Veteran Scholar, Author Dr SR Ramaswamy (88 years) no more.

Bengaluru: Veteran Scholar, Author, Former President of Rashtrotthana Parishat Dr SR Ramaswamy (88 years) passes away in Bengaluru.

Condolences: RSS Sarakaryavah Dattatreya Hosabale, Sah Sarakaryavah Mukunda CR, Kshetriya Sanghachalak Dr. P. Vaman Shenoy, Kshetriya Karyavah N Thippeswamy, Karnataka Dakshin Prant Sanghachalak G S Umapathi, Prant Karyavah Dr. M. Jayaprakash and other prominent personalities expressed their deep condolences for the demise of Dr. S.R.Ramaswamy.

Dr S. R. Ramaswamy is a  multifaceted scholar, a senior journalist deeply rooted in nationalism, a selfless social worker of various dimensions, a prolific writer in several languages, a polymath and a polyglot, an unassuming thinker and visionary of very high order.

Since sixty years, Dr. SRR is tirelessly working for the cause of the true heritage that India has inherited since time immemorial. While doing so, he himself is standing as a monumental example of the values for which he is vocal about in all these six decades.
Though Dr. SRR hailed from a family of scholars and creative persons, he is a self-made person to the core. From childhood it self he had a deep affinity for Indian culture which is essentially rooted in spirituality. Being inspired by the life of Swami Vivekananda and Sri Ramana Maharshi, he got equipped in various shaastra-s and arts that reflected the same spirit. 
Padmabhushan Dr. D.V. Gundappa, popularly known as DVG, the doyen of Modern Kannada literature and a visionary, philosopher, ace journalist  and one among the makers of modern India had a lasting impact on SRR and as he voluntarily worked as his personal secretary for over two decades. Here he got introduced to various aspects Indian philosophy, classical poetry,  journalism, public life, social service, study of classics, life enrichment and many more. In one one word, DVG became his life-leading guru for ever.

Dr.SRR is a blessed man in the real sense as he has/had lot of deep and meaningful interactions as well as long standing personal contacts with a very large number of people whose eminence, erudition, service, wisdom and achievements were/are astounding and this has been so beyond the frontiers of age, ideology and nationality. Above all, he has commanded respect and admiration, love and affection from all the luminaries.  In his teens itself he had deep acquaintance with many such octogenarians and now in his eighties he is quite comfortable with the youth talent. Thus he has been an active witness and an insightful observer of a time span of one hundred and fifty years.
Great scholars, poets and writers of eminence like  Dr. Masti Venkatesha Iyangar, Dr. Rallapalli Ananthakrishna Sharma, Dr. V. Seetaramaiah, K. S. Narashimhaswamy, pandita-pravara M. Lakshaminarasimhashatray (under whom he studied the Veda-s and the Vedanta as expounded by the great master shankaracharya), mahaamahOpaadhyaaya N. Ranganatha Sharma (he gave insights into Sanskrit grammar) and many more enriched SRR in various ways. His uncle Dr. S. Srikanthashastry, a world renowned historian was of great inspiration to him. It is due to his influence, he learnt several foreign languages like the German, French, Spanish and Italian. Due to a wider public contact and sustained interest in literature,  Dr. SRR  learnt several Indian languages like Telugu, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and Bengali apart from classical Sanskrit, Pali and Classical Kannada.

Dr. SRR is well informed in Indian classical music too. He knowledge of both the Hindustani and Karanatic music is praise worthy. It is due to this prowess, he was a music critic for several years in The Indian Express. Many great maestros of Indian music like Mallikarjuna Manasur, Basasvaraja Rajaguru,  Ramarao Naik, N,. Chennakeshavaiah, Veenaa  Rajarao, Ratnagiri Subbashastri and otheers were personally known to him. Even in the filed of Indian dance his understanding is sound. His constant guidance and involvement in bringing-out a book like Bharatanaatya digdarshana though the Dance-guru V. S. Kaushik is a good testimony for this. by His understanding of visual arts like the painting and sculpture are singularly note worthy.  His edited work on the art of Svetoslav Rorich is an ample proof for this. He himself is an accomplished photographer and has written extensively on the life and works of many photographers too.

