KOLHAPUR, MAHARASHTRA Raised in a farming family in rural Maharashtra, where formal schooling was not part of the tradition, Senior Prof. (Dr.) Arjun Chavan became the first matriculate, graduate, postgraduate and doctorate in his family and village. He then built a career in Hindi, a language that is not his mother tongue

The Kolhapur-based scholar of Hindi literature, translation studies and Hindi–Marathi comparative literature has spent nearly four decades in teaching, research and writing. His record includes more than 65 books, over 150 research papers, the guidance of 60 research scholars and participation in more than 550 seminars and conferences.

A Teaching Career of 38 Years

Prof. Chavan started teaching in June 1986 at colleges in Sangli, Sarud, and Islampur. In July 1993, he joined the Department of Hindi at Shivaji University, Kolhapur, serving as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor, research guide, and Head of Department. Currently, he continues his academic engagement as an Honorary Professor.

He holds a PhD in Hindi, an MA in Hindi (Special) and a BEd in Hindi and History from Shivaji University. As Head he chaired the Departmental Research Committee and the Research Advisory Committee, and coordinated more than 35 seminars, conferences and workshops.

Guiding a Generation of Researchers

Under Chavan's supervision, 26 scholars earned PhDs and 34 earned MPhil degrees; two more are working towards the doctorate. Their research has examined writers such as Rajendra Yadav, Kamleshwar, Nirmal Verma, Krishna Sobti, Maitreyi Pushpa and Harishankar Parsai, Bhalchandra nemade and themes including women's discourse, rural life, Dalit consciousness and Hindi–Marathi comparative studies.

He has examined more than 500 PhD, D.Litt. and MPhil theses from universities across India and has edited 30 books, including textbooks for Shivaji University and the Maharashtra State Bureau of Textbook Production and Curriculum Research, Pune.

Translation as a Bridge Between Two Languages

Translation runs through Chavan's work. His books Anuvad Chintan (1998) and Anuvad: Samasyayen evam Samadhan (1999), both from Aman Prakashan, examine translation theory and practice; revised editions appeared in 2020. Two UGC-funded research projects followed: one on translation (1994–96) and one on the ideological dimension of major Hindi and Marathi novels (2003–06).

He has also carried Marathi writing to Hindi readers: Dadasaheb More's autobiography Gabal (as Deradangar), V. S. Khandekar's stories (Kshitij Sparsh aur Anya Kahaniyan), D. B. Ratnakar's poems (Hotel Mera Desh), Dr. Ravindra Thakur's play (Maheen Kranti Sangram), a stage adaptation of Shyam Manohar's novel Kal, and an editorial from Mooknayak, the periodical edited by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. His own travelogue, Mauritius: Ek Sanskritik Yatra, has been translated into Marathi.

Recognition from Delhi to Norway

On 30 April 2003 Chavan received the national award for non-Hindi-speaking Hindi writers from the Central Hindi Directorate, New Delhi, for Anuvad: Samasyayen evam Samadhan. The Rs. 50,000 award was presented by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The Maharashtra State Hindi Sahitya Akademi honoured Anuvad Chintan with the Pandit Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi Award (1997-98) and announced the Subramanya Bharati Sahitya Setu Lifetime Honour (Rs. 51,000) in 2015, presenting it in 2016.

Recent years have brought the Hindi Seva Samman (2019); the Mahakavi Kalidas Samman (17 March 2024) from Vishwa Hindi Shodh-Samvardhan Academy and Banaras Hindu University; a Life Time Achievement Award (23 March 2025); and, in 2026, the Hindi Sahitya Vibhushan Samman, the Sahityacharya Vibhushan Samman and the International Premchand Samman from the Indian-Norwegian Information and Cultural Forum. In all, he has received more than 50 awards.

Ghazals, Satire and a Poem a Day

He has also written 22 ghazal collections of 105 ghazals each, 2,310 ghazals in all, now in the final stage of publication. Titles include Ghazal @ India Dot Com, Kashti Lekar Hum Hain, Corona ki Kripa Se and Hamare Pyare Desh Se.

His satire collection Zara Yaad Karo Qurbani won the Maharashtra Hindi Parishad's best creative literature honour in 2005. His other works include the poetry volumes Jai Bolnewale and O Ri Praudyogiki and the story collection Goonga, Behra tatha Anya Kahaniyan. For five years he wrote one composition every day on friendship, a project that became the shayari collection Dastak Dosti ke Dastan ki.

Hindi on International Platforms

Prof. Chavan has taken part in more than 50 international seminars. He was invited to Mauritius (January 2015), Tashkent (2015 and 2016), Samarkand and Saint Petersburg (2016), and presented a paper in Moscow on India–Russia relations through language, literature and culture (27 May 2016). On 27 August 2025 he delivered a keynote at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, on "Hindi and Sinhala: Language, Literature and Culture".

During the pandemic he took part in more than 100 webinars. Between 4 and 27 October 2020, the TV news channel Vishwayatra Times News, Mumbai, broadcast 24 guidance lectures by him for NET/SET candidates and teachers.

Institutional Roles and Peer Tribute

Prof. Chavan chaired the Hindi faculty selection committee at the University of Calcutta (2017), served as Principal Secretary of the Maharashtra Hindi Parishad (1995–2000), and as a member of the Maharashtra State Hindi Sahitya Akademi (2002–05). He has sat on boards of studies at universities in Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka.

A 904-page felicitation volume, Ikkisvin Sadi ke Vividh Vimarsh: Prof. (Dr.) Arjun Chavan Abhinandan Granth, edited by Dr. Manohar Bhandare and published by Vani Prakashan, New Delhi, in 2023, gathers essays by writers and scholars from India and abroad. It was released at Shivaji University on 6 January 2024, where a short film on his life, Shunya se Shikhar ke Yatri, was also screened. Prof. Gangaprasad Sharma 'Gunshekhar' has called him a master physician of the ideas by which a society stays healthy.

Why His Work Matters

Prof. Chavan's career shows what a translator-scholar can do for a multilingual country. Standing between Marathi and Hindi, he has opened each literature to the other's readers. By supervising 60 researchers, he has trained a generation to study Hindi fiction, Dalit and Adivasi literature and women's discourse. And as a Hindi writer whose mother tongue is Marathi, he shows that a language grows through those who adopt it as well as those born into it.

Continuing Work

Prof. (Dr.) ArjunChavan remains active in independent creative and research writing. He continues to take part in national and international seminars and literary gatherings as chairperson, keynote speaker and expert, and serves as State President (Maharashtra) of the Vishwa Hindi Parishad, Delhi.

More than 25 books, among them songs, ghazals, poems, laghukatha, translation and criticism, are ready for publication. His areas of focus include translation studies, functional Hindi, Hindi–Marathi comparative literature and the ghazal.