Vibhuti Narain Rai

Vibhuti Narain Rai
Vibhuti Narain Rai
Vibhuti Narain Rai at Chandigarh Literature Festival 2016
Born (1951-11-28) 28 November 1951
Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, India
Occupation Writer, novelist, activist, translator, police director general, former vice chancellor, Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya
Nationality Indian
Citizenship India
Education M.A. English
Notable works Ghar, Shahar Mein Curfew, Kissa Loktantra etc.
Notable awards Indu Sharma Antarrastriya Katha Samman
Police Neutrality Fellowship Award
Spouse Padma Rai
Children three
Website
vibhutinarain.blogspot
VibhutiNarainRai

Vibhuti Narain Rai (born 28 November 1951) is a police officer and author from India. He obtained an M.A. in English literature from Allahabad University in 1971 and joined the Indian Police Service in 1975 as a part of the Uttar Pradesh cadre. He served many sensitive districts as a superintendent of police.

Between 1992–2001, Rai was seconded to the Government of India, during which time his postings included anti-insurgency operations in the Kashmir Valley (1993–94). Subsequently, Rai has been posted as Additional Director General of Police in Uttar Pradesh. He has been awarded President's Police Medal for Distinguished Services and Police Medal for Meritorious Services.

Rai has also written five works of Hindi literature, being the novels Ghar, Shahar Mein Curfew, Kissa Loktantra, Tabadla and Prem Ki Bhoot Katha. Some of these have been translated into other languages. He has also written satires, including the collection titled Ek Chhatra Neta Ka Rojnamcha. He has authored the chapter An Open Letter to My Fellow Police Officers in the book Gujarat:The making of a tragedy which is about the 2002 Gujarat riots. The book was edited by Siddharth Varadarajan and published by Penguin( ISBN 978-0143029014).

On 4 March 2016 on the occasion of completing 200 years of Treaty of Sugauli, Mr. Rai got Ramesh Chandra Jha Smriti Samman 2016 for his contribution in Hindi literature.[1]

Shahar Mein curfew

In 1988, Rai published a Hindi novel entitled Shahar Mein Curfew (Curfew in the City).[2] Its theme was a 1980 Hindu-Muslim riot in the city of Allahabad, and Rai wrote freely about how religious prejudice in the Hindu dominated police force and provincial administration led to Muslim citizens' being viewed as enemies and thus becoming easy targets of brutality and murder.[3] The Vishva Hindu Parishad readily took offense and denounced the novel for being anti-Hindu.[4] It now wants a ban imposed on the novel, and when Ashok Singhal, secretary general of the V.H.P., was told of a producer wanting to turn the story into a film, he threatened to burn down theatres that dared to screen the planned film.[5] All this ire surrounds a project that has still not begun and a work of fiction that at no point directly criticizes any Hindu organization.[6] It is worthwhile to quote here from a recent interview given by the author: "The intolerance of dissent is increasing in our society and the Ayodhya mobilization has largely contributed to this disturbing trend. The attacks on inconvenient writers and dissenting journalists are in fact motivated by a desire to silence all criticism and all reason, thereby making the very existence of rationally-thinking people redundant to the social and political process. This is extremely distressing."[7]

Rai is the founder-editor of Vartman Sahitya, a Hindi literary magazine that has been published for over twenty years. He has written regular columns in various Hindi magazines and has campaigned against alleged fundamentalist and obscurantist forces in his country.

The Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy, Hyderabad awarded him a fellowship to study police neutrality during communal strife. This resulted in Combating Communal Conflict, a book that was published in Hindi and Urdu.

As an activist he has established a library in his native village in a backward area of Eastern Uttar Pradesh. This library Sri Ramanand Saraswati Pustakalaya, Azamgarh was established to encourage reading and has developed relationships with institutions such as Sahitya Akademi, the National Book Trust and the National School of Drama.

He is the President of NGO Saajhi Duniya which is involved in various activities including research work to create a better world.[8]

Former Vice Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, Wardha 2008-2014.

Works in Hindi

Novels

  • Ghar
  • Shahar Mein Curfew
  • Kissa Loktantra
  • Tabadla
  • Prem Ki Bhoot Katha

Satire

  • Ek Chhatra Neta Ka Rojnamcha

Criticism

  • Katha Sahitya Ke Sau Baras
  • "Ranbhumi mein bhasha"

Works in English

  • Combating Communal Conflict
  • Communal Conflicts: Perception of Police Neutrality During Hindu-Muslim Riots in India, Renaissance Pub. House (1998)

Translations into English

  • Curfew in the City, translated by C. M. Naim, New Delhi: Roli Books, 1998.
  • Tabadala, translated by Zeba Alvi to Urdu in Karachi (Pakistan) 2009.

References

  1. ↑ Outlook Hindi, MAR 12 , 2016
  2. ↑ Marty & others, Martin E. (2004). Fundamentalisms Comprehended (The Fundamentalism Project) (Paperback). University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-50888-7.
  3. ↑ Marty & others, Martin E. (2004). Fundamentalisms Comprehended (The Fundamentalism Project) (Paperback). University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-50888-7.
  4. ↑ Marty & others, Martin E. (2004). Fundamentalisms Comprehended (The Fundamentalism Project) (Paperback). University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-50888-7.
  5. ↑ Marty & others, Martin E. (2004). Fundamentalisms Comprehended (The Fundamentalism Project) (Paperback). University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-50888-7.
  6. ↑ Marty & others, Martin E. (2004). Fundamentalisms Comprehended (The Fundamentalism Project) (Paperback). University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-50888-7.
  7. ↑ Marty & others, Martin E. (2004). Fundamentalisms Comprehended (The Fundamentalism Project) (Paperback). University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-50888-7.
  8. ↑ "Study of textbooks evokes concern". The Times of India. 3 May 2005. Retrieved 2009-06-21.


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