Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh

Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh (गजानन माधव मुक्तिबोध) (13 November 1917 – 11 September 1964) was one of the most prominent Hindi poets, essayists, literary and political critics, and fiction writers of the 20th century. Muktibodh is widely regarded as a pioneer of modern Hindi poetry in India along with Surya Kant Tripathi 'Nirala'. He was a leading figure in the ''Prayogvaad'' Experimentalism movement of Hindi literature and of the ''Nayi Kahani'' and ''Nayi Kavita'' Modernism of the 1950s. He is also considered a central figure in the rise of 'New Criticism' in Indian literature. He was an assistant-editor of several noted Hindi journals including ''Naya Khun'' and ''Vasudha''.

Muktibodh was born in Sheopur, Madhya Pradesh. He started out as was one of the seven poets included in the first volume of ''Tar Saptak'', a series of anthologies (1943), which marked a transition in Hindi literature from the prevalent movement in Chhayavaad or Romanticism. The initiation of ''Prayogvaad or'' Experimentalism and ''Pragativaad or'' Progressivism in Hindi poetry eventually led to the creation of the 'Nayi Kahani' (New Story) movement or Modernism.

''Brahmarakshas'' (ब्रह्मराक्षस) is considered Muktibodh's most influential work in experimental poems, noted for the use of archetypal imagery. The poem is a depiction of the contemporary intellectual, who gets so lost in his own sense of perfectionism, unending calculations, and subjective interpretation of the external reality that he loses touch with reality itself, and eventually dies and fades away like a dead bird.

Muktibodh was deeply influenced by Marxism and Existentialism, and expressed his deep discontent with contemporary society. According to Sanjay K. Gautam, Muktibodh was "the most influential Marxist Hindi poet in postcolonial India, and one of the founders of modernism in Hindi poetry". He continued to show his progressive streak even after the disintegration of the Progressive Writers' Movement after 1953; and, through the rest of his career, he along with writers like Yashpal, continued his ideological fight against modernist and formalist trends in Hindi literature.

He is best known for his long poems:''Brahma-rakshasa'' (ब्रह्मराक्षस), ''Chand ka Muh Teda hai'' (The Moon Wears a Crooked Smile) (चाँद का मुहँ टेढ़ा है), ''Andhere Mein'' (In the Dark) (अंधेरे में) and ''Bhuri Bhuri Khak Dhul'' (The Brown Dry Dust) (भूरी भूरी ख़ाक धूल); his complete works extending to 6 volumes, were published in 1980, as ''Muktibodh Rachnavali''.

Sharadchandra Madhav Muktibodh (1921–1985), a Marathi poet, novelist, and Marxist critic, winner of Sahitya Akademi Award (1979) in Marathi, was the younger brother of Muktibodh Provided by Wikipedia