REVIEWS
Gandhiji: His Life and Work. Edited by D. G. Tendulkar and others. (The Karnatak Publishing House, China Bazaar, Bombay 2). Pp. 496 Price Rs. 25/-
The young Editors of this magnificent volume
presented it to Gandhiji on his seventy-fifth birthday last October. In every
respect, it is worthy of the occasion; no effort has been spared to make the
outward form as well as the inner content truly representative of the genius of
modern India. The Editors suffered from an initial handicap, for gifted fellow-workers
of Gandhiji like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Acharya Kripalani were–as they are
even today–behind prison bars. But they have made up for this by a judicious
selection from their published writings. The volume has been enriched by
several specially written articles on Gandhiji’s philosophy and outlook, on
certain phases of his personal life, and various items of his constructive
programme, together with interesting reminiscences. There are messages from
Einstein, the philosopher-scientist and Pearl Buck, the American novelist and
friend of India. “Truth in Beauty” by D. G. Tendulkar and “The True Artist” by
Nandalal Bose reveal an aspect of Gandhiji not so well known to the public–his
love of the Beautiful. Similarly “Is Gandhi a Socialist?” by M. R. Masani, and
“A New Synthesis” by M. L. Dantwala re-interpret Gandhism as the correct
approach to the socialist ideal. M. Chalapathi Rau, one of the Editors, gives a
graphic account of Gandhiji’s “Tours and Marches.”
The book is printed on hand-made paper, and bound
in Khaddar, with an attractive cover designed in indigenous style. This and the
large number of photographs and reproductions in colour of famous printings
like Nandalal Bose’s “Dandi March”, V. S. Masoji’s “Midnight Arrest” make this
birthday gift highly artistic.
Admirers of Gandhiji all over the world must be
grateful to the. Editors who have gone about their work in a spirit of reverent
love. The price of Rs. 25/- is by no means exorbitant, considering the lavish
expenditure involved and the announcement that the profits will be devoted “to
the causes dear to him”. It is to be hoped that the bulk of the matter
incorporated in this volume will soon be translated into all Indian languages.
Telugu Literature. (Andhra Literature) By Dr. P. T. Raju, M.A., Ph.D., Sastri, The Andhra
University, Guntur. (Published for the P. E. N. All-India Centre, Malabar Hill,
Bombay, by the International Book House Ltd., Ash Lane, Fort, Bombay.) Pages 24
plus 154. Price: Rs. 2-8-0.
This is the fourth, in order of publication, of the
P. E. N. Books on Indian Literatures, under the general editorship of Srimati
Sophia Wadia. The series has been well planned and entrusted to competent
scholars. Like its predecessors on Assamese and Bengali Literatures, this
volume on Telugu Literature by Dr. P. T. Raju is divided into three parts, Old
Literature, New Literature, and Anthology, the last being the most valuable.
Earlier works on Telugu Literature like the one by Bhujanga Rao and Chenchia
(Heritage of India Series) failed to give renderings into English of verse,
song, and prose, illustrative, of the literary contribution of Andhra.
Dwelling midway between Aryavarta and the extreme
South, the Andhras, like their cousins the Kannadigas, have harmonised in their
language and culture the finest elements of what are commonly called ‘Aryan’
and’ Dravidian’. In both these languages, the vocabulary is a rich blend of
Sanskritic and Dravidian roots. The poets, too, use freely both Sanskrit and
‘Desi’ (country) metres. These twin literatures, Telugu and Kannada, have
developed on parallel lines for over a thousand years, and even today their
achievements in different branches of literature are strikingly similar. They
have therefore, to be studied together. Dr. Raju is aware of this close
relationship, and even claims that the earliest Kannada poets, Pampa and Ponna,
as well as Basava, the reformer, and Vidyaranya, the philosopher, were Andhras.
We await with interest what Prof. B. M. Srikantia will say in reply in his
forthcoming book on Kannada Literature, in the same series. Possibly, they were
all bilingual!.
