Gujarati
Gujarati may refer to:
* something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India
* Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat
* Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them
* Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub ...
novelist and journalist from
Gujarat
Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...
, India. He was awarded the
Ranjitram Suvarna Chandrak
Ranjitram Suvarna Chandrak, also known as the Ranjitram Gold Medal, was founded by Gujarat Sahitya Sabha and is considered the highest literary award in Gujarati literature. The award is named after renowned Gujarati writer Ranjitram Mehta. It is ...
in 1937.
Biography
Shah was born in 1887 in
Wadhwan
Wadhwan, also spelled Vadhwan, is a city and a municipality in Surendranagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Located on the banks of the Bhogavo River, around 3 km from Surendranagar and 111 km from Ahmedabad, Wadhwan is a ...
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
. After passing his matriculation exams in 1903, he worked as a school teacher before becoming a journalist in ''Sanj Vartaman''. He subsequently worked for ''Rajasthan'' and ''Jainoday'' as sub-editor and editor, respectively. In 1909, he joined ''Prajabandhu'' and continued working there till it became defunct in 1953. Through his articles in ''Prajabandhu'', he gave a new direction to
Gujarati journalism
The Media in Gujarati language started with publication of ''Bombay Samachar'' in 1822. Initially the newspapers published business news and they were owned by Parsi people based in Bombay. Later Gujarati newspapers started published from other par ...
by providing more serious and thought provoking editorials.
Shah wrote book reviews under the pseudonym Sahityapriya in ''Prajabandhu''. He was awarded the
Ranjitram Suvarna Chandrak
Ranjitram Suvarna Chandrak, also known as the Ranjitram Gold Medal, was founded by Gujarat Sahitya Sabha and is considered the highest literary award in Gujarati literature. The award is named after renowned Gujarati writer Ranjitram Mehta. It is ...
in 1937. He was appointed a chairman of the journalism section of
Gujarati Sahitya Parishad
Gujarati Sahitya Parishad () is a literary organisation for the promotion of Gujarati literature located in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. It was founded by Ranjitram Mehta with the aim of creating literature appealing to all classes of society an ...
in 1941. Along with Gujarati he had command over
Hindi
Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
,
Marathi
Marathi may refer to:
*Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India
*Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people
*Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece
See also
*
* ...
,
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
's political activities. He wrote for the Gujarati magazine ''Gujarati Panch'', started in 1901 by Mangaldas Shah. He was the vice president of Gujarat Sahitya Sabha from 1956 to 1964.
Works
Though he is popular as a novelist, he started his literary career writing
poems
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...
. His historical novels were inspired by Narayan Visanji Thakkur. ''Avantinath'' translated his poems into
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
. ''Tapovan'' deals with the issue of the
joint family
An extended family is a family that extends beyond the nuclear family of parents and their children to include aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins or other relatives, all living nearby or in the same household. Particular forms include the stem a ...
system, ''Vishchakra'' exposes evils in the society. ''Kantakchhayo Panth'', his last major project, extended over three volumes. The novel traces political thinkers from 1857 to 1961, the entire freedom struggle, and depicts the difficulty through the word ''kantak'' (thorn). Some of the characters in these novels are historical, while some are fictitious.
''Jigar ane Ami'' is a romantic novel based on a true story. It was first serialised in ''Prajabandhu''. The
Gujarati film
Gujarati cinema, also known as Gollywood or Dhollywood, is the Gujarati language film industry. It is one of the major regional and vernacular film industries of the cinema of India, having produced more than one thousand films since its inc ...
''Jigar ane Ami'' (1970) was based on this novel. The Hindi film actor
Sanjeev Kumar
Sanjeev Kumar (born Harihar Jethalal Jariwala; 9 July 1938 – 6 November 1985) was an Indian actor. He is well remembered for his versatility and genuine portrayal of his characters. He acted in genres ranging from romantic dramas to thrille ...
and
Kanan Kaushal
Indumati Paingankar ( Sheth), better known as Kanan Kaushal, is an Indian actress, most famous for starring in ''Jai Santoshi Maa'' (1975) and Pardesi. The low-budget film became a huge box office hit and a cultural phenomenon. She has acted i ...
played lead roles in the film.
He wrote about books and authors in ''Grandh ane Grandhkar'' with Bachubhai Ravat and K K Shastri.
;Novels
* ''Vamal'' (1904)
* ''Pramoda athava Diler Ram (1907)
* ''Dharanagarino Munj'' (1911)
* ''Sindh upar Sawari'' (1912)
* ''Somnath nun Shivling'' (1913)
* ''Nokarino Umedavar'' (1914)
* ''Vasai no Ghero'' (1916)
* ''Kartavya Kaumudi'' (1915)
* ''Chanakya ane Chandragupt''
* ''Patanani Padatino Prarambh'' (1916)
* ''Nyayna Mulmam Niti'' (1916)
* ''Mulraj Solanki'' (1920)
* ''Karmayogi Rajeshwar'' (1935)
* ''Rajhatya'' (1937)
* ''Avantinath'' (1939) (Translated into
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
List of Gujarati-language writers
Well known laureates of Gujarati literature are Hemchandracharya, Narsinh Mehta, Mirabai, Akho, Premanand Bhatt, Shamal Bhatt, Dayaram, Dalpatram, Narmad, Govardhanram Tripathi, Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 Octob ...