Ram Vilas Sharma (10 October 1912 – 30 May 2000) was a progressive

literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

and thinker. He was born in Unchgaon Sani,

Unnao District Unnao district is a district of Uttar Pradesh state in northern India. The city of Unnao is the district headquarters. The district is part of Lucknow Division. As of the 2011 census, Unnao district has a population of 3,108,367, making it ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

. In a career spanning nearly five decades, Sharma authored over 50 books. He was the recipient of many awards including the Sahitya Academy award, Bharat Bharati, Shalaka Samman, Vyas Samman, and the Shatabdi Samman just last week. In 1939 he wrote a scholarly paper on

Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala' Suryakant Tripathi "Nirala" (21 February 1897 – 15 October 1961) was an Indian poet, novelist, essayist and story-writer who wrote in Hindi. He was also an artist, who drew many contemporary sketches. Biography Tripathi was born on 2 ...

, presented at a session of ''Hindi Sahitya Sammelan''.

Early life

Sharma was born on 10 October 1912 at Unchagaon Sani of

Unnao district Unnao district is a district of Uttar Pradesh state in northern India. The city of Unnao is the district headquarters. The district is part of Lucknow Division. As of the 2011 census, Unnao district has a population of 3,108,367, making it ...

. He received his early education in his native village and at

Jhansi Jhansi (; Hindi: झांसी, Urdu: ) is a historic city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It lies in the region of Bundelkhand on the banks of the Pahuj River, in the extreme south of Uttar Pradesh. Jhansi is the administrative hea ...

. He went to

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

and gained his Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in

English Literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

Career

He started his career as a lecturer at

Lucknow University The University of Lucknow (informally known as Lucknow University, and LU) is a public state university based in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Founded in 1920, the University of Lucknow is one of the oldest government owned institutions of higher edu ...

, and then moved to Balwant Rajput College,

Agra Agra (, ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital New Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is ...

, as head of the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

department. He retired finally as Director of KM Hindi Institute,

. Basically a critic, he gave new dimension to biographical-historical criticism, and analysed

linguistic Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

and literary issues from a

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

viewpoint. Sharma died on 30 May 2000.

Works

His study of Nirala's ''Ram ki shakti puja'', ''Tulsidas'', ''Saroj-smriti'' and ''parimal'' is a model of creative criticism. He 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 1970 for his ''Nirala ki Sahitya Sadhana'' (in 3 parts). His massive work ''Bharat ke Pracheen bhasha parivar aur Hindi'' won him the first

Vyas Samman The Vyas Samman is a literary award in India, first awarded in 1991. It is awarded annually by the K.K. Birla Foundation and includes a cash payout of Rs 4,00,000 (as of 2019). To be eligible for the award, the literary work must be in the Hi ...

(1991) instituted by the

K. K. Birla Foundation The K.K. Birla Foundation was established in 1991 by Krishna Kumar Birla in Delhi. Its mission is to promote literature (especially Hindi literature) and the arts, as well as education and social work. It regularly gets mentioned in the media for ...

. He was

Socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

both in thought and deed. Among the

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 ...

writers those who impressed him most, besides

Nirala Nirala, real name Syed Muzaffar Husain Zaidi ( ur, ) (8 August 1937 – 9 December 1990) was a Pakistani comedian and film actor. He only appeared in Urdu films made in Pakistan. His first film was ''Aur bhi gham hain'' (1960). His last ...

the poet, are

Acharya Shukla Ram Chandra Shukla (4 October 1884 – 2 February 1941), better known as Acharya Shukla, was an Indian historian of Hindi literature. He is regarded as the first codifier of the history of Hindi literature in a scientific system by using wide, e ...

the critic, Bhartendu the pioneer and

Premchand Dhanpat Rai Srivastava (31 July 1880 – 8 October 1936), better known by his pen name Premchand (), was an Indian writer famous for his modern Hindustani literature. Premchand was a pioneer of Hindi and Urdu social fiction. He was one of ...

the novelist. He took them up for detailed study and wrote authentic

literary criticism Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

on them, though from the progressive angle. He analysed their personality and brought out their contribution to

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� ...

. According to him

Bhartendu Harishchandra Bharatendu Harishchandra (9 September 18506 January 1885) was an Indian poet, writer and playwright. He authored several dramas, life sketches and travel accounts, using new media such as reports, publications, letters to editors of publicati ...

and

are outstanding not only as

litterateur An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or as ...

s but also as men endowed with magnanimity of soul.

Assessment of Acharya Shukla

In his assessment of

(''Acharya Ramchandra Shukla aur Hindi Alochana'') critic Sharma emphasises the fact that the writer opposed

feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a wa ...

and courtly literature as it did not give a true picture of the life of the common people and contemporary society.

List of works

* ''Bharatiya Sahitya ki Bhumika'' * ''Nirala ki Sahitya Sadhana'' (3 volumes) * ''Premchand aur unka yug'' * ''Acharya Ramchandra Shukla aur Hindi alochna'' * ''Bhartendu Harishchandra aur Hindi navjagaran ki samasyayen'' * ''Bhartendu Yug aur Hindi bhasha ki vikas parampara'' * ''Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi aur Hindi navjagaran'' * ''Nai kavita aur astitvavad'' * ''Bharat ki bhasha samasya'' * ''Astha aur saundarya'' * ''Bhasha aur samaj'' * ''Parampara ka mulyankan'' * ''Bharat mein angrazi raj aur marxvad'' (2 volumes) * ''Marx aur pichde huye samaj'' * ''Ghar ki baat'' * ''Bharat ke Pracheen bhasha parivar aur Hindi'' (3 volumes) * ''Dhool'' * ''aitihasik bhashavigyan aur hindi'' * ''Pragati aur Parampara''

References

External links

R V Sharma at Kavita Kosh
(Hindi) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sharma, Ram Vilas Hindi-language poets Indian male poets Indian literary critics Indian male essayists Indian male journalists 20th-century Indian journalists Indian Marxists Indian Marxist writers Indian Marxist poets Hindi-language writers Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Hindi University of Lucknow alumni Academic staff of the University of Lucknow People from Unnao district 1912 births 2000 deaths 20th-century Indian poets 20th-century Indian essayists Poets from Uttar Pradesh Journalists from Uttar Pradesh