Within the limited space of fifty pages, Dr. Raju
gives a comprehensive and satisfactory account of the development of Telugu
Literature, from the tenth century to the middle of the nineteenth. His
literary judgments are balanced, and generally in consonance with those of
earlier writers on the subject. But the literary merit of Tyagaraya’s
compositions and of the yakshaganas has not been adequately recognised
by him. Dr. Raju lays special emphasis on the important fact that the early
Telugu poets treated the Puranas and Itihasas as Kavyas and
presented them to the Telugu people as literary masterpieces.
The modern period beginning with Viresalingam is
described at greater length, but Dr. Raju does not appear to have closely
studied the work of contemporary writers. His treatment of the Bhava-Kavis (lyric
poets) is amateurish, and he has not appraised their work at its true value.
During the last thirty years, Rayaprolu Subba Rao, D. V. Krishna Sastri, Nayani
Subba Rao and other distinguished poets have written verse and song which
entitle modern Telugu poetry to rank with the noblest poetry in other Indian
languages. In theme, style, and sentiment these poets have attained a very high
level of excellence. Theirs is indeed the golden age of Telugu poetry vying
with the golden age of Vijayanagara, under Sri Krishna Deva Raya. Nor has the
short story, ‘another sphere in which modern Telugu writers excel, received
adequate attention in this volume.
In places, this part of the book reads a little too
much like a guide-book or a catalogue of publications. With regard to even
well-known facts, Dr. Raju commits errors. He speaks of Sadasiva Raya as a son
of Krishna Deva Raya. He attributes the authorship of the Telugu play Kanthabharanam
to Kallkuri Narayana Rao instead of to P. Lakshmi Narasimha Rao. Obviously,
he was thinking of the formers Vara-Vikrayam.
But these and other defects in the main text are more
than retrieved by the Anthology. Here, the selection from ancient and modern
literature is quite representative, and the renderings into English are marked
by accuracy and great charm of style. ‘Urmila’s Sleep’, ‘Sugatri and Salina’,
‘The Rescue of Gajendra’ and ‘The Farmer’s Wife’ are particularly pleasing.
Non-Andhra readers, for whom it is primarily meant,
will gain by a study of this book. It will furnish them much valuable
information about the literary achievement of Telugu writers, ancient and modern,
and enable them to compare the development of Telugu literature with their own.
After all, the content of all Indian literature is the same, notwithstanding
local variations due to historic accident and geographical conditions. Even the
Andhra reader will profit from a study of Dr. Raju’s treatise, as it presents
certain points of view not so familiar, particularly the Andhra contribution to
general Indian Culture, and the Prakritic as contrasted with the Dravidian
basis of the Telugu language.
Dr. Sir C. R. Reddy, Vice Chancellor of the Andhra
University, contributes a scholarly Introduction in the course of which he
discusses the different theories relating to the origin of the Telugu people.
The Introduction enhances the value of this latest addition to the P. E. N.
series.
The Peacock Lute.–An Anthology of Indo-English Poetry. Edited by V. N Bhushan. Padma
Publications Price: Rs. 7–8–0.
It is instructive to read this Anthology in
comparison with the New Verse of contemporary English Poets. The difference is
striking. Indo-English poetry is pre-eminently subjective in character. The
charge of excessive self-absorption against many of our poets, is not wholly
unjust. Many of our poets are not mystics. The mystics with their extraordinary
clarity of thought appeal only at the highest level. As for Aurobindo, he is a
mystic and a poet, who makes objects mere symbols “linking spiritual to
corporal forms” and is a class by himself.
Arise from the heart of the yearning that sobs in
Nature’s abyss;
Make earth the home of the Wonderful and life
Beautitude Kiss.
That is the triumph of poetry, where imagery and
imagination are happily wedded. At the other of extreme is that other mystic,
Vivekananda, who achieves the peak-effects in sheer simplicity;
The cloud puts forth its deluge of strength
When lightning cleaves its breast;
When the soul is stirred to its utmost depths
Great ones unfold their best.
