Up from Peasantry to Wizardry

Prof Dr Anand Patil

The Government of Maharashtra’s Academy of Literature and Culture has recently published an ambitious trilogy of Marathi works on cultural theory and criticism — a project entrusted to one of India’s senior comparatists, the former Head and Professor of English at Goa University, Prof Dr Anand Patil. Despite spending two decades in Goa, where much of his experimental work in Marathi and English went largely unnoticed in Maharashtra, his contribution is formidable: 10 books in English and 52 in Marathi. The editor of The Cambridge Companion to Comparative Literature, World Literature and Culture (2011) had also invited him to contribute to that prestigious volume.

For a man who began his education in a village primary school conducted in a temple near the Masai Plateau, the journey is extraordinary. Born into an illiterate, marginal farming family in Shittur, Kolhapur district, he remained unaware of his own genealogy well into his seventies. It was this search for ancestry — and the surprise it revealed — that nudged him towards writing the bestseller Maharashtrala Mahit Nasalele Samrat Shivaji? (Emperor Shivaji Unknown to Maharashtra, 2017).

His paternal lineage indicates that his ancestral surname was Sankpal, and that land had once been granted to his forefather by Jijabai, who was killed in the Battle of Ghodkhind. His maternal genealogy proved even more startling: the neighbouring village of Save was founded by the Mahadik family of Tarale in Satara, and the only Lad Patil household there is identified as Mahadik — hinting at a link to the clan of Shivaji Maharaj’s son-in-law. This discovery led him to study Modi script and publish life narratives of Shahaji, Shivaji and Jijabai, dedicating these works to the men and women of both families who carry the legacy of the Bhosale rebels.

A committee of intellectuals at Shivaji University will release these volumes and felicitate him on Thursday in Kolhapur.

Spanning 2,100 pages, the titles themselves suggest both range and rigour: 1. Cultural Analysis — Society, Culture and Literature; 2. Cultural Theories Across the World; 3. Cultural Studies — Old and New. The 60-page introduction and exhaustive bibliography testify to his extensive reading and multidisciplinary approach. He has acknowledged the early encouragement of his former Head, Dr S. K. Kulkarni — an immigrant from Karnataka — who urged him to teach creative writing and comparative literature. This support helped him secure the state government’s approval for this large-scale project. His book on creative writing earned him his fourth state literary award, and several of his works — translated into Hindi, Kannada and English — are taught in more than 100 universities across India.

Rural writing

Yet his creative journey in Marathi began in Kolhapur, when Prof Dr Anand Patil joined Rajarshi Shahu College as a lecturer. His early rural stories and radio plays drew praise from renowned writer Shankar Patil, who described him as “a rising sun of rural writing”. Patil would later remark wryly that “Maharashtra turned that sun lukewarm”, but his subsequent years in Goa — and six international tours — broadened his perspective, enriching his literary output in both languages.

A student of Shivaji College, Satara, he was shaped by its Earn and learn scheme, and Shivaji University once showcased his autobiography-like résumé at a NAAC evaluation. The upcoming felicitation in Kolhapur will be attended by noted scholar Padma Shri Ganesh Devi from Dharwad and Dr Deepak Pawar of Mumbai University.

Prof Anand Patil's contribution to literature is vast: three novels, six short-story collections, three travelogues, a play, four translations, four radio plays, character sketches, 25 forewords and 18 collections of essays in comparative and cultural studies. His doctoral thesis, Western Influence on Marathi Drama (1818–1947), remains a pioneering comparative study and is lauded in Aparna Dharwadker’s Indian Drama (Cambridge University Press). The Marathi translation of this thesis won him an MS University, Pune award.

His career began as a tutor in English; he later secured a merit scholarship for his M.A. and ranked second in English at Shivaji University. His years of service in colleges under the Rayat Shikshan Sanstha brought him recognition. His travelogue Patalachi Londonwari and its one-man stage adaptation remain popular. His novels have fetched awards, and he has received a total of 20 honours, including four from the Maharashtra government. A UGC-sponsored national seminar was organised on his work in Goa, and three critical books have since been published on his writings.

(The writer is a senior journalist based in Kolhapur. Views personal.)