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Kuhu Singh
NEW DELHI, November 10: Perhaps one of the least lauded literary giants among Indian writers writing in English, the Texas-based Raja Rao turned 90 on November 8. And to commemorate the event Katha has come up with a book Raja Rao: A Katha Classic, in honour of the writer who wrote the classic Kanthapura.
Edited by writer and poet Makarand Paranjape, the book is a collection of essays, critical material, illustrations and extracts from his novels and stories. A companion volume, Word as Mantra: The Art of Raja Rao, a collection of essays by eminent scholars, from across the world, on Raja Rao's art and philosophy, was also released along with the book by Katha in collaboration with the University of Texas. The books were released at a literary forum organised at the Sahitya Akademy yesterday.
Raja Rao, while staying abroad (he was a teacher of philosophy, first in France and later in the USA), continued to remain firmly rooted in his Brahmanical traditions in which he grew up. His various writings (not many going by today's standards) reflect his moorings. ``He has more unpublished works than published ones,'' Paranjape said in his inaugural address.
Rao's works are few and far between. Twenty-two years after Kanthapura, The Serpent and the Rope was published, the intervening years spent in the freedom struggle and later the socialist movement, then came The Cat and Shakespeare in 1965 and Comrade Kirilloo some 10 years later.
But all his life he had to live with the ignominious label of a Non-Resident Indian (NRI) writer writing in English.
Even though his 1939 masterpiece Kanthapura was regarded by many as the first modern Indian writing in English, he was derided by many critics. But the precursor to the Salman Rushdies and Arundhati Roys of today is unfazed by criticism and carries on with his pursuit of literature and philosophy.
Though he visited India in 1995, Raja Rao was not present at the launch of the books. But according to Katha chief Geeta Dharmarajan who visited him in Texas to get his permission for the book, he says he has to complete the last 10 pages of a new novel he had started in 1993 and is reported to have begun another novel last year.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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