There is yet another of that category, Dilip Roy,
in whose poetry the seen and the unseen, come to a point of convergence. To
quote from “The Lesson”
Lone ocean-moods a dance in floods
Creating Coral isles with silt.
That is a phrase for all the silent creations of
human genius in its ocean-moods. Often a poet hovers about some gleam, trying
to grasp “the ineffable secrecies supreme” that pass and elude his gaze, but
many times suffers a poetic defeat. There is not the consistency of thought and
emotion; they thin out into mere vigaries, and sensations.
“Truth Vision” is a gem cut by K. D. Sethna:
What drew that film
Across your sight
Was only a dazzle
Of everlasting light.
Then the soaring apostrophe:
Eagle your mood, O Spirit,
To see the Golden Face.
Quite a simple imagery and a Miltonic effect!
Armando Menezes, in whom there is the ring of
Keats, occasionally speaks of a power half-glimpsed, half-guessed and haunting
everywhere but can take a more severe and positive attitude:
Waiting still
For thine elusive glimmer, on some hard-won hill.
or, And final
glory asks for final pain.
Considerations of space for bids fuller quotations from his first-rate
poem “Ode to Beauty.” Another piece, “Aspiration”, is cast into a very concrete
mould of imagery, with almost spiritual effects:
And I would, waking
One sudden morn,
Feel my heart aching
with corn.
Menezes is a force to reckon with.
Baldoon Dhingra is a poet of disillusionment as the
editor has described him to be. He reacts against that excessive
se1f-absorption, the self-centeredness of man.
Heedless of our race
The cosmic process works.
That is a rare note in Indo-English poetry. There
is a certain objectivity, a ‘scientific’ temper in his “Comes ever the Dawn”:
Flowers will bloom for no man’s scent and fruit,
Ripen for no man’s appetite, and boughs
Lavish their shade where no man lies.
Yet another mystic poet, J. Krishnamurthy achieves
the highest effects with simple imagery.
As the rose is to the rose petal
So art Thou to me,
has a peculiar poetic power in it. For this mystic, the ineffable is the
soft petal, the well-developed colour, the bloom, the fragrance. The gradation
of immateriality in this spiritual metaphor is to be noted.
Here is also a different order of poets. They have
nothing to do with the eternal verities. “Nocturne” by Kaikini is a modernist
verse. The few poet out-Audens Auden. He strikes quite an original note in
Indo-English poetry. In the hands of a master the modernist verse, in its
perfection, can achieve a poetic power not inferior to that of our classical
models.
In an Anthology of this kind omissions may be
easily pointed out. And it happens that within the limits set to this
collection, many authors are represented inadequately, for example Aurobindo,
Rabindranath Tagore, Harindranath and Sarojini Naidu, who are after all, our
major figures. Such strict rationing is to be deplored in an Anthology.
Lastly a word about the biographical introductions.
Too colourfull and every vain-glorious ‘write-ups’ as practised to the limits
of garish vulgarity may be all right in the commercial and cinema world but in
an Anthology of this type, similar loud writing is not in taste. We are
thankfull, however, for the helpful information contained in them. At the end
of the book is a bibliography of 172 Indo-English poets, 5 important
anthologies, and 22 volumes of criticism. The Editor and Publishers deserve our
thanks for bringing out this fair-sized, fairly printed and fairly bound
Anthology–a, real gift to the world of letters.
H. G. V.
The deliverance–By
Saratchandra Chattopadhyaya–Nalanda Publications, Bombay. Price: Rs. 3-4-0.
This longish short story pictures the joint family
life in Bengal and is equally true of other parts of India. The children in a
household quarrel and because the mothers range themselves on the sides of
their children, the squabble soon becomes a storm in the domestic teapot; later
on the menfolk are precipitated into the misunderstanding and in the sequel a
litigation all but ruins the-family-financially as also in the matter of
domestic felicity. The narrative progresses from event to event with rapidity
carrying the reader along with it and the characterization is also convincing.