As a journalist, Dr. SRR had lot of contacts and interactions with many leading Editors,  Columnists and News makers of India and abroad. Above all, he was close to very many luminaries in the walk of public life that is essentially devoted to service, nationalism and  culture. Apart from people of social eminence like Prof. P. Kodanda Rao, Veerakesari Seetarama Sastry, T. T. Sharma, M. H.Mari Gauda,Yadavarao Joshi, Dattopanta Thengadi, H. V. Sheshadri, Deendayal Upadhyaya, Balasaheb Devarasji, Rajjubhaiyahji, Surdarshan ji, N. Krishnappa, Jayadev, Ajit Kumar and many more in the order of RSS were and are very close to him and all of them have been indebted by his learning and erudition.

Dr. SRR has been an active worker at various levels in the lore of environmentalism. He is both and scholar and practitioner for the cause of nature and ecology leading to sustainable development. In Karnataka, he perhaps, is the first voice to raise concern against environmental disasters and nature-exploitation. Apart from presenting realistic and well researched papers in various seminars, journals and conferences, he has toiled himself as a worker and a volunteer in these areas. His writings on the ecology of the western ghats, Social forestry,  effects of mono-culture plantations, preservation of grasslands, Bio-diversity, Water management, Greening the wastelands etc are path-breaking in the true sense.

After serving DVG for two decades, Dr. SRR joined the well known Kannada weekly Sudhaa, as its assistant editor and worked for a decade or so. Here his achievements were singularly unique. Later he joined the Kannada monthly Utthaana, published by the Raashtrotthaana Sahitya, as its editor and in spite of his advancing age and challenging health, he is still extending his good offices to all the activities of Raashtrotthaana. Apart from this, he is also serving the great institution, Gokhale Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA), founded by his mentor D V Gundapa, as its honorary Secretary and the work he is turning out there is phenomenal to say the least.
Dr. SRR is obviously a voracious reader and a prolific writer to say the least. However, he has no great enthusiasm in maintaining his writings for posterity. His timely articles and papers which easily cross one to two thousand in number have appeared in various Dailies, Weeklies, Monthlies,  magazines, journals and many felicitation as well as commemoration volumes. Apart from this, he has delivered numerous invited talks and lectures that were organized by several academic and research bodies of eminence.
He has extensively written on themes such as the Sustainable development, National and international policies on growth and development, Economics, Sociology and Social service, Ecology and Environmental sciences, History, Journalism and Public affairs, Indian culture and literature, Philosophy and Aesthetics to mention a few. Apart from his original writings, he has critically edited, reviewed, scrutinized, indexed, translated, abridged and retold many works. Many of them are obviously first or best in their kind. Every where his thoroughness, scrupulousness, erudition, authenticity, diligence, originality and clarity are reflected. His language, either Kannada or English, is flawless, impeccable, lucid, profound, chaste and classical in diction and dignity. This goes as a wonderful match with his authority on the subject as well.  His insight into any issue that he is dealing with is unmistakably clear. Unless, he has a clear and meaningful say on any thing, he would not ink.
Dr. SRR has more than sixty books to his credit. Some of the most important titles include “mahaabhaaratada belavaNige” ( a first of its kind book on the critical edition of the great epic), manObOdha, sangha-gitaa, sUkti-sanchaya, aanada-maTha, bhaaratiya-ciitta, maanasa, kaala(translations from Marathi, Sanskrit, Bengali and Hindi).  He has abridged and translated the works like “Aryan Invasion:  A myth” and “The beautiful Tree” into Kannada. 

 His epoch making works like “Shatamaanada tiruvinalli bhaarata” “aarthikateya eraDu dhruva” (“In the woods of globalization” his own English rendition), “svadEshi jaagRti”, “svadeshi ; ondu samvaada”, “bhaaratadalli samaaja-kaarya: nele, hinnle, munnOTa”, “svaatantryOdayada maili-gallugaLu”, “mataantara : ondu samvaada”, “kaaragil kampana”, “kelavu itihaasa-parvagaLu”,”naagaraikaategaLa samgharSha” are inimitable. Here, in these works he gives a clear econimic, social and political blue print for our nation’s well-being which is well rooted in our heritage and tradition. His recent works like “kvaLige” and “dhruvajala” are also significant.

