Amar Singh was in and out of ‘Prateeksha’, supervising the preparations. Anil Ambani ensured the electronic media kept their cameras shut during the funeral. Channels went into a frenzy to grab soundbites as powerful politicos, top honchos from India Inc and Bollywood badshahs mouthed platitudes. Harivansh Rai Bachchan got a farewell none of his contemporaries received. Hindi shouldn’t complain of being abandoned in its home by Macaulay’s children.The truth, sadly, is very different. The truth was framed in that one moment at the heavily guarded Bachchan residence when, in his zest not to be left behind, Maharashtra’s Minister of State for Home, Kripashankar, who incidentally hails from Harivansh Rai’s home state (UP), repeatedly told reporters:‘‘ Bachchanji’s greatest contribution is that he pioneered Chhayavad in Hindi poetry.’’ I felt I was drowning in shame.It was the thirties. Bachchan, then a school teacher in Allahabad and a struggling poet, devoured The Rubaiyyat of Omar Khayyam. He went on to translate it into Hindi as Khayyam Ki Madhushala and, encouraged by the response, penned a long poem Madhushala. The Chhayavadis — practitioners of romantic mysticism in Hindi poetry including its presiding deity Mahadevi Verma — dismissed Madhushala as Halavad (propagation of wine), escapist and cheap. Bachchan’s crime was that he had attempted to break free from the trappings of Chhayavad. His fault was he spoke the language of the masses. Some tried to stop Bachchan’s rising popularity by sabotaging his kavi sammelans. A poetry meet at the Benares Hindu University had to be organised under police protection lest the saboteurs struck. One poet Benipuri even threatened to shoot Bachchan if he set foot in Bihar.But how many of those who thronged ‘Prateeksha’ that fateful Sunday genuinely love Hindi? Did anyone protest when the police almost caned the curious ‘common man’ who had come to the superstar’s residence? Didn’t Bachchan gain spectacular success by celebrating the same common man’s aspirations? Who danced first in delirium to Rang barse bheege chunnarwali? Who mobbed Bachchan every time he recited verses like Bair karate mandir masjid/mel karati madhushala (Mosques and temples divide/While the tavern unites)? The same common man who patronises Hindi.The poet who fought his own battles certainly didn’t need a breathless bonanza at his departure. Have the socialites, the PTPs (Page Three People) cared to read Bachchan’s other collections? What have the Amar Singhs, the Kripashankar Singhs done to restore the great Urdu poet Wali Gujarati’s mausoleum, razed during the Gujarat riots? Nothing, because that doesn’t make news. Or because Wali didn’t have a star for a son.Did the film industry, which poured its heart out at Bachchan’s demise, react when a film producer verbally abused poet-lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri because the latter had rubbished the lyrics of Aati kya khandala? Their selective treatment to the Hindi poet is amusing.
