The book The Gandhi Cap and Other Short Stories offers a glimpse into the Iifetime of work of a forgotten pioneer of Hindi fiction, Raja Radhikaraman Prasad Sinha. It is ironic that one cannot find a single book by this author who was so dedicated to Hindi literature. The stories in this collection are a testament not only to the contributions of Sinha to Hindi fiction but also, reflect the depth of political and social milieu of the times. Many readers will be moved by the elements patriotism, feminism, secularism, and spiritualism in these stories. Strong female characters are common in most of these stories. These characters provide both a moral fulcrum to the stories as well as reflect the struggle of women to balance prevailing customs with modernity. Some of these stories provide sharp political and social commentary that still have currency (The Gandhi Cap). Sinha incorporates a unique style of writing that uses lyrical prose and poetry together. He even employs a dialogue between the storyteller and a social gathering in the form of an epilogue, to offer a discourse on social dilemma about women's plight to become modern while admonishing them to retain their Indian essence (An Expensive Bargain). We hope the readers will enjoy this wonderful collection.
Raja Radhikaroman Prosad Sinho (1890-1971) was a pioneer in Hindi fiction. Born in Bihar, he was deeply influenced by the writings of Robindranath Tagore. A prolific writer, he wrote fiction and essays from 1911 to 1970. In 1962, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan. In 1965, he received the highest literary honour given by Bihar Rashtrabhasha Parishad. Magadh University, bestowed upon him DLit degree in 1969. The Prayag Hindi Sahitya, Sammelan recognized him as the "Sahitya Vachaspati" in 1970.
That Raja Radhikaraman Prasad Sinha was a prolific writer is clearly evident by the span of time during which he wrote, from 1911 to 1970. What is sad is that none of his novels or short stories are available in print or otherwise. Thanks to the efforts of Kamlanand Tha and National Book Trust, a collection of his short stories had been compiled and published in 2009. These stories are a testament not only to the contributions of Sinha to the Hindi literature but also, to the depth of political and social dialogue that are reflected in these stories. Many readers will be moved by the elements of patriotism, feminism, secularism, and spiritualism in these stories. Strong female characters form a common thread in most of these stories. These characters provide both a moral fulcrum to the stories as well as reflect the struggle of Indian women to balance prevailing customs with modernity. Some of these stories also provide a sharp political and social commentary that still have currency (The Gandhi Cap). There is also a rural-urban dichotomy that spreads through some of the stories. Sinha incorporates a unique style of writing that uses lyrical prose and poetry together. In one of the stories An Expensive Bargain-he employs a dialogue between the storyteller and a social gathering, in the form of an epilogue, to offer a discourse on social dilemma about women's plight to become modern while admonishing them to retain their Indian essence.
Translating from one language into another presents many daunting challenges. First and foremost, the essential texture of the story has to be maintained. Second, the social, political, and cultural context, regardless of the time period, must be retained. This becomes a particularly difficult task when the original work harkens back to a time period that many modern and younger readers may not be familiar with, either because the social mores and values have changed or, because the changes that technological and economic growth has brought about make certain references hard to fathom. In other words, readers may draw different inferences about the characters by filtering their actions through a prism of modern values. For instance, polygamy or having "concubines," particularly, in aristocratic classes, was common during pre-independence India, a period in which almost all of these stories were written. Finally, the language itself may have evolved making certain words or phrases anachronistic.
Raja Radhikaraman Prasad Sinha's works pose a few additional challenges. As the editor of the collection, Kamlanand Jha, has noted in his introduction to the book, Sinha's style already broke from the norm of other contemporary writers who wrote in heavily Sanskritised Hindi. While he also wrote primarily in Sanskritised Hindi, his characters speak the dialect or style that would be more apt given their regional or cultural context or social standings. For example, urban characters (e.g., from Lucknow) are prone to reciting poetries of famous Urdu poets while educated rural characters, with more religious leanings, may quote couplets from the Ramayana or Sanskrit shlokas. In one of the stories, a character even recites a Rabindranath Tagore's poem in Bengali. Perhaps, even more importantly, in many stories, Sinha's prose is often lyrical and sometime alliterative. It is almost impossible to translate and communicate real substance of such texts.
Raja Radhikaraman Prasad Sinha has been recognized among the pioneers in the history of Hindi literature. His stories are still valued and attest to the measure of his work. Raja Sahib paved the way for Hindi fiction with his brilliant work at a time when the Hindi literature was not yet established and in a precarious condition. During 1900 to 1915, the literary magazines like Saraswati, Sudarshan, Indu, and Bharat Mitra had already published nearly 20 stories by 15 authors. In 1913, Raja Radhikaraman Prasad Sinha's most popular story, Kanon Mein Kangana, was published in Indu. The story had also been previously published as a part of a collection of stories, Kusumanjali. It can therefore be deduced that the story must have been penned around 1911. Among the first 20 stories published by 1915, Usne Kaha Tha by Chandradhar Sharma, Guleri and Kanon Mein Kangana were the most widely read and critically acclaimed. The story Kanon Mein Kangana was received equally well by the common person and the lovers of literature.
Aside from these two, the remaining 13 authors included: Kishorilal Goswami, Madhav Prasad Mishra, Master Bhagvandas Mirzapur, Girijadutt V ajpayee, Ramchandra, Shukla, Bang Mahila, Vidyanath Sharma, Vrindvanlal Verma, Maithilisharan Gupta, Jayshankar Prasad, Ganga Prasad Srivastava, Vishwambhar Nath Jijja, and Vishwambhar Nath Sharma (Kaushik). Raja Radhikaraman Prasad Sinha has been considered among the most prominent and unique of this group.
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