A noble and a high-souled but extremely absent-minded lawyer, his sentimental
but by no means sensible wife, and a suave but scheming cousin and his capable
wife are a few of the characters delineated with great truth and artistry:
human fondnesses, follies and foibles are depicted with natural elegance,
humour and vividness. In a domestic quarrel both parties are equally right,
judged from their own standpoints. The fact that elders prone to partisanship
on such occasions can do no worse than take sides in petty domestic quarrels is
the salutary suggestion made and leaves a lasting impression. The translation
from the Bengali is by Dilip Kumar Roy and the book has had the most
distinguished sponsoring possible; Sri Aurobindo has revised it and
Rabindranath Tagore has provided the Introduction. The distinguished translator
deserves the thanks of the English-reading public for providing them with such a
readable and entertaining story by one of India’s greatest fiction-writers in
modern times. The get-up and printing leave nothing to be desired.
C. R. S.
The Indian Deadlock–By Sjt. K. M. Munshi, B.A., LL.B., Ex-Minister,
Bombay. (Publishers: Kitab Mahal, Allahabad, Pages 152 plus 4, Rs. 2/-)
The book under review is an impassioned plea for
India’s right to self-government as well as a withering attack against Prof.
Coupland’s fallacious case against Indian nationalism. Coming as it does from a
versatile and an active politician, and student of constitutional affairs, the
book gains in realism and is suffused with intense fervour.
Prof. Coupland’s main charge is that the Indian
National Congress is responsible for creating the deadlock in India and based
on the facile assumption that the I. N. C. is a ‘totalitarian’ body acting with
the avowed object of creating anarchy at home and disturbing the security of
the British Commonwealth. Sjt. Munshi finds no difficulty in rebutting this
charge. The author touches on the history of Hindu and Muslim dissension’s and
has much to say about the mischievous divide-and-rule policy of British
imperialism. The use of terms like ‘disruptionalism’, ‘regionalism’ by Prof.
Coupland warps the vision and clouds the issues and, in effect, amounts to a
sabotage of the ideal of Indian independence. The deadlock has cast a shadow of
gloom and frustration on the country. Nevertheless Smt. Munshi feels that the
correct statement of the problem is half the solution. The Rajaji formula and
the Sapru Conciliation attempt also come up for discussion the finish that Smt.
Munshi gives is rather a tame one.
The book is well got up with a suggestive cartoon
on the front page.
H. G. S.
Srimad Bhagavatam, the Wisdom of God–Translated by Swami Prabhavananda, Sri Ramakrishna
Math, Mylapore, Madras. Crown 8 Vo. pages 222, Price Rs. 3–8–0.
Srimad Bhagavatam, in the original Sanskrit and more particularly through the renderings
in the various Indian languages enjoys a wider vogue and exerts a more
widespread influence among the Hindus than even the Upanishads, Gita or
the Mahabharata. It provides the text for popular religious recitals,
discourses and dramas in all parts of the country. “To study it is the best of
all ways to become acquainted with the living religion of India.” Its peculiar
excellence is that it “reconciles the heart with the head, devotion with
learning”–as has been well stated in the Introduction. There have been English
translations, like the ones by M. N. Dutt or by S. Subba Rao–but these are
literal and ponderous. The present edition is an abridgement–except for the XI
chapter, which contains the “Uddhava Gita” and is fully rendered. Even a reader
unacquainted with Sanskrit and Indian languages may capture something of the
atmosphere and the modes of thought and feeling, as the Swamiji has retold
rather than translated the text using a language replete with charm and
characterised by its biblical ring and poetic quality. A glossary of Sanskrit
terms adds to the value of the book.
The get-up and letter press are elegant.
