Ravindra Kelekar

Ravindra Kelekar (7 March 1925 – 27 August 2010) was a noted Indian author who wrote primarily in the Konkani language, though he also wrote in Marathi and Hindi.

A Gandhian activist, freedom fighter and a pioneer in the modern Konkani movement, he was a well known Konkani scholar, linguist, and creative thinker.

Kelekar was a participant in the Indian freedom movement, Goa's liberation movement, and later the campaign against the merger of the newly formed Goa with Maharashtra.

He played a key role in the founding of the Konkani Bhasha Mandal, which lead the literary campaign for the recognition of Konkani as a full-fledged language, and its reinstatement as the state language of Goa.

He authored nearly 100 books in the Konkani language, including Amchi Bhas Konkaneech, Shalent Konkani Kityak, Bahu-bhashik Bharatant Bhashenche Samajshastra and Himalayant, and also edited Jaag magazine for more than two decades.

Kelekar was born on 7 March 1925, in the city of Cuncolim in South Goa.

His father, Dr Rajaram Kelekar, was a physician who later became renowned for his Portuguese translation of the Bhagwad Gita.

While still a student at the Lyceum High School in Panaji, Kelekar joined the Goa liberation movement in 1946.

This brought him in close contact with several local and national leaders, including Ram Manohar Lohia, under whose influence he was able to recognise the power of language to mobilise the local populace.

Later, he saw the potential in his native Konkani language, which became his lifelong work.

Already deeply influenced by Gandhian philosophy, in 1949 Kelekar left his native Goa for Wardha, to be with noted Gandhian and writer Kakasaheb Kalelkar.

Kelekar stayed under Kalelkar's tutelage until 1955, when he was appointed librarian of the Gandhi Memorial Museum in New Delhi.

This turned out to be short-lived, as only a year later he plunged back into the Goa freedom movement.

With a mission to reconnect the Goan diaspora all over the world, he started the weekly, Gomant Bharati (1956–60),

published in the Latin script in Bombay.

Soon after, being an active participant in Goa's struggle for freedom, he was imprisoned by the Portuguese.

He was released when the Indian Army invaded and annexed Goa in 1961.

During this period, he wrote some of his most important works promoting the Konkani language, including Aamchi Bhas Konkanich (1962), a dialogue revealing the importance of Konkani to the common man on the street; Shallent Konkani Kityaak (1962), highlighting the significance of having Konkani medium schools in Goa; and A Bibliography of Konkani Literature in Devanagari, Roman and Kannada characters (1963).

He joined the socio-political campaign against the merger of Goa into the neighbouring Maharashtra state, which ended after the plebiscite of 1967 (the Goa Opinion Poll), with Goa retaining its separate identity as a union territory.

On 26 February 1975, the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, recognised Konkani as an independent language.

the Sahitya Akademi Award (1977),

The first Sahitya Akademi Award for a work in Konkani was won by Kelekar for his travelogue, Himalayant, in 1977.

Goa retained this status until 1987, when it was declared a state.

After Goa's independence, Kelekar took to literary activism, getting his native tongue, Konkani, recognized as a distinct language (rather than a dialect of Marathi).

He was compared favourably with pioneers in the Konkani literary movement, such as Shenoi Goembab.

In February 1987, the Goa Legislative Assembly had passed the Official Language Bill making Konkani the Official Language of Goa.

The Akademi's first Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize in Konkani also went to Kelekar in 1990 for Ami Taankan Manshant Haadle, a Konkani translation of a collection of essays in Gujarati, Mansaeena Diva, by Jhaverchand Meghani.

The struggle ended in 1992, when Konkani was included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution as an official language.

With life's mission completed, Kelkar retired from public life, focusing mainly of his writing.

He also received the 2006 Jnanpith Award, the first ever awarded to an author writing in the Konkani language,

He received the 2006 Jnanpith Award, which was the first given to a Konkani-language writer.

and the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship (2007)—the highest award of the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters.

The pinnacle of his career came with the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship for lifetime achievement in 2007.

A lifelong proponent of regional languages, in his acceptance speech for the Jnanpith award, he said, "People have stopped reading books in regional languages. On the other hand, through English, we have created Bonsai intellectuals, Bonsai writers and Bonsai readers."

Kelekar received the Padma Bhushan (2008),

the Gomant Sharada Award of Kala Academy,

Kelekar died at Apollo Hospital at Margao, Goa at around 11.30 am on Friday, 27 August 2010.

He was 85.

His remains were cremated with State honours at his native village of Priol.

which was presented in July 2010.