5 Indian Languages and Literature in the Diaspora

1.        INDIAN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE IN THE DIASPORA : AN OVERVIEW(Mala Pandurang)

In the ‘Introduction to the Field – Module No 3’, you were presented with an overview of Indian diasporas. This was followed by the module on ‘Phases of emigration’, which offered a detailed discussion of the historical context of different types of emigration that took place from the Indian subcontinent. We learnt that, especially, under the scheme of indentured labour, large numbers of people were sent from areas such as Western Bihar, the United Provinces, as well as from the Madras Presidency. While the former used varieties of dialects of Bhojpuri, as well as Avadhi, and Maithili, migrants from the south spoke Tamil and Telugu. In the next phase of migration, in the 20th century, Punjabi speaking people emigrated to UK and Gujarati speakers participated in the second leg of migration from East Africa to UK and also to Canada and the USA. Importantly, this module will stress upon the complex and heterogonous nature of the migrant population particularly in terms of their regional, linguistic, caste, economic and religious backgrounds. Along with this, what emerges is an understanding of the historical context for the presence of multiplicity of languages in the Indian diaspora including Hindi, Bhojpuri, Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali and Telugu amongst others. Cultural production in English from the Indian diaspora cannot therefore be taken to be taken as representative of the complex gamut of experiences associated with the diasporic subject.

In his essay titled ‘The Dynamics of language in Indian Diaspora: The case of Bhojpuri/Hindi in Trinidad’, N. Jayaram points out that the status of the languages which “ the different diaspora communities carried as part of their socio-cultural baggage is highly variable”. He explains that these languages “ experienced attrition and disappeared altogether, or they have survived in extremely limited spheres of life, or they have been modified and retained, or they continue to exist and are in contact with their ancestral roots, or they have sought to be revived and revitalised with varying degrees of success” (2004,146 ). He explains how in a location like Jamaica, Indian diasporics have lost their ancestral languages, while on the other hand, in locations like Mauritius, Fiji and Surinam, “ a local dialect of Bhojpuri is used in formal spheres, and standard Hindi in religious and cultural domains” ( 2004, 148). Socio-linguists have pointed to how language will inevitably undergo changes over time, and in contact with other dialects and cultures. On the other hand, there are attempts by contemporary communities to revive the use of the ancestral language by adopting innovative teaching programs via direct teaching as well as the internet. While young children are taught linguistic as well as cultural and religious heritage through classes on weekends, young adults and adults often use internet resources. The global outreach of Bollywood is also an important factor to be considered for the powerful role it places in creating familiarity with Hindi, as a language.

In this module, we will examine general aspects of reproduction of the diaspora experience in the Indian languages and literature. It is crucial to keep in mind that the early migrants who went as indentured labourers were illiterate and not well versed with the use of written narratives. Their creative expressions were more within the oral tradition. More importantly, they used their mother tongues for communication and did not engage with the English language. Cultural production in terms of the literary text is therefore a relatively recent phenomenon. In the module on ‘ Identity, Gender and Sexuality,’ we examined how diasporic identity construction is closely tied up with questions of territory and belonging. Migrants, through a generational spectrum, have had to negotiate with issues of assimilation and integration, and this process of negotiation gets reflected through different modes of cultural production. Creative writing becomes a crucial source to understand the processes of identity formation, irrespective of the language that it is produced in. The themes found in first generation writing include narratives of displacement and survival, a longing for home and processes of cultural hybridization. Writing of the next generation takes up issues of in-betweeness, and negotiating racial, cultural and ethnic divides in the host society. A recurrent concern among the diasporics is the need to retain the ‘mother tongue’ as the loss of language is associated with the loss of cultural roots. An interesting technological emergence is the availability of a range of Indian languages on the internet, which now provides an easy platform for communication among diasporics in their native languages, and also the opportunity for promulgating the use of these languages among beginners.

While it is not possible here to examine the entire gamut of writing in regional languages of the Indian diaspora in totality, the module will present a brief overview of writings in four main languages, namely Bengali, Telugu, Gujarati and Hindi. You will be made familiar with the works of well-known writers from these languages, and the themes they have written on, so that you may explore their works in detail should you wish to do so.   

