The Hungry Generation (Bengali হাংরি জেনারেশান ) was a literary movement in the Bengali language launched by what is known today as the Hungryalist quartet i.e. Shakti Chattopadhyay, Malay Roy Choudhury, Samir Roychoudhury and Debi Roy alias Haradhon Dhara, during the 1960s in Kolkata, India. Due to their involvement in this avante garde cultural movement, the leaders lost their jobs and were jailed. Dr Uttam Das, Reader, Calcutta University, in his dissertation 'Hungry Shruti and Shastravirodhi Andolan' has explained how they challenged and significantly changed the language and the vocabulary used by contemporary writers to express their feelings in literature and painting. The approach of the Hungryalists was to confront and disturb the prospective readers' preconceived colonial canons. According to Pradip Choudhuri, a leading philosopher and poet of the generation, whose works have been extensively translated in French, their counter-discourse was the first voice of post-colonial freedom of pen and brush. Besides the famous four mentioned above, Utpalkumar Basu, Binoy Majumdar, Sandipan Chattopadhyay, Basudeb Dasgupta, Falguni Roy, Subhash Ghosh, Tridib Mitra, Alo Mitra, Ramananda Chattopadhyay, Anil Karanjai, Saileswar Ghosh, Karunanidhan Mukhopadhyay, Subo Acharya, were among the leading writers and artists of the movement.
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The movement was launched in November 1961 from Patna residence of Malay Roy Choudhury and his brother Samir Roychoudhury. They took the word Hungry from Geoffrey Chaucer's line "In Sowre Hungry Tyme" and they drew upon Oswald Spengler's idea of Non-Linear Time in a particular culture for philosophical inspiration. The movement was to last from 1961 to 1965. It is wrong to suggest that the movement was influenced by the Beat Generation, since Ginsberg did not visit Malay until April 1963, when he came to Patna. Poets Octavio Paz and Ernesto Cardenal were to visit Malay later during the sixties.
This movement is characterized by expression of closeness to nature and sometimes tenets of Gandhianism and Prudhonianism. Although it originated at Patna, Bihar and was initially based in Kolkata, it had participants spread over North Bengal, Tripura and Benares. According to Dr. Shankar Bhattacharya, Dean at Assam University, as well as Aryanil Mukherjee, editor of Kaurab Literary Periodical, the movement influencedAllen Ginsberg as much as it influenced American poetry through the Beat poets who visited Calcutta, Patna and Benares during the Sixties decade. Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, now a professor and editor, was associated with the Hungry generation movement. Shakti Chattopadhyay, Saileswar Ghosh, Subhas Ghosh left the movement in 1964.
More than 100 manifestos were issued during 1961-1965. Malay's poems have been published by Prof P. Lal from his Writers Workshop publication. Howard McCord published Malay Roy Choudhury's controversial poem Prachanda Boidyutik Chhutar ie., Stark Electric Jesus from Washington State University in 1965. The poem has been translated into several languages of the world. Into German by Carl Weissner,in Spanish by Margaret Randall, in Urdu by Ameeq Hanfee,in Assamese by Manik Dass, in Gujarati by Nalin Patel, in Hindi by Rajkamal Chaudhary, and in English by Howard McCord.
Prof B. Dey of Assam University has been awarded Ph D for his 350 page seminal work on Malay Roy Choudhury and The Hungryalist Movement.
The works of these participants appeared in Citylights Journal 1, 2 and 3 published between 1964 and 1966, edited by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and in special issues of American magazines including Kulchur edited by Lita Hornick, Klactoveedsedsteen edited by Carl Weissner, El Corno Emplunado edited by Margaret Randall, Evergreen Review edited by Barney Rosset, Salted Feathersedited by Dick Bakken, Intrepid edited by Alan De Loach, and San Francisco Earthquake, during the sixties. (See references).Hungry Generation also known as Hungryalism challenged the mainstream literary genres. The group wrote poetry and prose in completely different forms and experimented with the contents. The movement changed the literary atmosphere of Bengal altogether. It had influences in Hindi, Marathi, Assamese and Urdu literatures. (See references)
In 2011 Srijit Mukherji directed a film titled Baishe Srabon wherein famous film director Gautam Ghose has portrayed the role of a Hungryalist poet. This was for the first time that an avant garde movement was incorporated in mainstream cinema. However, the film has distorted the history of the movement.
(1)The autobiography of Malay Roy Choudhury is available in Vol 215 of "Contemporary Authors" published by Thomas Gale. (ISBN 0-7876-6639-4) There are Hungry Generation Archives in Northwestern University in Illinois as well as Bangla Academy in Dhaka, Bangladesh. At Kolkata the Little Magazine Library and Research Centre run by Sandip Dutta has a separate section on the Hungryalist publications as well as trial papers of the famous Hungry generation case in which some of the colleagues of Malay turned against the movement and gave undertakings to have withdrawn from the movement. Trial papers are archived in Bankshal Court, Kolkata ( 9th Court of Presidency Magistrate, Case No. GR. 579 of 1965; State of West Bengal Vs Malay Roy Choudhury (2)Hungry Kimbadanti written by Malay Roy Choudhury and published by De Books, Kolkata (1997)
(3)Hungry Andolon issue of Haowa 49 magazine (2003) edited by Samir Roychoudhury and Murshid A. M.