[Reader-list] Hindi scholar pledged his mortal remains to AMU for research

[Yousuf]

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Life beyond death

Eminent Hindi scholar K.P. Singh pledged his mortal remains to Aligarh Muslim University for research

Some people give of themselves in life, and others go on giving even in death. In an unprecedented gesture of gratitude to his alma mater, Aligarh Muslim University, the late Professor K.P. Singh, eminent Hindi critic and scholar, pledged his mortal remains to the university's Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College,for research.

His wife Dr. Namita Singh, an accomplished Hindi short story writer, lived up to the promise made by the non-conformist scholar who died recently. But it is not only in the realm of physical sciences that his memory will live on. He lives on through his writings too.

Singh, who taught at AMU for over three decades, applied his immense learning and speculative intelligence to analyse Hindi fiction. He never lost his commitment to Marxist aesthetics. A cool, lucid and economical expository style coupled with incise analysis is the hallmark of his writings — a quality not frequently encountered in Marxist critics. Propagating a shared cultural legacy, keeping culture separate from religion and turning attention to the medieval Bhakti Movement are the three aspects of Singh's contribution to Indian literature. In search of some panacea for human suffering, he became a Leftist and became highly suspicious of claims to universal truths. He rejected the modernist notion that literature has a life of its own which cannot be securely anchored to a world of things. For him, utility was the ultimate determinant of all human actions.

Singh wrote extensively on literary criticism and aesthetics, history of Hindi literature, Hindi prose and Hindi fiction, and published six books. He edited eight books and co-edited 20 anthologies. Rahi Masoom Raza was his favourite writer, and two of his books and several articles are on Rahi. The Sahitya Akademi has published his monograph on Rahi in several Indian languages. Analysing the creative works of Rahi, who also wrote the dialogues for Ramanand Sagar's tele-serial “Ramayan”, Singh observed that Rahi's fiction betrays an anxious and loving concern for the well-being of the common man. True literature heals wounds, wipes away every tear from every eye, and does not provides hedonistic pleasure to the elite.

Analysing Premchand's proclivity towards Gandhian ideology, Singh observed that Premchand was at variance with Gandhiji when he concluded that nothing could be resolved without a sustained struggle, and emancipation of the masses was only possible with complete tapering off of feudal society. Conversely, Gandhi tried to ensure the well-being of the common people without economic and social change. To him, Premchand and Gandhi are two planets rotating in opposite directions.

“Marxist Aesthetics and the Hindi Novel” is a philosophical and rhetorical tour de force of his scholarship, sharp critical insight and painstaking research plumed with quotations culled from a plethora of Hindi novels. Equally perceptive are his other books: “Bhakti Movement and Folk Culture”, “Literature and our Time”, “The Hindi Novel: Social Consciousness and Premchand” and “Contemporary Hindi Fiction”.

and Widely known as one of the illustrious scholars produced by AMU, Singh, through his writings, unfailingly exposed misguided assumptions on how to evaluate a literary text in the backdrop of Marxist aesthetics. Eminent Hindi and Urdu critics appreciated his immaculate research and sparkling prose. Noted creative writers Nagarjun, Trilochan Shastri Shaharyar, Kamleshwar and Rajendra Yadav were his close friends.

In recognition of his contribution, Professor P.K. Abdul Azis, Vice-Chancellor, AMU, has announced the commencement of the annual K.P. Singh Memorial Lecture.

SHAFEY KIDWAI 

http://www.hindu.com/mp/2009/12/10/stories/2009121050980300.htm