2.  WRITING IN BENGALI FROM THE DIASPORA1 (ParomitaChakrabarti)

2.1  Early Diasporic Writing

Writers from both India and Bangladesh who speak and creatively engage with Bangla bhasha in the diaspora are growing in number particularly in the United Kingdom, United States and Canada. Most of this writing circulates within the diaspora or is confined to the Bengali speaking population in India and Bangladesh. Two of the main reasons for its limited reach are the paucity of translations available from Bangla to English and other languages and the resistance of the publishing industry to buy translation rights for regional language writing. Fortunately with the internet revolution, a considerable amount of writing in Bangla from the various diasporas is available today.

From the early eighteenth century onwards, privileged Bengali men have been travelling abroad. The Bengal Renaissance prompted a lot of elite Bengalis to undertake perilous journeys across the oceans. Raja Rammohan Roy, Dwarkanath Tagore, Debendranath Tagore, Michael MadhusudanDutt, SayyedAmeer Ali, Satyendranath Tagore, SatyendraprasannaSinha, Rabindranath Tagore and many of his contemporaries were sent by their families to England to study law, medicine or in order to prepare for and take the Civil Services Exam. They wrote of their experiences abroad and documented their lives as probashi (‘ one who lives away from home’). These writings can be considered as the first diasporic accounts in Bengali language. Rabindranath Tagore’s Europe -PrabashirPatra (‘Letters from Europe’) first published in the magazine Bharati as letters and then in 1881 as a book is a fine account of English social life in the second half of the nineteenth century. The first diasporic Bengali text written by a woman was a travel book first published in 1885 written by Krishnabhabini Das. She had accompanied her husband Debendranath Das to England in 1882 and stayed for eight years minutely observing Victorian society and later compiling her experiences in the volume InglondeBangamahila (trans. as ‘A Bengali Lady in England’) published in 1885.

2.2. Contemporary Diasporic Writing

The migration of Bengalis from West Bengal and what is today Bangladesh have continued unabated ever since. Today the Bengali diaspora is spread across several countries and many continents. The diaspora is diverse in terms of class, caste and culture. Some of the notable contemporary diasporic writers writing in Bangla who are widely read in West Bengal and Bangladesh are from the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Prominent among them are GhulamMurshid, Abdul GaffarChoudhury from UK, DilaraHashem, AlolikaMukhopadhyay from USA.

2.3 KetakiKushari Dyson

One of the first writers from the Bengali diaspora writing in Bangla who consciously crafts a diasporic sensibility isKetakiKushari Dyson. Dyson is a prolific bi-lingual poet, critic, essayist, playwright, columnist, novelist and translator. Her first novel, NotonNotonPairaguli (‘Those Crested Pigeons’) (1983 ) is based on the letters and diary entries of a Bengali woman in Britain. Her subsequent publications include the following : Rabindranath O Victoria OcamporSandhaney(‘In Search of Rabindranath and Victoria Ocampo’) (1985) which is an exploration of Rabindranath Tagore’s relationship with Argentinian writer Victoria Ocampo; JalPhunreAagun (‘Fire Piercing Through Water’) ( 2003) which is about the shared perspectives of two characters, a Bengali man of mixed parentage and his daughter who is multiracial; and Tisidore(‘The Band Tied by Tisi’) published in 2008. In this work she traverses the inner and creative worlds of two famous writers of the post-Tagore era, Jibanananda Das and Buddhadeva Bose. Parallel to this is an exploration of British working class and middle class lives in the twentieth century, through the letters received by Honor Pope and the autobiography of Margaret Clarke. Dyson’s writings point to the fact that cultural interconnectedness and the ability to transculturate are the hallmarks of Bengali diaspora.

You may wish to refer to two important essays by Dyson – ‘Bangla SahityerDiasporikBhuban: EktiBhumika, KichhuPrasongikByaktigotoSakshyo o Bhabona’ (‘The Diasporic World of Bengali Literature: An Introduction, Some Relevant Personal Testimonies and Thoughts) in Jijnasa, 20: 3, 1999) and DeshaarBidesh: Bangla DiasporarKayekjonSahityik’ (‘Home and Abroad: Some Writers of the Bengali Diaspora’) in Bangla Journal, April-August 2002 – wherein she discusses the issues of emigration, cultural mediation, transculturation, citizenship and transnationalism in the context of Bangla writing.

