Rao Bahadur Rai Bahadur (in North India) and Rao Bahadur (in South India), R.B., was a title of honour bestowed during British Raj, British rule in India to individuals for outstanding service or acts of public welfare to the British Empire, Empire. From ...

Hargovinddas Dwarkadas Kantawala (16 July 184431 March 1930) was an Indian

Gujarati language Gujarati ( ; , ) is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Indian state of Gujarat and spoken predominantly by the Gujarati people. Gujarati is descended from Old Western Rājasthāni, Old Gujarati (). In India, it is one of the 22 Languages with ...

writer, editor and researcher from

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

. He is known for his research and editing works on medieval

Gujarati literature The history of Gujarat, Gujarati literature () may be traced to 1000 AD, and this literature has flourished since then to the present. It is unique in having almost no patronage from a ruling dynasty, other than its composers. Gujarat Vidhya S ...

. He was the president of the sixth session of the

Gujarati Sahitya Parishad Gujarati Sahitya Parishad () is a literary organisation for the promotion of Gujarati literature located in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. It was founded by Ranjitram Mehta with the aim of creating literature appealing to all classes of society and ...

Biography

Hargovinddas Kantawala was born on 16 July 1844 in Umreth, a town in

Anand district Anand District is an administrative district of Gujarat state in western India and whose popular nickname is Charotar. It was carved out of the Kheda district in 1997. Anand is the administrative headquarters of the district. It is bounde ...

(now Anand) of

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

, British India. He started his career as a teacher, and then became headmaster. He later became clerk in a collector's office. He was appointed assistant deputy educational inspector, and then principal of the Teacher's Training College,

Rajkot Rajkot () is the fourth-largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the ...

. He worked as the

dewan ''Dewan'' (also known as ''diwan'', sometimes spelled ''devan'' or ''divan'') designated a powerful government official, minister, or ruler. A ''dewan'' was the head of a state institution of the same name (see Divan). Diwans belonged to the el ...

(minister) of the principality of

Lunavada State Lunavada State, also known as Lunawada State, was a princely state in India during the time of the British Raj. Its last ruler acceded to the Union of India on 10 June 1948. Lunavada State had an area of 1,005 km² and fell under the Rewa K ...

in 1905. In 1912, he started a textile mill. Kantawala was awarded the title of

by the government in 1903. He was awarded Sahityamartand by

Sayajirao Gaekwad III Sayajirao Gaekwad III (born as Shrimant Gopalrao Gaekwad; 11 March 1863 – 6 February 1939) was the Maharaja of Baroda State from 1875 to 1939, and is remembered for reforming much of his state during his rule. He belonged to the royal G ...

Maharaja Maharaja (also spelled Maharajah or Maharaj; ; feminine: Maharani) is a royal title in Indian subcontinent, Indian subcontinent of Sanskrit origin. In modern India and Medieval India, medieval northern India, the title was equivalent to a pri ...

Baroda State Baroda State was a kingdom within the Maratha Confederacy and later a princely state in present-day Gujarat. It was ruled by the Gaekwad dynasty from its formation in 1721 until its accession to the newly formed Dominion of India. With th ...

. He defeated

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

in the 1919

election for the position of president, and presided over the sixth session of the Parishad. He died on 31 March 1930. His son Matubhai Kantawala (1880–1933) was also a writer.

Works

Kantawala is known for his research and editing works on medieval Gujarati literature. Between 1849 and 1894, he, along with Nathashankar Shastri and Chhotalal Narbheram Bhatt, collected and edited poems of medieval Gujarati poets, and published them in 75 collections. He wrote two novels: ''Andheri Nagarino Gardhavasen'' (1881) and ''Be Baheno athava Ek Gharsansari Varta'' (Two Sisters or A Tale of a Family Life; 1898). He wrote a poem titled "Panipat" or "Kurukshetra" (1867), which gives an account of the six battles fought on the battlefield of

Panipat Panipat () is an industrial , located 95 km north of Delhi and 169 km south of Chandigarh on NH-44 in Panipat district, Haryana, India. It is famous for three major battles fought in 1526, 1556 and 1761. The city is also known as ...

and forecasts the seventh battle between Superstition and Reform that is to be fought there. Critic

Mansukhlal Jhaveri Mansukhlal Maganlal Jhaveri (1907–1981) was a Gujarati language poet, critic, and literary historian of the Gandhian era. He was deeply interested in classical Sanskrit poetry and authored ''History of Gujarati Literature'' (1978). Jhaveri had ...

noted that the poem's language is 'unpolished' and 'vulgar' at places, and the style is 'crude', yet 'forceful'. His other poetical work is ''Vishwa Ni Vichitrata'' (Strange Things of Universe; 1913). In addition, he extensively wrote about social problems, social reforms, moral issues, worldly duties, and promotion of indigenous crafts.

References

External links

*
Works by Hargovinddas Kantawala
at

Gandhi Heritage Portal The online Gandhi Heritage Portal preserves, protects, and disseminates original writings of Mohandas K. Gandhi and makes available to the world the large corpus of "Fundamental Works" which are useful for any comprehensive study of the life a ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kantawala, Hargovinddas 1844 births 1930 deaths Gujarati-language writers People from Kheda district Writers from Gujarat Novelists from Gujarat Novelists from British India Presidents of the Gujarati Sahitya Parishad

Biography

Works

See also

References

External links