Tukaram Bhaurao alias Shivshahir Annabhau Sathe was born on August 1, 1920 in a small village of Wategaon in Walwa Taluka of Sangli District. Anna spent her life in the Chiragnagar slum of Mumbai. Annabhau’s masterpieces were created in this slum. Annabhau’s powers of observation were very subtle. Dramatism is also a distinguishing feature of his writing style. The speed and impulse of the moment from the lives of the marginalized, which Annabhau felt, continues to be felt in his writings. His ability to realize the flexible motifs in the writing is also independent. He had sacrificed everything on the writing style. Annabhau Sathe, who did not even go to school, strengthened and enriched all forms of Marathi literature such as folk poetry, stories, plays, folk dramas, novels, films, powade, lavanya, vag, gavalan, travelogue. He has produced 37 novels, 19 story collections, 14 folk plays, 11 powades, 3 plays, hundreds of songs, Lavanya, Chakadi; This is really surprising. Annabhau Sathe’s literature has become a direction and a catalyst for change. The contribution of this material in the overall construction and transformation of Maharashtra has been significant. This literature like Ajramar tried to capture the innermost being of the marginalized. As an instinctive intellectual, one can take a look at his literature. Even today, a large number of students and scholars are seen researching this literature.
Many famous writers were neglected during their lifetime. Just as the literature of Mahatma Jotirao Phule was neglected in his time, Annabhau Sathe was also neglected. Annabhau’s literature has been criticized as formalistic, colourful, flamboyant and flamboyant, based on extra-literary inspiration. Kusumavati Deshpande, who wrote the Marathi ‘Century of Novels’, who is Annabhau Sathe? That was the question. Yes, Annabhau was a writer who believed in social commitment, took up the weapon of social change and wrote. He was closely associated with the communist movement. But the common laborers, Dalits, marginalized and disenfranchised men and women were at the center of his literature. Critics may have found his literature preachy, cheesy, but thousands of readers literally reread his stories. Struggle and rebellion are strongly felt everywhere in his literature. His characters convey the sufferings of the oppressed Dalit masses realistically to the readers. His characters like ‘Nilu Mang, Makul Mulani, Bhomkya, Phula, Nasru, Dada Nhavi’ made Maharashtra go crazy. His penchant for the common man and his penchant for depicting their happiness, revealed in his literature, captivated the readers. Readability was not only an important feature of his literature, but at the same time, as the very intelligent invention of the Marathi mind and Maharashtrian cultural specialties was enriched in all his writings like stories and novels, his literature was more preferred by the readers.
Annabhau’s distinction was that he had not received any formal schooling. He says at one place, ‘I have tried to put into words what I myself have lived, seen and experienced. I have met many of the characters in my literature. The diversity of Annabhau’s literature, his grip on language is so powerful that one would be surprised in his writing. Initially, he wrote reports, interviews and articles in ‘Lokyudh’, ‘Yugantar’. Wrote ‘Watel Te’ and ‘Have Te’. Also wrote in daily like ‘Maratha’. The first story was written in the Communist Party’s ‘Mashal’ weekly.
Annabhau addressed socio-political, religious and family problems in many of his stories. He created rebellious heroines of independent women and fighting heroes of the lower castes. In his story ‘Bandwala’, there is a young man from the Mang community who fights against the injustice of the landlord. The story ‘Ramoshi’ depicts how Yadu Ramoshi struggles against the injustice of the landlord and the corrupt government system. ‘Kabaddichor’ depicts how the common man is forced to steal because of poverty and hunger, even after getting freedom. The story ‘Barbadya Kanjari’ shows the miserable condition of the nomadic community in the slums of Mumbai and the inhuman practices of the caste panchayat. It depicts how Barbadya and his daughter rebel by challenging the caste panchayat. Many of the stories in Anna Bhau’s collection of stories ‘Gajaaad’ show the coercion of sensitive people he met in prisons. In the story ‘Jivant Kadtoos’ he highlights the achievements of his friend in the Indian freedom struggle of 1942. Annabhau spent some years of his life in Chiragnagar, a slum in Ghatkopar, Mumbai. The life of the poor, addicts, adulterers, thieves, gangsters, mavalis, neglected, wandering people, their life struggle is found in the stories of Annabhau’s collection ‘Chiragnagarchi Bhutan’. His story ‘Gold in the Graveyard’ depicts the country’s underprivileged and conveys a sense of collective responsibility in eradicating that suffering. In the story ‘Maryaicha Gada’, the character Nana in this story challenges superstitions. Dr. The new self-awareness that came to the Dalit-untouchable society due to the movement led by Babasaheb Ambedkar is also found in the stories ‘Valan’, ‘Sapala’ by Anna Bhau. The message that Dalits should stop disposing of dead cattle and eating its meat. Babasaheb had given it. That message had created a tense situation in many villages in Maharashtra, where Dalits had to face boycott. Many Dalits also found it difficult to give up their old habits of eating dead meat. The depiction of this conflict is also found in Annabhau’s stories like ‘Valan’ and ‘Sapala’. Due to the caste hierarchy in the Indian society, the story of ‘Upkarachi Fed’ depicts how the feeling of superior-inferiority grows even in the Chambhar-Mang society.
