Namdeo C Kamble

Namdeo Chandrabhan Kamble is a Marathi novelist, poet and critic who has also been a teacher, journalist and speaker. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2021 in the field of literature and education, from Maharashtra ^[1].

From watchman to teacher

Kamble was born on 1 January 1948 ^[2]. Money troubles forced him to give up his medical studies, and he took a job as a watchman at a school ^[2]. Studying privately, he earned a BA and a BEd and was promoted to teacher at the same school, the Rani Laxmibai Kanya Shala in Washim ^[2].

The Raghavvel trilogy

He began writing poems in 1971 and short stories in 1984, and within a few years was appearing in leading monthly magazines ^[2]. His novel Raghavvel, published in 1993, tells the story of Valambi, a Dalit widow, and her children; few novelists had written about a Dalit widow before ^[2]. He followed it with Oonsawali and Sanjrang, making the first trilogy in Dalit literature ^[2].

Raghavvel won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1995, and Raghavvel and Oonsawali won Maharashtra state awards in 1994 and 1996 ^[2]. In 2009 it was translated into Bengali ^[2].

Gandhi and Ambedkar

Kamble has studied the thought of Gandhi and Ambedkar, and writes about where the two met as well as where they differed ^[2]. In 50 years he has published 8 novels and 14 other books of stories, poems and criticism ^[2]. Six PhDs have been written on his work at universities including Nagpur, Pune and Mumbai ^[2].

He presided over the 57th Vidarbha writers’ conference in 2007 and is a member of the National Book Trust ^[2]. He received Maharashtra’s Annabhau Sathe award in 1997 ^[2].