Hungry generation

TheHungry Generation(Bengali:ক্ষুধার্ত প্রজন্ম) was a literary movement in theBengali languagelaunched by what is known today as theHungryalist quartet,i.e.Shakti Chattopadhyay,Malay Roy Choudhury,Samir RoychoudhuryandDebi Roy(aliasHaradhon Dhara), during the 1960s inKolkata,India.Due to their involvement in thisavant gardecultural movement, the leaders lost their jobs and were jailed by the incumbent government. They challenged contemporary ideas about literature and contributed significantly to the evolution of the language and idiom used by contemporaneous artists to express their feelings in literature and painting.

The approach of the Hungryalists was to confront and disturb the prospective readers' preconceived colonial canons. According to Pradip Choudhuri, a leading philosopher and poet of the generation, whose works have been extensively translated in French, their counter-discourse was the first voice of post-colonial freedom of pen and brush. Besides the famous four mentioned above,Utpal Kumar Basu,Binoy Majumdar,Sandipan Chattopadhyay,Basudeb Dasgupta,Falguni Roy,Subhash Ghosh,Tridib Mitra,Alo Mitra, Ramananda Chattopadhyay,Anil Karanjai,Karunanidhan Mukhopadhyay, Pradip Choudhuri, Subimal Basak and Subo Acharya were among the other leading writers and artists of the movement.

Origins

The origins of this movement stem from the educational establishments serving Chaucer and Spengler to the poor of India. The movement was officially launched, however, in November 1961 from the residence ofMalay Roy Choudhuryand his brotherSamir RoychoudhuryinPatna.They took the wordHungryfromGeoffrey Chaucer's line "In Sowre Hungry Tyme" and they drew upon, among others,Oswald Spengler's histriographical ideas about the non-centrality of cultural evolution and progression, for philosophical inspiration. The movement was to last from 1961 to 1965. It is wrong to suggest that the movement was influenced by the Beat Generation, since Ginsberg did not visit Malay until April 1963, when he came to Patna. PoetsOctavio PazandErnesto Cardenalwere to visit Malay later during the 1960s. The hungry generation has some of the same ideals asThe Papelipolasand theBarranquilla Group,both fromColombia,and the SpanishGeneration of 68.

History

Writers of Hungry generation. From the top left moving clockwise:Saileswar Ghose,Malay Roy ChoudhuryandSubhas GhoseBasudeb Dasgupta,David Garcia andSubimal Basak.

This movement is characterized by expression of closeness tonatureand sometimes by tenets ofGandhianismandProudhonism.Although it originated at Patna, Bihar and was initially based inKolkata,it had participants spread over North Bengal,TripuraandBenares.According to Dr.Shankar Bhattacharya,DeanatAssam University,as well as Aryanil Mukherjee, editor of Kaurab Literary Periodical, the movement influencedAllen Ginsbergas much as it influencedAmerican poetrythrough the Beat poets who visited Calcutta, Patna and Benares during the 1960-1970s. Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, now a professor and editor, was associated with the Hungry generation movement.Shakti Chattopadhyay,Saileswar Ghosh,Subhas Ghoshleft the movement in 1964.

More than 100 manifestos were issued during 1961–1965.Malay Roy Choudhury's poems have been published by ProfP. Lalfrom hisWriters Workshopimprint.Howard McCordpublished Malay's controversial poemPrachanda Boidyutik Chhutar(i.e.Stark Electric Jesus) from Washington State University in 1965. The poem has been translated into severallanguagesof the world. Into German by Carl Weissner,in Spanish by Margaret Randall, inUrduby Ameeq Hanfee, in Assamese by Manik Dass, in Gujarati by Nalin Patel, inHindibyRajkamal Chaudhary,and in English by Howard McCord.

Impact

Malay Roy Choudhury

The works of these participants appeared in Citylights Journal 1, 2 and 3 published between 1964 and 1966, edited byLawrence Ferlinghetti,and in special issues of American magazines includingKulchuredited byLita Hornick,Klactoveedsedsteenedited by Carl Weissner,El Corno Emplunadoedited by Margaret Randall,Evergreen Reviewedited by Barney Rosset,Salted Feathersedited by Dick Bakken,Intrepidedited by Alan De Loach, andSan Francisco Earthquake,during the 1960s.The Hungry Generation,also known asHungryalism,challenged the mainstream literary genres. The group wrote poetry and prose in completely different forms and experimented with the contents. The movement changed the literary atmosphere of Bengal altogether. It had influences inHindi,Marathi,AssameseandUrduliteratures.

Hungryalists and Krittibas

There is a misconception that the Hungryalists and the Krittibas group were the same and that theKrittibasmagazine was a Hungryalist platform. This is incorrect as the Krittibas was a group from the fifties. The Hungryalist movement was a sixties decade phenomenon.Krittibasmagazine in its editorial had openly declared that they have no relations with the movement and that they do not approve of the philosophy of the movement.

See also

• List of underground newspapers of the 1960s counterculture

Sources

• The autobiography ofMalay Roy Choudhuryis available in Vol 215 of "Contemporary Authors" published by Thomas Gale. (ISBN0-7876-6639-4)
• There are Hungry Generation Archives inNorthwestern Universityin Illinois as well asBangla Academyin Dhaka, Bangladesh. At Kolkata the Little Magazine Library and Research Centre run by Sandip Dutta has a separate section on theHungryalistpublications as well as trial papers of the famous Hungry generation case in which some of the colleagues of Malay turned against the movement and gave undertakings to have withdrawn from the movement. Trial papers are archived inBankshall Court,Kolkata (9th Court of Presidency Magistrate), Case No. GR. 579 of 1965; State of West Bengal VsMalay Roy Choudhury
• Hungry Kimbadantiwritten byMalay Roy Choudhuryand published by De Books, Kolkata (1997)
• Hungry Andolonissue ofHaowa 49magazine (2003) edited bySamir Roychoudhuryand Murshid A. M.
• Hungry Andolon O Drohopurush Kothawritten by Dr. Bishnu Chandra Dey and published by Sahayatri, Kolkata 700 009 (2013)
• Chandragrahan Hungry Andolon Special issueedited by Pranabkumar Chattopadhyay2, Dumdum, Kolkata 700 030 (October 2014)

External links

• BBC Documentary on Hungryalist movement
• The Hungry Generation (TIME 1964)
• Hungryalist Movement: A Photo-Text Album
• Hungry Generation (blog)