Ramdhari Singh ‘Dinkar’ (1908 – April 24, 1974) was an Indian Hindi poet, who is considered as one of the most important modern Hindi poets. Dinkar emerged as a rebellious poet with his nationalist poetry in pre-Independence days. His poetry exuded veer rasa, and he has been hailed as a ‘Rashtrakavi’.
Dinkar was born in a poor Bhumihar Brahmin family at the Simariya village in Begusarai district of Bihar. As a student, Dinkar’s favourite subjects were history, politics and philosophy. He studied Hindi, Sanskrit, Bengali, Urdu and English literature. Dinkar was greatly influenced by Iqbal, Rabindranath Tagore, Keats and Milton.
In his early days, Dinkar supported the revolutionary movement during the Indian Independence struggle. But later, he became a Gandhian. However, he used to call himself a ‘Bad Gandhian’ because he supported the feelings of indignation and revenge among the youth. In Kurukshetra, he accepts that the war is destructive, but says that it is necessary for the protection of freedom.
Dinkar was three times elected to Rajya Sabha and was the member of this house from April 3, 1952 to January 26, 1964.
Dinkar was awarded the Jnanpith Award in 1972 for Urvashi, a work of poetry, published in 1961. He was also a recipient of Padma Bhushan in 1959 and Sahitya Akademi Award also in 1959.
