Garhwali, Kumaoni, Himalayan Literature

Jagdish Bahuguna ‘Kiran’ : A Garhwali language poet
Bhishma Kukreti

Jagdish Bahuguna was born in village Bughani Chalansyun the original village of all Bahugunas of Garhwal. He was born on 15th June 1932
Jagdish Bahuguna ‘Kiran’ had been a labor union activist and was leader of labour union of Delhi. No doubt , there are visible effects of his struggle to fight for the rights of labor in his poems but he is famous for those Garhwali poems, which are based on the rural Garhwali life specially his childhood memories of his village.
Jagdish is credited in Garhwali language literature for his collection of poem ‘Ghama’.
Jagdish portrayed the childhood memories in his poetries very effectively and those poems are delightful too.
Vo khas khas radno radee tain chadhno
Chhau ha bachpan ko swana sapna
This poem is not related to memories of childhood but states something about the struggle of the labour class in the industrial era too.
The poems of Jagdish Bahuguna of day to day life in Garhwali village are enjoyable and the readers experience the happenings in Garhwali village. His uses of figures of speech or metaphor are marvelous pieces of Garhwali literature . A couple of poems of Jagdish are on the base of paradoxes in our life. Many poems of jagdish are inspirational and philosophical or psychological ones.
The language of Jagdish is Shrinagarya and simple. Jagdish avoided using Hindi words, whose alternate are available in Garhwali.

Sona jani baludi baludi chandi jani dali
Bhair bhitar udyau hwege ab na rava khali

Copyright @ Bhishma Kukreti, Mumbai, India, 2009