International Conference on Post-Independence Hindi Literature

'Indianness' in Nayi Kavita (New Poetry) and the Hindi Novel

3 – 5 October 2011

Ghent, Belgium

Organisers: Department of Languages and Cultures of South- and East-Asia (UGent)

Convenor(s): Prof. Dr. Eva De Clercq (UGent), prof. Dr. Ramesh Chandra Sharma (Ramesh Rishikalp) (UGent), dra. Stefanie Rotsaert (UGent)

Venue

De Etnografische Verzamelingen van de Universiteit Gent, Het Pand, Onderbergen 1, 9000 Ghent 

After centuries of political domination by linguistically foreign rule (Persian and English), one of the major catalysts in the anti-colonial and national sentiments leading up to India’s Independence (1947), was the demand for recognition of a standardized Hindi, written in Devanagari script, as the primary language of the new Republic of India. In 1950 Hindi was instituted as the primary official language (rajbhasha) of the Union and is now estimated to be the fourth most spoken language in the world. These political developments were paralleled by a flourishing literary activity in Hindi, engaging in local, national and transnational issues, and reflecting the search of the new nation-state for its own identity against the backdrop of India’s factual cultural and linguistic diversity.

This conference will focus on conceptions of ‘Indianness’ as portrayed in Nayi Kavita (modernist poetry) and the new Upanyas (novel). These genres, originating in the late pre-Independence period (1940s), developed in the decades following India’s Independence and are thought to mirror the broader prevailing postcolonial societal issues, especially mohbhang(‘disenchantment’ after decades of optimism and hope for the new India, cf. Trivedi, 2003), as well as India’s engagement with global concerns (World War II, Marxism, etc.).

This conference aims to disclose and compare the concepts of ‘Indianness’ / Indian identity as projected by different authors from different backgrounds in these two genres, through the medium of Hindi, in order to reveal the underlying responses to the challenges of India’s nationalist project and how it positions itself in the world.

Presentations will be in English.

Funding: Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO Vlaanderen); Indian Council for Cultural Relations

Programme

October 3^rd, 2011

10:00 – 10.30	arrival/coffee
10:30 – 11:00	Inaugural speeches
11:00 – 12:00	Keynote address: Ashok Vajpeyi (Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi)
	“The social perspective of the Nayī Kavitā movement and the concept of Indianness in the Hindi novel”
12:00 – 14:00	lunch
14:00 – 15:30	Session I
	1. “Changing Indian Society and Hindi-Novels of New Century” - Shiv Sharan Kaushik (Maharani Shri Jaya Govt. P.G. College, Bharatpur, Rajasthan)
	2. “The individual, the society and literature in the context of ‘New Poetry’” – Mythili Rao (Jain University, Bangalore)
	3. “A quest for personality: exploring the representation of man in Nayī Kavitā” – Stefanie Rotsaert (Ghent University)
15:30 – 16:00	coffee break
16:00 – 18:00	Session II: “The social perspective of the Nayī Kavitā movement”
	1. Ramesh Chandra Sharma ‘Rishikalp’ (Ghent University/University of Delhi)
	2. Nand Kishore Acharya (Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad)
	3. Jyotish Joshi (Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi)
	4. Brijendra Tripathi (Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi)
18:00-18:30	Closing remarks

October 4^th, 2011

09:00 – 09:30	arrival/coffee
09:30 – 11:00	Session III
	1. “Indianness as Lokavad. A Marxist approach.” – Anuradha Bhalla (University of Bonn)
	2. “Nationality in Dinkar’s poetry” – Rajesh Kumar (B.D.D. Govt. College, Chimanpura)
	3. “The Indian life depicted in post-Independence Hindi poetry” – Mridul Joshi (Gurukul Kangri University, Haridwar)
11:00 – 11:30	coffee break
11:30 – 13:00	Session IV: “The concept of Indianness in the Hindi novel”
	1. Satyakam (Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi)
	2. Brajesh Kumar Singh Verma (New Delhi)
	3. Nand Kishore Acharya (Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad)
13:00-15:00	lunch
15:00-16:30	Session V
	1. “Gender trouble” in the new Hindi novel: The ambiguous writing of womanhood in K.B. Vaid’s Lila and Mridula Garg’s Kathgulab” – Anne Castaign (INALCO, Paris)
	2. “Female Disenchantment in Mṛdulā Garg’s novel Cittakobrā (1979)” – Rita Krajnc (University of Zurich)
	3. “Ajneya and Mridula Garg: different ways of presenting Indian identity” – Guzel Strelkova (Moscow State University)
16:30-17:00	coffee break
17:00 – 18:30	Session VI
	1. “Hindi in global perspective” – Vibhuti Narain Rai (Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University, Wardha)
	2. “Exploring Indianness in the works of Nirmal Verma” – Narendra Ishtwal (Govt. College, Chimanpura)
	3. “New poetry in Hindi: Reflections on changing values and the emerging social order in India” – Kanwar Dinesh Singh (Himachal Pradesh University)
18:30 – 19:00	Closing remarks

October 5^th, 2011

09:00 – 09:30	arrival/coffee
09:30 – 11:00	Session VII
	1. “Indianness in Nayi Kavita” – Binod Kumar Manglam (Patna College of Commerce)
	2. “‘Indianness’ under a veil. The example of two modern poets” – Renata Czekalska (Jagiellonian University, Krakow)
	3. “’Bhāratīytā’ in the 1950’s: What did it mean in S.H. Vatsyayan ‘Agyeya’s work?” – Nicola Pozza (University of Lausanne)
11:00 – 11:30	coffee break
11:30 – 13:30	Session VIII
	1. “Indians and India as portrayed in Shrilal Shukla’s Rag Darbari” – Monika Browarczyk (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan)
	2. “The arrival of nationalism in Sanskrityayan’s ideology” – Alaka Chudal (University of Vienna)
	3. (English title to be submitted) - Sudhir Soni (Jaipur)
	4. (English title to be submitted) – Meeta Sharma (Vardhaman Mahaveer Open University, Kota)
13:30-15:00	lunch
15:00-16:30	Round table discussion
16:30-17:00	coffee break
17:00-17:30	Conclusion ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ प्रसंगवश

उक्त संगोष्ठी के विषय के संदर्भ में हिन्दुस्तानी एकेडेमी, इलाहाबाद द्वारा मई 2009 में प्रकाशित मेरी आलोचना पुस्तक "कविता की जातीयता " द्रष्टव्य है ।

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प्रकाशक : 

हिन्दुस्तानी एकेडेमी
12 डी , कमला नेहरु मार्ग
इलाहाबाद - 211001
संस्करण : 2009
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                                        पृष्ठ : 366 [सजिल्द]