‘In Search of Rabindranath and Victoria Ocampo’‘The Band Tied by Tisi’

Diasporic writing in Bangla is increasingly garnering a lot of critical attention. Apart from publications of established authors, magazines like Agrobeej, bilingual magazine Bangla Journal from Toronto, and many others in different parts of the globe have also been a source of contemporary diasporic creative output. Most of the writing is representative of the middle class professional diaspora and often concerned with the negotiations of straddling two worlds and their multiple attachments with a transnational community. A lot of the writing also makes use of certain English words to convey a sense of diasporic identity and social hierarchy.

Bangla writing from the diaspora thus embraces several moments of modernity: displacement from and nostalgia for homeland, ease of transition to the host land as transnational subjects, interminable mixing and hybridization of culture and people, easy connectedness to homeland and deep engagement with the host land, cultural claim of belonging and negotiating ethnic identity in a furiously shrinking yet intensely fractured world.

3.  WRITING IN TELUGU FROM THE DIASPORA  (Sireesha Telugu)

Though Telugu is spoken primarily in Andhra Pradesh and the Telangana States, parts of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Orissa and Jharkhand also have Telugu speaking people, thus its widespread communities within the nation and as well as outside the nation assert the language.

Telugu migration overseas dates back to the pre-colonial indentured labour, and continues with the post-colonial professional workers, with large numbers participating in the IT diaspora. For generations, the Telugus have been migrating to different parts of the world such as Burma, Malaysia, Fiji, Mauritius, South Africa, Indonesia, England, and USA.

Members of the Telugu diaspora gather frequently to organise events that help them to promote their culture, language and more importantly provide a platform for the second generation to understand their roots. They have non-voluntary associations likeAmerica Telugu association (ATA), TeluguAssociation of North America (TANA), The Hong Kong Telugu Samakhya (THKTS),Telugu Association of Malaysia, HITECH Telugu Kala Samiti, Kuwait, TeluguAssociation of Australia, Inc. (TAAI), New Zealand Telugu Association (NZTA) and many more which try to support theTelugu diaspora in particular and Indians in general to promote the feelingof togetherness.

These organizations help them to maintain an umbilical cord withthe home they have left behind and communicate their experiences living awayfrom it. The websites of these organisations such as http://thulika.net,http://www.vangurifoundation.org/, http://racchabanda.com, and http://www.ataworld.org provide us with links which help us to understand better how the connection with the home culture is asserted and retained

The first generation immigrants were not conscious of what it is to be a diaspora and therefore faced the dilemma of assimilation. They made a very minimal attempt to preserve their experiences or history in the form of literature, and hence their experiences were found very rarely, as we do today, on personal internet blogs, or on particular websites like racchabanda.com. A few rare gems are available in Andhra Jyoti, a reputed journal in India. These works were a rare treasure because they give us a direct insight into the lives of diasporicTelugus, which if left unnoticed, would have gone unrecorded.  Dr.VanguriChitten Raj, with the objective of enriching the language and literature of Telugu people started the Vanguri Foundation in Houston in 1994. The Foundation stands as a pioneering establishment to this day organizing events and literary symposiums all around the world every consecutive year to promote Telugu language, literature and especially to reach the future generations providing them a link to their identities (http://www.vangurifoundation.org).. In the last twenty years, the Foundation has brought out forty publications that include 11 volumes of America Telugu Kathanika, a collection of Telugu short stories written by various writers living in America and around the globe edited by PemmaRajuVenugopalRao, America Illaalu by Chimmata Kamala, Amerikaalakshepam by VanguriChitten Raj, Metamorphosis by VeluriVenkateswaraRao and many others

Most of the writers in the United States of America are not from just an academic background. They include doctors, engineers, and entrepreneurs and also housewives who are making an attempt to embellish the Telegu language through the literary narrative. Creative writers take up the themes that mostly deal with the conflicts of first and second generation values, dislocation, nostalgia, survival and the fight for an identity, as in RadhikaNori’s “Viluvalu”(Values). Racial discrimination, new world, new customs, conflicts of the marriage system are some of the themes in

RadhikaNori’s“VeedinaNeedalu” (Vanished Shadows). Chimata Kamala’s “Namarupaalu” (Identity) delves into the diasporics’ long standing hope to get back to India at any point of their lives. The  fear of losing one’s language in a foreign land  crops up in in one way or the other. Some write about their experiences back in India and Indian society. Though most of the works deal with fictional characters they reflect the reality of the diasporic people in the concerned countries.

