Department of Hindi PU, celebrated today hundredth year of the birth of great Hindi poet and prose-writer Shamsher bahadur Singh. In fact his birth-centenary is being pursued all over India and Hindi dept.PU is the first institution in the region to follow.
A lengthy exposition of his life and works was done through a power-point presentation and lecture by Dr.Satyapal sehgal , Chairperson dept.of Hindi Shamsher was born in Dehradun to a Jaat family and his maternal side belonged to Ludhiyaana in Panjab. His father came from Mujjafar nagar District , westren UP.. Mother died at an early age, and his young wife followed , incidentally at a TB Senetorium at Dharmshala (HP ). So , life was a lonely affair afterwords. Took education in Painting but Harivansh Rai Bachchan , a good friend , prevailed upon him to do MA English and took him to Allahabaad, even financing his stay. That was not to be( he only did MA previous ) as he gradually was more and more into poetry after become a spiritual shishya of Suryakaant Tripathi Nirala. Also Sumitranand Pant.His first love was Urdu poetry as that was into family tradition. English poetry was also close to his heart. In fact, he started as an English poet and wrote hundreds of them, only destroying these later on. He was one of the few writers in Hindi that had a very good inside-out knowledge of Urdu language tradition.He wrote on Iqbaal, Haali, Ghalib and many more. He also wrote on Urdu poetesses. He made a comparison in Maithilisharan Gupt ( Hindi ) and Haali ( Urdu ) in the context of Indian Rainessaance movement. He himself said that he is a doaab of Urdu and Hindi. He was a progressive but experimental semi-surrealist poet but he also wrote Ghazals and in Urdu too. That is why, he is also a well known name in Urdu circles.
He is well known for his bold expression of female beauty, so rare in modren Hindi poetry, but with sublimity and aesthetics. he was also bold in praising those which are considered known opponents of progressive movement like sachidanand hiranand Agyeya, not out of courtesy alone. In reality, he had other ideas about things, like symbolism and experiment-ism in poetry. He thought that ways of creativity are different than what one consciously believes or says. And he understood modern literature as nobody else understood in Hindi. He had great and effective logic for what we call abstract. He understood its importance in today’s art, though he would advise newer poets to learn about meter as well, though they can abandon it later on.
He threaded his lonely path, looking for perfection in art and he may be called a new-classicist for that. However, his social commitments are so pronounced , that he remains always for politics of the downtrodden. He was a true kalasaadhak, never asking for anything, not even what came his way. His first collection of poetry came when he was already 48 years old. He would come forward to help even a muffisal, unknown poet, if he was convinced of his worth, would go out of way, give time and patience.
He was truly the greatest experimentalist, Hindi has ever produced, greatest Imagist Hindi has ever experienced. He may well be the best mind in modern Hindi literary tradition.
Earlier Dr Baijnath Prasad, Reader, expounded the greatness of his works and especially touched upon aspects of his language..
large number of students and research-scholars of the dept. witnessed the proceedings and later on became a part of deliberations that followed.