Namvar Singh (July 1926- February 2019) has left behind a huge corpus of work after years of dedication to literature. Born in Varanasi, he completed his masters and doctorate at Banaras Hindu University and taught at many places, including BHU and Jawaharlal Nehru University. Editor of “Janyug” and “Alochana”, Singh was undoubtedly the most influential Hindi critic of his times and had expressed his opinions on the state of criticism and critics frankly and unabashedly. Not often very consistent in his opinions, a charge leveled among others, by Rajendra Yadav, he considered it his strength. Still such had been his stature in contemporary Hindi criticism that both his articulation and silence on writers, works and issues were equally meaningful.
He held that the field of criticism was vast and it encompassed civilisation and culture, with literature providing its spine. And criticism must open a front against whatever poses a threat to culture and civilisation.
He was very clear about the role of a critic. A critic is neither a defence lawyer who must defend his writer nor an investigative journalist who must investigate his case. Neither does criticism hold a trial of a poet or writer to pass judgement. The basic job of a critic is to see, to see completely and holistically, to see herself and show to others what is hidden, the truth that is not easily visible to others. A critic must have the knowledge of the text and its language, a quality that Ramchandra Shukla had when he talked about the language of each poet very accurately. A critic who cannot appreciate the nuances and intricacies of language cannot write good language himself. For Singh, good prose is an essential quality of a critic. A person can be a thinker but not a critic without a proper command of a language. Another important quality of a critic, Singh held, was his getting very close to the text. Not only the text, a critic must also pay attention to the reader.
Language, both the pure variety and the one considered ‘corrupt’, interested Namvar Singh. His masters dissertation at the Banaras Hindu University, later published as “Hindi ke Vikas mein Apbhransh ka Yog (1952)” (Contribution of the Corrupt Language to the Development of Hindi), is a thorough linguistic and historical study of the origin, development and grammatical patterns of Prakrit language and its contribution to Hindi language and literature. Singh loved challenges thrown by difficult works and difficult poetic language. He was equal to this challenge in his deep study of the language and diction of the Hindi epic “Prathviraj Raso” in his unparalleled work “Prithviraj Raso: Bhasha Aur Sahitya” (1956).
A polymath
Singh was a polymath in the real sense of the word and his reading of different kinds of literature and dialects marks his writing. If there are allusions to western writers like Hawthorne, Melville, and Mallarme, home-grown Indian writers like Ghalib and Akbar Allahabadi are also quoted in his work liberally. Indian literary traditions interested him. Thus tracing the roots of Indian novel in what he called romance and looking at Bankim Chandra’s novels as its examples and taking a dig at the colonial thinking and the so-called English kind of novel, he wrote “it is an irony that in the 19th century when English Orientalists were mad after Indian stories like ‘Kadambari’, ‘Katha Sarit Sagar’ and ‘Panchtantra’, Indian writers were eager to write an ‘English style novel’.”
His short book “Adhunik Sahitya ki Pravattian (Trends of Modern Literature)” is a very concise summing up of important trends in Hindi literature which include ‘Chhayavad (Romanticism)’, ‘Rahasyavad’, ‘Pragativad’, and ‘Prayogvad’. Another remarkable book “Chhayavad”(1954) discusses this important trend and tendency in Hindi literature, dwelling on its origin, its poetic characteristics, its grammar and diction, and its ideological contours. He was able to establish new parameters for the criticism of poetry through his book “Kavita ke Naye Pratiman”(1968) (New Models of Poetry) by first defining poetry then going on to talk about the relevance of Rasa theory, the clash of values and the issue of evaluation of poetry.
He had been associated with progressive movement in literature and served as the president of All India Progressive Writers’ Association. His work also bears the influence of progressive ideology. Thus his book “Itihas Aur Aalochna”(1957,62) (History and Criticism)”, an expression of Marxist literary insights, played an important role in building an argument in favour of progressive ideology in the 50s and 60s. Never one to shy away from difficult questions, some of his frank talks on subjects as controversial as fascism, globalisation and communalism have been compiled in a book appropriately titled “Zamane se Do Do Hath” (2010) (Confronting the Society). In one of his interviews, he said that he always believed in looking forward. Human eyes and feet are positioned in the body to look forward and not to take refuge in past. Even before his death, not short of work, he believed that nostalgia leads to inactivity.
If in the first half of his long career he produced some remarkable works, in later years his lectures and talks contributed significantly to his persona. His interviews and lectures are a very rich source of his opinions on his life, literature, nature of criticism and the critic he liked or did not like. Usually, criticism is synonymous with the written word, but in Namvar Singh’s case, his spoken word is as important as the more formal medium of writing. “Baat Baat Main Baat” (Conversations Through Conversations) includes 14 long interviews conducted from 1993 to 2005 which present his opinions on dense and difficult subjects in a very accessible language.
Fortunately, many of his interviews are also available on YouTube. Equally importantly some of his writings and talks are fortunately available online at www.hindisamay.com .
