Ramdhari Singh Dinkar is one of the most legendary poets that India has witnessed. In the field of Hindi literature, he has made a phenomenal contribution with his words.. He is considered to be one of the most successful and famous modern Hindi poets.
Known by his pen name Dinkar, Ramdhari Singh was a famous Indian Hindi and Maithili poet, freedom fighter and academic. He was born on September 23, 1908.
He wrote poetry in the days before Indian Independence and therefore emerged as poet of rebellion. His poetry exuded Veer Rasa and he has been hailed as a Rashtrakavi ('national poet') and poet of the era on account of his inspiring patriotic compositions.
He was a regular poet of Hindi Kavi Sammelan and connected to poetry lovers for Hindi speakers as Pushkin for Russians.
He was born in a poor family in Simaria village of Begusarai district in Bihar state.
The government had honored him with the Padma Bhushan Award in the year 1959 and had also nominated him thrice to the Lok Sabha. He was elected three times to the Rajya Sabha, and was the member of this house from 3 April 1952 to 26 January 1964. He was also the Vice-Chancellor of Bhagalpur University (Bhagalpur, Bihar) in the early 1960s.
Dinkar's poetry was greatly influenced by Rabindranath Tagore and his political thought was greatly shaped by both Mahatma Gandhi and Karl Marx.
He accepted that war is destructive but argued that it is necessary for the protection of freedom. He was close to prominent nationalists of the time such as Rajendra Prasad, Anugrah Narayan Sinha, Sri Krishna Sinha, Rambriksh Benipuri and Braj Kishore Prasad.
He also wrote social and political satires aimed at socio-economic inequalities and exploitation of the underprivileged.
His 'Rashmirathi' is considered among the best retellings of the life of Karna of the Hindu epic Mahabharata.
During Emergency, Jayaprakash Narayan had attracted a gathering of one lakh (100,000) people at the Ramlila grounds and recited Dinkar's famous poem: 'Singhasan Khaali Karo Ke Janata Aaati Hai' ('Vacate the throne, for the people are coming').
In 1999, Dinkar was one of the Hindi writers featured on a set of commemorative postal stamps released by Government of India to celebrate the linguistic harmony of India, marking the 50th anniversary since India adopted Hindi as its official language.
On 22 May 2015, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi inaugurated golden jubilee celebrations of Dinkar's notable works Sanskriti ke Chaar Adhyaye and Parshuram ki Pratiksha at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.
