V.K. Gokak | Photo Credit: file photo
The contribution of writers, activists, and religious leaders hailing from north Karnataka was recalled at the Kannada Sahitya Sammelana here on Saturday.
In a session on some unforgettable personalities who contributed to Kannada, Sridhar Hegde Bhadran, writer, spoke about the life and contribution of Vinayak Krishna Gokak, the author of the oft-quoted Gokak committee report.
“Hailing from Savanur in Haveri district, Prof. Gokak went on to be an Oxford educated scholar of English language and headed universities as the Vice-Chancellor in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Himachal Pradesh. He was a linguist, writer, poet, critic, teacher, and administrator. But Karnataka remains indebted to him for his path-breaking report that mandated mother tongue as a medium of instruction at the elementary level,’’ Mr. Bhadran said.
A polyglot, he wrote in English and Kannada . He was also well versed in Sanskrit and Marathi. He headed national institutions such as the Central Institute of English, Hyderabad; Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla; Kendra Sahitya Akademi, and the Jnanpith award selection committee.
In his report, he pushed forth the idea of educating primary school students in their mother tongue. The delay in its implementation led to a State-level agitation led by Dr. Rajkumar and activists like Patil Puttappa and others. It was nothing less than a milestone in the history of Karnataka, Mr Bhadran said. He also introduced Prof. Gokak’s literary works like Dvaya Prithivi , Bharata Sindhu Rashmi, Samarasave Jeevana and various travelogues.
Surekha Dattatreya, writer, spoke of the contribution of Venkatesh Tirko Kulkarni, known by his pen name Galaganatha.
He lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He edited Sadbodha Chandrike, one of the earliest spiritual magazines in Kannada, which had 8,000 subscribers.
He was among the most popular novelists of his time. His 60 novels have sold over 12 lakh copies over a century. This was during the times when printing technology was primitive and Kannadigas were not reading much, she recalled. However, he lived in penury as profit was never his motive and he kept saying he was doing it to promote the reading habit among kannada speakers, she said.
He was among the breed of nationalist writers who inspired the youth to join the freedom struggle. His most popular novels like Kamala Kumari and other Kumudini saw several reprints and editions. He introduced the concept of distributing novels for free to subscribers of magazines. The novel Prabuddha Padmanayini was one of them, she said. His Madhava Karuna Vilasa was considered an epic that was read by those with a spiritual bent of mind.
Apart from being a publisher and printer, he was also a spirited salesman of books. He carried books on his back and sold them around villages and towns, knocking on the doors and asking people to read books. His contribution to Kannada literature cannot be easily forgotten, Ms. Dattatreya said.