K. S. G.
The meaning of Dominion Status.–By S. M. Bose; Oxford Pamphlets on Indian Affairs
No. 24. Price: As. 6.
The claim that “this pamphlet traces the transition
from Colony to Dominion in Canada and elsewhere, examines the meaning and
implications of Dominion Status, and shows that British India has reached
position so nearly equal to that of the Dominions that the transition to
Dominion Status may be attained within the framework of the Government of India
Act of 1935 and by amendment of the Statute of Westminster” is justified.
The author has presented his material
clearly and concisely. All the legal and constitutional ways and means thought
of may be considered within the bounds of practical politics in an academic
discussion. They may not carry conviction further to many minds. The arguments
advanced by the author to be assessed at their proper value have to be taken
along with the back- ground of colour conflict, which unfortunately has not
vanished from this world of ours, and less so in the British Commonwealth.
K. K.
Winning the Peace.–By F. L. Brayne; Oxford Pamphlets on Indian Affairs No. 25. Price: As.
6.
Mr. F. L, Brayne of Socrates in Indian Villages fame
is no stranger to problems of moral reconstruction in 1ndia. In this pamphlet
written in his usual lucid and vigorous style, he urges that the ex-soldiers
should be used to guide and stimulate progress in the villages. “The million
ex-soldiers can and should be harnessed to carry through a great plan of
national reconstruction; and the plan should be ready to be put into operation
as soon as hostilities cease.” A great idea surely, and we feel thankful to the
author for the vivid manner of his presenting it to us. But then, of course, it
all depends on the kind of plan to be put through, and on the willingness and
the capacity to tackle the job under civilian control.
K. K.
Reconstruction of Economic Science–By A. N. Agarwala, Lecturer, University of
Allahabad (Kitab Mahal, Allahabad. Price: Rs. 3–8–0).
This arresting little book deals with the
fundamental concepts of Economics. Though this is a re-statement of
fundamentals, there is throughout a silent intellectual antagonism to the
theories of Lionel Robins. This denunciation is sometimes even carried to
extreme proportions, as when the author says that “he (L. Robins) has estranged
the sympathies of social human beings” (P. 76). He inflates the Marshallian
definition to such an extent that he want us to believe that Robins is propounding
nothing new. The corner-stone of “Robinism” is scarce means and unlimited ends
and this interpretation is found nowhere in the theory of the earlier
economists, One does not feel happy about the illustrations that the author has
chosen to prove his thesis. The example of war “as not always destructive of
economic welfare” (P.36), is a case in point. War might change the balance of
power among the contending parties, but it is destruction all right! There is a
spirited defence for the recognition of the normative and applied aspects of
the science. A lot of confusion is often caused by the loose usage of many
economic terms, and the author draws pointed reference to this sad state of
affairs and points out the danger arising therefrom. There is a repeated
insistence that the science must not be divorced from the masses at large and
that it must have maximisation of social welfare as its ideal. It is a useful
and interesting contribution.
G. V. R.
French Foreign Policy–By David Thompson. (Oxford Pamphlets on World
Affairs. Price 6 d. net.)
This is a short history of French Foreign policy
beginning from the times of the Bourbons and ending with the recent German
occupation of that land. The guiding factors of French policy during these
decades have been clearly brought out. The divergence between the French and
the English attitude towards Germany, after the last War, has been briefly
sketched. It is a narrative pure and simple, and the presentation as objective
as possible. It is an interesting little publication on a controversial topic.
G. V. R.
Our Sterling Balances–By Prof. M. V. Bhatawdekar. (Padma Publications.
Price Re. 1– 0–0).
The book deals with one of the live issues of the
day. In clear language and unambiguous terms the origin disposal and possible
loss of our starling balances due to an “unfriendly Briton” have been traced.