Annabhau also wrote more than 30 novels in his short life of writing. Apart from that, Marathi films were also made by famous directors based on seven novels. The novel ‘Fakira’ also won the state government’s best novel award in 1961 and the then senior writer Vs. S. Khandekar also praised the novel. In ‘Fakira’ dedicated to Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s fighting pen, there is a depiction of a fighting young man from the Mang community, a fakir who looted British treasures and grain and distributed it to the poor and Dalits during a severe drought. The novel ‘Fakira’ presents the representative protest of the Indian people against the British oppressive rule. The novel ‘Vaijayanta’ depicts the exploitation of women artists working in Tamasha for the first time. Annabhau’s entire literature is filled with the insistence of judicial social structure. ‘Makdi Di Mal’ is the first novel in Indian literature to depict the lifestyle of a nomadic society in a very subtle way. But it too has not been properly noted by the so-called critics.
He addressed many social and political issues through his songs and poems. Bengal Famine, Telangana Struggle, Punjab-Delhi Powada, Ammalner Martyrs, Black Market Powada, Mumbai Plantation on United Maharashtra Movement, Maji Maina, ‘Leader of Unity’ on Labor Movement to Stalingrad Powada against Hitler’s Fascism, Bílan Powada, ‘Chinese People’s Liberation Army’ on Chinese Revolution praise And Dr. The famous song ‘Jag Badal Vajgi Ghav-Sanguni Gele Mala Bhimrao’ on Babasaheb Ambedkar has done a great job of breaking the national and international issues through many songs, poems and powadas.
Annabhau is credited with giving the art of Tamasha the status of folk drama. Annabhau used the term ‘folk drama’ to escape from the ban on spectacles and popularized the term by writing folk dramas such as Akle’s Story, Khapraya Chor, Bhatraksha Ghotale, Shetji’s Election, Majhi Mumbai etc. He raised economic, social, political and cultural issues through this folk drama. Capitalists, moneylenders exploiting farmers, Shetjibhatji were the targets of his criticism. By creating a character named ‘Dhondya’, he literally threw stones at the attitudes of Punjapati. Enlightened and transformed. Created a class war, empowered Marathi people to stand against all forms of exploitation. Along with giving pleasure to Kalananda, he cultivated the Marathi mind. Annabhau with his progressive-egalitarian, scientific views radically changed the traditional, mythological tamasha. He also broke the Ganesha Vandana at the beginning of the Tamasha and first saluted brave men like Vandu Bhucharana and Chhatrapati Shivaji Raja. In short, he introduced a new practice of worshiping man instead of God. He also cut off Gavalni’s use of obscene language in the pageant. Annabhau conducted Satyashodaki Jalsa of Mahatma Phuli and Dr. Ambedkari Jalsa in Babasaheb Ambedkar’s movement carried forward the revolutionary tradition of mass education through a new folk drama. He made the elite white cells of Marathi and Indian literature and culture cry. Therefore, Annabhau’s literature was also translated into English, Hindi, Russian, French, Czech and other world languages. Baburao Bagul, a veteran Marathi writer and promoter of Dalit literature, compared Annabhau to the well-known Russian writer Maxim Gorky and hailed him as the ‘Maharashtra’s Maxim Gorky’.
He went to Russia in 1961 on the invitation of the Indo-Soviet Cultural Society of Russia. His travelogues on them became popular. His personality was full of various talents. He acted well. With a tambourine in hand, Shahiri Kawane sings with great passion. He also plays instruments like bulbul, flute, harmonium. Turn the strap. Apart from his own writings, he also wrote many articles and book reviews in the Maratha newspapers of Navayug, Yugantar and Acharya Atre.
But Annabhau’s last days were miserable. A life of poverty and solitude came to them. He was ignored by the Marathi literary elite. He died in poverty in Siddharth Nagar of Goregaon. Annabhau Sathe was a haunted writer. The immense suffering, poverty and ignorance spread around Avati were the subjects of his contemplation and writing. He produced this material in a span of only twenty years. Although many of these materials have been published, many are still unpublished or on the verge of extinction. Conflict is the lifeblood of Annabhau’s literature. What is the struggle for? for whom And against whom these questions came. The struggle in Annabhau’s stories and novels is against exploitation and system. It is for Dalits-oppressed-exploited-underprivileged. He is to bring them justice and dignity. Freedom from exploitation was his obsession. He fought throughout his life to end the exploitation of not only Maharashtra but all the toilers, dalits, oppressed and victims of the whole earth. He sacrificed his whole life to dream of a classless society. Shaheer Annabhau Sathe, Shaheer Amar Shaikh and Shaheer D.N. have done an important job of rooting the United Maharashtra movement in the minds of the people. Gavankar did. Shahir performed his Lalbawata Kalapatka programs in thousands of places in various parts of the border region including Mumbai, Marathwada, Vidarbha, Konkan, West Maharashtra. People were inspired by him. In real sense, Annabhau Sathe was an idealist democrat, a folk writer.