Indian
Linguistics has been fortunate to receive the attention
of some of our best minds in humanities and social
sciences. Continuing with the tradition of Isaac Taraporewala,
S.K. Chatterji, TPM and S.M. Katre, there have been
a number of scholars who have had a very distinguished
career and have also made a very significant contribution
to the field. Ashok R. Kelkar is one such scholar
known for his writings in a number of fields and on
a number of languages. For many generations of linguists,
Professor Kelkar has been a role model. Many of us
interacted with him , When he was an editor of 'Indian
Linguistics' - a professional journal that he edited
with distinction for a long time. Some know him as
a scholar who specialized in Hindi and Urdu. There
are others who have been exposed to his work on culture.
Some know him mainly as a literary scholar, whereas
there are many who associate him with activities in
Philosophy of Language. It is difficult to find out
what a scholar like Ashok Kelkar is. But it is more
difficult to try and discover what he is not, because
his work encompasses a vast area in humanities and
social sciences. This basket of papers give us a glimpse
of the man and the scholar. Some time ago, the idea
of creating a web-portal for Kelkar occurred to me
while discussing his current pre-occupation sitting
in his house in Pune, and I am happy to see that in
a few months, it has come to fruition. All credit
must go to the author-editor first, who keeps his
thoughts as well as papers so well-organized. That
made our task very easy. But then, Dr. B. Mallikarjun
with his team of research staff at the institute have
also worked very hard to ensure that the e-book is
ready in a record time. It is also appropriate that
Kelkar's e-book is launched on a day we are celebrating
both our linguistic unity as well as our rich plurality
and diversity - from the platform of the Emeneau International
Conference at CIIL, Mysore (Jan 1-4, 2005). We have
not forgotten that he was a part of the team that
was responsible for creation of this Institution,
and this is our small way of showing honor to a scholar
of distinction.
The
Institute plans to create such web-portals in the
public domain for many other major voices of our time
- engaged in research activities involving different
Indian languages and focusing on different disciplines.
This is only a beginning, and I am sure it would receive
encouraging response and suggestions from all but
would also be a part of important resources that would
benefit all future generation of students.
Mysore;
Dec 31, 2004
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Udaya
Narayana Singh
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