S N Suryawanshi Devoted to a cause

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Monday, January 4, 1999 Devoted to a cause Camil Parkhe   There are many Christians who have contributed to Marathi literature during the last two centuries. Baba Padamanji who embraced Christianity during the last century is credited with writing the first Marathi novel Yamunaparyatan. The other great luminaries belonging to the Christian community who have enriched the Marathi literature include poet Rev. Narayan Waman Tilak and his wife `Sahityalaxmi' Laxmibai Tilak who wrote Smritichitre, treated as one of the best autobiographies in Marathi and the great scholar Pandita Ramabai.This rich tradition of the Christian community has been kept alive by Acharya Satyawan Namdeo Suryawanshi, veteran writer and editor of the now defunct Marathi weekly, Aapan. The 82-year-old writer-editor was in the city on December 12 when Christi Sahitya Sangh, Pune, bestowed upon him the `Sahitya Bhushan' award in recognition of his life-time contribution. Suryawanshi, a kirtankar, playwright, poet, evangelist and a fiery crusader, is also a guru to a large number of Christians who are now in their middle ages and are shining in their chosen vocations. The Nashik based Suryawanshi has many reasons to be the most revered person in the Christian community - both among the Catholics as well as the Protestants. He is the only surviving litterateur in this minority community who is credited with having written the largest number of books - around 200. Most important of all, Suryawanshi, himself a Protestant, has also functioned as a bridge between the Marathi-speaking Catholic and the Protestant communities when he edited for many years the Aapan weekly. The weekly was closed down two decades ago and since then, Suryawanshi has devoted himself only for writing and kirtans, his other love. During his over-an-hour interview conducted at the function by Fr. Joe Gaikwad, editor of Niropya monthly and Jayantkumar Tribhuvan, the octogenarian replied to a number of queries. The interview revealed that despite his age, he continues to be a fiery crusader, voicing the views and opinions which have been dear to him when he was in the limelight a score ago. During the interview, he recalled his days when he slept on the footpaths of Mumbai, his experiences as a kirtankar, and as an editor whose editorials often drew flak from different quarters. Answering a query as to which roles in his versatile personality he cherished the most, Suryawanshi replied that he liked the role of a journalist due to the profession's wider reach to the society and as an evangelist, he loved the role of a kirtankar. Suryawanshi said that due to his writings, initially he had to face opposition and humiliation from the people belonging to his own community - he was `ex-communicated' for over 12 years. He said that it was his habit to take up writing of different books simultaneously and that often he wrote a few pages of one book in the morning, of another book in the afternoon and an altogether different one in the evening. No wonder, only a few writers can match the number of books he has written. Suryawanshi has been a recipient of many other laurels, he has presided over the state-level Marathi Christi Sahitya Sammelan as well as Dalit Christi Sahitya Sammelan. Many speakers lamented that Suryawanshi's literary contribution was not given the due recognition in the Marathi literary circles. But this fact has not discouraged or deterred Suryawanshi from continuing his writing. This was amply clear to the gathering through his answers, especially when the octogenarian announced that his latest book, Kirtanshala, a book on techniques of conducting kirtans, will be published soon!