Writer, Rebel, Soldier, Lover: The Many Lives of Agyeya

by Akshaya Mukul

Sachchidanand Hirananda Vatsyayan 'Agyeya' is unarguably one of the most remarkable figures of Indian literature. From his revolutionary youth to acquiring the mantle of a (highly controversial) patron saint of Hindi literature, Agyeya's turbulent life also tells a history of the Hindi literary world and of a new nation-spanning as it does two world wars, Independence and Partition, and the building and fraying of the Nehruvian state.

Akshaya Mukul's comprehensive and unflinching biography is a journey into Agyeya's public, private and secret lives. Based on never-seen-before archival material-including a mammoth trove of private papers, documents of the CIA-funded Congress for Cultural Freedom and colonial records of his years in jail-the book delves deep into the life of the nonconformist poet-novelist. Mukul reveals Agyeya's revolutionary life and bomb-making skills, his CIA connection, a secret lover, his intense relationship with a first cousin, the trajectory of his political positions, from following M.N. Roy to exploring issues dear to the Hindu right, and much more. Along the way, we get a rare peek into the factionalism and pettiness of the Hindi literary world of the twentieth century, and the wondrous and grand debates which characterized that milieu.

Writer, Rebel, Soldier, Lover features a formidable cast of characters: from writers like Premchand, Phanishwarnath Renu, Raja Rao, Mulk Raj Anand and Josephine Miles to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, revolutionary Chandra Shekhar Azad and actor Balraj Sahni. And its landscapes stretch from British jails, an intellectually robust Allahabad and modern-day Delhi to monasteries in Europe, the homes of Agyeya's friends in the Himalayas and universities in
the US. This book is a magnificent examination of Agyeya's civilizational enterprise.

Ambitious and scholarly, Writer, Rebel, Soldier, Lover is also an unputdownable, whirlwind of a read.

Genres: Biography

808 pages, Hardcover

Published July 24, 2022

Reviews

[Kunal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pure joy. Something you expect from an author who seems to enjoy his subject, has eye for the detail, integrity to stay neutral and most of all, the skill to tastefully bind it all together in a breezy narrative.

The level of meticulousness of the research, the book names about 3700 references, is usualy reserved for legends in political & social life. I have'nt heard of many (or any) detailed, relished english biographies on a hindi literature stalwart. This work not only breaks that ceiling but in doing so sets a benchmark so high, it will be hard to match.

Like all great biographies, it brings more to life than life itself. The work offers absorbing insights into the transition from progressive to modernist writing in hindi, followed by peeks into the most transforming period of the hindi literature - 1950s & 60s. Before that, there are interesting forays into the revolutionary resistance by Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA), with members of whom Agyeya was jailed for attempting to make bombs in covert laboratories, only to emerge from the cells with an archetypal personality and writing skill. What also stands out is the fact that while detailing all his eminent contributions to fiction, poetry, translations and editing, the book stays unflinching in bringing out Agyeya's often extractive, almost abusive personal relationships.

Would be really looking forward to what the author is going to write next, and would be thoroughly wishing that the subject be an another doyen of hindi literature. Not many have lead a life more diverse and contrasting as Agyeya perhaps has, but a comprehensive work on a Premchand or a Phanishwar Nath Renu or a Muktibodh is imminently possible from the headstart gained through this book. It would also only be just that english as a medium serves back the long overlooked and underpaid hindi. If Mr. Mukul is listening!

[Divya Pal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite wading through more than 500 pages, ‘Agyeya’ remains just that – an enigmatic figure. Of all his avataars he comes across most as a serial philanderer and a controversial poet, an author and an editor of various literary journals – most of which succumbed to the vagaries of time. His most famous book Shekhar Ek Jivani, Part-1 is a reflection of his own life

“It seems that if a low caste man looks at your food it is defiled, almost as if a dog had come and eaten part of it,” Sachchidanand noted. “Though dogs sometimes do come into the hall and are shooed out without making any difference.”
उनका भोजनागार सब ओर से घिरा हुआ था, ताकि किसी आते जाते व्यक्ति के कारण उनके भोजन में 'दृष्टिदोष' न हो जाए, वह छोटी जाति देखा जाकर भ्रष्ट न हो जाए। कभी ऐसा हो जाता, तो वह भोजन उतना ही अखाद्य हो जाता जैसे किसी कुत्ते ने उसे झूठा कर दिया। यद्यपि कुत्ते कई बार भोजनाघर में घुस आते थे और उन्हें 'हिश' करके भगा देना पर्याप्त होता था.
…how certain roads were not open to low-caste travellers, how a low-caste man had to cross a river by ferry as bridges were mostly reserved for high castes, how an untouchable could not buy land in a Brahmin neighbourhood. He noted that an untouchable had to raise his hand and shout ‘unclean’ like a “leper when he came in sight of any Brahmin so that the latter might not be defiled by coming too near.”
ब्राह्मणों के लिए अलग सड़कें हैं जिन पर अछूत 'पंचम' नहीं चल सकते, पंचमों को नदियाँ नांव में बैठकर या किसी प्रकार पार करनी होती हैं क्योंकि पुल ऊँची जातियों के लिए सुरक्षित होते हैं …

With 200 pages of bibliography and notes, this book is meant more for a research scholar.

