Vidyadhar Gokhale

Vidyadhar Gokhale
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
In office 1989–1991
Preceded by	Sharad Dighe
Succeeded by	Sharad Dighe
Constituency	Mumbai North Central
Editor of Loksatta
Succeeded by	Madhav Yeshwant Gadkari
Personal details
Born	(1924-01-04)4 January 1924 Amravati, Maharashtra
Died	26 September 1996(1996-09-26) (aged 72) Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
Political party	Shiv Sena
Children	Vijay Gokhale
Source: [1]

Vidyadhar S. Gokhale (Devanagari: विद्याधर गोखले) (4 January 1924 – 26 September 1996) was a political activist, a Marathi playwright, and an editor of a Marathi newspaper, Loksatta (लोकसत्ता), from Maharashtra, India.

Early life

Vidyadhar Gokhale was born in Amravati, Maharashtra. His father Sambhajirao Gokhale was a leader of the Indian National Congress and a Minister in the Central Provinces Government. Vidyadhar was influenced by the writings and thoughts of Veer Wamanrao Joshi.

He studied in Amravati and went to Mumbai in 1944. He was a post graduate in Marathi and Sanskrit. He taught in the General Education Society's School at Kurla.

Career

After teaching in Kurla, Gokhale became a journalist. Initially, he was the editor of a Marathi weekly. Between 1960 to 1983, he wrote about 60 plays and 66 songs for Sangeet Nataks. He is credited for the revival of the Sangeet Nataks. His plays consist of varied themes like historical, mythical and social issues. He also established an organisation called "Rangasharada" for the purpose of launching plays.

Writing career

He wrote novel Jhanjhawat (झंझावात ) and the following musical plays:

• Suvarna Tula (सुवर्णतुला) (1960)
• Panditraj Jagannath (पंडितराज जगन्नाथ) (1960)
• Mandarmala (मंदारमाला) (1963)
• Madanachi Manjiri (मदनाची मंजिरी) (1965)
• Jai Jai Gauri Shankar (जय जय गौरीशंकर)
• Bawannkhani (बावन्नखणी)

He formed Ranga Sharada Pratishthan (रंगशारदा प्रतिष्ठान) to stage the above plays.

He presided over Marathi Sahitya Sammelan in Satara in 1993.

Political career

He had represented Mumbai North Central in 9th Lok Sabha in 1989–91 as Shiv Sena candidate. Throughout his life, he was affiliated with socio-political organizations like RSS, Hindu Mahasabha which are proponents of Hindutva ideology, and was associated with their leaders like Veer Savarkar, Pu Bha Bhave, Balasaheb Deoras.

Personal life

He had married two sisters before polygamy was outlawed, and thus had two wives. His son Vijay Gokhale is an actor. Gokhale's grandson, Omkar Dadarkar, is a singer.

External links

• Official Biographical Sketch in Lok Sabha Website