Bangalore: The celebrated writer in English K. Raja Rao who passed away at Austin (Texas) in the U.S. on Saturday was one who had his roots firmly in Karnataka and India though having spent most of his life in the West.

It is noteworthy that there were not many in the State to mourn his passing away even from among writers in Kannada and English.

The exception, perhaps, was Governor Triloki Nath Chaturvedi.

Raja Rao's family belonged to Kenchammana Hosakote village in Sakleshpur taluk of Hassan district. However, it had lived outside Karnataka for decades — Hyderabad.

His father Krishnaswamy was professor of Kannada in the Nizam's College in Hyderabad. His younger sister was the wife of well-known Kannada novelist Aa. Na. Krishna Rao.

The better known among his novels is undoubtedly "Kanthapura" as it is a simple tale about Brahmin orthodoxy of the 1920s and 1930s and the rising tide of freedom movement. It is cast around the coffee growing villages of Hassan district.

Controversy

A needless controversy had been raised when it was prescribed as a textbook for degree classes in the mid-1960s.

Some puritans had objected to certain phrases in the novel which are literal translations of some swear words in Kannada. The other writings of Raja Rao were philosophical and meant for the highbrow. He did not write for the common reader as in the case of R.K. Narayan. Raja Rao was among the first from the country to venture into writing in English and become a professional writer.

He was also the first to write on Kannada themes for the English readers.

He first moved to France from Hyderabad and studied at the universities of Montpellier and Sorbonne.

He was to live in France for long and had married a French woman, elder to him in age. Though living in the West, he had been influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and his views on economics.

Raja Rao had visited Bangalore several times.

At a reception accorded to him by the former Minister Haranahalli Ramaswamy over a decade ago, Raja Rao had said that the Gandhian path was the ideal one for India.

His short speech in English came as a disappointment for the gathering which had also expected him to speak in Kannada.

In his condolence message, the Governor said, "Indian literature in English suffered a major bereavement with the passing away of Raja Rao, one of the first Indian writers in English. Indian philosophical thoughts marked his writings that gained wide recognition the world over rather early in his writing career. Though he lived abroad for most part of his life, his thinking was very Indian and a rare combination of literature and philosophy. Along with his contemporaries like Narayan and Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao enriched Indian literature in English which will continue to be remembered by posterity. All his novels and short stories made great impact on the readers as they touched their minds and hearts. His death has caused a void in the literary world that is hard to fill. I offer my heartfelt condolences to the members of the family and the multitude of his admiring readers."

Condoling the passing away of the writer, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy said that Raja Rao enriched English literature. His passing away was a big loss for literature which was hard to make up.

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