Anant Kakba Priolkar (1895 – 1973) was an Indian

polemicist Polemic ( , ) is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called polemics, which are seen in arguments on controversial to ...

, writer and

political activist A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some ...

. He was elected as the President of the

Akhil Bharatiya 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 ...

held in 1951 at

Karwar, Karnataka Karwar is a coastal City and the administrative headquarters of Uttara Kannada district, formerly part of the Bombay Presidency, located at the mouth of the Kali river along the Konkan Coast in the present-day state of Karnataka, India. Etym ...

, India. His book '' The Goa Inquisition'' (1961) remains his bestselling work. He died in

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

in 1973.

Early life

Anant Kakba Priolkar was born in 1895.

Literary career

Priolkar was active in the field of Marathi literature and served as secretary of the Marathi Sahitya Parishad, a research organisation sponsored by the government of Bombay. He worked as a writer, editor, and translator, and played a role in building literary institutions in Maharashtra. He was also associated with the Bombay-based publishing house D B Taraporevala Sons and Co., where he helped produce works across multiple disciplines.

Scholarly work

Priolkar is recognised for his scholarly contributions to the study of the history of printing and Indo-Portuguese interactions. He was among the first to argue that the first printing press in Asia arrived in

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

in 1556, marking the beginning of print culture in India. This argument was presented in his work ''The Printing Press in India: Its Beginnings and Early Development'', published in 1958 by the Marathi Samshodhan Mandal. His work drew on Portuguese records and presented evidence that the first press in India was used to print texts in Latin and Konkani, including religious materials produced by Jesuit missionaries. Priolkar’s research expanded the understanding of early Indian book history and challenged dominant narratives that located the origins of Indian print primarily in Bengal. He also wrote extensively about the

Goa Inquisition The Goa Inquisition (, ) was an extension of the Portuguese Inquisition in Portuguese India. Its objective was to enforce Catholic orthodoxy and allegiance to the Apostolic See of the Pontifex. The inquisition primarily focused on the New Chr ...

, bringing attention to its violence and impact.

Views

Priolkar's book, ''The Goa Inquisition'', is criticized for its exaggerated views of the

and presenting a perspective that people converted to Catholicism out of fear. He strongly advocated for the merger of

into

, even though the majority of

Goans Goans ( Romi Konkani: , ) is the demonym used to describe the people native to Goa, India, formerly part of Portuguese India (''Estado Português da Índia''). They form an ethno-linguistic group resulting from the assimilation of Indo-Aryan, ...

rejected the idea in the 1967 Goa status referendum. He also considered

Konkani __NOTOC__ Konkani may refer to: Language * Konkani language is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Konkan region of India. * Konkani alphabets, different scripts used to write the language **Konkani in the Roman script, one of the scripts used to ...

as a dialect of

Marathi language Marathi (; , 𑘦𑘨𑘰𑘙𑘲, , ) is a Classical languages of India, classical Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language predominantly spoken by Marathi people in the Indian state of Maharashtra and is also spoken in Goa, and parts of Guj ...

Bibliography

* ''The Printing Press in India: Its Beginnings and Early Development being a quatercentenary commemoration study of the advent of printing in India in 1556''. Bombay: Marathi Samshodhana Mandala, 1958. * '' The Goa Inquisition (A Quatercentenary Commemoration Study of the Inquisition in India'', printed by V. G. Moghe at Mumbai University Press, Mumbai) (1961) *''Granthik Marathi Bhashya Ani Kokani Boli'' (ग्रान्थिक मराठी भाषा आणि कोकणी बोली). *"French Author of a Marathi Purana, Fr. Etienne de la Croix." Journal of the University of Bombay n.s. 29/2 (1959) 122–149. *''Goa Re-discovered''. Bhakta Books International, 1967. * Priya Ani Apriya (प्रिय आणि अप्रिय)

References

*Tadkodkar, S.M. h.D. on A.K. Priolkar submitted to the Goa University.*Ludo Rocher, The Puranas. A History of Indian Literature, vol. 2, fasc. 3. (Wiesbaden: Harassowitz, 1986) 75. *Preface by J.S. Sukhtankar and Subhash Bhende to A.K. Priolkar's "Hindustanche Don Darwaje", published by 'The Goa Hindu Association' (

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

) in 1974. {{DEFAULTSORT:Priolkar, Anant 1895 births 1973 deaths Marathi-language writers 20th-century Indian historians 20th-century Indian writers Indian editors