The Life of Poetry in Modern India

Hindi poet and political leader Dr Kumar Vishwas lectures on the place of poetry in Indian culture, drawing on his own experience as a well-known performer at Hindi poetry gatherings. The lecture covers a wide range of poetic ground: from the relationship between folk and literary traditions, to Hindi satirists and their critiques of government, to the three generations of women in Dr Vishwas’s own family who have sung Tulsidas’s devotional verses. Introduced by Professor Nick Bisley (Executive Director, La Trobe Asia), Dr Ian Woolford (Director of the Hindi Program, La Trobe University) and Subhash Sharma (Director of Sahitya Sandhya). This lecture was delivered to a Hindi-speaking audience at La Trobe University.