Nirmal Verma (3 April 192925 October 2005) was a
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
writer, novelist, activist and translator. He is credited as being one of the pioneers of the ''Nai Kahani'' (New Story) literary movement of
Hindi literature
Hindi literature ( hi, हिन्दी साहित्य, translit=hindī sāhitya) includes literature in the various Hindi language which have writing systems. Earliest forms of Hindi literature are attested in poetry of Apabhraṃ ...
, wherein his first collection of stories, ''Parinde'' (Birds) is considered its first signature.
[
In his career spanning five decades and various forms of literature, writing story, travelogues and essays, he penned five novels, eight short-story collections and nine books of non-fiction, including essays and travelogues.
]
Biography
Nirmal Verma was born on 3 April 1929 in Shimla
Shimla (; ; also known as Simla, List of renamed Indian cities and states#Himachal Pradesh, the official name until 1972) is the capital and the largest city of the States and union territories of India, northern Indian state of Himachal Prade ...
, where his father worked as an officer in the Civil and Services Department of the British Indian Government. He was the seventh child among his eight siblings. One of his brothers is one of India's greatest artists Ram Kumar
Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to:
Animals
* A male sheep
* Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish
People
* Ram (given name)
* Ram (surname)
* Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director
* RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch
* ...
.['He was the modern voice of Indian genius']
Obituary, Rediff.com
Rediff.com (stylized as ''rediff.com'') is an Indian news, information, entertainment and shopping web portal. It was founded in 1996. It is headquartered in Mumbai, with offices in Bangalore, New Delhi and New York City.
, it had more than 300 e ...
, 26 October 2005 He is survived by his wife, Gagan Gill who is a writer.
He wrote his first story for a students' magazine in the early 1950s. He completed Masters of Arts in History from St. Stephen's College, Delhi University
Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate Central university (India), central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and ...
. Thereafter he started teaching in Delhi and writing for various literary magazines.
His activism streak was visible even during his student days; in 1947–48, he regularly attended Mahatma Gandhiji's morning prayer meetings in Delhi, even though he was a card holding member of Communist Party of India
Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925.
H ...
, which he resigned in 1956, after Soviet invasion of Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
. The very activism was soon to be reflected in his stories, which added a whole new dimension to the Indian literary scene.
He stayed in Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
for 10 years, where he was invited by Oriental Institute to initiate a program of translation of modern Czech writers like Karel Capek, Milan Kundera, and Bohumil Hrabal, to Hindi; he also learnt the Czech language
Czech (; Czech ), historically also Bohemian (; ''lingua Bohemica'' in Latin), is a West Slavic language of the Czech–Slovak group, written in Latin script. Spoken by over 10 million people, it serves as the official language of the Czech Re ...
, and translated nine world classics to Hindi, before returning home in 1968, as the result of Prague Spring
The Prague Spring ( cs, Pražské jaro, sk, Pražská jar) was a period of political liberalization and mass protest in
the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected First Sec ...
.[
During his stay in Prague he travelled widely across Europe, and the result was seven travelogues, including Cheeron Par Chandni (1962), Har Barish Mein (1970) and Dhund Se Uthti Dhun and his first novel, based on his student days in Prague, titled, "Ve Din" (Those Days) (1964). On his return from Prague, he was disillusioned by Communism and later became highly vocal against ]Indian Emergency
The Emergency in India was a 21-month period from 1975 to 1977 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had a state of emergency declared across the country. Officially issued by President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed under Article 352 of the Constitution beca ...
, and an advocate for the Tibetan independence movement
The Tibetan Independence Movement () is the political movement advocating for the separation and independence of Tibet from the People's Republic of China. It is principally led by the Tibetan diaspora in countries like India and the United St ...
. His subsequent writing reflected his concerted relooking of Indian traditions, which he found to be innately modern, compared with external modernity reflected in the western viewpoints and cultural milieu, which were being imposed on Indian ethos, all around, so much so that later his views were confused as pro-Hindutva as well.[ A critical analysis of Verma's work was presented by Ram Prakash Dwivedi
From 1980–83, Verma served as chairman of Nirala creative writing chair in Bharat Bhavan, ]Bhopal
Bhopal (; ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes'' due to its various natural and artificial lakes. It i ...