Dr. SRR has extensively written on many great lives that have inspired and continue to do so. In his monographs and collections of pen-pictures like the “deevaTigegaLu’, “deeptimantaru” and “navOtthaanada adhvaryugaLu” he has given an unforgettable, authentic and intimate sketch of many great souls from whom he directly or indirectly got inspired. These include luminaries like DVG, Subhaash Chandra Bose, Vishveshwarayyya, Keshava Balirama Hedgevar, Sardar patel, Madanmohan Malaviya, Rabindranath Thakur, Udayashankar, Sripada Damodara Satavalekar, jayaprakash Narayan and many more. He has even translated over a dozen engaging novels from Telugu to Kannada. AIR, BBC and Doordarshan too have transmitted/telecast his talks several times.

PUBLISHED WORKS

Independent Works
1. Mahabharatada Belavanige (Growth of the Mahabharata’). Kannada. 1972.

2. D.V.G. Biography, Kannada, 1976

3. Udaya Shankar, Biography, Kannada, 1979.

4. Sripad Damodar Satwalekar. Biography. Kannada 1980.

5. Shatamanada Tiruvinalli Bharata (“India at the turn of the century”). Kannada 1989.

6. Swadeshi Jagruti, Kannada, 1994.

7. Swadeshi : Ondu Samvada (Swadeshi: A Dialogue) Kannada 1994.

8. Arthikateya Eradu Dhruva (“Two Extremities of the Economic Spectrum”).Kannada 1994.
   
9. In the woods of Globalisation, English 1995.
10. Kolminchu, Biography of Netaji Subhashchandra Bose. Kannada, 1996.
11. Deevatibgegalu (“Torchbearers”) Biographical Memories, Kannada, 1998.
12. Jayaprakash Narayan. Biography. Kannada.2000.
13. Sardar Vallabhabhai Patel. Biography. Kannada.2000.
14. Sri Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya. Biography. Kannada. 2000. Republished 2010.
15. Magadi lakshminarasimha Sastri. Biography. Kannada. 2001. Na
16. garikategala Sangharsha” (“Civilizational Conflicts). 2009.
17. Sahiti-Samarangana_saravabhouma Krishnadevaraya”. 2009.
18. Kautilyana Arthashastra. 2009.
    Sookti-Saptati (Anthology of Samskrit Epigrammatic verses with commentary). 2010.
19. Kelavu Itihasa-Parvagalu (Historical Essays). 2010.
20. Bharata-Bhaskara Rabindra Nath Tagore. 2011.
21. Deeptimantaru. Biographical memoirs. 2011.
22. Dhruvajala. Exploratory eassy on foundations of Bharatiya Culture from a historical and Social Perspective, 2011.
23. Yajurvedada Belakinalli Jeevana-paripoornate. 2012.
24. Navotthanada pathadarshaka Swami Vivekananda. 2013.
25. Kavalige (Literary Lectures and Eassays). 2014.
26. Sokti_Sanchaya (A Collection of 75 epigrammatic verses in Sanskrit, with new commentary explaining their wider dimensions of meaning and contemporary relevance). 2015.
27. Vivekananda Sandesha-kaumudi. Essays Exploring the contextuality, extended implicatins and ceaseless relevance of the utterances of Swami Vivekananda. 2016.
28. Navotthanada Adhwaryugalu. Kannada. An interpretative chronicle describing the historic and varied accomplishments of the pioneers of Indian Renaissance from end of 18th century to early-twentieth century. 2016.
29. Deeptashringagalu (‘Luminous pinnacles’). 2017
30. Agnipathike Nivedita.(‘The Undaunted Pilgrim’)Kannada. An episodic bird’s-eye view of the life, personality and struggles of Sister Nivedita(1867-1911). 2019
    

Translations
(from Sanskrit, Bengali, Marathi, Hindi, English, Telugu to Kannada ; Kannada to English

1. ‘Patra-guchcha’ – Nehru : A Bunch of Old Letters (Co-translated with K. S. Narasimha Swamy). Kannada. 1975.

