Kusumagraj -- Not just an armchair intellectual

Kusumagraj -- Not just an armchair intellectual

EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

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NASHIK March 10: Reknowned Marathi poet and playwright, Vishnu Waman Shirwadkar, alias Kusumagraj, was not just an armchair intellectual but was closely associated with the fabric of society which often formed the weave and spun of his literary works. He began his literary career as a poet and penned 16 volumes which, apart from being pure observations of a sensitive soul, are also socially relevant.

Kusumagraj took an active part in the satyagraha launched by Dr Ambedkar for letting the dalits enter the Kalaram Temple in Nashik in 1932. He was also associated with Samyukta Maharashtra movement.

Even while he was creating literary masterpieces, he influenced generations of Maharashtrians with his poetry. His poem Garja Jai Jaikar Kranticha Garja Jai Jaikar had fired up the youth during the pre-independence period, motivating them to take part in the freedom struggle. He was progressive in his outlook, committed to eliminating illiteracy, blind faith and communal bias and set up the Lokhitwdi Mandalto combat evils in society.

During his early career, he emerged as a litterateur committed not only to motivate people to fight foreign rule, but also as a committed individual himself.

His Vishakha (1942), Jeevanlahari (1933), Kinara (1952) are considered to be some of the finest examples of Marathi poetry.

As a playwright, Kusumagraj was greatly influenced by Shakespeare and was attracted to the universal appeal of his plays. He wrote Rajmukut (based on Macbeth), Othello (based on Othello), and his best known and commercially successful play was Natasamrat (based on King Lear). He also wrote a volume of essays on the Bard .

Throughout his life, Kusumagraj continued to express concern over the treatment meted out to the Marathi language by Marathi-speaking people. During the 50s, Kusumagraj was a part of the Akhil Bharatiya English Hatao Sammelan held under the chairmanship of noted litterateur Gajanan Trimbak Madkholkar.

In his speech while accepting thecoveted Jnanpith Award in Mumbai on March 11, 1989 (Jnanpith Award for 1987), Kusumagraj expressed concern over the tendency of Marathi speaking people to prefer English and ignore Marathi.

In the same year, as the president of the World Marathi Conference, he spoke the now famous words: ``Marathi language covered with glittering clothes is standing in front of Mantralaya with a begging bowl in her hand,'' highlighting the lethargy of the Government of Maharashtra, which had failed to take steps to protect and promote the language.

During his lifetime, he strived hard for conserving the language. In Nashik, he was the chairman of the Sarvajanik Vachanalaya from 1962 to 1972. He formed the Kusumagraj Prtisthan in 1990, which among other things confers Sahitya Bhushan award to those well versed in Marathi literature. The aim is to make Marathi speaking people read Marathi literature. The Pratisthan also runs a chain of libraries for children.

As a litterateur, he avoided being confined to any specificideology or `ism' and stayed away from groups which were influenced by a particular ideology.

His recent remarks that litterateurs should not seek government funds for hosting literary conferences, created a ruffle in literary circles. His statement had come close on the heels of the war or words between Sena Chief Bal Thackeray and the president of the Marathi literary conference Prof Vasant Bapat.