KOLHAPUR When a 904-page felicitation volume was released at Shivaji University on 6 January 2024, its pages held essays by writers and scholars from India and abroad, all gathered around one figure: Prof. (Dr.) Arjun Chavan, a Hindi author whose mother tongue is Marathi. The volume was edited by Dr. Manohar Bhandare and published by Vani Prakashan, New Delhi.

What it honours is unusually wide: 22 ghazal collections, a five-year daily writing endeavor, satire, lyrics, travel writing, criticism, and translation. And the work is not finished. More than 25 books are ready for publication.

A Poet of the Present Tense

Prof. Chavan has written 22 ghazal collections of 105 ghazals each, 2,310 ghazals in all, now in the final stage of publication. Their titles read like headlines from everyday life: Makaan Nahin, Man ko Bhi Saaf Kar (Cleanse Not Just the House, but the Heart), Log Aaj-kal Jaane Kya-Kya Khate Hain (These Days, People Eat God Knows What) and Pyaar-Vyaar ki Ghazalen Likhte Nahin Hum (We Do Not Write Ghazals of Love and Such).

He places himself in a clear lineage. One collection, Ghalib Poonji, Dushyant Mera Lakshya Hai, names Ghalib as his capital and Dushyant Kumar as his goal, joining the Urdu and Hindi traditions of the form.

Satire is the other edge of his pen. Zara Yaad Karo Qurbani (Do Remember the Sacrifice), a collection of ideological satirical essays, won the Maharashtra Hindi Parishad's best creative literature honour in 2005.

Then there is discipline. For five consecutive years he wrote one composition every day on a single theme, friendship. The project, Dastak Dosti ke Dastan ki, a fresh knock each day on friendship's tale, later emerged as a shayari collection.

One Pen, Many Forms

Prof. Chavan writes as critic, short-story writer, laghukatha (flash-fiction) writer, lyricist, muktak poet, essayist and travel writer. His story collection is Goonga, Behra tatha Anya Kahaniyan; his criticism includes Upanyaskar Rajendra Yadav, Dalit aur Adivasi Sahitya Chintan ke Aadya Bindu and Vishwamanch par Hindi: Vividh Aayam. He has published more than 65 books, edited 30 and written forewords for over 50.

Travel gave him another genre. Mauritius: Ek Sanskritik Yatra (Vani Prakashan, 2016), since translated into Marathi, reflects his journeys abroad, and his manuscript Bharat se Bahar Bharat (India Beyond India) won a Rs. 51,000 travelogue honour at Tashkent in 2015.

As a translator he has carried Marathi writing into Hindi, from V. S. Khandekar's stories and D. B. Ratnakar's poems to an editorial from Mooknayak, the periodical edited by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar.

Hindi's Voice Abroad

Prof. Chavan has taken part in more than 550 seminars as chairperson, chief guest, keynote speaker, expert or paper presenter; over 50 were international. The stops include:

• Mauritius, January 2015: expert and chief guest at the Indo-Mauritian International Hindi Seminar
• Tashkent, May 2015: session chair and expert, on language in the age of globalisation and Adivasi poetic consciousness
• Tashkent, Samarkand and Saint Petersburg, May 2016: keynote speaker, session chair and chief guest, on Indian, Uzbek and Russian culture and literature
• Moscow, 27 May 2016: paper on India–Russia interrelations through language, literature and culture
• University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 27 August 2025: keynote address on "Hindi and Sinhala: Language, Literature and Culture"

Milestones

Honours Across Three Decades

Prof. Chavan has received more than 50 awards. Beyond the milestones above, they include:

• 1997–2010: Pandit Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi Award (1997–98); Bharatendu Bhushan National Honour (2010)
• 2015–2019: Sahitya Shiromani Samman in Mauritius; Pablo Neruda International Award for Excellence in Literature, Nagpur; Hindi Seva Samman, presented by Union Minister of State for External Affairs V. K. Singh (2019)
• 2022–2023: Hindi Bhushan Samman and Hindi Sarjana Samman, Varanasi; Sahitya Sadhak Samman; Shankardayal Singh Pratibha Samman and Shreshtha Srijan Vibhuti Rashtriya Samman, both in Delhi; Srijan Vibhuti Samman, Udaipur
• 2024–2026: Hindi Sahitya Shri Samman; Hindi Sahitya Vibhushan Samman; Sahityacharya Vibhushan Samman; Divya Narmada Alankaran Samman

Now a Subject of Research

Senior Prof. (Dr.) Arjun Chavan's literature has itself become a subject of study. Research scholars at many universities across India are pursuing PhDs on his writing and life, and more than two dozen books have been dedicated to him by other authors. For a living writer, a doctoral thesis is one of the weightiest forms of scholarly attention.

What Fellow Writers Say

Prof. Dinesh Chamola 'Shailesh' of Uttarakhand sees his ghazals meeting the age not as shaastra, scripture, but as shastra, weapon, and finds them equally a guide. Girish Pankaj of Raipur writes that Chavan's people-centred (janvadi) vision shines through his ghazals. Dr. Giriraj Sharan Agrawal of Haryana says the work "not only enriches Hindi ghazal literature but also encourages us to become better human beings."

What Comes Next

Formal service may have concluded, but his literary journey continues with undiminished vigor. Prof. Chavan continues to preside over, deliver keynote addresses at, and advise national and International seminars and literary gatherings. He also serves as the State President (Maharashtra) of the Vishwa Hindi Parishad, Delhi. With over 25 forthcoming books spanning songs, ghazals, poetry, short fiction (laghukatha), translations, and critical essays, his creative fountain flows uninterrupted. As he beautifully writes: "Cleanse not just the house, but the heart as well; and when a wrong is done, forgive it with a generous heart.

In his own lines: Cleanse not just the house, but the heart as well; and when a wrong is done, forgive it with a generous heart.