Noted Marathi critic and litterateur R G Jadhav passed away at his residence here this morning following prolonged illness. He was 83. Born on August 24, 1932, at Vadodara in Gujarat, Jadhav served as a professor of Marathi literature in various colleges, including one in Amravati, Elphinstone College in Mumbai, and also at Milind College in Aurangabad. Jadhav presided over Marathi Sahitya Sammelan held at Aurangabad in 2004 and worked as chief editor of Marathi Vishwakosha between 2000 and 2002.
Conceived along the lines of the World Almanac and the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the ambitious ‘Vishwakosha’ project, launched by the State government in 1960 in an effort to inform and edify the Marathi-speaking world on modern science and arts, began as a print concept before moving online in 2011. Much feted, Prof. Jadhav authored more than 40 works of literary criticism and poetry, including ‘Anandacha Doh’ (a study on Saint Tukaram), ‘Nilee Paha’ (a critique of Dalit literature) and most famously, ‘Bapu’ — his tour de force of 91 reflective poems on Mahatma Gandhi. He was also associated with the Sadhana Trust and worked with rationalist and anti-superstition crusader Narendra Dabholkar.