2. Dr. Hedgewar : The Epochmaker. English. (Translated from Kannada). 1981.

3. “Manobodha” of Samarth Ramadas (Translated from Marathi). Kannada. 1982.

4. “Mahavedha” by Chivukula Purushottam (Translated from Telugu). Serial Publication. 1987.

5. “Sangh-Gita”. English. (Translated from Sanskrit). 1987.

6.“Bharata jagruti” by Dharampal (Translated from English). Kannada 1989.

7. “Aryara Akramana : Budavillada Vada” (“Aryan Invasion_A Myth”) by N. R. Waradpande. Kannada. (Translated from English.) 1991.

8. “Top Writer” by Punuganti (Translated from Telugu_). Serial Publication. 1992.

9. “I.C.C.U.” by Chittarvu Mdhu (Translated from Telugu). Serial Publication 1994-95; as book 2002.

10.“Bharatiya Chitta, Manasikate, Kala” by Dharampal (Translated from Hindi) 1996.

11. “Kattiyalugina Setuve” by Panuganti (Translated from Telugu). Serial Publication. 1996.

12. “Sevaparha” by Brajendrapal Singh (Translated from Hindi). English. 1997.

13.“Bye-bye Poloniya” by Chittarvu madhu (Translated from Telugu). Serial Publication. 1997-98.

14.“Jedara Bale” by Chittarvu madhu (Translated from Telugu). Serial Publication 2002-2003.

15. “Houde?” by Chittarvu Madhu (Translated from Telugu). Serial Publicatin. 2001.

16. “Shilube Mattu Kodavaru” by K. B. Ganapati (Translated from English). Serial Publication. 2005.

17. “Anandamath” by Bankim Chandra (Translated from Hindi). Serial Publication 2006; as book 2007.

18. “Roopayingalu Baruttive, jagrate!” by Prabhakar Jaini (Translated from Telugu). Serial Publication. 2008.

19.“Asidhara” by Kasturi Muralikrishna (Translated from Telugu). Serial Publicatio. 2009-10.

20. “Mahayajna” by Akunuri Muralikrishna (Translated from Telugu). Serial Publication. 2010-2011.

21. “Endu Yava Anubandhavo!” by Potturi Vijayalakshmi (translated from Telugu). Serial Publication. 2011.

22.“Vishwaprayatna” by Akunuri Muralikrishna (Translated from Telugu). Serial publication. 2012-2013.

23. “Target Number Two” by G. Nageshwara Rao (Translated from Telugu). Serial publication. 2013-2014.

24. “Rahasya Lipi” by Prof. Mudigonda Shivaprasad(Translated from Telugu). Serial publication. 2018-2019

25. “Rajatarangini Kathaavali” by Kastoori Muraleekrishna (Translated from Telugu). Serial publication 2015; as book 2019.

Edited Books :

1. “Swatantryodayada mailigallugalu” (“Milestones of the freedom Struggle”) (Ed.) Kannada. 1997.
2. “Aravinda” Pt. Seshadri Gawai Felicitation Volume. (Ed.) Kannada. 1992.
3. Svetoslav Roerich (ed.) 1974.
4. “Bharatadalli Samajakarya” ( Social Work in Bharat”). (Ed.). Kannada. 1992.

Co-authored Works :

1. “Samaja-Chikitsaka Ambedkar” Biography co-authored with Chandrashekar Bhandary. Kannada. 1990.
2. “Matantara : Ondu Samvada” (Co-authored with Chandrashekar Bhandary).f A Carechism on Conversions. 1999.
3. “Kargil Kampana” (“Kargil-quake”) (Co-authored with Du.Gu,. Lakshmana and Chandrashekar Bhandary). Kannada. 1999.
   E. Thousands of Articles in Various Periodicals.