. In 1988–90 he was director of Yashpal Creative Writing Chair in Shimla
Shimla (; ; also known as Simla, List of renamed Indian cities and states#Himachal Pradesh, the official name until 1972) is the capital and the largest city of the States and union territories of India, northern Indian state of Himachal Prade ...
.[ A film based on his story, ]Maya Darpan
''Maya Darpan'' () is a 1972 Indian Hindi-language film directed by Kumar Shahani. It is a significant work of the Indian Parallel Cinema movement which started during the 1950s with filmmakers Satyajit Ray ,Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak. The fil ...
(1972), directed by Kumar Shahani
Kumar Shahani (born 7 December 1940) is an Indian film director and screenwriter, best known for his parallel cinema films '' Maya Darpan'' (1972), ''Tarang'' (1984), ''Khayal Gatha'' (1989) and '' Kasba'' (1990). Due to his dedication to forma ...
, won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Film.
In his popular novel ''A Torn Happiness'', August Strindberg
Johan August Strindberg (, ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than sixty p ...
looms large over the heads of many characters.
He died on 25 October 2005 in New Delhi.
Awards and milestones
* Jnanpith Award
The Jnanpith Award is the oldest and the highest Indian literary award presented annually by the Bharatiya Jnanpith to an author for their "outstanding contribution towards literature". Instituted in 1961, the award is bestowed only on Indian w ...
in 1999, the highest literary award for Indian writers.
* 'Kavve aur Kala Pani', A collection of seven short stories, won the Sahitya Akademi Award
The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...
in 1985.
* Padma Bhushan
The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...
in 2002.
* Jnanapith Trust's "Murtidevi Award" for his book of essays, Bharat Aur Europe: Pratishruti Ke Kshetra (1991).
* Jury member Lettre Ulysses Award
The Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage has been given annually since 2003 for the best texts in the genre of literary reportage, which must have been first published during the previous two years. The award was initiated by Lettre Intern ...
for the art of Reportage
Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the journalist, occupa ...
−2003.[Nirmal Verma, India]
Lettre-ulysses-award.org. Retrieved on 22 May 2016.
* He was a fellow with the International Institute for Asian Studies.
* Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
catalogues most of the works of Nirmal Verma in its collection.
* India's highest literary award, for lifetime achievement, the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship
The Sahitya Akademi Fellowship is a literary honour in India bestowed by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters.Quote: "In his acceptance speech when India's National Academy of Letters (Sahitya Akademi) in 1997 conferred its h ...
in 2005.Fellowships
Sahitya Akademi
The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of, the Indian government. Its of ...
Official website.
* On the publication of his book, "The World Elsewhere", in 1988, by the Readers International in London, BBC Channel Four telecasted a film on his life and works.[
* Chevalier de l'ordre des arts et des lettres (France) 2005
]
''Nai Kahani'' movement
Nirmal Verma, together with Mohan Rakesh
Mohan may refer to:
People
* Mohan Shumsher JBR, Former prime minister of Nepal
* Mohan (actor) (born 1956), Indian film actor
* Mohan (director), Indian director of Malayalam films
* Mohan (name), a name generally found among Hindus
* Mohan ...
, Bhisham Sahni
Bhisham Sahni (8 August 1915 – 11 July 2003) was an Indian writer, playwright in Hindi and an actor, most famous for his novel and television screenplay '' Tamas'' ("Darkness, Ignorance"), a powerful and passionate account of the Partition of ...
, Kamleshwar Kamleshwar may refer to:
* Kamleshwar (writer)
* Kamleshwar Dam
* Kamleshwar Patel
{{Hndis, Kamleshwar ...
, Amarkant, Rajendra Yadav
Rajendra Yadav (28 August 1929 – 28 October 2013) was a Hindi fiction writer, and a pioneer of the 'Nayi Kahani' movement of Hindi literature.
