Pakistan is a paradigm example of a failed state that has undergone an extremely dangerous form of radical Islamisation.
Nagarjun
Nagarjun (Baba Nagarjun, Vaidya Nath Mishra, Yatri) (1911-1998), was a major
Hindi and Maithili poet who has also penned a number of novels, short stories,
literary biographies and travelogues.
Biography
He was born into a maithil brahmin family in a small village of Satlakha in
Madhubani District of Bihar, India. His original name was Vaidya Nath Mishra. He
started his literary career with Maithili poems by the pen-name of Yatri in
early 1930s. By mid 1930s, he started writing poetry in Hindi. This is when he
adopted the name Nagarjun. A wanderer by nature, Nagarjun spent a considerable
amount of his time in the 30s and the 40s traveling across India. He was
influenced by Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan and Swami Sahajanand Saraswati. He
also participated in many mass-awakening movements before and after
independence. Between 1939 and 1942, He was jailed by the British courts for
leading a farmer's agitation in Bihar. For a long time after independence he was
involved with journalism. He played an active role in Jaya Prakash Narayan's
movement prior to emergency, and therefore was jailed during the period of
emergency. He was strongly influence by Leninist-Marxist ideology. This was one
of the reasons that he never found patronage from the mainstream political
establishments. Coupled with this, his own vagabond way of life, became the
cause of his extreme poverty. He spent his last days in illness and poverty in
the poor localities of Delhi and Darbhanga. He died in 1998 at the age of 87 in
Darbhanga.
Style and influence
The subjects of his poetry are varied. Effects of both his wandering tendencies
and activism, is evident in his middle and later works. His famous poems like
Badal ko Ghirate Dekha hai, is a travelogue in its own right. He often wrote on
contemporary social and political issues. Him famous poem Mantra Kavita, is
widely considered the most accurate reflection of a whole generation's mindset
in India. Another such poem is "Aao Rani Ham Dhoenge Palaki", which
sarcastically humiliates the then prime minister of India, Pt. Nehru, for the
extravagant welcome thrown by him for Queen Elizabeth.
Besides these accepted subjects of poetry, Nagarjun found poetic beauty in
unconventional subjects. One of his most astonishing works is a poem based on a
female pig called paine daanto wali. Another such creation is a series of poems
on a full-grown jack fruit.
Because of the breadth of his poetry, Nagarjun is considered the only Hindi
poet, after Tulsidas, to have an audience ranging from the rural sections of
society to the elite. He effectively freed poetry from the bounds of elitism.
Languages
Maithili was his mother tongue and he authored many poems, essays and novels in
Maithili. He was educated in Sanskrit, Pali, and Hindi. Hindi remained the
language of the bulk of his literature. The Hindi of his works varies from
highly sanskritized to vernacular forms. He was a poet of the masses, and
preferred to write in the language of immediate local impact. Therefore he never
adhered to specific bounds of languages.
He also had good grasp of the Bengali language and used to write for Bengali
newspapers.
Awards
Nagarjun was given the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1969 for his historic book
Patarheen Nagna Gachh. He was also honored by the Sahitya Akademi by appointing
him its fellow in 1994.
