I joined Mangalore University in 1984, and Raghavendra Rao had joined the same university a few months earlier, as professor and chairman of the Political Science department. By virtue of his professorship, he was on the Syndicate also. Once, after a syndicate meeting, I asked him what the highlights were, and he said nonchalantly that he didn’t remember. Piqued, I retorted that I could keep confidences; he replied calmly that he really didn’t know what transpired as he was reading a fascinating work. Then he showed me a critical work on Marx that had just come out and added that I should read it. I didn’t know how to respond.
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Dr. K. Raghavendra Rao (1928-2018), an acclaimed academician- poet-translator, was born into a poor Brahmin family in Bellary. After his early education in and around Bellary, he joined the honours programme in English, in Madras Christian College, Chennai. After obtaining his degree (1948), he changed his field of interest and obtained the Master’s degree in Political Science from Madras University (1954). It was here that he developed a keen interest in Marxism which he nourished throughout his life. He taught political science in many Universities such as Guwahati University (1955- 1959), Karnatak University, Dharwad (1959-1983), and Mangalore University (1984-89 till his retirement. While he was in Dharwad, he came in contact with such illustrious scholars like Da. Ra. Bendre and Dr. A. B. Shah who greatly influenced him. He left for Canada in 1967 to join the Toronto University for his doctoral studies in Political Science. The topic he chose for research was ‘the Unification of Karnataka’ and he got the doctoral degree in 1975. After he retired from Mangalore University, he served there for two more years as Professor Emeritus. During his illustrious career, he received many awards including ‘Bendre National Award’ and ‘Carl Marx Award’, Fellowship of I.I. A.S., Simla, and Visiting Professorship, Mysore University. He was the President of Indian Academy of Social Sciences from 1993 to 96.
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Rao began writing poetry in English in the 1950s and got associated with P. Lal, who was then pioneering the kind of modernist poetry which sharply reacted against the Romantic tradition of Toro Dutt and Sarojini Naidu. Rao and Lal together brought out a collection of modernist poetry in English by Indian writers,
Since Rao belonged to the Modernist School, his poetry, shorn of poetic diction and metrical patterns, is characterized by sharp imagery, intellectual reflections, and a striking juxtaposition of the real and mystic elements. For instance, the poem “The Journey of Golgotha” deals with crucifixion of Christ and examines the concept of ‘innocence’ (of Christ and of children) throughout. It begins with these startling lines: “ Children are frightening, / complex beyond all adult illusions / paradoxical in their calculated innocence. ” The poem moves on with references to Herod’s massacre of children, Kamsa’s similar act through Putani, and the varied shades of ‘Judas betrayal.’
In a long poem called “The Road Taken,” the narrator describes his birth in these words: “
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Remembering him fondly, if I say, ‘May his soul rest in peace’, the incorrigible Marxist might protest from wherever he is.