He edited the literary magazine ''HANS'', which was founded by Munshi Premchand in 1930 but ceased ...
and others, is the founder of the ''Nai Kahani'' (new short story) in Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
literature.
Nirmal Verma is best known for his short stories and his best known story, 'Parinde' (Birds) (1959) is supposed to be the pioneer of the ''Nai Kahani Movement'' in Hindi literature
Hindi literature ( hi, हिन्दी साहित्य, translit=hindī sāhitya) includes literature in the various Hindi language which have writing systems. Earliest forms of Hindi literature are attested in poetry of Apabhraṃ ...
.[ Nirmal Verma's other notable stories are ''Andhere Mein'', ''Dedh Inch Upar'', and ''Kavve Aur Kala Pani''.
Nirmal Verma's last story was published in "Naya Gyanodaya" August 2005 issue, titled "Ab Kuchh Nahin".
Nirmal Verma experimented vividly with theme as well as technique of the Hindi short story in the 60s and 70s.
A collection of his letters written to Ramkumar (well known artist and his brother) has been published by ]Bhartiya Jnanpith
Bharatiya Jnanpith a literary and research organization, based in New Delhi, India, was founded on February 18, 1944Encyclopaedia of Indian literature vol. 1, p. 298 1987, Sahitya Akademi, by Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain of the Sahu Jain family and ...
, titled "Priya Ram" (Dear Ram). His books have been translated into several European languages such as English, Russian, German, Icelandic, Polish, Italian and French.
Major works
Novels
*''Ve Din'' – His first novel, set in Prague, former Czechoslovakia (1964),
*''Antima Aranya'' (The Last Wilderness)
*''Ek Chithara Sukh'' (1979)
*''Lal Teen Ki Chhat'' (Red Tin Roof), (1974)
*''Raat ka Reporter '' (1989)
Story anthologies
* 'Parinde' (Birds) (1959)
* Jalti Jhari (1965)
* London ki raat
*Pichli Garmiyon Mein (1968)
* ''Akala tripathi''
* ''Dedh Inch Upar''
* Beech Bahas Mein (1973)
* Meri Priya Kahaniyan (1973)
* Pratinidhi Kahaniyan (1988)
* Kavve aur Kala Pani (1983)
* Sookha aur Anya Kahaniyan (1995).
* Dhage (2003)
Reportage and travelogues
* Cheeron Par Chandni (1962)
* Har Barish Mein (1989)(In Every Rain)
Plays
* Teen Ekant (1976)
Essays and literary criticism
* Shabda aur Smriti (1976) – Literary essay
*''Kala Ka Jokhima'' (1981) – investigation of the Indic arts in the 20th century
*''Dhundha Se Uthati Dhun'' – written like a diary on issues related to Hindi literature. – Literary criticism
* Dhalan se Utarate Huye – Literary criticism
* Bharat Aur Europe: Pratishruti Ke Kshetra (1991) – Essay.
Further reading
* Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature, 1992, Sahitya Akademi
The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of, the Indian government. Its of ...
, Page 4503-4.
The lost stream by Nirmal Verma (short story)
"The Truth of Maya" aya ka Marmy Nirmal Verma (short story)
See also
* List of Indian writers
This is a list of notable writers who come from India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countri ...
References
External links
Nirmal Verma at Abhivyakti
{{DEFAULTSORT:Verma, Nirmal
1929 births
2005 deaths
Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Hindi
Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship
Recipients of the Jnanpith Award
Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in literature & education
Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Indian male novelists
Indian literary critics
20th-century Indian translators
Hindi-language writers
Hindi-language poets
People from Shimla
St. Stephen's College, Delhi alumni
Delhi University alumni
20th-century Indian poets
20th-century Indian novelists
Indian male poets
Indian male essayists
International Writing Program alumni
20th-century Indian essayists
Novelists from Himachal Pradesh
Poets from Himachal Pradesh
20th-century Indian male writers
Recipients of the Moortidevi Award