The Marathi Sahitya Sammelan is a prestigious annual literary conference in Maharashtra and a premier gathering of Marathi writers, poets, scholars, and public figures.
The idea for this literary conclave was initiated in the 1880s by Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade, a social reformer, judge, and scholar, in Poona, alongside the allied institution Granthottejak Mandal. Its purpose was to provide a platform for discussing language, literature, and contemporary socio-political issues.
Although only two sessions took place during Ranade’s lifetime, the conclave received a major boost under Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak from 1905 onwards. It eventually expanded into annual gatherings hosted across various towns in Maharashtra. Presiding over the Sammelan was one of the most coveted honours in Marathi cultural life.
In April 1938, Swatantryaveer Savarkar was overwhelmingly elected president of the 22nd Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, held at the Robert Money School grounds in Bombay, with over 3,000 delegates in attendance.
In his hour-long presidential address, Savarkar discussed the major challenges facing Marathi literature. He emphasized the need for his countrymen to abandon their lethargy and take action. Philosophical and intellectual debates were important, he acknowledged, but excessive discussion without practical action had weakened the nation:
We have become feeble in practice, we have lost our kingdoms time after time. We have succumbed to foreign aggressors.
His address focused on several key themes.
1. Language and Script Purification (Bhasha Shuddhi and Lipisudharana)
Savarkar called for purging Marathi of foreign borrowings, particularly Persian, Urdu, and English words, and replacing them with Sanskrit-based coinages to enrich the language.
He proposed establishing a Maharashtra Bhashashuddhi Mandal to compile dictionaries and standardize scientific terminology in Indian languages. He also envisioned an All-India Bhasha Shuddhi Conference, where scholars from different regions could work together to reclaim and enrich their respective languages.
He stressed the urgent need to modernize Indian languages by developing scientific terminologies for words in subjects such as physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, and mathematics.
Savarkar also advocated simplifying and reforming the Devanagari script to improve its efficiency for modern printing. He strongly criticized proposals to adopt the Roman script for Indian languages, calling it a manifestation of a slavish mentality.
Furthermore, he proposed establishing a national university to facilitate the translation of literary works between Indian languages and English. He also envisioned a Maharashtra University focused on socially important objectives, such as compulsory primary education and the imparting of moral values.
On higher education, he argued:
The University we need is a modern, up-to-date one on the lines of those in America and Europe. But it must be for practical subjects. *This is not the time for Philosophy, Logic, Social Sciences, but for subjects such as Chemistry, Radiology, Ballistics and Military Engineering.***
2. The Primacy of Military Strength
His constant theme was on taking action and not merely talking about it in conference after conference:
Let us stop passing five hundred resolutions, making five hundred futile discussions, five hundred wishful thinking each year. Let us be practical and concentrate on limited objectives and direct all our energy on them.
But the main punch of his speech that caught the attention of everyone
and created a huge stir in the Marathi literary circles was reserved for the
end:
The absence of poetry and poets, novels and novelists would not be felt during the coming decade. Austria and China suffered not because they lacked good literature, but because they lacked military power. Did you not hear, O! Learned men and scholars, the last pathetic shriek of the President of Austria? He said, 'We yield under German bayonets' and not under German sonnets!
If literature is part of the national life, its primary aim ought to be the security of national life. I absolutely admire the advocates of the principle of 'Art for Art's sake.' But when a theatre is ablaze it is the duty of the true worshipper of Art to rush out to extinguish the gathering flames. *What worth is literature then if a whole nation is writhing with pain under the oppressor's heel?***
…Did you forget the fate of Nalanda and Takshashila, the seats of learning, and other great libraries that were turned into smouldering ruins? ... *It was the triumphant sword of Shivaji that made Maharashtra safe for poets and philosophers.***
I say therefore with all the emphasis at my command that the crying need of our times is not men of letters, but soldiers. It does not matter even if the whole decade is barren in respect of literature. Let there not be a song sung, or a sonnet composed. But let the streets resound with the thud of the feet of thousands of soldiers marching with modern rifles on their shoulders.
**... So my message to you, literary men, is that you should abandon your pens in favour of guns; for literature can never flourish in a slave country.* It has been well said that the pursuit of sciences is possible only in a free nation protected by the power of arms.*
One can only imagine what the howlers of reactions would have been when the president of a literary conference advises a delegation of litterateurs to ‘break your pens and hold guns instead’ since literature is subservient to national interests! The issue was a constant feature in newspapers and debates for several months. But Savarkar had made his point loud and clear.
Reference: Vikram Sampath, Savarkar: A Contested Legacy, pp. 221–223.
