Acharya Kalelkar
Encyclopedia
Dattatreya Balkrushna Kalelkar (Devanagari
Devanagari
Devanagari |deva]]" and "nāgarī" ), also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal...

: दत्तात्रेय बाळकृष्ण कालेलकर) (1885–1981), popularly known as Kaka Kalelkar, was a Gandhian India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n patriot. He was a social reformer, scholar of Indian culture, historian, educationist, and journalist.

Kalelkar was born in Belgundi Village, Taluka and District Belgaum, Karnataka near Sawantwadi in Maharashtra. He had his college education at Fergusson College
Fergusson College
Fergusson College is a degree college in western India, situated in the city of Pune. It was founded in 1885 by the Deccan Education Society and at that time was the first privately governed college in India. It is named after Sir James Fergusson, the Governor of Bombay, who donated a then...

 in Pune
Pune
Pune , is the eighth largest metropolis in India, the second largest in the state of Maharashtra after Mumbai, and the largest city in the Western Ghats. Once the centre of power of the Maratha Empire, it is situated 560 metres above sea level on the Deccan plateau at the confluence of the Mula ...

.

After his college education, he worked for a while on the editorial staff of a nationalistic Marathi daily named Rashtramat (राष्ट्रमत), and then as a teacher at a school named Gangadhar Vidyalay in Baroda. Within a few years, the ruling British government forcibly closed down the school because of its nationalistic spirit.

After a few years, Kalelkar became a member of Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...

's Sabarmati Ashram
Sabarmati Ashram
Sabarmati Ashram is located in the Ahmedabad suburb of Sabarmati adjoining to famous Ashram Road, at the bank of River Sabarmati, 4 miles from the town hall. This was one of the residences of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi...

 in Gujarat. For some time, he served as the editor of Sarwodaya (सर्वोदय) periodical which was run from the premises of the Ashram. With Gandhi's encouragement, he played an active role in establishing Gujarat Vidyapith
Gujarat Vidyapith
The Gujarat Vidyapith is a major university located in Ahmedabad, in the state of Gujarat in India. It was founded in 1920 by Mohandas Gandhi, the leader of the Indian independence movement...

 at Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad also known as Karnavati is the largest city in Gujarat, India. It is the former capital of Gujarat and is also the judicial capital of Gujarat as the Gujarat High Court has its seat in Ahmedabad...

, and served as its vice-chancellor for some years. Gujaratis lovingly called him સવઈ ગુજરાતી.(savai gujrati) meaning 1.25 gujrati

Kalelkar also worked very actively in the Hindustani Prachar Sabha (हिंदुस्तानी प्रचार सभा) institution whose object was to popularize Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...

/Hindustani
Hindustani language
Hindi-Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language and the lingua franca of North India and Pakistan. It is also known as Hindustani , and historically, as Hindavi or Rekhta...

 language as the national language of India, which would then serve to bind Indians closer.

For various nationalistic causes such as popularizing Hindi/Hindustani as the national language, Kalelkar traveled extensively throughout India, covering thousands of miles, notably mostly on foot. He then went on writing remarkable, voluminous travelogues in Gujarati
Gujarati language
Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language, and part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is derived from a language called Old Gujarati which is the ancestor language of the modern Gujarati and Rajasthani languages...

, Marathi
Marathi language
Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...

, and Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...

.

Kalelkar was a member of Indian Rajya Sabha
Rajya Sabha
The Rajya Sabha or Council of States is the upper house of the Parliament of India. Rajya means "state," and Sabha means "assembly hall" in Sanskrit. Membership is limited to 250 members, 12 of whom are chosen by the President of India for their expertise in specific fields of art, literature,...

 for twelve years after India's independence.

Backwards Classes Commission

In 1953, six years after India got its independence from the British Raj, the central government established a Backwards Classes Commission under Kalelkar's chairmanship with the charter to recommend reforms for removing inequities for underprivileged people. The Commission issued its report in 1955, recommending, among other things, that the government grant special privileges to untouchables
Dalit
Dalit is a designation for a group of people traditionally regarded as Untouchable. Dalits are a mixed population, consisting of numerous castes from all over South Asia; they speak a variety of languages and practice a multitude of religions...

and other underprivileged people.

While forwarding the above report to the central government, Kalelkar attached a letter, recording his strong disagreement with the Commission's fundamental conclusions. He wrote that the suggested remedies were worse than the evils they sought to combat. He wrote that the whole line of investigation pursued by the Commission was “repugnant to the spirit of democracy since in democracy it is the individual, not the family or the caste, which is the unit." He recommended that the state regard as backward and entitled to special educational and economic aid all persons whose total annual family income was less than 800 rupees [at that time] regardless of their caste or community. He stated his disagreement with the Commission's recommendation of reserving posts in government services for the backward classes.

Writings

The following is a partial list of Kalelkar's books:
  • Quintessence of Gandhian Thought (English)
  • Profiles in Inspiration (English)
  • Stray Glimpses of Bapu (English)
  • Mahatma Gandhi's Gospel of Swadeshi (English)
  • Mahatma Gandhi Ka Swadeshi Dharma (Hindi)
  • Rashtriya Shiksha Ka Adarsha (Hindi)
  • Smaran Yatra (Marathi)
  • Uttarekadil Bhinti (Marathi) (also translated into English as Even behind the Bars)
  • Hindalgyacha Prasad (Marathi)
  • Lok-Mata (Marathi)
  • Latanche Tandav (Marathi)
  • Himalayatil Pravas (Marathi)
  • Himalayano Pravas (Gujarati)
  • Jeevan-Vyavastha (Gujarati)
  • Purva Africaman (Gujarati)
  • Jivavano Anand (Gujarati)
  • Jivata Tehvaro (Gujarati)
  • Mara Sansmarano (Gujarati)
  • Ugamano Desh (Gujarati)
  • Otterati Divaro (Gujarati) (also translated into English as Even behind the Bars)
  • Brahmadeshano Pravas (Gujarati)
  • Rakhadvano Anand (Gujarati)
  • Multi-Part Kaka Kalelkar Granthawali
    • Part 5: Atmacharitra
    • Part 6: Charitra Kirtan
    • Part 7: Geeta darshan
    • Part 8: Dharma
    • Part 9: Sahitya
    • Part 10: Diary
    • Part 11: Patra

Gandhi charitra Kirtana (Hindi)

Honors

Kalelkar received a Sahitya Akademi Award
Sahitya Akademi Award
Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honor in India which Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of outstanding works in one of the following twenty-four major Indian languagesAssamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri,...

 in 1965 for his Jeevan-Vyavastha collection of essays in Gujarati. He was honored with Sahitya Akademi Fellowship
Sahitya Akademi Fellowship
The Sahitya Akademi Fellowship is a literary honour in India. Awarded by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, to the "immortals of literature," and limited to twenty one individuals at any given time, it is the highest literary honour conferred by the Government of India...

 in 1971 for his literary achievements.

The Government of India conferred on him Padma Vibhushan
Padma Vibhushan
The Padma Vibhushan is the second highest civilian award in the Republic of India. It consists of a medal and a citation and is awarded by the President of India. It was established on 2 January 1954. It ranks behind the Bharat Ratna and comes before the Padma Bhushan...

(India's second-highest Civilian Award after the Bharat Ratna) title in 1964. In that year - 1964 - it was the highest award as the Bharat Ratna was not awarded in that year; the Padma Vibhushan was awarded to litterettauers Kaka Kalelkar and Kanhaiyalal Munshi). It also issued a commemorative stamp in his honor in 1985.
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