Hungryalists and the Beatniks: Malay Roychoudhury Interviewed Part-2

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The Beats were 'Orientalists' whereas the Hungries were not 'Occidentalists'

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The Beats were, what Edward Said called 'Orientalists'. This may be proved from the photographs of the paupers, lepers, half naked sadhus, lame men in Allen Ginsberg's 'India Journals'. Allen Ginsberg was interested in such photographs only which he sold to Western readers through his book. He met all sorts of Hindu sadhus in India and ultimately adopted Buddhism, changing the sect twice. Same is the case with other Beats who got interested in Buddhism.  One may wonder how come there were always photographers and reporters to display Allen Ginsberg's 'Orientalism' to the Western Press.  When the reporters arrived at his Benares room he took them for photo opportunities. His Blake vision disappeared thereafter. The Hungries, almost all of them, though born in orthodox Hindu families, turned out to be atheists.                                             ...
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Obscenity charges : Lawrence Ferlinghetti was supported by reputed authors. Malay Roychoudhury was not.

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When City Lights published Allen Ginsberg's HOWL, Lawrence Ferlinghetti was implicated in Obscenity case. In support of him writers and critics came forward and as a result therefore, the charges were dismissed and HOWL became a much read poem. It may be noted that writers and poets did not complain against HOWL. But there is a difference between Lawrence Ferlinghetti's ordeal and Malay Roychoudhury's Obscenity trial case. Academicians, writers, newspaper barons had complained against Malay Roychoudhury's poem to the Calcutta Police as a result of which Malay Roychoudhury was arrested. While arresting Malay Roychoudhury, He was hand cuffed and a rope was tied around his waist and he was forced to walk the streets in that condition with seven murderers, dacoits and pick pockets.  Malay was sentenced for a month for writing the poem by Calcutta Court. This is a great difference between Beat Generation and Hungry Generation.               ...
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Beats visited other countries but Hungries had no money to go out of India

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Most of the Beat writers and poets such as Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Lawrence Ferlinghetti visited other countries with the money they got from the sale of their books. They not only visited but stayed in foreign countries for a pretty long time.  None of the Hungries, except for Malay Roychoudhury and Pradip Choudhuri visited other countries. Malay Roychoudhury  got funds from his daughter and son to enable him to visit other countries. Pradip Choudhuri was invited by his French poet friends who funded his stay and journey.  Debi Roy ( Haradhan Dhara ) visited only Dhaka for a few days on invitation. Some of the Hungries did not get a chance to go out of West Bengal. The critics overlook this aspect when comparing the two literary and social movements.                                                      ...
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