THE POETRY OF BHATNAGAR

A Quest for Freedom

A. S. RATNAM

Shri Shivaji College, Parbhani

Dr. Bhatnagar said: “If poetry is to get back its audience it must get simple and human. It must explore man, his sufferings, conflicts and predicaments, hopes, dreams and joys than the possibilities of his commitments to ideologies, doctrines, redemption and salvation. In the body is the spirit of man and poetry must make this fact poetic.”

It is the spirit of man that moves Bhatnagar to weave a poem round an incident or an idea. In his poems abstractions are seldom found and concrete images render authenticity to his poems. Collection after collection, Bhatnagar successfully explored man in all hues – love, death, romance, tragedy, poverty, etc. His main concern is the average human being and his poetry is a faithful record of the trials and tribulations of the average Indian. Though he writes in English, his intention is to cater to the needs of the readers in India. In an interview broadcast from the A. I. R, Aurangabad, he said: “I notice that by writing in English I have been able to reach people almost in all parts of the country which otherwise would not have happened.” The message to be conveyed through poetry is meant for all Indians irrespective of the language they speak and the faith they follow. In his poetry we find a happy blending of native sensibilities and alien perspective. The poetry of Bhatnagar transcends the limits of the subcontinent as he engages himself in describing and assessing the human being in contemporary society. This aspect of contemporaneity makes him a representative poet of the post. Independent India. His poetry holds mirror to the turmoil, violence, corruption and the degrading moral values of the present age. He is armed with his experiences of the gruesome tragedies of partition, the hopes and aspirations of the people soon after freedom and the disappointments and dejection of the people in independent India, to write poetry. He is a committed poet in the true sense and his involvement in the predicament of man is seen in each of his poems. To him suffering leads to slavery and revolt is the harbinger of freedom. We find (in his poetry) that the stress of the poetry is on revolt–revolt against the outdated, against the traditional and against everything that suppresses the human spirit and belittles dignity. Bhatnagar cries halt to the servile imitation of the past and reminds the readers of the need to change human values.

How long shall we argue

Our life into rustic logic

Like envelopes pasted

With cancelled stamps. (The New Scale: Thought Poems)

The reasoning of man undergoes change and one is apt to revolt against the old values and then one is delivered into the realm of freedom. Suffering, on the other hand, is viewed by Bhatnagar with disgust, for suffering paves way to both mental and physical slavery. Suffering surfaces when the inner urge for justice doesn’t exist. In such circumstances, the silent suffering of humanity becomes the tragedy of the world

The tragedy now lies

In the uneasy silence

Of the wounded survivors

Who suffer deaths

Without ennoblement

(The New Tragedy: Thought Poems)

Death results in our world not out of natural calamities alone but also because of the atrocities inflicted on human beings.

People do not die

Of growth these days

Instead struck dead

By deadly diseases

Or dreadful atrocities of man.

(Ibid)

Similar force of revolt reflects in the poem “I have to Keep” where the poet clothes the poem in the garb of irony.

To shake the universe

With thunder from my throat

And use the last breath of mine

To keep my countrymen awake.

(I have Promises to Keep: Feeling Fossils)

It is a pity that today a person who upholds moral values is treated with disdain and his impassioned cry becomes a cry in the wilderness. Notwithstanding the scanty respect the society gives to his ideals, the lover of values, undaunted, clings to his ideals. While praising the lover of values for his tenacity, the poet exposes the contemporary society where people are docile, sobre and submissive and where they lack the courage to own the lover of values.

A lover of values these days

Is a diseased man

Put away in an isolated ward

Consuming himself ideal by ideal

Writing in helpless pity

His own epitaph.

(The Tragic Hero: Thought Poems)

Only those who hold the flag of values high have courage to fight injustice in the face of adverse conditions in the world. Such people can save the bastion of liberty as they comprehend the meaning of liberty. There is the likelihood of misconstruing the concept of freedom and courage by stretching the meaning to its illogical ends.

Like hippies helping themselves to hashish

When slaves look upon themselves as martyrs

Realities become an illusion

Dream-caged for the sport of the enfleshed satyrs

In a convex glamour of concavity

Confusing adultery with revolt

Courage is perfumed with a corruption

That slaves love to prostitute conscience.

(A Prisoner is More Free: Shadows in Floodlights)

Fear is overcome not by corruption but by a ruthless fight against evil and freedom is won not by servile submission but by brave opposition.

