Krishan Baldev Vaid: The Sixties’ rebel

Satyapal Sehgal

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The passing away of Krishan Baldev Vaid (1927–2020), one of the most celebrated Hindi fiction writers, has deeper connotations for the region. Not only he was a son of the soil, but his writings have documented Punjab like none other. The Partition of India, the demon haunting Punjabis for almost 75 years now, was so well-crafted in his masterpiece Guzra Hua Zamana. In that way, he had much in common with Krishna Sobti, Yashpal, Bhisham Sahni or Mohan Rakesh.

The fact of his close relationship with Chandigarh has gathered dust over the years. Not only did he have a house here, which he later sold off, he kept visiting the city off and on, despite his long stint as a teacher of English language and literature in the universities of United States. An alumnus of Panjab University, who also taught here for some time, he was frequently referred to and researched in the Hindi departments of various universities north of Delhi, till new generations of academia, newer discourses and a changed sociology took over, and Vaid was put on the shelf.

It is time we redefine this land of five rivers as an important centre of Hindi literary activity, pinning Vaid somewhere in the middle of the picture we thus paint. Only that would do justice to his extraordinary talent and the huge body of literary works in many hues.

It is amazing how Hindi writers having roots in greater Punjab had provided Hindi the much-needed dimension of modernism in the 1940s. Krishan Baldev Vaid, KB to friends, was one such illustrious example, who could well be addressed as an avant-garde writer, also a bit rebellious, if one considers another of his much deliberated novel Bimal urf Jaayein to Jaayein Kahan. That was a time when Freudian notions about suppressed sexuality were key to understanding the Indian middle class and Vaid did it most frankly, inventing a fresh idiom of expression. However, given the complex socio-political and intellectual mindset of the Hindi heartland back then, it was a risky proposition.

His creative courage was never fully understood and publically recognised by the establishment, so much that a well-deserved award given by the Delhi Government in the twilight years of his life, in 2009, was withheld after its announcement. Somebody had whispered to the powers that be about the alleged obscenity in his works. However, it was resisted by the writers who were to be decorated along with him by refusing to reject the ones awarded to them. In a way, this solidarity was an award too, maybe a bigger one, for which there haven’t been many eligible contenders. Historically, that was the first award waapsi meant to safeguard a writer’s honour and autonomy.

He remained a major storyteller, dramatist and translator without any major awards to his name. However, he was certainly ahead of his times and successful, inadvertently, in underscoring the poor literary sensibility of his detractors. His self-belief could never be compromised and he kept writing and publishing till he breathed his last in the US. He was well-entrenched into the literary fraternity in America and famous novelist TC Boyle was a celebrated student of his. However, he never regretted writing in Hindi. On the contrary, it is for us to be regretful to his memory for the inadequate ways in which we treated his guts and steadfastness with experiments in language.

Once, however, top Hindi litterateur Ashok Vajpeyi took it upon himself to set things right by inviting him to Madhya Pradesh to chair Nirala Srijan Peeth and by editing a special issue of Poorvgrah on his accomplishments. He could see that his was not an aesthetic anarchism; he was a realist in his own autonomous, self-contained style; he was a voice of the marginalised sections of society. He was also one amongst the all-time best diary writers in Hindi, sharing the space with Malayaj and Shamsher Bahadur Singh.

Commentators tend to describe him as a representative of the 1960s, when an angry and disillusioned young generation abandoned all niceties and threw norms out of the window, world over. Perhaps herein lies his true evaluation.

The 1960s have never been studied with enough seriousness and attention in Hindi, and are often portrayed as an aberration. Another problem is the wailing, after an artist is gone, about how we failed to give him his due. This has turned into routine business and we don’t seem to mind it too, further denying a writer his due in his lifetime…

Along with Bhisham Sahni and Krishna Sobti, Vaid was also a displaced person of a divided India… This angle should also be critically explored before he is finally put to rest in the annals of Hindi literary history.