Notable Hindi Critic Namvar Singh Passes Away at 92

Singh breathed his last at AIIMS Trauma Centre in Delhi on 19 February.

Namvar Singh’s reputation as one of the most significant literary critics of Hindi literature is well known.

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter)

Acclaimed Hindi writer and literary critic Namvar Singh passed away at AIIMS Trauma Centre in Delhi late Tuesday night. He was 92 years old.

Singh was awarded the prestigious Sahitya Akademi award for literary criticism in the year 1971, for ‘Kavita Ke Naye Pratiman’.

He wrote more than a dozen books during his lifetime, of which the best known are Itihaas Aur Alochana, Vaad Vivaad Samvaad, and Dusari Parampara Ki Khoj. His works often had a Marxist bend.

Singh was the first chairman of Jawaharlal Nehru University’s (JNU) Center of Indian Languages. He retired from JNU in 1992 but remained ‘professor emeritus’. He also contested the Lok Sabha elections in 1959, as a candidate of the Communist Party of India from Chandauli, Uttar Pradesh.

‘The Importance of Being Namvar’

Singh’s reputation as one of the most significant literary critics of Hindi literature is well known.

In a 1992 article on the ‘Importance of Being Namvar’, Harish Trivedi writes, “For many years now, no major book can be deemed to have been properly published in Hindi until Namvar Singh has pronounced on it, and what he says about it often forms the basis of much subsequent discussion.”

In 2015, Singh opposed the trend of the returning of Sahitya Akademi awards by writers in protest against growing intolerance in India. In an interview with ANI, he said, “I respect all my colleagues, but they should not have returned their Sahitya Akademi awards. The awards were not given to them by the government, but by the Akademi.”

‘The Hindi Literary World Has Plunged into Darkness’

Hindi writer and senior journalist Om Thanvi paid tribute to Singh in these words, “The Hindi literary world has plunged into darkness. Noteworthy thinker and a harbinger of Hindi literature passed away.”

Home Minister Rajnath Singh also tweeted his respects.