union was their only stronghold. So, when Mahatma Gandhi gave the clarion call of ‘Quit India’ movement, the communists of India were bothered for the safety of Soviet Union and for them Indian independence was a non-issue.
Dinkar writes in his essay ‘साहित्य और राजनीति’ included in his masterpiece ‘मिटटी की ओर’ that:
“We are the members of a subjugated nationality. The undue adulation of Internationalism will cause the decline of our national strength. Nationality is our greatest religion and slavery is our biggest problem. Those seeking to put us under the delusion of Internationalism and want to divert our focus from Delhi to elsewhere, are certainly deceiving us.”
Dinkar had always been a fiery spokesperson of Indian Independence. He further writes:
“We respect Moscow but each drop of our blood is committed to Delhi. Until Delhi is far, it doesn’t matter at all to us whether Moscow is near or far. One who belongs to a slave country belongs only to his own country. How can he hope to be a world persona? And who will allow the slaves to sit along with the world citizens? Until the chains of Delhi break the slogan of Internationalism are fruitless and meaningless.”
He says that any attempt to build a relationship with the universal humanity will be false if we ignore the slavery of Delhi and become restive for the sake of Moscow. He writes:
“जहाँ मृषा सम्बन्ध विश्व-मानवता से नर जोड़ रहा है,
जन्मभूमि का भाग्य जगत की निति-शिला पर फोड़ रहा है”
(Where men are getting into false bonding with world humanity,
They are smashing their motherland’s fate on the policy-rock of world-politics.)
In this poem ‘Delhi and Moscow’ Dinkar further writes against the intellectual hollowness of the left-intellectuals who had turned hostile to ‘Quit India’ movement, in an idiom of ironical praise that:
चिल्लाते हैं विश्व-विश्व कर जहां चतुर नर-नारी !
बुद्धि भीरु सकते न डाल जलते स्वदेश पर पानी,
जहां मॉस्को के रणधीरों के गुण गाये जाते,
दिल्ली के रुधिराक्त वीर को देख लोग सकुचाते।
(Where clever people clamour for world and world only,
Where cowardly intellectuals can’t douse the burning fires in their native land,
Where the virtues of the warriors of Moscow are sung,
Where people feel shy of the blood soaked heroes of Delhi)
So, if you see today the pseudo intellectuals screaming for the justice of 2002 riot victims and decorating the posters of judicial killing of Afzal Guru an yet tongue tied on the demand for justice for Kashmiri Pundits, Dinkar’s poem ‘Delhi and Moscow’ shall help you to contextualize the entire scenario and also in understanding their malicious intent. If you are a politically unconscious but a true nation loving Indian citizen and still have not been able to understand that why some cowards had shamelessly shouted ‘भारत तेरे टुकडे होंगे इंशा अल्लाह इंशा अल्लाह’ then it is the high time for you to take a look at Dinkar’s popular anti-pseudo-intellectualism poem ‘Delhi and Moscow’. It has many pointers in it…
(Primary Source: Makers of Indian Literature, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, Sahitya Akadami. Translated from original Hindi by Arun Kumar Sinha and Kumar Vikram).
(The author is a 5th Year B.A.LL.B Student, School of Law, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha)