Short of officially being declared the national language, Hindi is undoubtedly a hugely popular, well spoken and widely understood language of India. The good news is that our city Jamnu can boast of a Hindi literary society that has completed nearly 85 years of her existence. And, the bad news is that it has failed to attract even as many members in the past as many years.
In Jammu, Hindi represented nationalist fervour of the times before partition. It vied vigorously with Urdu, which had the State patronage. Urdu has always been the official language of Jammu and Kashmir. It is still one of the five official languages of Jammu and Kashmir, along with Dogri, Kashmiri, Hindi and English.
A few nationalist Hindi writers and lovers of the language, like Bhagwat Prasad Sathe, Ram Nath Shastri, Dharam Chand Prashant, Mohan Lal Motial, Tej Ram Khajuria were instrumental in establishing Hindi Sahitya Mandal ( Mandal / HSM ), sometime in the late thirties or early forties.
Those days, along with English and Urdu, Hindi was the language of choice for most of the writers and poets of Jammu. Interestingly, there were hardly any literary pursuits undertaken in Dogri. Take the case of Yash Sharma, a proud Dogra from Basohli who spoke eloquent Dogri all his life. He was a prominent broadcaster, known for baritone voice in Urdu, who began his literary career by writing poems in Hindi in the forties.
Yash Sharma wrote some of the notable poems in Hindi under the stewardship of noted litterateur Harivansh Rai Bachchan. It was much later that he started writing in his mother tongue Dogri and was, in due course, decorated with a Sahitya Akademi Award. Along with fellow poets Kehri Singh Madhukar and Ved Pal Deep, he formed the most popular and formidable trident of Dogri poets of his times.
Local and regional fervours and aspirations soon prevailed. Around the year 1943, some members of the Mandal thought of promoting their mother tongue Dogri and formed what is known as Dogri Sanstha. It is pertinent to note that prior to the formation of Dogri Sanstha, all non-Urdu and non-English writers were working together under the umbrella of Hindi Sahitya Mandal, the first literary organisation of Jamnu.
The Mandal was already in existence when her members Dharam Chand Prashant, Ram Nath Shastri, Bhagwat Prasad Sathe, Deenu Bhai Pant, among others, laid the foundation of Dogri Sanstha, the first ever literary body established for the promotion of Dogri language. But, we learn that there was no acrimony between the members of the two premier literary bodies. Dogri Sanstha formally came into being on the Vasant Panchami day of the year 1944.
Evidently, Dogri Sanstha entered into her 80th year on 29 January, this year. Hindi Sahitya Mandal celebrated her 79th birth anniversary on this 9 August, and, therefore, claims entry to the 80th year of her existence. If both the claims are correct, then, the suggestion is that Dogri Sanstha was formed six months before Hindi Sahitya Mandal, which is not correct !
It is an established fact that HSM was already in existence before 1944 and it was a faction of HSM that gave birth to Dogri Sanstha. I may, therefore, suggest the current stewards of the Mandal should dig deeper to find her roots.
This octogenarian literary body, HSM, is run by a 21 member management committee. In addition, this senior most literary outfit of Jammu boasts of three retired professors and a retired senior banker as her advisors. This august body of 25 members, sadly, fails to attract as many members in the audience, for most of her programmes. The president of the Mandal claims a membership of 50 out of which 25 are in the management committee itself.
Explaining the reasons for thin attendance in literary meets, Chanchal Dogra, a retired professor of Hindi, presently heading the Mandal, in her second term as the president, says : availability of infotainment in the form of DTH, OTT, e-books, audio books, internet on phone, social media and other online discussions plus all kinds of reading content readily served on the click of the mouse takes people away from physical gatherings.
Naresh Gulati, a retired senior banker who is also an activist and advisor to the Mandal, elaborates : cities are congested and people don’t want hassles of driving, commuting and parking. The incumbent cost is also a factor.
Naresh, a die-hard “karyakarta” of the Mandal, has been with the literary body for more than five decades in various capacities, from a mere college going lad fond of literature to being her advisor. He has lived in Ahmedabad for over two decades now and takes active and more interest in Mandal activities than the Jammu based members.
Elaborating the efforts made to attract audience to the literary venues, the president of the Mandal informs : we notify our programmes on social media like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp where we have a regular presence. We follow up the invites, sent through WhatsApp, by calling up our invitees and those in our mailing list. These programmers are free of charge and all are welcome”,
As if as an after thought, she quips : as an icing on the cake, we also entertain attendees with light refreshments, if that can be cited as an incentive for them !
