Pawan Karan (June 18, 1964) is an Indian poet, columnist, editor, social and political analyst and “one of the major poets of early 21st century”.He is highly regarded for his realistic depiction of women's life in Indian society. Apart that his poems written against subjects like imperialism, capitalism, religion fanatics, social beliefs of caste based society and orthodox customs are highly appreciated as well, because of them he constantly becomes a target of religious fanatics, orthodox social view and politics and long-established norms of Indian society.
Major works
Pawan Karan's writing career started around 1980, when his poem is published in a local newspaper. This started a fire in him about poetry, after that, he began writing poetry, thinking about poetry, and eventually living in poetry but his poems took 10 long years to be approved by the Indian poet society. His poems started publishing in the leading newspapers and magazines around 1992. Critics and readers started reading his poems seriously. Karan doesn't have a political understanding at the time, so 1992 introduced him to emergent writing and progressive movement. After that major publication houses of India i.e. 'Raj Kamal Prakashan' and 'Vani Prakashan' published his books and Karan is in their author profiles as a visionary poet.
Born in the Heart of India, Karan worked as government employee, editor (literature) in the leading Indian newspapers ‘Nav bharat’ and ‘Nai Duniya’ and wrote a column “Shabd Prasang” in ‘Nai Duniya’ and a regular columnist in "Khabar HarPal". Many of his poems have been translated in various languages like English, Russian, Nepali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Oriya, Gujarati, Assamese, Bengali, and Urdu.
Karan gradually moved away from the religious and social beliefs of his contemporaries, formulating and expressing the philosophy of feminism in his ground breaking work “Stree Mere Bheetar” in 2004.There are very few writers in India, who wrote on the situation of women's in Indian Society. How Indian women's are suffering in the society, by the hands of Men. Condition of women is desolate and distraught, just living under the shadow of man. Karan's poetry shows not only the plight of Indian women but of the women in Asia and Africa (the third world) as well. His poetry successfully tells us about the half world (aka second sex) is not independent anywhere. They are bound by law not of government but of men. Poems written on women's by Karan can indisputably become a part of World women's poetry. Karan is very well respected among the intellectual, and his work has greatly influenced the thinkers, writers and poets of his generation.
Iss Tarah Main
Pawan Karan's first poetry volume was published in the year 2000, which was appreciated by readers and critics as well. Leading poems in this volume mainly based on family, love, nature and objects, incidents, episodes and visuals. Many poems of this volume made permanent vicinity in readers mind like Bharosa (Trust), Pita ka Makan (Father's House), Tapedik (Tuberculosis), Dollor, Gullak (Cash Box), Budhi Beriya (Old Berries), Dehari (Threshold), Aamrud (Guava), Shangrahalay (Museum), Louis Braille. From these Bharosa (Trust) has been published in wedding cards and posters on a regular basis. This volume awarded “Raza Samman” from ‘Madhya Pradesh Art Association’ which is given in the memory of world-famous painter "S. H. Raza" and “Ram Vilas Sharma Samman” from ‘Madhya Pradesh Sahitya Academy’.
Stree Mere Bheetar
Pawan Karan’s second poetry volume “Stree Mere Bheetar” (aka Woman inside Me),published in 2004. This volume stunned critics and readers instead of, poems in this volume based on women’s subject already published in various newspapers and magazines before coming out as a whole, and readers were quite amazed by the poems and astounded by the volume. His poetry becomes a topic for debate between readers and reviewers. Some notable critics were already said in their speeches and wrote about the poems before this volume even published. When all the poems come as a book in front of readers, they all accepted it prominently.