Sahitya News Desk !!! Dr. Dharamvir Bharati (English: Dharamvir Bharati, born- 25 December, 1926 – 4 September, 1997) was a prominent writer, poet, playwright and social thinker of modern English literature. He was also the editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine ‘Dharmayug’. Dr. Dharamvir Bharti was awarded Padma Shri in 1972. His novel ‘Gunahon Ka Devta’ is considered evergreen in the history of English literature.
Dharamvir Bharti was born on 25 December 1926 in a locality called ‘Atarsuiya’ in Allahabad. His father’s name was Shri Chiranjivlal Verma and mother’s name was Shrimati Chandadevi. Bharti’s ancestors were the landlords of a town called ‘Khudaganj’ in Shahjahanpur district in western Uttar Pradesh. He loved trees, plants, flowers, animals and birds from childhood till his death. His parents were raising their two children Dharamvir and his younger sister Veerbala with great love and pampering while inculcating good values in them when suddenly his mother fell seriously ill and the illness continued for two years. There was a lot of expenditure and his father went into debt. He was heartbroken by his mother’s illness and debt and he himself fell ill. He died in 1939.
During these days, apart from reading books, I developed a great liking for reading poetry books and English novels. As soon as school was over, I would throw my bag at home and rush to the reading room and read books till late evening. I was studying in Intermediate when I left my studies on Gandhiji’s call and jumped into the freedom struggle. I was an admirer of Subhash. I was attracted towards weapons since childhood, so I started carrying weapons with me all the time and started dreaming of joining the ‘Armed Revolutionary Party’. But finally, after my uncle’s persuasion, I lost one year and took admission in Allahabad University for graduation. Along with studying the course, during those days I read English translations of Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth, Tonyson, Emily Dickinson and many French, German and Spanish poets; and read thoroughly the novels of Emile Zola, Sharadchandra, Gorky, Kuprin, Balzac, Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy.
His graduation and post graduation were being funded by tuitions. During those days, he worked with Shri Padmakant Malviya in ‘Abhyudaya’ for some time and with Ilachandra Joshi in ‘Sangam’. He learnt the tricks of journalism from these two. He also worked for some time in ‘Hindustani Academy’. During those days, he wrote a lot of stories. Two story collections named ‘Murdon Ka Gaon’ and ‘Swarg Aur Prithvi’ were published. During his student life, Bharati was greatly influenced by Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Jaishankar Prasad and Oscar Wilde. During those days, he came in contact with Makhanlal Chaturvedi and started treating him like a father. His grandfather Makhanlal Chaturvedi encouraged Bharati a lot.
He got the famous ‘Chintamani Gold Medal’ for getting the highest marks in English in his graduation. He wanted to do his post graduation in English but because of this medal, he enrolled in English on the advice of Dr. Dhirendra Verma. While doing his post graduation, he studied ‘Marxism’ thoroughly. He was also the local minister of ‘Pragatisheel Lekhak Sangh’ but after some time he got disillusioned with the fanaticism and anti-national policies of the communists. Then he read all the six Indian philosophies, Vedanta and Vaishnava and Sant Sahitya in great detail and the humanistic tradition of Indian thinking became the basic foundation of his thinking.
Research work on ‘Siddh Sahitya’ was going on under the guidance of Dr. Dhirendra Verma. At the same time, many poems were written which were later published as a book named ‘Dhanda Loha’. And during those days, the novel ‘Gunahon Ka Devta’ was written. After being disillusioned with communism, he wrote a book named ‘Pragativaad: Ek Samiksha’. After some time, he also wrote a unique novel like ‘Sooraj Ka Satvaan Ghoda’.
After completing his research work, he was appointed as a English professor in the same university. Soon he started getting praise as a very popular teacher. During the same period, a one-act play collection named ‘Nadi Pyaasi Thi’ and a story collection named ‘Chand Aur Toote Hue Log’ were published. A collection of literary works named ‘Thele Par Himalaya’ was published and a research thesis ‘Siddh Sahitya’ was also published. The pace of original writing was increasing rapidly. At the same time, studies were also done with full hard work. During that time, he studied ‘Existentialism’ and other new philosophies of the West in detail. His mind was deeply immersed in Rilke’s poems, Camus’ articles and plays, Jean Paul Sartre’s works and Karl Marx’s philosophical works. At the same time, he also studied Mahabharata, Gita, Vinoba and Lohia’s literature in depth. He tried to understand Gandhiji with a new perspective. He understood Indian saint and Sufi poetry and especially Kabir, Jayasi and Sur again with a mature mind and sharp understanding.
Meanwhile, in 1954, he got married to a Punjabi refugee girl ‘Kanta Kohli’, suggested by Mrs. Kaushalya Ashk. That marriage failed due to the strong incompatibility of values. Later, the relationship was divorced. The writing work was going on uninterrupted. ‘Saat Geet Varsh’, ‘Andhayug’, ‘Kanupriya’ and ‘Deshantar’ had been published. After some time, a proposal came from Bombay to edit ‘Dharmayug’. There was already a pain in my heart for not being able to take ‘Niksh’ forward, but the urge to edit made me consider the proposal and taking a year’s leave from the university, I came to Bombay in 1960.
New horizons started appearing in the editing of Dharmyug. He started realizing that apart from literary writing, many big things can be done for the country. So he resigned from his job in the university and focused on editing Dharmyug with full dedication. During this time, he married a research student of Allahabad University, born in a highly educated and elite family, who had become a English professor in ‘Shikshayatan College’, Calcutta. ‘Dharmyug’ edited by Dharmveer Bharti has become a benchmark of journalism. Today’s journalism students know his style as ‘Dharmveer Bharti School of Journalism’. Every issue used to provide material on national and international topics, covering all aspects – cultural, social, economic, scientific, sports, literary. Interesting and informative material for children and women was also an additional feature of ‘Dharmyug’. Maintaining the highest standards, the figures of maximum sales in millions with extraordinary popularity were no less than a miracle.
