Narayan Sitaram Phadke

Narayan Sitaram Phadke (1894-1978), was a Marathi writer from Maharashtra, India.

Early Life and Family

An MA from Bombay (Mumbai) University, 'Na si', as he was popularly known, was married to Kamala Phadke, a prolific writer in her own right. They had three children: Rohini, Anjali and Vijay. Kamala Phadke, who earlier was his student, was his second wife. The separation from the first wife and his second marriage scandalized him; this, however, left him unfazed.

After separation from his first wife with whom he had had four children, he continued to support her and his first family. A daughter of Phadke from the first marriage later wrote about the silent but terrible suffering of his first wife who being relatively uneducated could not articulate herself and having been brought up in conservative value system chose to suffer in silence.

Career

He worked from 1919 to 1920 as an assistant editor of the Maratha newspaper. He was a professor of Philosophy and Psychology at Rajaram College in Kolhapur during 1926 and 1951. For many years in that period, he also edited Ratnakar, Zhankar, and Anjali magazines. After his retirement, he settled in the city of Pune in Maharashtra, continuing to write.

He wrote about 150 books, including 74 novels, 27 collections of his short stories, 22 Reviews, 7 Plays[1], and autobiographical Maje Jeevan: Ek Kadambari.This autobiographical work came in for severe criticism by those who had known Phadke intimately as they felt that at many places he had twisted or altered the facts to suit his own image. Allaha Ho Akbar was Phadke's first novel.

For many years he also publicly feuded with another well known Marathi author Acharya Pralhad Keshav Atre. Phadke served as the chairman of Marathi Sahitya Sammelan held in Ratnagiri in 1940. The Indian government awarded him a Padmabhushan title in 1962 for his literary accomplishments.[2]

Advocate of Birth Control and Eugenics

In his early years in the 1920s, Phadke strongly advocated Birth control and Eugenics to control population in India. Being a follower of Gandhi, he argued that eugenics was an Indian concept rather than a European import. He, however, got Margaret Sanger, the American birth control advocate to write the forward for his book [3].

A partial list of books

Novels:

  • Kalankshobha
  • Allaha Ho Akbar
  • Daulat
  • Jadugar
  • Uddhar
  • Akherache Band
  • Pravasi
  • Shonan
  • Asman
  • Toofan
  • Majha Dhram
  • Indradhanushya
  • Sarita Sagar
  • hak
  • Atakepaar
  • Ved Vaare
  • Zanzavat
  • Jeddamal
  • Uujadle pn surya kothe aahe?

References

  1. ↑ Natarajan, Nalini (Editor) (1996). Handbook of twentieth century literatures of India (1. publ. ed.). Westport, Conn, USA: Greenwood Press. pp. 221–223, 246. ISBN 9780313287787.
  2. ↑ "Padma Awards" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2015. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
  3. ↑ Ahluwalia, Sanjam (2008). Reproductive restraints : birth control in India, 1877-1947. Ranikhet: Permanent Black. pp. 33–34. ISBN 9788178242293.
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