Until a few decades ago, it was believed that Hindi literary figures had less general knowledge compared to speakers of other languages. In this regard, the magazine Dharmayug had organised a discussion in the 1980s. However, we find that since the 1990s a meaningful start to diverse writing in Hindi has begun. One major reason was that after 1977, modern technology entered the printing industry. Second, after the Emergency, a new kind of openness, thinking, and curiosity emerged in journalism that wanted to demonstrate something different from traditional templates. During this time, a generation of young journalists emerged in Hindi who wanted to show something new and better for the language. This is why after 1980, many subjects were written about in Hindi that were generally considered suitable only for English. Articles on economic, technical, scientific, sports, environmental, developmental, and other topics were rarely published in magazines. But then several weekly, fortnightly, and monthly newspapers and magazines were published from Delhi, Mumbai.
Publications of weekly and monthly magazines also came from other major cities. Several weekly newspapers were published in Hindi. Hindi versions of many English weeklies were also published, such as Chauthi Duniya, Sunday Observer, Sunday Mail, etc. One good result of all this was that many articles published in English were also translated and published in Hindi. Meanwhile, many writers and journalists began writing in Hindi on new subjects, issues, and problems including foreign policy, science, sports, tribal issues, humanities, geography, trade, cinema, technology, and environment which was a major topic as Sunderlal Bahuguna’s Chipko movement had already begun, and articles about this movement were continuously published in Hindi weeklies like Dharmayug, Hindustan, Ravivar, Dinman, etc. At that time, Indian Administrative Officer Brahmadev Sharma became the Commissioner of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Commission and wrote his report originally in Hindi. This was highly praised in the Hindi world because writing on tribal, development, and environmental issues in Hindi was considered complex work.
The point is that by the 1990s, writing on diverse subjects in Hindi had begun. We can say that quite a lot was being written in Hindi on non-literary or knowledge-related subjects. Science articles by writers like Gunakar Mule were much appreciated. Environmental and development issues were also becoming popular.
Informative articles and reports about movements to save forests and rivers, and about the construction of large dams and sanctuaries, their various aspects, complexities, and dangers were being published in these Hindi weeklies. Medha Patkar had become active in the Narmada movement. Anupam Mishra’s book written in Hindi on the environment was receiving much praise. A book titled Jab Nadi Bandhi on the issue of dam and water management, a matter of public concern, was edited and published by Hemant and Sanjeev.
Another book edited by Hemant, Is Des Mein Jo Ganga Behti Hai, was also published. Virendra Yadav’s novel Doob on the problem of dams and displacement was also published and managed to receive praise from readers and critics.
Sanjeev’s novels include environmental issues, such as Paon Tale Ki Doob. Ranendra’s novel Global Gaon Ke Devata depicts the problems and difficulties of humans trapped in various environmental issues and lethal effects of development. Shameless and cruel attacks on nature, undisciplined and haphazard looting of natural resources became subjects for some writers. Mahua Maji’s novel Marang Goda Neelkanth Hua provides a detailed description of tribal areas influenced by Europeans. The internationalisation of this issue is portrayed in the novel.
Despite all this, environmental issues could not influence most mainstream writers and creators in Hindi. But after 2012, people gradually became attracted to them. After 2014, many tribal writers’ poetry collections were published.
A collection of tribal writers from all over India, Ikkisvi Sadi Mein Adivasi Swar, was published in 2002 under Ramanika Gupta’s editorship. This was followed by Kalam Ko Teer Hone Do, also published under Gupta’s editorship, which included works of 17 tribal poets from Jharkhand. In 2004, Nirmala Putul’s poetry collection Nagade Ki Tarah Bajte Hain Shabd was published, about which Arun Kamal wrote — “These poems question the character of our national development after independence. These poems, challenging the concept of civilisation’s development and progress, are in a sense also a social-cultural white paper.”
In addition to these publications, many universities across India have been organising seminars on tribal literature, and this continues at the national level to this day. Besides Vandana Tete, several editors like Kedar Prasad Meena have edited collections of Hindi and Indian language writers.
Since tribal writers have been vocally expressing issues of water, forest, and land in their works, the outrage, anger, and resistance prevalent in their creations seem to have influenced mainstream poets and new writers who were beginning to write.
This concern is consistently present in Manglesh Dabral’s poems. Now many new poets are writing something or the other about the concerns of development, environment, and the crisis of nature, and have marked their presence with powerful poems. Discussing environmental problems was once considered either an environmentalist’s domain or a tribal issue. But today, it is becoming a favourite subject and concern for most mainstream poets. This is why, at present, such creations are prominently finding space in most Hindi magazines, which contain thoughts or descriptions about various dangers related to nature and the environment.
Some poets’ collection titles are worth noting — Jungle Mein Phir Aag Lagi Hai (The Forest is on Fire Again), Jungle, Pagal Haathi Aur Dhol (Forest, Mad Elephant and Drum), Jungle Pahad Ke Path (Lessons of Forest and Mountain), Shal Van Ki Dhara Se (From the Land of Sal Forest), etc. Most Hindi poets today appear concerned about forests, mountains, rivers, trees, plants, animals, greenery, soil fertility, etc., and the number of such sensitive, visionary works continues to increase.
Because the Hindi poet has realised that: “From the lockdown/ nature has improved/ rivers have become/ cleaner/ birds have started/ flying freely/ and those who were its enemies/ have gone/ to the hollows of slaughterhouses.” (Prakriti by Nilotpal Ramesh).
Further in the same poem, it is said: “The coronavirus/ has made possible/ everything/ for which/ money kept flowing/ like water/ and nature/ laughed/ an unrestrained laugh/ at us humans.” But Anil Analhatu is anxious about the loss of rivers and says: “That river which flowed on the western boundary of the village, remains only in memories.”
Conscious writers are constantly awakening us, making us aware. But we are continuously losing natural resources in the name of development. We are being deprived of the greenery around us and the cool shade of trees. Moreover, we are neither getting pure water nor air and are unable to save our beloved beautiful earth. In such a situation, everyone needs to seriously think about what else this man-eating, earth-eating, profit-seeking, capitalist uncontrolled-development and consumerist-culture will snatch from us? And how can we save ourselves from it?