The contemporary society with its dwindling value of morals offers ample opportunities to the poet to point out ironically the vain-glorious display of gains. In the process of fulfilling their ambition, the individuals jeopardise the safety of the nation. The lust for power and the blinding desire for wealth lead the man nowhere in the darkness of the forest of ambition. The poet is more concerned with the independent spirit of the individual than the animal strength of the human beings. The spirit of the individual is unconquerable and the thirst for freedom and knowledge is unquenchable. The poem “Scaling Heights” is a rich tribute to the indomitable spirit of adventure of Nanda Devi who symbolises man’s strong will to strive and not to yield.

Bhatnagar doesn’t merely refer to the freedom of body but also of the mind and instructs the society to free one’s self from superstition and old customs. Blind faith in religion is indicative of a deformed mind and the incident described in the poem “The Ritual” is an eye-opener to those who follow the path of the past.

In a holy contact with the lamp

But with his Lord unmoved by this purification

The tiny self lay in a trance

Never to return to his temporal worship of God.

(The Ritual: Thought Poems)

Freedom is based on the foundation of fearlessness. Therefore fear is to be abandoned from the hearts of human beings. Bhatnagar is against fear in any form because he believes that fear breeds slavery. Fear corrodes the structure of freedom. Freedom is the noble purpose of life. Fear helps the evil forces to suppress the innocent. Lives of all great men, from the enlightened Buddha down to the champion of democracy, Abraham Lincoln, and our own Father of the Nation, Gandhi, remind us that we too can wage long-drawn battles against injustice and emerge victorious in the end. In essence, the eternal struggle is between the Evil and the Good resulting in the triumph of the Good. The courage of the lone individual fighter illumines and illuminates the dark corners of the timid souls. In his poem “Who is Afraid of Fear?” Bhatnagar explains the value of fearlessness with the aid of allusions from mythology and history. The poem ends with a note of encouragement and message to infuse courage and confidence into humanity in general and Indians in particular.

We must not be afraid

To melt our dense conscience

That lay shockingly insensate

To the plunder of basic human rights.

(Who is Afraid of Fear?: Oneiric Visions)

The poet advocates the restoration of fearlessness in order to safeguard the ramparts of the Liberty fort against the attack from the cannons of selfishness and inhumanity.

The recurring theme in the poetry of Bhatnagar is the social consciousness as seen and assessed by him. It is the society which bears the brunt of the misery of the individual. The society grows callous to the suffering of individuals while the individual reels under the pain and suffering inflicted upon him by his compatriot. The poem “I can Question only My Dreams”, succinctly states the plight of the common man and the society’s calculated nonchalance to the heart-rending and pitiable condition of the suffering humanity.

The numberless

Go blind of adulterated oils

Making a smooth passage to dark:

And children thin out to death

For want of milk in the water

Served to them as feed

I cannot ask my conscience to revolt

For suffering has become our creed.

(I can Question only My Dreams: Oneiric Visions) Bhatnagar has successfully achieved the fusion of vision and reality to ironically highlight the blindness of society to reality. Nevertheless, he discerns the visionary view of hope and virtue which is powerless to revolt as it is buried deep under the misty conscience. Dreams present a bright picture of the world around us for the pleasure of the dreamer, while the sight of the society touches not the strings of conscience of the onlooker.

The weakness of the spirit of the individual owes its existence to the persistent struggle of the individual for his survival. Unless the body gets its due the soul cannot function. Empty stomachs cannot inspire the souls to revolt except in desperation. A desperate individual loses all sense of proportion and he ultimately becomes a scapegoat to circumstances. The individual’s lack of urge to revolt and zeal to fight injustice are traced to the society’s apathy to the welfare of its constituents. The individual has no one to fear except himself. He is entangled in the crisscross ropes of the society and is locked inside it by his own fear. The lock of fear has the self-unlocking devise which he cannot operate.

Fear is a lock

To which there is no key

It must unlock itself

Like life trapped in death.

(Fear is a Lock: Feeling Fossils)

The poet in his latest collection of poems dwells at length on the Idea of freedom, revolution and fear.

Let’s at least draw some freedom

From the dignity of a child

To spit in the face of tyranny

To register its indignation

In a voiceless revolt.

Long caged in slavery

We’ve become like circus lions

Incapable of freedom in emotions

Become our own prison walls.

(The Walls of Prison house Remain: Shadows in Floodlights)

In conclusion, we find Bhatnagar not as a visionary or mystic but as a practical and humanitarian poet for the average individual who raises the average to the dizzy heights. His poetry is marked with penetrating simplicity and appealing expression.

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