Ram Vilas Sharma (10 October 1912 – 30 May 2000) was a progressive

literary critic A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature' ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and thinker. He was born in Unchgaon Sani,

Unnao District Unnao district is a district of Uttar Pradesh state in central India. The city of Unnao is the district headquarters. The district is part of Lucknow Division. As of the 2011 census, Unnao district has a population of 3,108,367, making it th ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

. In a career spanning nearly five decades, Sharma authored over 50 books. He was the recipient of many awards including the Sahitya Academy award, Bharat Bharati, Shalaka Samman, Vyas Samman, and the Shatabdi Samman just last week. In 1939 he wrote a scholarly paper on Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala', presented at a session of ''Hindi Sahitya Sammelan''.

Early life

Sharma was born on 10 October 1912 at Unchagaon Sani of

Unnao district Unnao district is a district of Uttar Pradesh state in central India. The city of Unnao is the district headquarters. The district is part of Lucknow Division. As of the 2011 census, Unnao district has a population of 3,108,367, making it th ...

. He received his early education in his native village and at

Jhansi Jhansi ( ) is a historic city in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. (Toshan) Balwant Nagar was the old name of Jhansi. It lies in the region of Bundelkhand, on the banks of the Pahuj River, in the extreme ...

. He went to

Lucknow Lucknow () is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the largest city of the List of state and union territory capitals in India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is the administrative headquarters of the epon ...

and gained his Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in

English Literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

Career

He started his career as a lecturer at

Lucknow University University of Lucknow (informally known as Lucknow University, and LU) is one of the oldest public state university based in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. LU's main campus is located at Badshah Bagh, University Road area of the city with a second ...

, and then moved to Balwant Rajput College,

Agra Agra ( ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is the ...

, as head of the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

department. He retired finally as Director of KM Hindi Institute,

. Basically a critic, he gave new dimension to biographical-historical criticism, and analysed

linguistic Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

and literary issues from a

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

viewpoint. Sharma died on 30 May 2000.

Works

His study of Nirala's ''Ram ki shakti puja'', ''Tulsidas'', ''Saroj-smriti'' and ''parimal'' is a model of creative criticism. He won the

Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...

in 1970 for his ''Nirala ki Sahitya Sadhana'' (in 3 parts). His massive work ''Bharat ke Pracheen bhasha parivar aur Hindi'' won him the first

Vyas Samman The Vyas Samman is a literary award in India, first awarded in 1991. It is awarded annually by the K.K. Birla Foundation and includes a cash payout of ₹ 4,00,000 (as of 2019). To be eligible for the award, the literary work must be in the Hi ...

(1991) instituted by the K. K. Birla Foundation. He was

Socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

both in thought and deed. Among the

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

writers those who impressed him most, besides

Nirala Nirala, real name Syed Muzaffar Husain Zaidi () (8 August 1937 – 9 December 1990) was a Pakistani comedian and film actor. He only appeared in Urdu films made in Pakistan. His first film was ''Aur bhi gham hain'' (1960). His last film wa ...

the poet, are

Acharya Shukla Ram Chandra Shukla (4 October 1884 – 2 February 1941), better known as Acharya Shukla, was an Indian historian of Hindi literature. He is regarded as the first codifier of the history of Hindi literature in a scientific system by using wide, e ...

the critic, Bhartendu the pioneer and

Premchand Dhanpat Rai Srivastava (31 July 1880 – 8 October 1936), better known as Munshi Premchand based on his pen name Premchand (), was an Indian writer famous for his modern Hindustani language, Hindustani literature. Premchand was a pioneer ...

the novelist. He took them up for detailed study and wrote authentic

literary criticism A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature's ...

on them, though from the progressive angle. He analysed their personality and brought out their contribution to

Hindi literature Hindi literature () includes literature in the various Central Indo-Aryan languages, also known as Hindi, some of which have different writing systems. Earliest forms of Hindi literature are attested in poetry of Apabhraṃśa such as Awad ...

. According to him

Bhartendu Harishchandra Bharatendu Harishchandra (9 September 18506 January 1885) was an Indian poet, writer, and playwright. He authored several dramas, biographical sketches, and travel accounts with the goal of influencing public opinion. Bharatendu Harishchandra i ...

and

are outstanding not only as

litterateur An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the nature of reality, especially the nature of society and proposed solutions for its normative problems. Coming from the world of culture, either ...

s but also as men endowed with magnanimity of soul.

Assessment of Acharya Shukla

In his assessment of

(''Acharya Ramchandra Shukla aur Hindi Alochana'') critic Sharma emphasises the fact that the writer opposed

feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...

and courtly literature as it did not give a true picture of the life of the common people and contemporary society.

List of works

* ''Bharatiya Sahitya ki Bhumika'' * ''Nirala ki Sahitya Sadhana'' (3 volumes) * ''Premchand aur unka yug'' * ''Acharya Ramchandra Shukla aur Hindi alochna'' * ''Bhartendu Harishchandra aur Hindi navjagaran ki samasyayen'' * ''Bhartendu Yug aur Hindi bhasha ki vikas parampara'' * ''Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi aur Hindi navjagaran'' * ''Nai kavita aur astitvavad'' * ''Bharat ki bhasha samasya'' * ''Astha aur saundarya'' * ''Bhasha aur samaj'' * ''Parampara ka mulyankan'' * ''Bharat mein angrazi raj aur marxvad'' (2 volumes) * ''Marx aur pichde huye samaj'' * ''Ghar ki baat'' * ''Bharat ke Pracheen bhasha parivar aur Hindi'' (3 volumes) * ''Dhool'' * ''aitihasik bhashavigyan aur hindi'' * ''Pragati aur Parampara''

References

External links

R V Sharma at Kavita Kosh
(Hindi) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sharma, Ram Vilas Hindi-language poets Indian male poets Indian literary critics Indian male essayists Indian male journalists 20th-century Indian journalists Indian Marxists Indian Marxist writers Hindi-language writers Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Hindi University of Lucknow alumni Academic staff of the University of Lucknow People from Unnao district 1912 births 2000 deaths 20th-century Indian poets 20th-century Indian essayists Poets from Uttar Pradesh Journalists from Uttar Pradesh