RSS leaders congratulate Dr Kambara

Senior RSS functionaries of Karnataka congratulated veteran Kannada writer and winner of Jnanpith award Dr Chandrashekara Kambara at his residence in Bengaluru on September 22. RSS National Executive Member Shri MC Jayadev, national president of Shaikshik Mahasangh Prof. K Narahari, editor of Utthana monthly Shri SR Ramaswamy, RSS Sah Prant Karyavah Prof BV Shreedhara Swamy, general secretary of Rashtrotthan Parishat Shri N Dinesh Hegde and chief of Samarasya Vedike Karnataka Shri Vadiraj visited Dr Kambara’s residence.

Shri Jayadev along with Shri Ramaswamy and Prof K Narahari honoured Dr Kambara. They also had an informal talk on education system with Dr Kambara for half an hour. Dr Kambara expressed happiness over the visit of RSS functionaries.

Full report here Organiser

Nationalise school education: Kambara

Jnanpith award-winning poet-playwright Chandra-shekhara Kambara on Friday strongly advocated imparting education in the mother tongue. “You can learn English as a language. I feel Kannada should be the medium of instruction. After 10th Standard, you can have a choice”, he contended. Mr Kambara argued that the State should not privatise education till 10th standard. “Let primary and high school education be state-sponsored till 10th standard to wipe out the disparity between children from upper class and downtrodden”, he said.

The playwright downplayed the Karnataka-Maharashtra border issue maintaining that one should not attach much importance to the ‘unwanted dispute’ created by some people from across the border. Mr Kambara, who hails from Belgaum district, said, “I have many friends, including several writers, in Maharashtra who are least bothered about this issue. For some politicians, this issue should be kept alive in the form of a dispute so that they can thrive. If there is no issue, these people will find it hard for their survival”, he said.

Full report here Deccan Chronicle 

Kambar bats for Kannada in schools

Jnanpith award winner Chandrashekhara Kambar on Friday suggested that all schools having classes from the lower kindergarten (LKG) to Standard 10 must be run by the government and that the medium of instruction up to class 10 must be in Kannada.

Kambar, noting that there is a wide divide between students who pass out of private, English medium schools and those passing out of government-run, Kannada-medium schools said: “This can be removed only when the government runs all the primary and high schools. They can allow any private management to run educational institutions from the PU level.”

His justification for having Kannada as the medium of instruction was that only mother tongue can provide an experience, which is an integral part of learning and learning through any other language only gives people information, which makes them less competent.

“I am not saying that one should not learn English. All I am saying is that learn even English through Kannada, because it is essential to have an experience when one is learning and being merely suffocated by information will not take us far. Even learn Japanese if you feel it is necessary but don’t compromise on having Kannada as the medium in primary and high school,” Kambar  explained.

Full report here Deccan Herald

Speaking from Shivapura

Poet, playwright and novelist, recipient of the 2010 Jnanapith Award Chandrashekara Kambaraa, interrogates modernity with myths, folk narratives and native theatrical forms

When Chandrashekara Kambaraa wrote his long narrative poem “Helatena Kela” (Listen, I will Tell you)in the early 1960s, he introduced, knowingly or unknowingly, some of the recurring themes which he would often return to in his later works. The poem which sings in praise of the traditional past and laments over the loss of innocence due to the onslaught of the modern forces clearly set the tone of his works that followed. Themes of tradition and modernity, crises of feudalism, native identities, colonialism, march of history, sex, loss of faith, the death of God and several related themes explored later in his plays, novels and poetry had found metaphorical expression in the narrative poem. “Helatena Kela” which could well be the central metaphor created by Kambara is located in Shivapura, an imaginary utopian village which continues to be a character, a metaphor and the locale in most of his works.

Kambara who has made Kannadigas proud by bringing the eighth Jnanapith award for Kannada is arguably among the best of the three greatest modern Kannada poets (the other two being D.R. Bendre and Gopalakrishna Adiga) and has trodden his own path deviating from both the stalwarts. His creative engagement with myths, folk narratives and native theatrical forms has helped him develop a distinct style and world view and makes him stand apart from his predecessors as well as his contemporaries. Though Kambara began as a Navya writer, he seems to have realised too soon that the Navya mode did not suit his sensibility. So he set out exploring the collective psyche of the community through native myths which were almost unexplored till then in modern Kannada literature. The non-Vaidika mythical world not only provided him the world view but also the rich texture, lyricism and the raw energy of the rural dialects. Though Kambara kept on journeying to the past like a ‘modern man in search of a soul', to borrow an insight from Carl Jung, the journey seldom refrained him from negotiating contemporary themes. In his poems on Mao Tse Tung or plays like “Jaisidanaika”, or “Harakeya Kuri” he has treated themes related to contemporary politics with a progressive outlook, albeit being naive at times.

Full report here Hindu

Kannada writer kicks up Jnanpith storm

Karnataka is no stranger to controversy when it comes to awards. Be it the film awards or the Rajyotsava awards, controversy has always shadowed the announcement of awards in the state.

So it doesn’t come as a surprise that a controversy has erupted again, this time over Dr Chandrashekar Kambar being honoured with the prestigious Jnanpith award.

On Tuesday, amidst the euphoria, noted Kannada writer and journalist Patil Puttappa struck a jarring note in the Kannada literary world when he said Kambar did not deserve the award, which, in Puttapa’s view, should have gone to the “most deserving novelist SL Bhyrappa”.

Puttappa sees intense lobbying as the reason for Bhyrappa losing out to less deserving litterateurs like Kambar.

Full report here DNA

Kambara stunned, delighted

He may have received a number of awards, but when it came to the Jnanpith, he was unprepared and even disbelieving. A faulty phone meant he could not be reached by the awards committee and it was left to his son, Raju Kambara, to convey the news to him. But Chandrashekar Kambara remained sceptical, responding with: “Don’t believe what people tell you. They are probably pulling your leg. How can I get the Jnanpith, check again.”

But he had to believe it when television channels made the announcement. The modesty however, did not leave him. As always he attributes a lot of his success to the breaks he got early on in his life courtesy people like Krishnamurthy Puranik, a writer and teacher in Gokak, who conducted Sunday classes on literature to help bright students further their interest in literature.

Full report here Deccan Chronicle 

Shrilal Shukla, Kambar win Jnanpith

Eminent Hindi authors Amar Kant and Shrilal Shukla were on Monday chosen for India’s highest literary honour Jnanpith Award for the year 2009 while renowned Kannada litterateur Chandrasekhar Kambar won it for the year 2010.

The selection board chaired by noted writer and Jnanpith award winner Dr. Sitakant Mahapatra made the selections for the 45th and 46th Jnanpith awards.

86-year-old Kant is a leading author whose famous novel Inhin Hathiyaron Se earned him Sahitya Akademi Award in 2007.

His short stories like Hatiyare, Dopahar ka Bhojan and Diptee Kalaktari have found place in the syllabi of several Indian Universities.

Shukla, born in 1925 in Uttar Pradesh, is an eminent novelist and a satirist whose works threw light on the falling moral values of the Indian society in the post-independence era.

His noted works include Raag Darbari, Makaan, Sooni Ghaati Ka Sooraj, Pehla Padaav, Agyatvas, and Bisrampur Ka Sant. He is winner of several awards which included Sahitya Akademi Award and Vyas Sammaan. In 2008, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan for his contribution to Indian literature and culture.

Full report here Hindu