Last Sunday marked the 87th birth anniversary of Rajendra Yadav who, by the time he passed away on October 28, 2013, had acquired a larger-than-life image as a fiction writer, editor and Hindi literary world’s only public intellectual. Ever since he re-launched “Hans”, a literary journal that was founded by the legendary Premchand, in 1986, his focus was almost solely on making it a democratic platform where all kinds of opinions could compete, interact and debate. As its editor, he introduced Dalit and gender discourses and provided them with a centrality that they never had before. A sure way to get one’s letter published in “Hans” was to criticise Yadav’s editorials or editorial judgement or both. He was so democratic that when the guest editors of his journal’s special numbers on women’s issues rejected his own article, he accepted their decision with humility. However, it is also true that his preoccupation with editing and ensuring the uninterrupted publication of “Hans” came in the way of his creative writing and the post-1990 generations of readers knew him primarily as the celebrated yet controversial editor of the journal.
Therefore, it is gratifying to note that Radhakrishna Prakashan recently brought out Rajendra Yadav’s “Rachanavali” (Collected Writings of Rajendra Yadav) in a 15-volume set that offers a comprehensive portrait of the writer in all his avatars — fiction writer, critic, diarist, recorder of memories, raconteur, polemicist, letter writer, editor and public intellectual. “Rachanavali” has been edited by Archana Verma, who had for long years assisted Yadav in editing “Hans”, and Balwant Kaur.
Along with Mohan Rakesh and Kamaleshwar, Rajendra Yadav had formed the triumvirate of Nai Kahani (New Story) and these three literary musketeers had campaigned hard to first establish the literary movement and then establish themselves as its leading representatives. After Yadav started editing “Hans”, he gradually acquired an image of being “anti-poetry” as he would place unusually great emphasis on fiction and consider poetry as a not very effective and satisfying literary form. Therefore, it comes as a pleasant surprise to see that the first volume contains many of his unpublished poems culled from two diaries as well as a published collection of poems “Awaz Teri Hai” (The voice is yours). Although its year of publication has not been indicated, one can guess that it was published in 1960 as Yadav wrote its preface on August 28, 1960, the day he attained the age of 31.
By that time, he had already established himself as a front-ranking fiction writer with three novels to his credit. “Pret Bolte Hain” (Ghosts speak) was published in 1951 but, on a suggestion from ‘Agyeya’, Yadav rewrote it as “Sara Akash” (The whole sky). It portrayed the life of a lower middle class youth and depicted the struggle between the individual and the society. Soon, it found its place among highly regarded novels and later Basu Chatterjee made a film on it. Both the novel as well as the film are considered to be modern classics by connoisseurs. Besides “Pret Bolte Hain”, the first volume contains another novel titled “Ek Tha Shailendra” (There was one Shailendra). The second and third volumes too are devoted to novels and offer “Ukhade Hue Log” (Uprooted people) and “Kulata” (A promiscuous woman), and “Sara Akash”, “Shah Aur Maat” (Check and Mate) and “Andekhe Anjan Pul” (Unseen and unknown bridges).
When Rajendra Yadav married well-known writer Mannu Bhandari, it paved the way for the writing of an experimental novel “Ek Inch Muskan” (The one-inch smile). They jointly wrote it in such a way that one chapter was written by one while the next was written by the other. Though the experiment was never repeated, the novel received wide acceptance. The fourth volume contains this as well as another novel titled “Mantraviddh” (Under the spell of a mantra). The fifth volume too is devoted to five other novels while the sixth, seventh and eighth volumes offer a panoramic view of his short stories. The ninth and tenth volumes contain memoirs, autobiographical writings and pen portraits while the eleventh and twelfth volumes open his diaries spanning a period between 1952 to 2012 to readers.
It comes as a real surprise that Rajendra Yadav extensively wrote serious literary criticism some of which can be placed at par with the best in Hindi. However, an unwelcome feature of this 15-volume set is the absence of a uniform scheme of dating the texts. The reader remains in the dark about the exact year in which “Sara Akash” was published as Yadav himself says that he rewrote “Pret Bolte Hain” after eight or ten years. Even some of the articles taken from “Hans” do not bear the date of publication. A chronological account of the main events in Rajendra Yadav’s life would also have been helpful.
