Award for historian Babasaheb Purandare

May 02, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 05:34 am IST - PUNE:

Historian Babasaheb Purandare was one of the key leaders of the Shiv Sena in the 1970s.

Historian Babasaheb Purandare was one of the key leaders of the Shiv Sena in the 1970s.

The BJP-Sena government has decided to confer the Maharashtra Bhushan on the right-wing historian, Babasaheb Purandare, whose major works have contributed much to the cult of King Shivaji.

A committee, headed by Cultural Affairs Minister Vinod Tawde, chose Mr. Purandare for the award, which was instituted when the BJP-Shiv Sena coalition first came to power in 1995. Chief Minister Fadnavis endorsed the decision. The award carries a cash prize of Rs. 5 lakh, a citation and a memento.

Mr. Purandare, 92, is known as Shiv Sahir (Shivaji’s poet) because of his bestselling narrative Raja Shiva Chatrapati and Janata Raja, a much-performed play, replete with medieval Indian pageantry that recreates the 17th century atmosphere in Maharashtra through incidents in Shivaji’s life.

Mr. Purandare was one of the key leaders of the Bal Thackeray-led Shiv Sena in the 1970s when the party was gaining ground in Mumbai, crushing the left-wing trade union movement.

His nationalistic vision of Shivaji and the Marathas, as embodied in his recreation of the king’s life and times, is at odds with the more realistic assessment of Shivaji’s importance in Indian history and society by great historians like Sir Jadunath Sarkar (in his 1919 masterpiece Shivaji and his times ) and left-liberals in Maharashtra like Govind Pansare (in his bestselling pamphlet Who was Shivaji? ).

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.