Bangalore: Udupi Rajagopalacharya Ananthamurthy, known as UR Ananthamurthy, died on Friday. He was 82. Ananthamurthy was one of India's best known writers and thinkers both within India and abroad. He wore many hats. He was a celebrated English professor, acclaimed writer, admired activist and a loved mentor to many.
Born at Melige village in Thirthahalli taluk of Shimoga district in 1932, Ananthamurthy studied at the Mysore University. After obtaining MA in English literature, he taught at colleges in Hassan and Shimoga before he joined the English department of Mysore University. He later headed the same department.
Ananthamurthy did his PHD in English literature on 'Politics and Fiction in the 1930s' at the University of Birmingham in England. He wrote his most important novel 'Samskara' there. This novel led to a huge controversy back home in Karnataka because it's scathing attack on Brahmin orthodoxy.
Ananthamurthy wore many hats. He was a celebrated English professor, acclaimed writer, admired activist and a loved mentor to many.
Ananthamurthy became vice chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi University at Kottayam in Kerala in the late 1980s. He was also the chairman, Kendra Sahithya Academy, National Book Trust and the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune.
He was also the Chancellor of Central University at Gulbarga in Karnataka. He served as a visiting professor in many renowned Indian and foreign universities including Jawaharlal Nehru University, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, University of Iowa, Tufts University and Shivaji University.
Ananthamurthy has participated and delivered lectures in numerous seminars as writer and orator both in and outside the country. He was the member of the committee of Indian writers and visited countries like the Soviet Union, Hungary, France and West Germany in 1990. He visited Moscow in 1989 as board member for a Soviet newspaper. Ananthamurthy was the leader for the committee of writers who visited China in 1993.
Ananthamurthy's works have been translated into several Indian and European languages and have been awarded with important literary prizes. His main works include Samskara, Bhava, Bharathi Pura, and Avasthe. He has written numerous short stories as well. Several of his novels and short fictions have been made into movies.
Most of Ananthamurthy's literary works deal with psychological aspects of people in different situations, times and circumstances. His writings supposedly analyse aspects ranging from challenges and changes faced by Brahmin families of Karnataka to bureaucrats dealing with politics influencing their work.
Most of his novels are on reaction of individuals to situations that are unusual and artificial. Results of influences of socio-political and economic changes on traditional Hindu societies of India and clashes due to such influences - between a father and a son, husband and wife, father and daughter and finally, the fine love that flows beneath all such clashes are portrayed by Ananthamurthy in his works. This is evident in his stories like Sooryana Kudure (The Grasshopper), Mowni (Silent Man), Karthika' etc. It does not mean that Ananthamurthy is just clinging to portraying only such somewhat standard subjects of Indian literature of his period. His novelette "Bara" (Drought) portrays the dynamics of a drought-stricken district of Karnataka and the challenges and dilemmas a bureaucrat may face in such situations.
The central figure of the novel Sooryana Kudure - Venkata is shunned by his son and wife for his easy-going attitude that does not take him anywhere. Venkata is a non-achiever who could not achieve any material or monetary success in his life. However, he is a simpleton that does not take life's suffering to his heart too much. He likes to see life as living in the love of Amma (or mother-goddess). In all sufferings of life, he has the child-like curiosity about the smallest things in life - like a grasshopper (Sooryana Kudure). The evening after his son revolts and leaves the house, he would be engrossed in a sight in his yard - a grasshopper shining in the sun's light.
He was known for his strong political views. Ananthamurthy was also blamed for inconstancies in his political stand. A known critic of the RSS and BJP, he had sided with the first BJP chief minister from the entire South BS Yeddyurappa calling him a farmers' leader and a villager. Both Yeddyurappa and Ananthamurthy are from Shimoga district.
He said that he will not live in the country if Narendra Modi becomes Prime Minister of India and this statement drew lot of criticism in India. As its reverberation later when NDA alliance came to power he was given a free ticket to Pakistan. During 2013, he said that Brahmin community used to eat beef as mentioned in Mahabharatha, but this was claimed as baseless by several prominent people like Pejavar seer, Vishwesha Thirtha Swami, Udupi. Pejavar seer also requested Ananthamurthy to reconsider his statement, as it hurt sentiments of a caste, but Ananthamurthy ignored his request. In June 2007 Ananthamurthy declared that he will not take part in literary functions in future in the wake of strong criticism for his reaction on S.L. Bhyrappa's controversial novel Aavarana.
For his recent comments on Narendra Modi, To help him to leave India NAMO brigade Mangalore has booked a ticket to Karachi.
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