On the very eve of our 8th Congress, on 9 December 2007, people’s poet and former National President of Jan Sanskriti Manch Trilochan Shastri passed away at the age of 91. He was an immensely influential figure in Hindi literature and he was deeply sympathetic to the revolutionary communist movement all his life.
He had been associated with a variety of people’s movements, starting with his involvement in the freedom struggle against British colonialism up to his support for the battle of the oppressed masses of rural India for land and justice. He had been National President of JSM for almost a decade. Apart from being famous for introducing the sonnet form of poetry in Hindi Trilochan has also worked on the compilation of various dictionaries and is renowned as a major expert on various Indian languages.
He had met with the CPI(ML) General Secretary not long before his demise and expressed his good wishes for the Party Congress. His passing is an immeasurable loss for Hindi literature and the progressive democratic movement.
Hindi kavita unki hai
jinki sanson ko araam nahin
Main us janpath ka kavi hun
jo bhukha-dukha hai
Hindi poetry belongs
To those who don’t breathe easy
I’m a poet of the land
Of hunger and sorrow
- Trilochan
