Satendra Kumar
Discovering Stephen Gill: A Collection of Papers and Articles
Nilanshu Kumar Agrawal [ED], New Delhi: Authors Press, 2008, pp 168. ISBN 978-81-7273-469-5.
Contemporary world ethos is marked by macabre dance of venomous hatred and ignoble strife. Peace is in peril and human dignity is in disaster. The adders of racial antagonism are ready to devour us. The evils of envy, jealousy, anger and impure desire are distancing us from the emotions of love and sympathy. Religious fanaticism, class struggles, caste consciousness and racial prejudices have made this world a sterile wasteland, where ‘time is out of joint’. Due to this presence of barren social system, Coleridge’s observation ‘water, water everywhere/Not any drop to drink’ seems very relevant. In such a torpid and somber world the creative works of Stephen Gill edited by Dr Nilanshu Kumar Agarwal provides a ray of hope and beacon light to every wanderer. Through his works Gill has been able to spread ‘rays of peace over ‘the selfish sea of politics’. His message of peace can eliminate ‘the withered leaves of greed’ and ‘the valley of terror’ from the world. This harbinger of peace is having several doves in his hands. His unique poetic prism has shown a powerful array of nuances that shed light for peaceful coexistence. He has shown the power of poetry with its ability to philosophize in his poems as Songs of Harmony and in Shrine. His poems have been a vehicle for individual liberation and the discovery of the unknown vignettes of the human spirit. His poetry has been a vehicle for human liberation. Gill left the mesmeric impact on the heart of his audience. His Immigrant provides evidence of his sense of alienation.
The present critical anthology is an attempt to examine the various literary merits of this harbinger of peace. The contributors have endeavored to analyze Gill objectively and judiciously in this critical anthology. The present anthology which is a collection of papers and articles of eminent Professors like A.N.Dwivedi, D. Parameshwari, T.Ravichandra, G. Domic Savio & S.J.Kala, Ashok Kumar & Roopali, S. N. Tripathi, Kanwar Dinesh Singh, Nilofar Akhtar, Nikola Dimitrov, O.P. Dwivedi, Shweta Saxena, Nilanshu Agarwal, P.Raja, Ann Iverson, John Paul Louky, Aju Mukhopadyay, T.A. Chakravarthy with an introduction by Daniel Bratton (Japan) and foreword by Ashoka Weerasinghe (Canada) are indubitably praiseworthy to evaluate the works of Gill for the avid readers and scholars of the discipline.
Article of A.N.Dwevedi unearths in the words of Gill, ‘I began to flutter my wings to escape the prison of suffocation in search of an El Dorado of peace. The question was how and where to find that El Dorado’. Gill delivers the message of universal love and brotherhood in unequivocal terms in ‘I Am Still a Man’: ‘I am a human/I love humankind. Smile, my friend, /Because/ We are all one’. D. Parameshwari in her article ‘The Dialectics of Diasporic Experience: A Reading of Stephen Gill’, unveils that oscillating between the attractions of home and those from the new, the migrants wage a constant psychic battle, the old world is replete with myth and tradition, the new world order is proliferate with thirst for freedom and independence.
The book has three articles on Immigrant and three articles on Shrine covering the basic theme. T. Ravichandra in his article on Shrine unlocks that Gill is an apostle of peace, a harbinger of love and a propagandist of universal harmony. Likewise K.D.Singh in his article urges that every man needs to explore and actuate his/her real self. S.N.Tripathy in his brief article brings the message of peace through dove and totally against the sword, the bullet or the bomb. ‘Those who kiss/the lips of the sword/fall victims to its fury’. G. D. Savio and S.J.Kala in their article on Immigrant bring to the notion to the avid readers that world into which one is born is wholly new at the time of birth. In his scholarly article O.P.Dwivedi proves that the novel being thought-provoking, touches on a very real problem, a facet of Kipling’s dictum of ‘East is East…’ The history of immigrant is the history of alienation and its consequences. For every freedom won, a tradition is lost. For every second generation assimilated, a first generation in one way or another spurned. For the gains of goods and services an identity lost and uncertainly found. Reghu learns a hard lesson about western culture and his frustration seems to grow much more and more and reminds of Salman Rushdie’s popular novel Shame.
A.Kumar and Roopali in their small but thatched article proclaim that as a story writer Gill shows a promising talent but many more miles he will have to tread before becoming a master craftsman. Similarly N.Dimitrov claims that the message in Gill’s writing is that humans have become proud, selfish, self-consuming and are not concerned about others. This is a way to lose peace and harmony. Humans have to be humble and caring in the image of the Lord who has created everyone to prosper in peace. S. Saxena in the article shows that the angst of alienation in Gill’s poetry acts as a catalyst in catapulting him on his journey in search of a meaningful and spirituality fulfilling existence. The editor of the book, has two articles to his credit which are really the fruit of a great effort on his part.
P.Raja in his article makes clear that it is a freedom that gives Gill a free mind and thereby a free expression. He, being an apostle, wants his poetry to be understood. Simple, sensuous, appealing and alluring are some of the adjectives one can use in the appreciation of Gill’s poetry. A. Iverson and J.P.Loucky in their articles bring the point home that while Gill’s poetry travels many diverse topics including war, abuse, death, and disease, he always returns to the dove of peace, the god of harmony, the voice of oneness, the rainbow strings. His art extends to us a new vision of nobility and calls us to gaze upon the face of hope and peace. A.Mukhopadhyay announces that the bard has hope in the will of masses, ‘Like a thunder/ I fuse into the clouds/When I drop/even the earth yields/Cruelty cannot kill me’. He further urges that Gill is a man vibrant in literature and has been constantly working for world peace. In the last inclusion of the book T. Ashoka and Chakravarthy unlock that Gill is undoubtedly a gem among the gems and a timed tested person with a time-trusted vision.