The time has come for a proper policy on naming roads, airports and Government buildings. While making this policy, the Government must also take into account the contribution of creative people, and not just politicians
Recently, Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh shot off a request letter to Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu to rename Delhi’s Akbar Road. He proposed that the road be named after Maharana Pratap. This news was flashed on televsions, and within a few hours, filmstar Rishi Kapoor posted number of tweets attacking the Nehru-Gandhi family which has named several roads, schools, airports, hospitals etc after its members. Kapoor asked why other politicians, artists and historical figures shouldn’t be remembered in this manner. His tweets were discussed at length. Points and counter-points were made.
But the basic question that remains unanswered is this: Why was no importance given to writers and artists while naming the roads and buildingsIJ How often have you seen an airport or big Government building named after the great Hindi writer Premchand, or the great poet Nirala or the legendary cartoonist RK laxman or the great or Shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah KhanIJ
Why is the artist fraternity treated as suchIJ We must think seriously about the apathy of the ruling class towards artists. Roads in Delhi are named after low-profile netas but Rabindranath Tagore and Nirad C Chaudhury or Sl Bhairappa are forgotten. Sure, there is the occassional Subramaniam Bharti Marg and abn Amrita Shergill Marg, but is this sufficientIJ Only the building that houses the Sahitya Akademi is named after Tagore Ravindra Bhawan.
Apart from that, I cannot remember any building named after any great literary personality. Is it the neta’s privilege only to have roads named after themIJ Does the public not have any responsibility to save the memory of artistsIJ Is the country not indebted to its artists for their immense contributionsIJ Didn’t the artists make us hold our head high in the worldIJ Now the time has come for a national debate on naming roads, Government buildings and other public spaces.
When we analyse the apathy of the political class towards artist community, we find that after independence, writers were, in fact, given due credit and respect by the political class. Writers were nominated to Rajya Sabha and their voices were heard by politicians. Poet Ramdhari Singh Dinkar was such a meritorious personality that he was given the title of Rashtra Kavi. Indian language writers were also given respect.
Eventually, film personalities started getting nominations to Rajya Sabha. Writers were pushed to the backstage. The last Hindi writer nominated to Rajya sabha was Vidya Niwas Mishra, who was nominated by Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government. Sports personalities, actors and journalists get nominations but few poets and novellists make the cut these days.
The view of today’s political class writers can be understood from Minister Singh’s statement made just before the World Hindi Conference at Bhopal. He had insiniuated that the writers only attend conferences to eat, drink and make merry. If such is the thinking of a Minister whose political boss identifies himself as a poet, then one can well understand how deep the rot runs.
If we analyse the reason behind widening of the gap between politicians and writers, we see numerous factors at play. But the root cause of this goes back to the last years of the seventh decade since independence. Under the influence of the leftist ideology, writers started sharing the dais with politicians.
This movement of was promoted by those who always looked to Ajoy Bhawan for their writings. Few years back, the living legend of Hindi criticism, Namvar Singh, released the autobiography of RJD leader Pappu Yadav. Namvar Singh was effectively lynched by other writers.
Meanwhile, by not sharing the dais with politicians, writers with certain ideology stopped the exchange of ideas between the two. The imported leftist ideology also put a barrier for promotion of our glorious culture and writings. We forgot our cultural heritage and started propagating imported writings. This left Marxist writers to follow their masters and they become their masters’ voice.
No Marxist poet had the courage to write like Dinkar who was free from ideological slavery. He wrote, “Martya manav ki bijay ka turya hu main, Uravashi, Apne samamy ka surya hun main” (I am the sun of my time). When a writer had the guts to write such lines, his strength can come only from a rich cultural tradition. Dinkar possessed that. His master piece Sanskriti ke char adhyay was sidelined by imported-ideology critics.
For this sorry state, the leftist ideology is to be blamed which was imposed on Indian literature. When literary persons stood in favour of one political class and for decades advocated their ideology, they lost respect. This happened in India under the patronage of progressive and janwadi writers associations. This harmed the literature as well as the reputation of the writers.
Writers have to be neutral but in the last four to five decades very often Marxist writers became the torch-bearer of leftist politcians. Namvar Singh, who was criticised by the leftists for releasing a book of Pappu Yadav, was the torch-bearer of left ideology. He even fought and lost the lok Sabha election on a CPI ticket. But the CPI never cared about Namvar Singh. It was in power for many years in West Bengal and Kerala but never thought of sending him to the Rajya Sabha. Many mediocres were nominated, but not Singh.
Now the time has come to make a policy on naming roads, airports and Government buildings. While making this policy, the Government must also take into account the contribution of artists. It would be better to form a committee which suggests to local authorities about naming the roads, etc. It would be better to have a nominee from literature, art and culture in that committee. If the present Government makes a policy on naming the roads and buildings, then this monopoly of naming schemes and roads etc can be curbed. Otherwise, this whimsical approach continues, and angry tweets or comments will make little difference.
(The writer is a television journalist with IBN7)