Shridhar Venkatesh Ketkar (2 February 1884 – 10 April 1937) was a

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India **Marathi people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...

sociologist, historian and novelist from

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 ...

, India. He is principally known as the chief editor of '' Maharashtriya Jnanakosha'', the first-ever encyclopedia in the

language.

Early life and background

Ketkar was born into a

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

family in

Raipur Raipur ( ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Raipur is also the administrative headquarters of Raipur district and Raipur division, and the largest city of the state. It was a part of Madhya Pradesh before the state of Chh ...

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...

, and was educated in Wilson College, Bombay. He left for the United States in 1906 and obtained his PHD from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

in 1911. After a yearlong sojourn in London (circa 1912), where he met his future wife Edith Kohn, he returned to India.

Career

His first appointment in India was as a professor of economics, science of administration and universal jurisprudence at

Calcutta University The University of Calcutta, informally known as Calcutta University (), is a Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Kolkata, Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal, India. It has 151 affiliated undergraduate c ...

. In 1920, Ketkar married Edith Kohn (1886–1979), who joined him in

Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

. Edith's name was changed to ''Sheelavati Ketkar'' after the wedding. Mrs Ketkar has written a memoir about Ketkar's peculiarities, their two adopted children and family life. Mrs Ketkar (who was a native German speaker) had translated

Moriz Winternitz Moriz Winternitz ( Horn, December 23, 1863 – Prague, January 9, 1937) was a scholar from Austria who began his Indology contributions working with Max Müller at the Oxford University. An eminent Sanskrit scholar, he worked as a professor ...

's 'A History of Indian Literature' from English into German for her husband's private use; however, this was later published due to the encouragement of Prof Winternitz himself (who was a family friend). Ketkar served as the president of two

literary conventions, namely the ''Sharadopasak Sammelan'' (शारदोपासक सम्मेलन) in 1926, and the '' Maharashtra Sahitya Sammelan'' (महाराष्ट्र साहित्य सम्मेलन) in 1931. Ketkar, who was a

diabetic Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...

, died in

of a gangrenous wound. A biography has been written by D. N. Gokhale.

Sociological and historical works

His doctoral thesis was later published as ''The History of Caste in India (volume 1)'', which determines the date of ''

Manusmriti The ''Manusmṛti'' (), also known as the ''Mānava-Dharmaśāstra'' or the Laws of Manu, is one of the many legal texts and constitutions among the many ' of Hinduism. Over fifty manuscripts of the ''Manusmriti'' are now known, but the earli ...

'' and comments on the nature of caste-relations in that period. He later wrote a sequel to this work, titled '' An Essay on Hinduism'', which discusses, ''inter alia'', the genesis of the caste system in India. In 1914, he published two more treatises, namely '' An Essay on Indian Economics'', and ''Hindu Law and the Methods and Principles of the Historical Study Thereof''. Ketkar's political opinions may be gleaned from his '' Nishastranche Rajkaran'' (नि:शस्त्रांचे राजकारण, Politics of the Unarmed, 1926) and ''Victorious India'' (1937). After nearly a decade of study, he wrote a historical work called ''Pracheen Maharashtra: Shaatvahan Parva'' (प्राचीन महाराष्ट्र: शातवाहन पर्व, Ancient Maharashtra: The Shaatvahan Period, 1935).

The encyclopedia

Ketkar's work on the encyclopedia occupied him approximately from 1916 until 1928. He was not only the originator and the editor, but also the accountant and the general manager of the entire project. An account of his experiences about this project is contained in his book '' माझे बारा वर्षांचे काम, उर्फ ज्ञानकोश मंडळाचा इतिहास '' (माझे बारा वर्षांचे काम, उर्फ ज्ञानकोश मंडळाचा इतिहास, Twelve Years of My Work, or the History of the Encyclopaedia Committee).

Novels

Ketkar also wrote the following novels in Marathi. * ''Gondavanatila priyamvada ani gharkutte gharanyacha itihas'' (गोंदवनातील प्रियंवदा अाणि घरकुट्टे घराण्याचा इतिहास, 1926) * ''Ashavadi, athava eka pravahapatiteche charitra'' (अाशावादी, अथवा एका प्रवाहपतितेचे चरित्र, 1927) * ''Gaavasasu'' (गावसासू, 1930) * ''Brahmanakanya'' (ब्राह्मणकन्या, 1930) * ''Bhatakya'' (भटक्या, 1937) * ''Vichakshana'' (विचक्षण, 1937) The novels may be called "novels of ideas" in a broad sense of the term. They evince little interest in conventional character development; on the other hand, they contain much information about various tribes and societies, coupled with several strikingly blunt ideas about sociological reform. Critical studies of the novels have been published by D N Gokhale and Durga Bhagwat.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ketkar, S V Marathi-language writers Indian encyclopedists Academic staff of the University of Calcutta 1884 births 1937 deaths Indian sociologists People from Raipur, Chhattisgarh University of Mumbai alumni Cornell University alumni Indian male novelists 20th-century Indian novelists Novelists from Madhya Pradesh 20th-century Indian historians Scholars from Chhattisgarh 20th-century Indian male writers Presidents of the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan