Kolhapur: Noted Ambedkarite thinker Krishna Kirwale was on March 3 found murdered under mysterious circumstances in the Kolhapur district of Maharashtra, western India. He was 62.
The murder has sent shockwaves across Maharashtra.
Kirwale was a former professor at Kolhapur’s Shivaji University who headed the Marathi language department. He was found stabbed to death in his home in Rajendranagar area of Kolhapur.
The police, who reached the spot late afternoon, said the professor stayed in his bungalow. The police believe some trivial issue such as non-payment of some household items might have led to the murder. Investigation was still on, the police said.
Kirwale also headed the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Centre for Research and Development. He was a firebrand progressive and wrote extensively to expound Dr. Ambedkar’s philosophy. His writings on the Dalit movement are widely respected and highly acclaimed, reports The Hindu.
Born in 1954, Kirwale was educated in Aurangabad’s Milind College and was influenced by the writings of Aurangabad-based Dalit writer Dr. Gangadhar Pantawne, under whose spell he came in the late 1960s, whilst still in his teens.
He completed his doctorate in the Marathi language from the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University in 1987. He also acquired a Bachelor’s degree in Dramatics from the same university in 1983.
Among his major contributions was a ‘Dictionary of Dalit and Gramin (Rural) Literatures,’ a project undertaken under the aegis of the state government. Among his other books was a biography of pioneering Dalit litterateur, Baburao Bagul.
He also lectured widely, on a myriad of issues in Ambedkarite literature in particular, and Marathi literature in general.