R.D. Karve The Champion of Individual Liberty

by Khan, Nadeem; Deshmukh, Dr Anant

• ISBN13: 9780143475323
• ISBN10: 0143475320
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2025-09-23
• Publisher: Vintage Books

Summary

Raghunath Dhondo Karve was among the stormy and controversial figures of his time in Maharashtra. Born to Dhondo Keshav Karve, a social reformer who advocated for women’s rights and widow remarriage, RD Karve studied the subjects of birth control and the science of lovemaking. In 1927, Raghunath started the Samaaj Sawaasthya (Health of the Society) magazine in Marathi. The thoughts he propagated through this magazine were too radical for the society of his time and the orthodoxy who often raised obstacles and filed several cases against him. Originally written in Marathi by Dr Anant Deshmukh, and translated by Nadeem Khan, RD Karve: The Champion of Individual Liberty is a meticulously researched biography of a reformer and a social criticism of the times.

Author Biography

Dr Anant Deshmukh (Author)
Dr Anant Deshmukh is a researcher, critic and the biographer of social reformers of Maharashtra including Shridhar Pant, Shridhar Balwant Tilak, Dinanath Dalal and RP Paranjape. Dr Anant played a crucial role in mapping RD Karve’s life and bringing his biography to life. Having spent over twenty years teaching, Dr Anant’s research includes that of 19th century Maharashtra and literary criticism. He has published 45 books across genres including travelogues and short story collections.

Nadeem Khan (Translator)
Nadeem Khan has been a teacher of English since 1973. He was the founder-director of the Western Regional Centre of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, an autonomous institute run by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, from 2011 to 2018. He has translated well over a dozen books-mainly from Marathi into English-including Vishwas Patil's celebrated Marathi novel Panipat and Avadhoot Dongare's Sahitya Akademi Award-winning novel Swatahala Phaltu Samajnyaachi Gosht. He is the winner of the Valley of Words award for the best-translated book for the year 2020.