Vidyadhar S. Gokhale (

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental syste ...

: विद्याधर गोखले) (4 January 1924 – 26 September 1996) was a political activist, a

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 * * ...

playwright, and an editor of a Marathi newspaper, ''

Loksatta ''Loksatta'' (''Lōksattā'') is a Marathi daily newspaper in Maharashtra, India. It is published by The Indian Express Group and was launched on 14 January 1948. ''Loksatta'' is published out of Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Thane, Palghar, Ahmednag ...

'' (लोकसत्ता), from

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

, India. He was originally from

Amravati Amravati (pronunciation (help·info)) is the second largest city in the Vidarbha region and ninth largest city in Maharashtra, India. It is administrative headquarters of Amravati district and Amravati division which includes Akola, Buldha ...

Writing career

He wrote novel ''Jhanjhawat'' (झंझावात ) and the following musical plays: * ''Suvarna Tula'' (सुवर्णतुला) (1960) * ''Panditraj Jagannath'' (पंडितराज जगन्नाथ) (1960) * ''Mandarmala'' (मंदारमाला) (1963) * ''Madanachi Manjiri'' (मदनाची मंजिरी) (1965) * ''Jai Jai Gauri Shankar'' (जय जय गौरीशंकर) * ''Bawannkhani'' (बावन्नखणी) He formed Ranga Sharada Pratishthan (रंगशारदा प्रतिष्ठान) to stage the above plays. He presided over

Marathi Sahitya Sammelan Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan (All India Marathi Literary Conference) is an annual conference for literary discussions by Marathi writers. Marathi is the official language of Maharashtra State. The first Marathi Sahitya Sammelan was he ...

in Satara in 1993.

Political career

He had represented Mumbai North Central in

9th Lok Sabha List of Members of the 9th Lok Sabha (2 December 1989 – 13 March 1991) elections in 22–26 November 1989. The Lok Sabha (House of the People) is the lower house in the Parliament of India. Twelve sitting members from Rajya Sabha were electe ...

in 1989–91 as

Shiv Sena Shiv Sena ( IAST: ''Śiva Sēnā'') () was a right-wing to far-right Marathi regionalist and Hindu ultranationalist political party in India founded in 1966 by cartoonist Bal Thackeray. Originally emerging from nativist movements in Bom ...

candidate. Throughout his life, he was affiliated with socio-political organizations like

RSS RSS ( RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many di ...

Hindu Mahasabha The Hindu Mahasabha (officially Akhil Bhārat Hindū Mahāsabhā, ) is a Hindu nationalist political party in India. Founded in 1915, the Mahasabha functioned mainly as a pressure group advocating the interests of orthodox Hindus before the B ...

which are proponents of

Hindutva Hindutva () is the predominant form of Hindu nationalism in India. The term was formulated as a political ideology by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1923. It is used by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the ...

ideology, and was associated with their leaders like

Veer Savarkar Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (), Marathi pronunciation: �inaːjək saːʋəɾkəɾ also commonly known as Veer Savarkar (28 May 1883 – 26 February 1966), was an Indian politician, activist, and writer. Savarkar developed the Hindu nationalis ...

Pu Bha Bhave Purushottam Bhaskar Bhave (Devanagari: पुरुषोत्तम भास्कर भावे) (12 April 1910 – 13 August 1980) was a Marathi writer from Maharashtra, India. Bhave lost his mother when he was just nine years old ...

Balasaheb Deoras Balasaheb may refer to: *Balasaheb Deoras, also known as Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras (died 1996), third Sarsanghchalak of RSS *Balasaheb Thackeray, also known as Bal Keshav Thackeray, founder and leader of Shivsena *Balasaheb Vikhe Patil (1932–201 ...

Personal life

He had married two sisters before polygamy was outlawed, and thus had two wives. Gokhale's grandson, Omkar Dadarkar, was among the upcoming singers in the early 2010s.

External links

Official Biographical Sketch in Lok Sabha Website
Marathi-language writers 1924 births 1996 deaths India MPs 1989–1991 Marathi politicians Shiv Sena politicians Lok Sabha members from Maharashtra People from Amravati 20th-century Indian dramatists and playwrights Dramatists and playwrights from Maharashtra Politicians from Mumbai Novelists from Maharashtra Presidents of the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan {{India-writer-stub