Ramdhari Singh Dinkar

Ramdhari Singh Dinkar
Dinkar on a 1999 stamp of India
Dinkar on a 1999 stamp of India
BornRamdhari Singh
(1908-09-23)23 September 1908
Simaria, Bengal Presidency, British India
(present-day Begusarai, Bihar India)
Died24 April 1974(1974-04-24) (aged 65)
Madras (present-day Chennai), Tamil Nadu, India
Resting placeBihar
Pen nameDinkar
Occupation
LanguageHindi
Alma materPatna College, University of Patna
Literary movementIndian Independence movement
Notable works
Notable awards
SpouseShyamavati Devi
Children4
Signature
Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha
In office
3 April 1952 – 2 April 1964
PresidentSarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1962–1964)
Rajendra Prasad (1952–1962)
ChairmanZakir Husain (1962–1964)
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1952–1962)
ConstituencyBihar
Personal details
Political partyIndian National Congress

Ramdhari Singh (23 September 1908 – 24 April 1974), known by his pen name Dinkar, was an Indian Hindi language poet, essayist, freedom fighter, patriot and academic.[1] He emerged as a poet of rebellion as a consequence of his nationalist poetry written in the days before Indian independence. His poetry exuded Veer Rasa (heroic sentiment), and he has been hailed as a Rashtrakavi ('national poet') and Yuga-Chāraṇa (Charan of the Era) on account of his inspiring patriotic compositions.[2][3] He was a regular poet of Hindi Kavi Sammelan and is hailed to be as popular and connected to poetry lovers for Hindi speakers as Pushkin for Russians.[4]

One of the notable modern Hindi poets, Dinkar was born in Simaria village of Bengal Presidency, British India, now part of Begusarai district in Bihar state. The government had honoured him with the Padma Bhushan Award in the year 1959 and had also nominated him thrice to the Rajya Sabha . Similarly, his political thought was greatly shaped by both Mahatma Gandhi and Karl Marx. Dinkar gained popularity in the pre-independence period through his nationalist poetry.[5]

Dinkar initially supported the revolutionary movement during the Indian independence struggle, but later became a Gandhian. However, he used to call himself a "Bad Gandhian" because he supported the feelings of indignation and revenge among the youth.[6] In Kurukshetra, he accepted that war is destructive but argued that it is necessary for the protection of freedom. He was close to prominent nationalists of the time such as Rajendra Prasad, Anugrah Narayan Sinha, Sri Krishna Sinha, Rambriksh Benipuri and Braj Kishore Prasad.

Dinkar was elected three times to the Rajya Sabha, and he was the member of this house from 3 April 1952 to 2 April 1964,[6] and was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1959.[6] He was also the Vice-Chancellor of Bhagalpur University (Bhagalpur, Bihar) in the early 1960s.

During The Emergency, Jayaprakash Narayan had attracted a gathering of one lakh (100,000) people at the Ramlila grounds and recited Dinkar's famous poem: Singhasan Khaali Karo Ke Janata Aati Hai ('Vacate the throne, for the people are coming').[7]

  1. ^ Biography and Works anubhuti-hindi.org.
  2. ^ Dāmodara, Śrīhari (1975). Ādhunika Hindī kavitā meṃ rāshṭrīya bhāvanā, san 1857-1947 (in Hindi). Bhārata Buka Ḍipo. p. 472. उन्हें युग चारण की संज्ञा देकर हिन्दी के आलोचकों ने उनके काव्य की मूल भूमि को राष्ट्रीयता माना है।
  3. ^ "Special Postage Stamps on Linguistic Harmony of India". Latest PIB Releases. Press Information Bureau of the Government of India. September 1999. Retrieved 26 September 2008.
  4. ^ Gupta, Trisha (9 May 2015). "Interview: Is fiction-writer Siddharth Chowdhury creating a new literary form?". Scroll.in. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  5. ^ "Remembering poet Ramdhari Singh Dinkar: Famous excerpts from the works of the nationalist". India Today. 23 September 2016. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  6. ^ a b c Vijendra Narayan, Singh (2005). Bharatiya Sahitya ke Nirmata: Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar'. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi. ISBN 81-260-2142-X.
  7. ^ Harish Khare (16 May 2001). "Obligations of a lameduck". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 10 September 2009. Retrieved 2 January 2009.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)