Wednesday, Apr 13, 2005
Wednesday, Apr 13, 2005 |
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Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Karnataka
By R. Krishna Kumar
A file photograph of C.D. Narasimhaiah (right) with the Maharaja of Mysore, Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar, who addressed students at the Maharaja's College about 45 years ago. Prof. Narasimhaiah was the principal of the college at that time. By special arrangement
MYSORE, APRIL 12. C.D. Narasimhaiah, English scholar who died in Bangalore on Tuesday, was born in Closepet, now Ramanagaram, in May 1921 and was educated at the Universities of Mysore and Cambridge. He held a Rockefeller Fellowship at Princeton University and was a Professor of English, University of Mysore, from 1950 to 1979. He was the principal of Maharaja's College, Mysore between 1957 and 1962. After his retirement in 1979, Prof. CDN, as he is known among his students and admirers, established Dhvanyaloka and the Literary Criterion Centre for English Studies and Indigenous Arts, which emerged as a major hub of scholarship and excellence not only for English studies but also art and culture. Prof. CDN was a Fulbright Visiting Lecturer at Yale (1958-59), Visiting Professor at the University of Queensland, Australia (1963), Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla (1968), Leeds University, U.K. (1971-72) and Texas University, U.S., during 1972-73 and 1975-76. He was the Resident Scholar, International Research Centre, Bellagio, Italy (1980 and 1988), and Fellow, International Institute of Arts and Letters, Switzerland (1970), and Fellow Leonardo da Vinci Centre, Rome. In recognition of his contribution to the field of academics and literature, Prof. CDN was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1990 and a D. Litt. by the University of Mysore in 2001 and by Bangalore University in 2005 A prolific writer whose essays in English were regarded with respect by academics and scholars of English around the world, Prof. Narasimhaiah edited and published innumerable works, including Jawaharlal Nehru: A Study of His Writings and Speeches; The Human Idiom (The Art of Jawaharlal Nehru); The Swan and the Eagle; Raja Rao, Novelist; Moving Frontiers of English Studies in India; The Function of Criticism in India; Indian Critical Scene: Controversial Essays; N for Nobody, an Autobiography of an English Teacher; Imagined Commonwealt;; Kipling's India, and Bhakti in Indian Literature.
Years with R.K. Narayan
Prof. CDN's association with the late novelist R.K. Narayan is part of local folklore. When Narayan died in May 2001, Prof. CDN recalled the long walks along the Kukkarahalli Lake that he used to take with the novelist every Thursday to submit the manuscripts to The Hindu, which would publish his weekly articles on Sundays. He considered it a privilege to have discussed another R.K. Narayan classic The Guide, from its evolution to its culmination, with the author. "I was still a student when Narayan published his classic Swami And Friends, but by the time he finished The Guide, I was a Professor of English at Maharaja's College," he had recalled. English scholars are unanimous in crediting him with inspiring a generation of students and writers such as A.K. Ramanujam and Prof. U.R. Ananthamurthy. Most professors of English in the University of Mysore, who are his students, recalled that one could completely disagree with him and yet remain friends. A large number of academics, scholars, students and people from various walks of life rushed to Dhvanyaloka to offer their condolences and express their grief at Prof. CDN's death.
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