Sumitranandan Pant

Born May 20, 1900, in Kausani, in the district of Almora. Indian poet.

Pant, who wrote in Hindi, was influenced by R. Tagore and by Western European romanticists. His early lyric poetry, published in the collections Buds (1928) and The Humming of the Bees (1932), is filled with love for his native land. In his poetry of the 1930’s, Pant appealed for liberation from social and colonial oppression; the collections End of an Era (1936) and Voice of the Era (1939) attest to the influence of progressive ideas on his work. His language and style were close to everyday language.

In the 1940’s and 1950’s the abstractly humanist element in Pant’s work became intensified. He retained his sympathy for the socialist reconstruction of society; this is illustrated in the collection Golden Rays (1947) and in the one-act plays in verse Silver Peaks (1951) and The Artist (1952). In his epic work The People’s Dwelling (1964) he philosophically reexamines his life and literary work. Several inspired pages of this work are devoted to the achievements of the USSR. Pant was awarded the Prize of the Indian National Academy of Letters in 1961.