India’s Hungryalist Movement

The demise of Malay Roychoudhury (1939-2023) takes us back to the Hungry Generation, a literary movement founded by Shakti Chattopadhyay, Malay Roy Choudhury, Samir Roychoudhury and Debi Roy in the 1960s in Kolkata, India. Threatening the established mode of expression, it brought with it a new idiom. 

Malay, one of the co-founders of the movement came up with the first anthology in 1964. The Hungryalists were different in creating the language of the subaltern. Gathering like- minded voices they challenged the mainstream genres mainly the colonial canons. Serving Chaucer to the poor of newly independent India, they found the colonial canon far removed from the voice of then India.

 In November, 1961, the movement was officially launched at Malay’s residence as well as his brother Samir’s in Patna. They borrowed the word ‘ Hungry’ from Chaucer’s line ‘ In Sowre Hungry Tyme’ and drew inspiration from Oswald Spengler’s ideas on non-centrality. The movement spanned from 1961-1965. Though some suggest that the Hungryalists were influenced by the Beat Generation, but Ginsberg did not visit Malay until 1963. 

One of the tenets that shaped the movement was Gandhianism and the other was Proudhonism. Seeking truth peppered with anarchy was met with arrests and trials. Malay was deeply influenced by the Imlitala ghetto and sought life among the downtrodden, Chhotolok. In creating the language of the subalterns, they challenged the authorities for their double-standards. Creating controversies, his 1963 poem ‘ Prachanda Baidyutik Chhutar’ ( Stark Electric Jesus) as well his first anthology in March 1964 kickstarted string of arrests. 

The Movement was beaten out of shape by 1965 but the translations of Hungryalist texts appeared in periodicals around the world- Mexico, UK, France, Germany and the US. Malay won and declined the Sahitya Academic Award for translating Dharamvir Bharati’s ‘Suraj Ka Satwan Ghora’ into Bengali. He also introduced post-modernist style in his writing. 

While we lament his loss, Malay’s impact and influence continues to define and redefine literature.