Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, Indian poet, academic, and politician (d. 1974)
Ramdhari Singh (23 September 1908 – 24 April 1974), known by his nom de plume Dinkar, was an Indian Hindi-language poet, essayist, patriot and academic. He reemerged as a poet of rebellion as a consequence of his nationalist poetry written in the days before Indian independence. His poetry exuded veer rasa, and he has been hailed as a Rashtrakavi ('national poet') on account of his inspiring patriotic compositions. He was a regular poet of Hindi Kavi sammelan and is hailed to be as popular and connected to poetry lovers for Hindi speakers as Pushkin for Russians.One of the most notable modern Hindi poets, Dinkar was born in a poor family in Simaria village of Bengal Presidency, British India, now part of Begusarai district in Bihar state. The government had honoured him with the Padma Bhushan Award in the year 1959 and had also nominated him thrice to the Lok Sabha. Dinkar's poetry was greatly influenced by Rabindranath Tagore and Muhammad Iqbal. Similarly, his political thought was greatly shaped by both Mahatma Gandhi and Karl Marx. A poet of great gutso, he was extremely popular during his lifetime. His poetry exuded 'veer rasa' and had the ability to inspire any nationalist. Dinkar gained popularity in the pre-independence period through his eminent and notable nationalist poetryDinkar initially supported the revolutionary movement during the Indian independence struggle, but later became a Gandhian. However, he used to call himself a "Bad Gandhian" because he supported the feelings of indignation and revenge among the youth. In Kurukshetra, he accepted that war is destructive but argued that it is necessary for the protection of freedom. He was close to prominent nationalists of the time such as Rajendra Prasad, Anugrah Narayan Sinha, Sri Krishna Sinha, Rambriksh Benipuri and Braj Kishore Prasad.
Dinkar was elected three times to the Rajya Sabha, and he was the member of this house from 3 April 1952 to 26 January 1964, and was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1959. He was also the Vice-Chancellor of Bhagalpur University (Bhagalpur, Bihar) in the early 1960s.
During The Emergency, Jayaprakash Narayan had attracted a gathering of one lakh (100,000) people at the Ramlila grounds and recited Dinkar's famous poem: Singhasan Khaali Karo Ke Janata Aaati Hai ('Vacate the throne, for the people are coming').