Appreciation

Can soul music be sold? Yes, of course – if there is a buyer within!

About The Author

Umashankar Joshi, M.A. (1911-1988) was born in a village near the town of Idar in North Gujarat. He was the grandson of an illiterate farmer. Umashankar Joshi grew up to be the Vice Chancellor of Gujarat University, Member of Parliament, and Chairperson of the Sahitya Akademi in New Delhi. Strongly influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, he participated in the freedom struggle and during his sojourn in a jail he read widely and studied Marathi, Urdu, and Bengali. Joshi was, in his time, Gujarat’s leading poet, short story writer, playwright, essayist, editor of a literary journal, and compiler of edited volumes. He had very little exposure to literature in his childhood, but he had an acute affinity for the spoken word, and whatever he heard evoked contexts and associations that astonished him. He gobbled up literature like a famished tiger when he moved to Ahmedabad for matriculation and college studies. He began to write poetry, and a friend who had been featured in one of his poems got so incensed that he threatened to knife Umashankar! He got fascinated by the cosmos and the histories of peoples. His journey, as he once put it, was one of light and love and harmony and peace. He opined that on the whole he had not found poetry, public affairs, and religion to be particularly different. Joshi received many literary awards, including the Ranjitram, Kumar, and Narmad Gold Medals, an award of the Delhi Sahitya Akademi, and the highly prestigious Gyanpith Award.