NidadavoluMalathi is another important writer worth mentioning about at this context of diasporic Telugu writers. She is unique from the others as she makes an attempt to write both in Telugu and in English. She was a writer even before her migration to the United States of America. In addition she translates Telugu diasporic works into English with an effort to give them global recognition. Most of the works written by diasporic authors and their translations are available in her official website www.thulika.net with a hope to reach a wide audience.

Writers in Telugu differ from diaspora writers in English wherein they have evolved their own distinct style, with which they express their emotions and ideas freely. Writers like VanguriChitten Raj, KalasapudiVasundhara, Chimata Kamala, and PemmarajuVenugopalRao have remarked that they write earlessly and are not jealous of their counterparts in India, nor do they expect awards. They confess that they are both the writers and poets on the one hand, and , audience, readers and critics on the other hand. They seem to be speaking only to their own fellowimmigrants/ Telugu readership in diaspora. Telugu writers write about conventional themes of diasporic literature such as nostalgia, alienation and fight for an identity. They also express the additional anxiety of preserving the language in their hybrid cultural communities. They aspire that the language and literature should reach the future generations. One of the primary thematic concerns is to explore what it is to be a Telugu-American in addition to being an Indian-American. This is particularly important for those members of the diaspora who do not have access to proper resources to understand the rich culture of Telugu literature.

4. WRITING IN GUJARATI FROM THE DIASPORA       (RajshreeTrivedi)

Settled in more than forty-four countries, the Gujarati diaspora community today forms one-third of the population of global Indian diaspora (Parekh 2007, 6). Although the community has a history of being involved in trade and commerce for more than two thousand years (Machado 2008, 161), there are not many early diasporic texts relating the experiences of Gujarati speaking migrants. Gujarati speaking traders played a very important role in the promotion of trade in East Africa, and interacted closely with the local populace, and one of the interesting rare publications is Swahili BhashanuVyakaran (The Swahili Grammar) was written in 1891 by AlidinaSamjiLalani, a Khoja merchant based at Zanzibar for the benefit of “all sorts of Gujaratis, particularly, the newcomers in Zanzibar” (Mehta 2001, 173 ).

The early part twentieth century saw the emergence of Gujarati newspapers in East Africa and South Africa focusing mainly on nationalistic feelings among the diaspora. Indian Opinion, a newspaper started by Mahatma Gandhi and others in 1903, worked towards bringing various Gujarati as well as Indian communities together. The newspaper provided a platform to the diaspora to voice their feelings against the British imperialist rule in India. Many other newspapers such as Tanganyika Opinion, Tanganyika Herald and others were published in 1920s and thereafter. They promoted nationalist sentiments and the concept of a “Greater India” (Brennan 1993, 48). Thus, one may consider Mahatma Gandhi to be a cultural activist who initiated Gujarati diaspora writing for an ideological cause.

After Mahatma Gandhi returned to India from South Africa, PranshankarSomeshwar Joshi, a school teacher in Johannesburg contributed extensively to Indian Opinion. His articles and books voiced the plight of the victims of racial discrimination and social injustice in South Africa. Copies of his bookRangdweshnoDurg (The Tyranny of Racism) were burnt and subsequently   banned by the Censor Board of South Africa .  By 1950s, a large number of Gujarati newspapers and magazines were published in South Africa and countries of East Africa.  The writers who contributed to these publications included the  African born second generation diasporics as well as new migrants from India.     Most contributors preferred to write on the themes of Indian rural life and the importance of moral, religious and spiritual values in human life. It is important to note here that during the same period,  UmashankarJokharkar, a cultural activist from Johannesburg  wrote  Gujarati BhashaniUpyogitaAneTeniJalavani( The Gujarati Language: Its Usage And Conservation) which argued how  English, as the colonizer’s language, had started having its hold on the second and the third generation Gujarati speakers ( Oonk, 2013:148). Two sisters – Padma and ManjulaNatwarlal Patel – from Simonstown in the Cape Town wrote poems for children that could be recited in simple tunes. Their aim was to encourage the school children studying in Gujarati schools to learn the language through the play method. BhadraVadgama,VipulKalyani and others who migrated to UK from Africa continued to encourage Gujarati language activities.