[Animesh Priyadarshi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book titled “Writer Rebel Soldier Lover – The many lives of Agyeya” by Akshay Mukul in the second week of January and through daily chores kept it by my side for almost one full month and finished the beautiful journey through it late night on Feb 14, 2023. It’s very clear, if you pick this book, that you picked this book because you knew about one or two things about this polymath and the legendary Writer in Hindi language who shaped a better part of the course of Hindi literature in post Premchand era. I haven’t read much of Agyeya’s poetry but had just read some notes on “Shekhar – Ek Jeevani” and a beautiful collection of short stories selected by Agyeya himself from his large body of work. “Shekhar” itself is very magnetic character akin to Agyeya and that’s very true because it has all autobiographical traits, so people like me long to know more and more about this enigmatic character in his real life (not through the veil of any fiction!).

Before reading the life of Agyeya in English I had read the four volumes of autobiography of Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan in my school and college days (90s & the early 2000s) in Hindi. The lives of torchbearers of Hindi literature have always attracted me and I wanted to know more about all the sides of the grand story. So, I picked up the book very confidently expecting it to be good enough to keep me bound for a long journey through almost 570 pages (readable pages). The book contains further 200 pages of notes and bibliography and Acknowledgements. So, it’s a large book written with great care and strenuous research for sure. For that part only we can congratulate the Author Mr. Akshay Mukul as he has undoubtedly done a truly great job. Each and every statement he’s made has backing of the documents from the archives and personal papers of Agyeya and can be verified from the footnotes.

The author has simplified for readers the mysterious life of Agyeya (unknowable) through the childhood till he breathed his last, he has humanized his godly subject in the eyes of his admirers and his daunting figure in the eyes of his critics. Through the annals of Freedom struggle, his struggle with his own restlessness during incarceration, being a scientist to his comrades of HSRA under the leadership of Chandrashekhar Azad and the story of freedom struggle with its fallibility and its moral and theoretical flaws, the delicate relationships with the women in his life and his lack of guilt in doing wrongs to many of his lovers etc. are the subjects taken from Agyeya’s personal life. Apart from this his correspondence and professional dealings with his contemporary writers and publishers and Business houses etc., the book covers in detail his relations with the 'who is who' in the post-independence era of the literary and the political worlds. All of these make the journey of the reader through the life of Agyeya very enthralling. None of the pages are boring as far as my own experience is concerned which a typical ‘casual’ reader suspects before picking up tomes of this size, in fact, the feuds between the factions of literary world make up a great battle of ideas and sometimes on petty politics too! All in all the subject has got all the elements for a 'Hindi literature loving guy' keeping enthralled in 'English language' (A paradox!?). The author gives explanation about this that Agyeya was not bound just to Hindi, he was multilingual and had works spread throughout English as well as Hindi though his stance was always in favor of Hindi while debating for Hindi as the foremost language in Indian literature. His English translations of poems and prose of his own and other classical authors from Europe was no less than his original work! So, it was befitting for an English language journalist to pick up the thoroughly authentic biography. And, boy! what a fabulous job Akshay has done... Amazing!

The biographer is very impartial to his subject and never takes his side unduly during the controversial turns of the story. The women in the lives of Agyeya are all much unbelievable than Agyeya himself! They all are so accommodating about the fault lines of Agyeya’s personality and character that one can’t stop marveling at them and do feel sad about them by the treatments meted out to them at the hands of their lover! Agyeya has many of 'male characteristics', which are non-ideal, and leaves bitter and unpleasant taste during the great course of chhappan-bhog of his life! It was very pleasant experience to meet some of the poets and the writers through the life of Agyeya for example, Jainendra, Prabhakar Machwe, Phanishwarnath Renu, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, Muktibodh, Mohan Rakesh, Dharmveer Bharati, Yashpal, Nemichandra Jain, Nagarjun, Sumitranandan Pant, Nirala, Mahadevi Varma, Krishna Sobti and many more stalwarts of Hindi world and from political spectrum JP Narayan, M. N. Roy, Nehru, Dr. Rajendra Prasad and others coming obliquely in the story. Learning the fallibility of those who we adore and worship was such a humbling experience for myself. Knowing the fact that life is so long and none here is perfect just more and more closer to perfection is what makes them great and they will always be great even with their own fault lines.

