CM Saini pays tribute to Rashtrakavi Maithili Sharan Gupt on birth anniversary
Synopsis
Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini paid tribute to Rashtrakavi Maithili Sharan Gupt on his birth anniversary on 3 August 2026, honouring the Padma Bhushan poet whose works like Bharat Bharati blended cultural pride with nationalist sentiment and continue to inspire generations.
Key Takeaways
Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini posted a tribute to Maithili Sharan Gupt on his birth anniversary, 3 August 2026 .
Maithili Sharan Gupt (1886–1964) was awarded the title Rashtrakavi (National Poet) by Mahatma Gandhi .
He received the Padma Bhushan in 1954 , one of India's highest civilian honours.
His landmark work Bharat Bharati ( 1912 ) became a defining text of the Hindi nationalist literary movement.
Saini described Gupt's literature as 'the soul of Indian culture' and an expression of duty, national service, and self-respect.
A voice that gave independent India its literary conscience turns 140 this year — and Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini marked the occasion on Monday, 3 August 2026, with a tribute to Padma Bhushan-awarded poet Maithili Sharan Gupt, saluting him as the soul of Indian culture.
Saini wrote, 'हिंदी साहित्य के गौरव... कोटि-कोटि नमन' — 'the pride of Hindi literature... a million salutations' — calling Gupt's works a living expression of national consciousness, duty, and self-respect that 'remains as relevant and inspiring today as ever.'
Who was Maithili Sharan Gupt — and why the title 'Rashtrakavi'?
Born on 3 August 1886 in Chirgaon, Uttar Pradesh, Maithili Sharan Gupt became the defining voice of Hindi poetry in the pre-independence era. His landmark work Bharat Bharati (1912) was a searing meditation on India's past glory and colonial present — it electrified the nationalist movement and earned him the honorific Rashtrakavi, or National Poet. Mahatma Gandhi himself conferred the title, recognising how Gupt's verse mobilised ordinary Indians through the language they lived in. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1954 and passed away in 1964, leaving behind a body of work that spans epics, lyric poetry, and dramatic verse.A literary legacy rooted in duty and cultural pride
Gupt's poetry drew heavily from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and Buddhist traditions — but always refracted through a modern, nationalist lens. Works like Saket and Yashodhara reimagined marginalised voices from epic narratives, giving women and forgotten characters a moral centre. That combination — ancient cultural roots, contemporary relevance, a call to duty — is precisely why his verse remains a touchstone for political leaders invoking cultural nationalism. Saini's tribute follows a well-established pattern among Indian leaders across parties: marking the birth anniversaries of pre-independence literary figures to reinforce a continuum between cultural heritage and modern national identity. For a Hindi-speaking state like Haryana, the resonance is particularly direct. Gupt's words asked every Indian what they had given back to the nation. That question, 114 years after Bharat Bharati was written, still does not have a comfortable answer — and that is exactly why he endures.Point of View
National service, and self-pride, Saini reinforces the BJP's broader cultural-nationalist framing, connecting modern governance to a Hindi literary tradition that predates the party itself. For Haryana, a predominantly Hindi-speaking state, honouring Gupt also carries a quiet assertion of linguistic and cultural identity. The move is low-risk, high-resonance — and entirely consistent with how ruling parties across India use literary anniversaries as soft-power moments.
NationPress
3 Aug 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Maithili Sharan Gupt?
Maithili Sharan Gupt (1886–1964) was a pioneering Hindi poet from Chirgaon, Uttar Pradesh , awarded the title Rashtrakavi (National Poet) by Mahatma Gandhi. He received the Padma Bhushan in 1954 and is best known for Bharat Bharati , a nationalist epic that galvanised the independence movement.
Why is Maithili Sharan Gupt called Rashtrakavi?
The title Rashtrakavi , meaning National Poet, was conferred on Maithili Sharan Gupt by Mahatma Gandhi in recognition of how his Hindi verse — particularly Bharat Bharati — stirred national consciousness and reached ordinary Indians in their own language during the freedom struggle.
What is Bharat Bharati?
Bharat Bharati ( 1912 ) is Maithili Sharan Gupt's most celebrated work — a long poem that reflects on India's ancient glory, the pain of colonial subjugation, and a call for national regeneration. It became one of the most widely read Hindi texts of the nationalist era.
Why did Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini pay tribute to Maithili Sharan Gupt?
Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini posted the tribute on 3 August 2026 to mark the birth anniversary of Maithili Sharan Gupt , honouring his contribution to Hindi literature and his enduring message of duty, national service, and cultural pride.
When was Maithili Sharan Gupt born and when did he die?
Maithili Sharan Gupt was born on 3 August 1886 in Chirgaon, Jhansi district, Uttar Pradesh , and passed away on 12 December 1964 .