After the East African countries of Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya attained independence in 1960s, the political instability therein compelled Gujaratis to relocate , mainly to the UK, as well as to Canada and the USA. The World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples, UK notes : “Between 1968 and 1974, over 70,000 Kenyan and Ugandan Asians arrived in Britain; a majority of them were Gujaratis” (www. minorityrights.org/directory).

BhanushankarOddhavjiVyas (1924- 1987) is considered to be a pioneer among the Gujarati diaspora writers in UK. His novel BharyuBharyuEkant( The Overflowing Loneliness) had been serialized in Asmita , a literary magazine published by Gujarat Literary Academy, UK. It narrates the psychological experiences of an old couple who takes shelter in the house of the protagonist of the novel.

BalwantNayak’s Ne DhartinaKholeNarakVerayu ( And The Hell Was Let Loose Upon The Earth) brings out the psychological turmoil of Asmita, the wife of a well- settled Gujarati businessman in Uganda who comes to UK with her child and struggles to survive in the new land.

Among the Gujarati writers in USA, PannaNaik addresses the issues of feminist concerns as well as the diasporic themes in her writings. Her collections of lyrical poems Pravesh (Entry, 1975), Philadelphia (1980), Videshini ( A Female Foreigner, 2000) Rang Jharukhe ( At The Balcony of Colours, 2004) and others. Videshini( A Female Foreigner), are the reflections of a confessional poet. The poems in Videshini bring out the plight of a woman trying to negotiate between the two worlds- the one that she has left and the one that she has entered. The poem ‘Why’ expresses the plight of the woman feeling “homeless” in her own home in America:

Why are the

Eyes, staring at the stars

In the far-off skies,

Unable to see

The homeless person

Near them? (www.pannanaik.com ) (translation mine)

Pravesh, the title of Naik’s maiden collection of poems means ‘entry.’ The poems voice her apprehension of entering into two unknown terrains – America and the world of poetry. The verbal images in some of the poems in this collection are suggestive of the sexual longing of a woman alone at home while her husband is away at work, a theme hitherto unexplored by Gujarati women writers in 1980s.

It is a matter of great concern for the diasporic community that increasingly younger members of the diaspora today prefer to speak and write in English rather than communicate in Gujarati. The Gujarati language, like other Indian regional languages, is losing currency among the present current generation of diasporics. In order to promote the language, institutions like Gujarat Literary Academy in UK have been actively involved in preparing course material and text books. The Academy also has been publishing Asmita, a literary journal for more than three decades. Opinion, an online journal by VipulKalyani and BhadraVadgama from UK has a special section on the diaspora. The RatilalChanderia Foundation, UK has created a website named Gujarati Lexicon which provides an online digital dictionary for the Gujarati community (www. gujaratilexicon.com/dictionary).

Asmita, thewell known Gujarati magazine published since 1984 by the Gujarati Literary Academy, UK .

Gujarat Abroad, the largest selling Gujarati  weekly newspaper in Canada

5.  DIASPORA WRITINGS IN HINDI (RavindraKatyayan)

In this section, we will examine the importance accorded to Hindi as a language in different locations of the Indian diaspora.  As mentioned in the introduction to this module, indentured labourers from Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh  migrated to Mauritius, Trinidad, Tobago, Fiji, Surinam and Guyana among other  countries. As a large number of the labourers spoke and understood only Bhojpuri, this became an important   link language. However, in due course of time,  the dialect  became  highly localized and different from the dialect of Bhojpuri spoken in India. Jayaram describes how in Trinidad, the process of ‘koinesation’ or  levelling of different dialects took place, such that in due time “ a new variant of Bhojpuri was evolved as a reasonably homogeneous lingua franca on the sugar plantations”(2004, 151). This variant was referred to as ‘Plantation Hindustani” (Jayaram, 152). A similar process must have no doubt been replicated in other locations such as Mauritius and Fiji. This was mainly a lingua franca used for communication among members of the community. Hindi, on the other hand , was promoted by missionaries and the administration encouraged schools to start offering instruction in Standard Hindi.

