At a time when eyebrows are being raised at the Bharatiya Jnanpith’s decision to bestow its prestigious award on Amitava Ghosh, an Indian novelist whose impressive oeuvre is in English, on the ground that English is not an “Indian” language, it is heartening to note that a progressive literary journal like Hans has decided to embrace English so as to reach a wider audience and connect with non-Hindi speaking readers. As its publisher Rachana Yadav explains the decision, Hans was in search for a language “that connects people of different linguistic backgrounds. Connects people of different age groups. And connects people trans-continentally.”
Premchand’s journal
“Fortunately” , she makes so bold as to assert, “There is one such language which does this to a large extent. Unfortunately, it is not Hindi.” Premchand, perhaps the best-known Hindi writer the world over, had launched Hans in 1930 in the face of tremendous financial problems. He died in 1936 and the journal survived for 20 years before closing down in 1956. In 1985, Rajendra Yadav, a member of the famed triumvirate of Mohan Rakesh-Kamaleshwar-Rajendra Yadav of the Nai Kahani (New Story) movement, decided to revive the journal and began consultations with like-minded friends and Hindi writers. Next year, he launched it and devoted himself almost completely to this adventurous venture while neglecting his own creative writing. A man of strong secular, liberal and democratic views, Rajendra Yadav soon emerged as the most effective public intellectual in Hindi and turned Hans into a democratic platform of public discussion of contemporary social, cultural, literary and political issues and offered space to contending views. Often, most of the letters to the editor as well as articles that he chose to publish differed with his and the journal’s views that he so fearlessly expressed in his bold and provocative editorials. Over the years, Hans published many short stories that later acquired near-iconic status such as Uday Prakash’s “Tirichh”.
Rajendra Yadav (centre) with Arundhati Roy and Prof. Rameshwar Rao
Until his death in 2013, Rajendra Yadav continued to play the role of a conscience keeper and edited the journal with distinction. Earlier this month, editor Sanjay Sahay and publisher Rachana Yadav, who happens to be an exponent of Kathak besides being the only child of celebrated fiction writer Mannu Bhandari and the late Rajendra Yadav, launched the first edition of Hans in English. The masthead describes it as a “translated collection of celebrated stories published in Hans (1986-1990)” and the editor’s note informs us that it will be an annual event henceforth. Well-known writer Namita Gokhale has written the foreword for the maiden issue. As Sahay informs us in the editor’s note, “this idea was in the works for a while and was initially generated during a wild brainstorming session in 2012 between Rajendra Yadav and myself. He and I had a reflective conversation regarding the expansion of Hindi readership and its evolution.
Rajendra ji who had created and promoted a whole new generation of Hindi writers was well aware of the challenges facing Hindi literature readership. I had brought up the idea of publishing an annual special issue of the best stories from Hans translated in English so that the contemporary writing in Hindi receives a wider exposure. Rajendra Yadav liked this idea.”
Yadav’s demise the next year threw a spanner in the works and the idea could turn into reality only now. Although Namita Gokhale has written an otherwise readable foreword, she has associated the Nai Kahani movement with Rajendra Yadav’s Hans while the fact remains that the movement had lost its steam by the mid-1960s and new writers like Mahendra Bhalla, Gyanranjan, Doodhnath Singh, Vijaymohan Singh, Kashinath Singh, Vijay Chauhan and Ravindra Kalia had emerged on the scene with a different sensibility and with a fresh idiom and diction. Therefore, it’s rather anachronistic to assign the 13 short stories collected in this first annual issue to the Nai Kahani movement. As Rachana Yadav informs us, all the 13 stories were the favourites of Rajendra Yadav. The issue opens with a wonderful story of Mannu Bhandari titled “Hero, Villain, Comedian” that was published in the August, 1986 issue of Hans. It has been ably translated by Ranjana Srivastava. Other stories in this collection include “Tirichh” by Uday Parakash (translated by Ira Pande), Tirbeni’s “Toddygrove” by Sanjeev (translated by Ashok Kumar), “Meera Danced” by Mridula Garg (translated by the writer herself) and “Femme Fatale of Shivmurti” (translated by Ghanshyam Sharma).
Semblance of balance
While the Hans in English is a tastefully produced and ably edited issue, one cannot help pointing out a few things that leave something to be desired. One feels that it would have been better if the original titles of the stories had also been given. Also, instead of giving the postal address and other contact details of the writers and the translators, it would have been better if short introductions had been offered to the non-Hindi speaking readers who may not be familiar with their names as well as their backgrounds. One hopes that this initiative will also go a long way to introduce a semblance of balance into the love-hate relationship between Hindi enthusiasts and the English language.