[Raghav Kumar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sacha to Agyeya: The Many Lives of a Literary Giant

"Do you think one can roam around naked in the streets only after turning mad? In arts and literature, it is a proven path to success. Mad is the one who does not take this path. Therefore, please remain mad. I am with you in this madness."

Agyeya wrote the above lines to Phanishwar Nath Renu, when Renu was going through hard times (although Renu’s hard times never ended, and he succumbed to the illness in 1977, which developed during his detention in the emergency era). It indicates that Agyeya was well aware of the tactic by which an author (especially of Hindi) can survive, which he developed from his own experiences and his love-hate relationship with publication owners like Sripat Rai. If we look at Agyeya's journey from childhood to his revolutionary times and his stature as a giant of Hindi literature, we find that he lived many lives. From a distance, it may seem paradoxical because Agyeya was a revolutionary who spent four years in jail, and later, during the Second World War, he joined the British Indian Army to fight against the Axis Powers. However, if you examine his life closely, you will find that Agyeya had his own reasons and logic for the choices he made; some of which you may agree with, while others you may not, but it will definitely leave a mark on your memory.

In his biography of Agyeya, titled Writer, Rebel, Soldier, Lover: The Many Lives of Agyeya, Akshya Mukul made a very successful attempt to touch every important aspect of Agyeya’s life. This is perhaps the best biography of Agyeya ever written. For each claim Mukul has made in this book, he has cited references for that, and this is a very important aspect of this book; it is rich with citations and references, which mainly include the primary sources. In this book, the author has depicted some very unknown, less explored and less discussed aspects of Agyeya’s life, which may compel its reader to see Agyeya in a new light. The meticulous research in this biography will leave you confident in the book's authenticity. Basically, this book narrates the story of how Sachidananda Hirananda Vatsayan, who was Sacha for his family, became the doyen of Hindi literature, Agyeya, and how he became so phenomenal that even today, not a single serious discussion on Hindi literature remains untouched by his presence. The journey of Agyeya, as Mukul depicts in this book, also gives you glimpses of jealousy, rivalry, and competition in the literary world. Akshya Mukul deserves appreciation because, despite putting so many details about Agyeya, it neither sounds eulogical nor includes unnecessary criticism. It’s a very well-researched book that requires patient reading if you really want to understand the minute details of Agyeya’s life, most of which are cited from primary sources. Hindi literature is rich with a legacy of individuals like Bharatendu Harishchandra, Premchand, Hazariprasad Dwivedi, Ramdhari Singh ‘Dinkar’, Suryakanta Tripathi Nirala, Mahadevi Verma, Maithilisharan Gupta, Makhanlal Chaturvedi, Jaishankar Prasad, Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh, Shamsher Bahadur Singh, and many more such greats. However, as poet and intellectual Ashok Vajpeyi puts it, “No other Hindi writer has mastered so many different forms of writing and creative expression as Agyeya had command over. Premchand is a great story writer and editor, but is not important as a poet and critic. Nirala is a great poet, but is not known for his prose and editing. The same can be said about Muktibodh and Shamsher. In short, Agyeya was a giant.”

[Samir · Rating 5 out of 5]

A meticulously researched and absorbing biography, Akshaya Mukul's Writer, Rebel, Soldier, Lover helps the reader understand one of Hindi literature's most enigmatic modernists, Sachchidananda Vatsyayan, better known as Agyeya, by presenting his complex, occasionally contradictory life in this book.

Rather than presenting a straight or hagiographical picture, Mukul lets Agyeya's several selves show in all their layered, restless intensity: the young revolutionary imprisoned for anti-colonial activity; the wartime soldier in the British Indian Army; the literary experimentalist who changed modern Hindi writing; the journalist; the editor; and the elusive lover whose personal relationships were marked by distance, emotional reticence, and unresolved longing.

This biography distinguishes itself by the sheer breadth of the archival research it employs. To create a life that alternately moved between public ambition and private uncertainty, Mukul compiles personal letters, court documents, official records, and private notes. Agyeya's contributions to Hindi literature are presented not only as creative achievements but also as part of his existential search for selfhood and meaning.

When talking about Agyeya's paradoxes, Mukul doesn't hold back: his flirtation with Congress for Cultural Freedom, his troubled and often dictatorial personal relationships, his obsession with spiritual and philosophical ideas alongside a determined modernist project. By laying these tensions open, the book shifts its focus from the issues of India's post-colonial intellectual class to Agyeya personally.

The language is deliberate and cautious; it is neither luxuriously lyrical nor dryly intellectual. The biography has rather great advantages even if its length and density would demand readers' endurance. Looking back at a life in all its complexity, one feels the weight of being an intellectual in a society undergoing change and considers the cost of living too many lives in one lifetime.

Readers interested in the history of Hindi literature, the political and cultural upheaval of 20th-century India, or the difficulties of a mind at war with itself, should not miss this biography. This is an essential and a quietly haunting work.