5.1 Mauritius:

Indentured labourers brought Hindi with its various dialects to Mauritius in the 19th century. On 15th March, 1909, Manilal Doctor started publishing a Hindi magazine named “Hindustani”. The establishment of theAryaSamaj in 1910 boosted instruction in Hindi. Soon, more than 150 branches of evening schools, middle schools, a college, and an orphanage named Gaya Singh were opened. In 1916, “Hindi PrachariniSabha” was established to spread Hindi in Mauritius.

           Works by renownedwriter Shri. AbhimanyuUnnuth

Indian Government Initiative to Spread Hindi in Mauritius

In 1949, the Government of Mauritius requested to the Government of India to send qualified Hindi teachers to design a proper syllabus of instruction. One such educator was ProfessorRamprakash who was deputed to promote the instruction of Indian languages like Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu in Teachers Training Colleges. In 1956, he prepared a new Hindi book series (Navin Hindi Pustak Mala) for classes one to six with the help of a few senior Hindi teachers. These books were taught for next 20 years and laid a solid foundation for learning Hindi language and literature. Then from 1974, Hindi was introduced in secondary schools and colleges also. (http://www.mauritiustimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=73:prof-ram-prakash-in-memoriam-&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=50)

Hindi was used throughout the diaspora in the form of various dialects like Bhojpuri, Avadhi and Maithili. The larger number of these emigrants used Bhojpuri, and hence Bhojpuri became associated with the identity of these emigrants. In 1982, SaritaBoodhoo established the Mauritius Bhojpuri Institute with the objective of reviving Bhojpuri language and traditions. However, except for some early writings, all the important writings by Mauritian writers are in Khadiboli Hindi and not in the Bhojpuri language. Major creative writers of Mauritius have opted to write in Hindi, not in Bhojpuri, so that they can reach a wider audience worldwide. Poetry, Novels, short stories and essays have been given priority over other genres. AbhimanyuUnnuth is a writer who has achieved accolades for his writings in Hindi.

Apart from being a medium of instruction, Hindi is widely used in Mauritius through the BBC Hindi Seva and other such radio services, Doordarshan, CRI, Hindi and Bhojpuri Films, Hindi Magazines and Journals, Kavi-Sammelans, preaching on Bhagavat, ,Ramayan, Bhajans etc.

Narratives by Manilal Doctor depicting the painful lives of immigrant labourers   Mauritian Creative Writings in Hindi

In terms of creative literature, an important poet is PanditLaxminarayanChaturvedi ‘Rasapunj’ whose body of work was critical of social evils of his times. His famous works include “RasapunjKundaliya” and “ShatabdiSaroj”. Other remarkable poets of Mauritius are Brajendra Kumar Bhagat ‘Madhukar’, SomduttBakhori, Dr.MunishwarlalChintamani, AbhimanyuUnnuth, HarinarayanSita, GirijananRangu, Ravishankar, PujanandNema, SuryadevSivarat etc. Initially poetry focused on social evils and the need for social reforms, but later themes came to include the struggle for Mauritius’s independence, promotion of Indian Culture, and other such contemporary issues in daily public life. The first Hindi novel published in Mauritius was PahlaKadambyKrishnalalBihari in 1960. AbhimanyuUnnuth is another Mauritian Hindi writer who has written extensively. Dramatists of Mauritius include AbhimanyuUnnuth, AstanandSadasingh, MaheshRamjiyavan etc. Mauritius has also produced important essayists likePanditVishnudayal, Dr.ThakurduttPandey, Dr.MunishwarlalChintamani and PrahladRamsharan. Thus Mauritius is a main center of Hindi languages and literatures.

