New Insights into Literary Criticism

New Insights Into Literary Criticism

(A holistic Literary Criticism)

దేశమంటే మట్టి కాదోయి

దేశమంటే మనుషులోయి! (గురజాడ అప్పారావు)

ఉప్పోంగే నదులజీవజలాలు.. ఉప్పు సముద్రం పాలు (ఆరుద్ర)

Country doesn’t mean (just) soil/Country means people! – G. Apparao

Some times we are awfully lazy in literary criticism. Taking a different perspective, here I’d like to evaluate, examine, and comment on two well-known Telugu poets: Gurujada Apparao and Arudra. I’ve read both poets’ works and enjoyed some of them. I would rate Arudra as a higher poet on lyricism, authenticity, and imagination despite a tilt towards “socialism.” 

Now, let’s examine this former poet’s lines here: “Country does not mean (mere) earth (or simple geography)/Country means people!” What is wrong with these truisms or platitudes? A lot. A country, rather any country or autonomous governing body must care and take into account all that is in its envelope: The lively forests (flora), diverse animals (fauna), rivers, deserts, mountains, seas, the aquatic life, and of course all the precious minerals (including depleting fossil fuels) in its terra interior. Man must care for all this wealth of living and non-living materials; if not for his own narrow immediate utilitarian benefit he must bear the burden of his grandchildren’s needs and hungry mouths. In the name of meeting the needs of billion plus citizens, the country has mercilessly exploited (plundered) its rivers, the delta, granite hills, mines, and polluted its land, waterways, and the coastal waters. When Indians go abroad and see some of the pristine lakes and rivers, then they get a shock, a rude awakening. We only think about rivers, lakes, glaciers, streams, and reservoirs as sources of water for human needs. Many rivers have their own personalities and lives. A river should be considered as a living body with its own unique history of birth, youth of traversing hundreds (even thousands) of miles, and its ultimate union of meeting with a larger reservoir of water (sea, ocean, or lake). Many rivers existed before man appeared on the scene and set up his cultural post (or tent). They had their paths undisturbed for hundreds of years. In the last half a century, many states forcibly stopped their natural flow, put dams, and sucked upstream flows to cities for population needs or other purposes. 

In Varanasi the Ganges is ok now, good enough to take bath, and even to drink a thimbleful. I bathed there without any adverse effects. But the river’s volume is about one half or one third of what it was in the seventies. When I went to see my coastal village in Andhra, the canals and the reservoirs are almost dry even in December. The Godavari river water is murky near the delta mouth. It was not so in my college days; then I swam in a roaring clean energetic river meeting the Bay of Bengal. I could hardly tame its ferocious force with my bare hands – my youthful energy was no match for its speedy rush into the sea. Now, in Narasapuram the river barely crawls limping its way to the end.

The disastrous consequences (of over utilization) are as follows: Forests are gone. The birds and animals disappeared. The tribal cultures erased with one stroke. But still we need tamarind, sandalwood, bamboo, and lumber from the remaining forests. We want copious rains for filling our water works, reservoirs, and dumping industrial waste into the water streams. There need to be proper accounting of all the positives and negatives. The delta is starved and there is no aquatic life in the coastal seas. Even if the oceans produce clouds, without the cool currents from mountaintops (Eastern and Western Ghats) and forests there would not be rain for filling the rivers. The Ganges will not have bountiful waters and fish if the upper snow layers get shrunk in thickness or the upstream waters are diverted too much to other uses. Obviously when these poets penned the lines they had only “humans” their biped brethren in mind. Nothing else mattered. There was no scientific insight into the broader issues of environment and its irreversible effects on forests, rivers, coastal wetlands, and most important on the quality of ambient air. Without proper moisture (from river breezes, forests, and marsh lands), people will suffer acute breathing diseases. When a river flows with copious waters, it slowly sends water underground and to all its borders. That moisture all around the soil seeps deep. And green wild plants and forests will grow spreading deep roots laterally and vertically.

We can take water from a river for drinking, cattle, and other uses but we need to do with care and without wasting precious potable water for swimming pools or industrial cleaning or washing plants foliage on the highways to airports. 

I don’t thank the planning people in Delhi ever really went on foot and looked at the destruction of rivers and the adjoining forest areas really. Did they ever look at the decades old pictures of the Ganges, Godavari, and Krishna and compare with the modern photos after all the dams and lift-pumping projects have been installed? 

Poems like these, in my opinion should be deleted (delisted) from Telugu lessons or even movies. Or, at a minimum a strong critique should be appended in the footnotes. If we look at such poems in terms of rhyme, flow (rhythm), and passion – then they are ok. But they do not offer a grand perspective on life, the country, or people. I am fully aware Sri Arudra lived most of his life in the erstwhile Madras and could have faced (seen) severe water problems. But who created the water problems in mega cities? The people, the poor planners, and the politicians. Beyond certain population size, cities cannot provide all the amenities to its bulging population. Only slums will sprout and happen. It is a game of diminishing returns. When I mentioned the water problems of an arid region (district) to my Cornell scientist friend, his tough answer is this: “One should not live where there is not water or clean air. It is just stupid. Civilizations did not come up in purely dry sand without adjoining oasis or river. Even if you put all the money, how much can you extract from seawater? And, where will you get water for laundry, toilet, washing cattle, and agriculture?” This is a scientist who spent his entire profession in agriculture and plant science.

So, in conclusion, the Arudra’s line “The bulging river streams’ life-giving waters/Wasted into the salty sea” is scientifically and environmentally wrong. I see every year during severe snowstorms, tornados, and hurricanes lots of trees uprooted and branches torn off. Is that wastage? No, never. That too is part of nature. We should celebrate that we still get precious temperature equalization, plenty of water, and some moderating of the (at times geometric) growth through such nature made havocs. Nature, earth, sun, moon, and oceans do not exist for any man or me exclusively. Humans are but a small fraction of the whole earth. We should appropriate only limited quantities of water, minerals, and materials for our use. The rest belongs to mother earth. And it always is the prerogative of the lovely planet to direct its resources as it sees fit.  Copyright 2021 by the author