C. D. Narasimhaiah | |
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Born | |
Died | 12 April 2005 Bangalore, Mysore State, India | (aged 83)
Resting place | Dhvanyaloka campus, University of Mysore |
Occupation(s) | Writer Academic |
Years active | 1950–2005 |
Awards | Padma Bhushan Rajyotsava Prashasti |
Closepet Dasappa Narasimhaiah (1921–2005) was an Indian writer, literary critic and the principal of Maharaja's College, Mysore.[1] Narasimhaiah was best known for his literary criticisms and for bringing out an abridged version of Discovery of India of Jawaharlal Nehru, under the title, Rediscovery of India.[2] He was a recipient of the Rajyotsava Prashasti honor of the Government of Karnataka.[3] The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour, the Padma Bhushan, in 1990, for his contributions to literature.[4]
Born in Closepet (present-day Ramanagara) of Ramanagara district[5] in the south Indian state of Karnataka on 21 May 1921[6][7][8] to a shopkeeper, Narasimhaiah graduated from the University of Mysore and did his higher studies at the Universities of Cambridge and Princeton before joining Maharaja's College, Mysore as a professor of English literature in 1950.[3] He became the principal of the institution in 1957 and worked there till his superannuation in 1962. In between, he served as a Fulbright visiting professor at Yale University for the academic year 1958–59 and after his retirement from Mysore University, served the University of Queensland as a visiting professor in 1963. Later, joining with a few like-minded personalities, he founded Dhvanyaloka Centre For Indian Studies, a centre for promoting studies on Indian culture and arts, in 1979.[9] He also served as the resident scholar of International Research Centre, Bellagio (1968) and as a consultant to East-West Centre, Hawaii for two terms (1974–75 and 1987).[3]
Narasimhaiah, the first patron of Asian origin of the Association of the Study of Australia in Asia (ASAA),[10] published several books on literature, culture and arts,[11] the abridged version of Discovery of India of Jawaharlal Nehru, published in 1981 by the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund is the most notable among them.[12] Jawaharlal Nehru: A Study of His Writings and Speeches,[13] The writer's Gandhi,[14] The Human Idioms (Three lectures on Jawaharlal Nehru),[15]The Swan and the Eagle: Essays on Indian English Literature,[16] Raja Rao,[17] Makers of Indian English literature[18] and The Flowering of Australian Literature[19] are some of the other books published by him.
Narasimhaiah was married to Ramalakshamma and the couple had a son, C. N. Srinath who co-wrote some of his books, and a daughter. He died in Bengaluru, at his daughter's house, on 12 April 2005,[6] at the age of 83, survived by his children; his wife had preceded him in death.[3] His life is documented in an autobiography, N for Nobody: Autobiography of an English Teacher, published in 1991, as a part of New world literature series.[20]
The Government of Karnataka awarded him the Rajyotsava Prashasthi, the second highest civilian honor of the State in 1987.[7] He received the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian honor in the country from the Government of India in 1990.[4] The University of Mysore conferred the degree of DLitt (honoris causa) on him in 2001 and the University of Bangalore followed suit in 2005.[21] He held the fellowships of several institutions which included Indian Institute of Advanced Studies (1968), Leeds University (1971–72), Texas University (1972–73 and 1975–76), Peradeniya University, (1979) and Flinders University (1980).[3] Theory in Practice: Essays in Honour of C.D. Narasimhaiah is a book published in honor of Narasimhaiah, in 2001,[22] and "C.D. Narasimhaiah's Contribution to Post-Colonial Literary Criticism" is a study of his writings.[21]
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