The author does not concern himself exclusively with Sterling Balances alone,
but has also shown the necessary relations these bear with exchange rates. Many
of the statements look more like assertions as when–“If we are paid in gold at
the rate of Is. 6d. per rupee, that would not have altered the situation (of
being paid in Sterling) in any fundamental respect” (p. 12). Probably this
might not have stopped inflation. Even this is a very pessimistic point of view
as gold has an insatiable market and also because most of the purchasing power
has been concentrated in the hands of the few. On the other hand, it would have
been a better investment as it would have neither restricted our purchasing
capacity, nor have fluctuated so much as Sterling. It is also naively assumed
that the United Kingdom cannot tamper very much either with the exchange rate
or the cross of the rupee, and that if we want we can freely import from the U.
S. A. But the way in which Germany gained control of the Austrian Economic
System by the manipulation of the exchange rate is common knowledge. The work
is an interesting and not–too academic study of the problem of Sterling
Balances to the general reader.
G. V. R.
Your Food–A study of the problem of Food and Nutrition in India–M. R. Masani.
Published for Tata Sons, Ltd., by the Padma Publications, Ltd., Bombay–82
pages. Re. 1.
The subject is or distressing importance
particularly in India, where millions of people live on the verge of
starvation–in spite of 360 millions acres of very fertile land under
cultivation mostly with food and fodder crops, with a varied and hospitable
climate, a monsoon of our own, thick forests to protect our soil and a large
population at work on land and 28.5% of the world’s cattle to help us.
We have everything we need; yet we do not seem to
manage to feed ourselves. That paradox is our Problem No. 1. How can it be
explained and how can it be solved? That is what the book is about.
Your Food takes us to the Indian problem through such fundamentals of Dietetics as
Why We Eat, How much to eat, what there is to eat A Balanced Diet etc. We are
not left floating in the clouds with what we ought to eat but brought down to
the hard realities of what we are eating and why. The matter is dealt with in
close touch with the main problem and the book ends with the note that food is
not a subject apart; it is bound up with the fight for the abolition of
poverty, which is one of the biggest crusades on which we, as a nation should
launch.
The personal touch throughout the book makes it
interesting and the graphic illustrations make understanding easier. Here are
facts and figures for any one generally interested in the problem.
K. N.
Milk and Milch Cattle. By Sarabhai Prataprai–Padma Publications. 51
pages. As. 12/-
The present deplorable condition of the lack of
even the most minimum of this very necessary food is set forth in the present
pamphlet. The many factors that have contributed are pointed out, as also the
imperative need for the Government taking an All-India policy to improve the
soil, the fodder, the cattle and the supply of milk, so as to enable the people
of this agricultural country to get more milk, and better milk: the average
daily per capita milk consumption here being only 6 ozs. as against 56 ozs. of
New Zealand.
There is an appendix indicating the result of
laboratory experiments to show the efficacy of cow’s milk vs. buffalo’s.
K. N.
Sweeya Charitramu. (Autobiography) By Kalaprapurna Chilakamarti Lakshmi Narasimham (The
Prajasakti Office, Bezwada). P. 369, Rs. 3/-.
As poet and novelist, playwright and essayist, Sri
Lakshmi Narasimham is one of the makers of modern literature in Telugu. His name
is a household word, and the generation now verging on fifty owes to him and to
Viresalingam its mental attitude as well as the love of the mother-tongue.
Struggling against poverty, and later against blindness, Sri Lakshmi Narasimham
rendered important services to his fellow-Andhras in diverse
fields,–literature, journalism, the stage, and social reform. As an orator in
Telugu, he has few equals. At seventy-eight, he still retains his intellectual
vigour and his splendid memory.
The Progressive Writers’ Association of Andhra
merits high praise for publishing this autobiography. The volume wafts us to an
age and a society so different from ours,–when English education was just
beginning to make its way and the political consciousness of the people was dormant.
The Author and his senior contemporaries, Viresalingam, N. Subba Rau Pantulu,
and Sir R. Venkata Ratnam Naidu, strove to create a better world. The
autobiography makes exceedingly interesting reading and is characterized by the
Author’s frankness, modesty, and patriotism. His pen-pictures of early friends
like Sri T. Prakasam–who played the roles of Draupadi and Damayanti to
perfection!–are charming.
We must confess, nevertheless, to a slight sense of
disappointment. The crowding of incidents, of dates and events, takes away from
the artistic quality of the work. More space ought to have been devoted to
contemporary movements and personalities, literary, social, and political, and
to the author’s reflections,–and reactions.
In common with all Andhras, we tender our homage to
this gifted and versatile son of Andhra. May he live long and continue to shed
light and love all around him!
K. Ramakotiswara Rau.
Devayani–Chitrangada By B. Gopala Reddy (Rendered from the Bengali plays
of Sri Rabindranath Tagore). Published by the Gurudeva Grandha Mandali,
Tyagarayanagar, Madras. Pp, 94, Price: Re. 1-4-0.
While yet in his teens, Gopala Reddy stayed in
Viswa-Bharati for three years and studied Bengali with zeal. The personality
and the poetry of Tagore cast a spell over him. He has been trying ever since
to present to Telugu readers the poet’s message as expressed in his poems and
plays. During his last term of imprisonment he rendered some of them from the
original Bengali.
Devayani and Chitrangada are among the earliest of the Poet’s plays. Rich
in phrasing and imagery, they defy the translator’s art. But it is always
easier to translate from one Indian language into another, and Mr. Reddy has
definitely chosen the medium of prose in preference to the blank-verse of the
original, so that what is lost in music may be gained in clarity and accuracy.
He has endeavoured throughout to convey the exact shade of meaning and the
turns of phrase of the poet. While he has largely succeeded in transmitting the
fragrance of the original Bengali, the Telugu idiom has suffered and the style
has become stilted. Any translation into Telugu must be able to rank as good
Telugu literature before it can win the approval of the Telugu reader. Mr.
Reddy is conscious of this aspect of a translator’s task, but his effort to
overcome this initial difficulty has not been quite successful.
This is not said to discount the value of Mr.
Reddy’s work, but only by way of a friendly–and affectionate–appeal to him to
improve the quality of the Telugu prose of his renderings. He will thus
function as a cultural ambassador
between Vanga and Andhra.
Sri Mutnuri Krishna Rao, Editor of the Krishna
Patrika, surveys the development of Indian literature through the ages, and
commends Mr. Reddy’s, effort to interpret Tagore to the Andhras
K. Ramakotiswara Rau
Maxim Gorki Commemoration Volume–Edited by Mr. A. N. Krishna Rao, Published by the
Progressive Writers’ Association (Bangalore Branch), Karnataka Sahitya Mandira,
Dharwar, pages 376, 12 Art plates, Rs. 5-8-0.
Russia, as freedom’s chosen champion, has fought
with such amazing heroism and doggedness against the barbarous Nazi hordes that
she is a perennial source of inspiration to all freedom-loving peoples of the
world. Everyone is eager to know something about the vital secret springs of
her strength, of her social life and culture and about the mighty heroes who
instilled into the revolting masses the spirit of freedom and sacrifice. This
publication of the commemoration volume on Maxim Gorki, who stands out as a
symbol of a momentous epoch in the history of her glorious fight for freedom,
is opportune. It may be roughly divided into three sections, the first dealing
with the life and work of Gorki, the second and the third giving his ‘Fragments
of a Diary’, ‘Days with Lenin,’ ‘Reminiscences of Leo Tolstoy’; and some other
beautiful short stories rendered into easy and readable Kannada. But a close
and critical look into its pages reveals lapses of style and idiom partly due
to haste and twist of expression and partly to a lack of corresponding vigor of
sentiment or depth of insight. There is a challenging Introduction written in
English, a signal piece of unorthodoxy. This tribute to the memory of one who
became a herald of a new dawn of liberty and whose works vibrated with the
passion of social justice will be welcomed by the Kannada public.
H. G. S