Efforts may have been made in all its earnest, but, sadly the results are not encouraging. On an average just 10 to 15 persons attend their programmes, in addition to the office bearers of the Mandal in some measure. We find no young faces in the age groups of 15 to 35 ; almost all the participants are 50 and beyond. Certainly not a healthy trend as far as propagation of Hindi literature is concerned.
Admitting there is decline in the literary activities amongst youth is simple admission of a fact. It is not a solution. I think a vigorous approach to reach out to the youth is needed to attract them to offline literary activities.
By the way, why don’t we give the reign of the Mandal to the media savvy youth themselves ? Why not let them organise the literary activities as per their liking, thinking, planning and execution ? I ask her.
” We are very open to filling executive positions with young people inclined towards reading, writing or promoting Hindi. However there seems to be a dearth ( of the young who are inclined towards literature and literary pursuits). We have been alive to this need since the eighties when we brought on board very young writers like Pawan Khajuria, Anila Singh, Arun Mishra, Manoj Sharma, Sunil Sharma, Sanjeev Bhasin, Uma Sharma and some others who have continued with us, ” informs the vivacious lady in her mid seventies.
The honorable President will surely agree that all these ladies and gentlemen can’t be considered youth, after 40 odd years. They were in their youth in the 80s. Why harp on them ? They all are senior citizens today. Besides, no member of the group of 25 administering the affairs of the Mandal is below 50 years of age. Sadly, this makes the Mandal a body of the elderly, for the elderly.
So, why not to hand over the management of Hindi Sahitya Mandal in the hands of the youth. Let them understand challenges presented to the spread and sustenance of literature in these tough times. They will, perhaps, find workable solutions to the issues facing the older generation who is at the helm of the affairs since times immemorial. So it seems.
Dr Pawan Khajuria is one of the vice presidents of the Mandal. Speaking over the phone, he agreed to the suggestion that Mandal activities should be handed over to the next generation : it is the need of the hour. We need to trust the young blood and give them a chance. Bhagwan Krishna implores us to do our duty and forget about the result. So, dutifully, we should safely hand over the command to the youth and hope for better results.
“Growth of the young plants is invariably stunted under the Banyan trees,” added Pawan who, at 56, is himself in the league of senior citizenship. This Sanskrit teacher is a well known playwright, in Hindi and Dogri.
It saddens me to find 15 attendees for literary programmes in an auditoria that can seat 200. That too for a language like Hindi that has pan India presence. Management of the Mandal is in the hands of senior citizens who have left their most fruitful years far behind them.
Interestingly, Kiran Bakshi, a retired professor of English literature has held the office of the president of the HSM for nine terms, which runs into 18 long years. I learn she writes short stories in Hindi and her first book of stories is in the press.
Times have since changed, but Mandal is attempting at establishing libraries in the age of Kindle, e-books, Google and various forms of digital platforms. If literary bodies like Hindi Sahitya Mandal have to be relevant to the modern times, they must overhaul their approach and thinking process. They must think and act young.
I was given a copy of the constitution which may have been amended and adopted about fifty years ago. It was almost in an unreadable form. Inter alia, it gives the president powers to authorise expenses to the tune of one hundred rupees. Clearly, the constitution needs a fresh look at the earliest.
I think no member should hold office for more than one term ( two years ). This will automatically bring in new people and newer thoughts into the management.
Let us remember the Hindi litterateurs of the past. They were blessed with progressive thinking and admirable foresight. They all embraced new forms and formats of Hindi poetry that heralded the era of poems without a metre and the new wave in the short stories and dramas. A story like Parinde by Nirmal Verma and plays like Aadhe Adhure by Mohan Rakesh are gifts of the most modern and progressive thinking of the Hindi stalwarts of the yore.
Mandal must endeavour attracting and bringing the youth in her fold and then giving the reins in their hands. It will, thereby, infuse new blood, new thoughts and energetic thinking in the mainstream of her management. To my mind, trusting the suitable youth is the key to approach with a foresight. It might prove be a step forward in the right direction.
Post script.
The good thing : HSM is still around after over 80 years.
The bad thing : it is not in good health.
And, it will be sad and mad if we fail to bring the Hindi Sahitya Mandal back to the pink of health.
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