SPECIAL LECTURES
Some special lectures delivered by Sri S.R. Ramaswamy are the following:

1. “Copy-editing” (Federation of Indian Publishers, Bangalore Conference). 1975.
2. Sharatchandra (Birth-Centennial lecture, Mysore University). 1977.
3. Feature-writing and Development Journalism (Karnataka Patrika Academy. Gulbarga). 1987.
4. Towards Understanding Hindu Society (United Theological College, Bangalore). 1990.
5. Gandhian Concept of Ecology (Dharmaram College, Bangalore). 1992.
6. Alternative Life-vision: An Economic Perspective (Gandhi Sahitya Sangha, Bangalore). 1993.
7. Text-Critical Study of the Mahabharata (Mysore University). 1993.
8. Hindu Economics (L.T. Sharma Memorial Lecture (Sirsi). 1993.
9. Towards Humanistic Economics (C. Hayavadana Rao Memorial Lecture, Mythic Society, Bangalore). 1995.
10. United Nations in Retrospect. (AIR. Bangalore). 1996.
11. Netaji Subhaschandra Bose (Birth Centenary Lecture. Bangalore University). 1996.
12. Netaji Subhaschandra Bose (Centenary Talk, AIR, Bangalore). 1996.
13. The Regime of Sir Mirza M. Ismail (Mythic Society, Bangalore). 1998.
14. Concept of Development (Thalassery). 1998.
15. Relevance of Swadeshi Movement (J.C. Kumarappa Memorial Foundation, Bangalore). 1998.
16. Life and Work of V. Sitaramaiah (Birth Centennial Lecture. Bangalore). 1998.
17. Life and Work of V. Sitaramaiah (Birth Centennial Lecture. Mysore). 2000.
18. A Decade of Globalization. Address to Gulbarga University. 2001.
19. Intellectual Pollution. Bangalore. 2002.
20. Journalism Today. Dharwad. 2003.
21. Swadeshi Movement of 1905: Historic Turning -point. Gokhale Institute of Public Affairs, Bangalore. 2005.
22. Saga of Patriotism : Martyrs in the Freedom Movement. Gokhale Institute of Public Affairs, Bangalore. 2007.
23. Foreign Friends of India’s Freedom Movement. Gokhale Institute of Public Affairs, Bangalore. 2007.
24. Contribution of Rallapalli Anantakrishna Sharma to Kannada and Telugu. Panyam Ramasesha Sastri Endowment Lecture. Mysore. 2010.
25. Seminar Address: Life and Work of D.V. Gundappa. (Vijaya College, Bangalore). 2011
26. D. V. Gundappa: 125th Year Tribute ( Address to Karnataka Sahitya Akademi ). 2012.
27. Contribution of Sanskritist Professor S. K. Ramachandra Rao ( Address to Karnataka Sanskrit University). 2013.
28. On Belagere Krishna Sastri ( Address to Gayana Samaja). 2013.
29. On Scriptural Painting ( Address to Ramsons Kala Pratishtana , Mysore). 2014.

AWARDS

1. Canara Bank Award : First Prize for article on the life of Soliga Tribals. 1983.
2. Canara Bank Award : First Prize for article on the state of Land Reforms. 1984.
3. Karnataka Sahitya Akademi Award for “Shatamanada Tiruvinalli Bharata” as best work written in 1989 in Social Science. 1992.
4. Aryabhata Award for Journalism. 2006.
5. Karnataka Rajyotsava Award for Contribution to Literature. 2008.
6. Mythic Society Centenary Award for Scholastic Achievements, 2009.
7. Honorary Doctorate (D.Litt) by Karnataka State Open University, Mysore, for lifetime contribution to literature and journalism, 2011.
8. Man of the year-2011 Award for five decades of service to journalism by Karnataka Madhyama Academy, 2012.
9. ‘NADOJA’ by Kannada University, Hampi, for lifetime contribution to literature and journalism, 2015.
10. Honorary Award for lifetime contribution to literature and translation field by Kuvempu Bhasha Bharati Pradhikara, 2019 .