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Adam Gondvi

The Poet · 1947 – 2011

अदम गोंडवी

Adam Gondvi

Region

Awadh

Language

hindi / urdu

Signature rasa

Karuna

Works · archive

38

If poetry exists to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, Adam Gondvi was Hindi literature's most uncompromising voice. Born Ram Nath Singh on October 22, 1947, in the Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh, he lived the quiet life of a farmer while writing verses of fierce revolutionary anger.

Gondvi took the delicate and traditionally romantic form of the Urdu ghazal and turned it into a weapon. He used its strict meter to expose the hypocrisy of the caste system, the cruelty of feudal oppression, and the deep corruption within Indian politics.

When he wrote that he would take the reader to the alleys of the Dalits, he was challenging mainstream literature to abandon its comfortable illusions and confront the starving reality of rural India. He rejected political patronage and lived his entire life in modest circumstances before passing away in 2011.

Adam Gondvi remains the fearless conscience of the marginalized. His words strike with undeniable force.

Chronology

A life, paced like a poem.

    1947

    Born as Ram Nath Singh in Gonda, Uttar Pradesh

    1970s

    Began writing revolutionary poetry under the pen name Adam Gondvi

    1998

    Published his landmark collection 'Samay Se Mutbhed'

    2011

    Passed away in Lucknow due to illness

Essential

Start with these.

Three doorways into Adam Gondvi, chosen for how quickly they show you what this voice sounds like.

Full Catalogue

Every composition, by mood.

38 entries · 5 rasas

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