Haldhar Nag

Dr. Haldhar Nag (; born 31 March 1950) is a Sambalpuri poet and writer from Bargarh, Odisha, India. Popularly known as "Lok kabi Ratna". He was awarded Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of India by Government of India in 2016. He was born in a poor family of Ghens. He is best known for his work Kavyanjali, an anthology of English translation of Nag's selected poetry which was launched on 2 October 2016. Recently he released his 3rd volume of work on Kavyanjali. In 2019 Haldhar Nag was awarded Doctorate Degree by Sambalpur University. In the year 2020, Professor Jaishankar Babu, Head of the Department of Hindi, Pondicherry University, organized a two-day international seminar under the guidance of its Vice-Chancellor Professor Gurmeet Singh, in which "Haldhar Nag Ka kavya- Sansar" translated into Hindi from Sambalpuri by renowned Hindi writer-cum-transaltor Dinesh Kumar Mali was released and there was an intensive discussion on his poems by the participants from India and abroad. In the year 2021, under joint editorship Professor Jaishankar Babu and translator Dinesh Kumar Mali, the book "'Haldhar ke Lok-sahitya par vimarsh'" and the book "Ramayan prasangon par Haldhar ke Kavya aur yugin Vimarsh " translated by Dinesh Kumar Mali based on Ramayana contexts. published from Pandulipi Prakashan, New Delhi.The popularity of these books Hindi Belt honored Haldhar Nag with Dr. Ram Manohar Tripathi Lok Seva Samman on the Silver Jubilee eve of Acharya Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi Smruti Sanrakshan Abhiyan under the leadership of Gaurav Awasthi in the auditorium of Firoz Gandhi College, Rae Bareli on date 12.11.22. The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has included a review of literary creations of Padma awardee and noted poet Haldhar Nag.
According to sources, students pursuing a Master of Arts (MA) in Folklore and Culture Studies will study folk literature by Nag in a course component titled, ‘Folklore: Canon, Multimediality, Interdisciplinarity, and Social Epistemology’ in their second year.The course book has described Nag as the true representative of orality in the present times. His creations have been reviewed in the category, ‘Case study of orality from East India’.“Nag has based his poems on his surroundings. Folklorists and folklore researchers are vulnerable to multiple challenges with regards to archiving, documentation, and dissemination of the folk material,” TOI reported writer Nandini Sahu, who has designed the MA course for IGNOU, as saying.Notably, writer Dinesh K Mali has written a chapter for the MA programme on Nag’s poetry.'

Sambalpur University is coming up with a compilation of his writings — Haldhar Granthabali-2 — which will be a part of its syllabus.

Early life

He was born in a poor family of Ghens in Bargarh district of Odisha. At a very small age, he lost his only financially capable father due to which he had to do work for his family. He had to drop his school when he was studying in class 3. He had to work as a local dishwasher in a sweetmeat shop to feed his family, realizing his condition village head took him to high-school and there he worked as a cook for more than 10 years. He also opened a small stationery shop nearby the school, that too by taking a loan of ₨ 1000.

Though he is a awardee of Padma Shree which is of the highest award in India, he lives a simple life with just a shop and hawker, as his main source of income. He also sells ''Raag Chanaa'' (Indian snacks, especially in Western Odisha) in street.

Literary career

He has been compared to Gangadhar Meher for his Sambalpuri style of writing. The BBC
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