The role of the writer/poet in the light of the natural disasters, nuclear threats and civil wars that are striking mankind today (2)

Indian English Poet Arbind Kumar Choudhary interviewed by Patrick Sammut

1:The world today is facing very hard times. I just mention the floods that struck parts of Australia, the quake and tsunami in Japan and the following nuclear threat, and the civil war in Libya. How much do events like these touch the poet/writer? Did you react to such events through some kind of writing (poetry, novel,etc.)?

AKC: Natural disasters, nuclear threats and civil wars are the products of violation of Nature’s code of conduct for which we are ourselves responsible directly or indirectly. In spite of all sorts of economic and scientific developments the humanity all over the world is bleeding to its utmost degree. If such sorts of process goes on continuously, there will be little future to exist of the generations to come.

As a matter of fact such men invited disasters create tsunami amidst the sensitive souls across the globe and also inspire the writers to make it the core issue of their writings and, above all, make the ignorant masses acquainted with these threats likely to occur even in the years to come.

2 Do you think that the writer/poet must express himself and sound his voice regarding such events as soon as possible? What is the role of the writer/poet faced with events like these? Is this role less or more important than that of today’s politicians?

AKC: The writers / poets must come forward all together against their own governments who create fear psychosis amidst the common masses and through these ways they violate human values at the cost of lives of the millions. Variations in race, religion and nation rarely mean enmity between themselves. To pierce this worldly cage is the prime motto and moral responsibility of all sensitive souls across the globe of which writers/ poets are not the exceptions.

The main motive of our Faustus minded politicians is to hanker after power by hook or by crook while the literary message is to restore the human values at any cost for all the races in general and human race in particular. The Charnobyl Reactor accident (1986), Russia, and Daiichi and Daini plants explosion (2011), Japan, have caused the release of nitrogen-16, tritium, iodine and cesium – 137, the worst threats to all living beings.

3.The writer/poet has been insisting on the need for peace and respect of nature for decades. Perhaps now the people in general will understand that writers/poets were right. Do you think writers/poets are doing their utmost to make their plea heard? What more can be done?

AKC: To maintain divine rule is the law of Nature where all creatures will enjoy their lives in its full swings without any interruptions. The common masses all over the world must take lesson from these threats and also must follow the divine messages of the writers who have been found ever spell- bound in propagating the message of peace, love and wisdom not only for all but also for the peeping generations to come.

Keeping in mind a secure future of the generations to come the writers must come forward to convert the unconscious in to conscious minds to pressurize the governments on one hand and warn the civil masses on the other.

4.There is a need for governments and authorities to acknowledge the utmost importance of disciplines such as History, Literature, Philosophy and the like. Modern society does not need only science, finance, marketing, economics and management. How do you react to such a statement?

AKC: It must be noted that any developments done at the cost of human and natural values invite doomed future for all the living beings. Our philosophy, literature and culture must blossom along with scientific and managerial developments; otherwise it will be too late to exist peacefully on this earth.

Surprisingly, the rat race between the nations is to develop science, finance, economics and management at the cost of lives of millions because the power monger politicians are found ever afraid of the ghost of being ‘former’. They are least bothered for those generations peeping from the womb of time.