Narasimha Chintaman Kelkar, was a great literary mind of 20th-century Maharashtra. A lawyer, dramatist, novelist, short story writer, poet, essayist, biographer, critic,historian, philosophical and political theme writer, editor, and a nationalist politician, he was a trusted, but moderate lieutenant of Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
Born in Modnimb near Miraj in a Chitpavan Brahmin family, he completed his B.A., LLB. After practising law in Satara he came to Pune in 1895 and became editor of the newspaper Mahratta, co-founded by Tilak.
For almost five decades, Kelkar carved a niche for himself in the political and cultural life of Maharashtrians. In 1912 and 1918, he was respectively the Vice President and the President of Pune Municipality and Mayor for six years of the 25 years he was its member.
In 1918, he was Secretary of the Indian delegation to the United Kingdom for the Indian National Congress and the All India Home Rule League. In 1919, while in the UK, he edited the British India Congress Committee India newsletter. Later, he was the Chairman of the Joint Provincial Council of both the Congress and the Home Rule League in Solapur in 1920.
After Tilak’s death in 1920, he became one of the foremost leaders of the Tilak faction in the Congress party and joined Gandhi & non-cooperation movement and was a member of the Congress executive. Elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1923, he served it until 1929. He was president of Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha twice at Jabalpur in 1928 and Delhi at 1932.
In 1932, Kelkar served as a member of the London Round Table Conference with the British government to discuss India’s Independence. But after Gandhi withdrew his movement, Kelkar joined the Swarajya Party, formed with the aim of implementing reforms and entering the legislature to fight British politics.
Popularly known in Maharashtra as Sahitya Samrat (king of literature) Tatyasaheb Kelkar, he made Marathi readers and writers, truly fond of literature. He covered literary questions like: the relationship between humour andpoetry; the cause for laughter; what a metaphor decisively meant; the nature of the interrelationship between prose and verse and how it affects the classification of poetry; the nature of dramatic verses; how literary criticism is fed by memories; what is the role of legends, etc.
His interests included history, philosophy, political science, pedagogy, sociology, court cases, philosophy and politics. His body of work numbers around 15,000. The Kelkar Literary Series, consisting of 12 volumes, released in 1938, was followed by the Kelkar Essay Series (Sahyadri Volume). He wrote plays, novels, short stories, poems, essays, travelogues, biographies, memoirs, and literary reviews. His literary works include 10 plays, eight novels, two collections of poems, two collections of short stories, biographies, and 30 -40 critical treatises.
Associated with Shikshana Prasarak Mandali, Pune, established in 1904, he was the President of the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan held in Baroda in 1921 and it’s Secretary in Pune in 1927. He was Chairman of the first session of the Baroda Literary Council (1931) and the President of the Central Indian Poetry Conference held in Ujjain in 1931.
As Trustee of Tilak’s daily newspaper Kesari, established in 1881, he was the editor twice when Tilak was imprisoned in 1897 and 1908. He edited the magazine Sahyadri from 1935 to 1947.
Lokmanya Tilak Yanche Charitra, was his biography of Tilak; and Gatagoshti (1939) his autobiographical book.His notable plays were Totayache Band (1913) and Krishnarjuna Yuddha (1915). Among his critical works are Subhashit aani Vinod (1908), Marathe va Ingrej (1918), Rajyashastra (1932), Bharatiya Tattvajyan (1934), and Hasyavinodamimansa (1937).
At 65, Kelkar retired from public life for literary pursuits. He passed away aged 75, in Pune, barely two hoursafter after composing two poems on death.