Literature of Modern India

MODERN INDIAN LITERATURE

❖      Gradual change from court literature to other areas of creativity.

❖      Influenced by thoughts of nationalism,rationalism,western education etc

❖      New form of literatures like Novels began to spread.Printing helped.

Bengali literature

●       Underwent revival and reform as part of bengal renaissance towards end 19th century

●       Among the first writers of modern bengali is Michael Madhusudan Dutt whose greatest work is ‘Meghnad Badh Kabya’

Bankim chandra chattopadhyaya(1838-94)

●       Wrote many novels.First was Durgesh nandini(1865) Anand math (1882) is  famous for vande mataram.

●       Considered among the first of nationalist literature movement

●       A anti-muslim or pro-hindu bias seen in his works has often been debated.

Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay

●       Congress member and known for nationalist literature

●       Wrote on the plight of women and questioned the values of middle class

●       Works:Parineeta,Devdas(both adapted as films),Pather Dabi(A novel that idolized violent revolution) etc

Others

●       Tarashankar Bandopadhyay who wrote dhatri devata, ganadevata and panchagram depicted village life and its disintegration in his works

●       Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay whose work pather panchali and aparajito became the basis of apu trilogy by satyajit ray

●       Kazi Nazrul Islam-national poet of Bangladesh wrote ghazals.

●       J.C.bose laid the foundations of science fiction in bengali.

Rabindranath Tagore(1861-1941)

●       son of Debendranath Tagore, a leader of Brahmo Samaj

●       The nobel prize winning work Gitanjali had introduction by W.B Yeats.

●       Satyajit Ray's films Teen Kanya, Charulata,Ghare Baire are based on tagore's works

●       Amar sonar bangla,national anthem of bangladesh was written in response  against partition of bengal in 1905

Tagore list of works

Type	Work
Poems	● Manasi (1890) [The Ideal One] ● Sonar Tari (1894) [The Golden Boat], ● Gitanjali (1910) [Song Offerings] ● Gitimalya (1914) [Wreath of Songs] ● Balaka (1916) [The Flight of Cranes]
Novels/short stories	● Raja (1910) [The King of the Dark Chamber] ● Dakghar (1912) [The Post Office] ● Achalayatan (1912) [The Immovable] ● Muktadhara (1922) [The Waterfall] ● Raktakarabi (1926) [Red Oleanders]
Plays	● Gora (1910) ● Ghare-Baire (1916) [The Home and the World] ● Yogayog (1929) [Crosscurrents]
Memoirs/Autobiography	● Jivansmriti(1912) ● Chelebela(1940)

N.B:Since its impossible to include all works of tagore am listing only the ones mentioned in nobelprize.org -the official website for nobel prize

 On his works:(points taken from Amartya sen’s essay on Tagore)

●       Tagore was an immensely versatile poet;

●       he was also a great short story writer, novelist, playwright, essayist, and composer of songs, as well as a talented painter

●        His essays, ranged over literature, politics, culture, social change, religious beliefs, philosophical analysis, international relations etc

●        His outlook was persistently non-sectarian, and his writings show the influence of different parts of the Indian cultural background as well as of the rest of the world.

●       His works,even when influenced by spirituality and ancient texts is rooted in humanity.

Gandhi :“Tagore greatly admired Gandhi but he had many disagreements with him on a variety of subjects, including nationalism, patriotism, the importance of cultural exchange, the role of rationality and of science, and the nature of economic and social development. These differences,I shall argue,have a clear and consistent pattern, with Tagore pressing for more room for reasoning,and for a less traditionalist view,a greater interest in the rest of the world,and more respect for science and for objectivity generally”

Modern Hindi literature

Hindi language stated its modern phase in 18th century.Noteworthy people are:

Bharatendu Harishchandra(1850-1885)

●       Father of modern hindi literature.

●       Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of India gives  Bharatendu Harishchandra awards to encourage original and creative writing in Hindi on Mass Communication.

●        Tried to depict India’s poverty, sufferings, cruel exploitation & to deliver patriotic messages through his writings.

Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi

●       Dwivedi Yug(1893-1918)of hindi literature is named after him.

●       Poetry dedicated to nationalism and reforms were a feature of this phase.

●       Maithili sharan gupt was another important writer of the same period.

Munshi Premchand (1880-1936)

●       Towering giant in hindi fiction and nationalist literature.

●       3 novels : Karmabhumi, Rangbhumi and Godaan are extremely nationalistic and also has veiled criticism of politics of the period

●       Godaan is one of the greatest novels of hindi and shows the exploitation of poor

●       Other major works,Novel:Sevasadan,Nirmala,kayakalp.Short stories: Pareeksha, Balidan,shatranj ke khiladi(made to film by ray)

Chhayavadi Yug:

●       Part of modern hindi poetry,this phase is marked by increase in romantic content of poems.

●        Jaishankar Prasad, Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala', Mahadevi Varma and Sumitranandan Pant, are the four major Chhayavadi poets.

●       Prasad’s Kamayani(1935),Nirala’s Anamika (1923) Pant’s Vina (1927) etc are major works of the movement.

●       Mahadevi Varma highlighted the plight of women in our society in her classical work Shrinkhala ki kadiyaan.She is the first major Feminist writer in hindi.

Nakenwad movement is another major movement in hindi literature pioneered by Pandit Nalin Vilochan Sharma