Garhwali language creative are ignorant about Garhwali working couples

Garhwali language creative are ignorant about Garhwali working couples
Bhishma Kukreti

A few days back, I was eager to know from my sons, nephews and nieces in their thirties, about their disinterest or indifferent towards Garhwali social organizations in Mumbai and the Garhwali literature.

My elder son expressed his displeasure over the myopic behaviors or short slightness of most of the executive committee members of Garhwali social organizations . My nephew supported my son that the present migrated social workers of so called social organizations still live in the past of pre-independence Garhwal and never seems to accept the changes and are fail to asses the future.

For their unresponsiveness towards Garhwali literature, after listening a couple of poems of Harish Juyal ‘kutz’ and Girish Sundariyal from my wife and my bhula-ki-bwari ( younger brother’s wife) my niece replied that Garhwali poets are also seem to be ignorant about what is happening in reality at individual family level or what is happening in nuclear family. All voiced in one term that Garhwali poets of contemporary age also beat the old path and do not watch our social changes from all angles. To proof their angle, they all said in one voice that they did not find any poems from Sundariyal and Kutz collection about the subject of Garhwali working couples.

Since, most of our migrated Garhwalis criticize our so called social workers of Mumbai on the same line, I did not think much about the comments of my sons, nephews and nieces. However, their comments for Garhwali literature vibrated me and forced me to think seriously.

The comments of new generation about contemporariness in Garhwali literature powered me to consider about today’s Garhwali poetry and a new social happenings in Garhwal and in the migrated lands for Garhwalis . There have been emergence of a new class among Garhwalis of Garhwal and migrated Garhwalis for more than two decades. This class , universally, called ‘working couples’. the social structure is somehow different of working couple than single working person of a married couple. Working couples bear many disadvantages than economical advantages in each society. However, the working couples in rural Garhwal area has to face an abnormally different adversity than working couples of migrated land. In rural Garhwal, mostly it is observed that the husband and wife work far from each other and do not live together daily as happened in plains. This problems of working couples in rural Garhwal creating another many new problems or pains for Garhwalis. These couples has to face many new social obligations, which were unheard till eighties or just before that time.

If the literature is the mirror of our society or mirror of social change, our comrade writers should have penned down on this issues of Garhwali working couples in cities and rural Garhwal . In fact, the famous Garhwali poet like Harish Juyal ‘kutz’ is experiencing the pain or joys of working couples in rural Garhwal. Harish Juyal is a teacher, his wife is also a teacher and both work in different areas far away from each other and their children live in Dehradun with their grandparents for better studies than Garhwal. The noted Garhwali poets Neeta Kukreti, Veena Benjwal , Puran Pant ’Pathik’, Shakuntala Ishtwal are also working couples . The famous Garhwali poet and social activist Veena Pani Joshi’s bahus (daughter in-laws) are working women but I have not seen any poetry or prose written by these creative (poets or prose makers) about Garhwali working couples. Recently, Puran Pant published his editorials of eleven years from his news paper Garhwali Dhai but I am sorry to say that he never wrote any write up or editorial on Garhwali working couples.

Like Harish Juyal, there are hundred of Garhwali couples in rural Garhwal and definitely, our Garhwali poets or Garhwali prose makers living in rural Garhwal will be well versed about this new community or social class. Same way, the Garhwali creative will be knowing the emergence of new class in our society. However, none of the Garhwali language poets and prose makers penned down on the joys, happiness, economic pleasures, family pressures, social obligation, frustration, women exploitation in working places, the fissuring problems between the couples, the imbalances in retention of old customary relations of the society and creation of required new relation outside the society and many more aspects regarding lifestyles of working couples.

We have been also witnessing a new alignment in our society , especially, in cities and that is inter caste marriages. I have not read any sensible literature on this subject in Garhwali language .

One school of thought suggests that since our Garhwali society, as a whole, in groups, as individual, in forum, in formal ways or informal ways does not discuss the enhancement of joys or happiness of individuals and society because of new class of working couples in our society , the creative in Garhwali language (part of society) did not consider talking about the mechanism , the new ethos, joys, pains, new type of struggle and many new happenings emerged in our society in their Garhwali language literature.

While another school of thought suggests that since, intellectual or aware class and working couples themselves are shy for discussing openly about the various aspects , the society and creative class are also ignoring the real new issue of our society. There are many issues and considerations before us about Garhwali working couples in various Indian cities and rural Garhwal , which require serious attention, which require resolution and discussion simultaneously at individual level, at family form, at social forums and at creative levels.

Ignoring to write about working couples and inter-caste marriages in contemporary Garhwali literature provide us many cues, clues, admonition, propositions, indication, suggestions, warnings and hints for telling us the unpopularity of Garhwali literature among new generation of migrated Garhwalis or rural Garhwalis too.

When the contemporary writers become myopic about the present happenings in the society, the literature becomes static and moves towards degeneration. The subject of burning issues in the contemporary literature not only vibrates the society but attract the readers too and such literature of contemporary issues also become the vital instrument or byunt for inspiring the readers for protecting, preserving and popularizing the language.

The biggest problems of modern Garhwali literature has been that it usually, failed to attract younger generation in terms of quality and quantity too. After analyzing the ignoring the subject of working couples in contemporary Garhwali literature, I may say that at all time, Garhwali literature ignored present and futuristic burning issues except Uttrakhand movement. This bigoted attitude of our creative is one of the reasons for low popularity of Garhwali literature among migrated Garhwalis and Garhwalis of Garhwal .

Time has come that contemporary writers become super sensitive about the recent happenings, changes, present effects of newer changes and coming consequences in the because of new changes . The requirement of super-sensitivity among contemporary Garhwali language creative for changes is an essential aspect for the growth of Garhwali literature .

Copyright @Bhishma Kukreti, Mumbai, India, 2009, bckukreti@gmail.com