5.2 Surinam

Early publications in Hindi can be traced back to around 1918 wherein religious workers used to distribute handwritten pamphlets for religious gatherings. After 1940, workers of AryaSamajpromote the use of Hindi language and Literature. These books and magazines were initially handwritten in Hindi and then cyclostyled. Important writers from Surinam include PanditLaxmiprasadBaldeo, MunshiRahman Khan and BabuChandramohanRanjit Singh. Two Hindi magazines named ‘Prakash; and ‘Vikas have also been published in Hindi from Surinam.

5.3 Fiji

Fiji is a small country situated in Pacific Ocean. Around half of the population of Fiji is Indian. These Indians came here on contract from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in nineteenth century and spoke Awadhi, Maithili and Bhojpuri dialects. Hindi is taught in Fiji from first to ten standards. Other than this, Hindi is also taught at the University of South Pacific, Teachers Training College and ,Sanatan Dharma PratinidhiSabha etc. Important Hindi Writers from Fiji include PanditKamla Prasad Mishra, PanditAmichandVidyalankar, PanditRamchandra, Doctor Manilal, Shivdutt Sharma, BabuRamsingh, Shrikrishna Sharma, Gurudayal Sharma, B D Laxman, Gyanidas, Ramkhilavan, Kuberdas etc. Many Hindi magazines have been published from Fiji. Some of them are Seteler(1913), Fiji Samachar (1923), VaidikSandesh(1930), Sanatan Dharma (1930-1940), Shantidoot (1935), Kisan(1940), Jhankar (1953), Jai Fiji (1960) etc.

5.4 USA

The USA has witnessed a boom in Indian migrants over the last 30 years. Several IT engineers and medical doctors migrated to USA in a large number in 20th century. Understanding the needs of growing Indian population in USA, most of the USA universities started Hindi teaching in the Universities and colleges. At present Hindi is taught there in more than 100 universities and colleges. Dr.SushamBedi -.

Sudha Om Dhingra also writes in many genres and publishes a Hindi Magazine named “Hindi Chetna”. Anita Kapoor writes poems and is famous for her literary writings and Hindi journalism. AbhinavShukla is another Hindi Poet committed for spreading Hindi in America.

5.5 Great Britain– Like USA, Great Britain also has many Hindi writers who contribute in different forms of Hindi Literature. Indian Hindi writers living in Britain are SatyendraSrivastava, Tejinder Sharma, KavitaVachaknavi, DivyaMathur, KailashBudhvar, ArchanaPanyuli to name a few.

Hindi in Other Countries

Hindi is widely used in the Gulf countries also. Krishna Bihari lives in Abudhabi writes poems, stories and novels, and also publishes a Literary Hindi magazine named “NIKAT”. PurnimaVarmanwho lives in UAE has been hosting two Hindi Literary portals called “Abhivyakti” for prose and “Anubhuti” for poetry from 1996. Saran Ghai runs a Hindi Blog named “Vishva Hindi Sansthan” from Canada wherein publishes his poetry and prose along with other writers. You may wish to visit the following sites to find out the range of topics that are discussed and explored creatively.

REFERENCES

• http://www.anubhuti-hindi.org/
  http://www.abhivyakti-hindi.org/
  http://vishvahindisansthan.com/
  http://www.pravasiduniya.com/
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• –1986 In Your Blossoming Flower-Garden: Rabindranath Tagore and Victoria Ocampo. New Delhi:SahityaAkademi, 1988, reprinted 1996.
• —.2010. I Won’t Let You Go: Selected Poems by Rabindranath Tagore. Newcastle upon Tyne: BloodaxeBooks, 1991; second expanded edition.
• —.1983. Spaces I Inhabit. Calcutta: Nabana.
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• Rao, Raghunatha.P. 1983.History of Modern Andhra. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers.
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• Web references
• Bangla
• http://www.parabaas.com/translation/data base/translations/essays/pSumana.html
  http://www.virgiliolibro.com/kkd/
  http://www.bloodaxebooks.com/personpage.asp?author=Ketaki+Kushari+Dyson
• Telegu
• http://thulika.net/
  http://www.vangurifoundation.org/
  http://racchabanda.com/