: (अण्णाभाऊ साठे) (1 August 1920 – 18 July 1969) was a social reformer and writer from Maharashtra

Maharashtra

Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

.

Early life

Sathe was born in the village of Wategaon

Wategaon

Wategaon is a town in Sangli district, Maharashtra, India.Wategaon is a village in walva taluka lying 16 km west of Islampur and 9.65 km north-west of Peth...

 near Sangli

Sangli

Sangli is a city in the state of Maharashtra of India. Sangli is known as the Turmeric city for its vast production of Turmeric. Sangli is situated on the banks of river Krishna and is the largest market place for Turmeric in Asia and houses many sugar factories, which it is also noted for...

 in a family belonging to the Dalit

Dalit

Dalit is a designation for a group of people traditionally regarded as Untouchable. Dalits are a mixed population, consisting of numerous castes from all over South Asia; they speak a variety of languages and practice a multitude of religions...

 Mang

Mang (caste)

The Mang community, whose origins lie in the Narmada Valley of India, was formerly classified as a criminal tribe under the Criminal Tribes Acts of the British Raj....

 community. (The community has been identified by the Indian government as a scheduled caste.)

Poverty had prevented Sathe from obtaining formal education. His brother Shankarbhau recounts in his biography of Sathe, titled Majhe Bhau Annabhau, that the family members worked as laborers at the site of Kalyan

Kalyan

Kalyan is a city in Thane district of Maharashtra, and a major railway station lying at the junction of the north-east and south-east lines of the suburban Mumbai division of the Central Railway, 53 km north-east of Mumbai. Kalyan is also a major Taluka place, a tehsil of the Thane district...

 tunnel when it was being constructed.

Writings

Despite lack of formal education, Sathe wrote in Marathi

Marathi language

Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...

 35 novels, one among which was Fakira (1959). Fakira, which is currently in its 19th edition, received a state government award in 1961.Vaijanta is the remakeble one

There are 15 collections of Sathe's short stories. A large number of his short stories have been translated into many Indian and as many as 27 non-Indian languages.

Besides novels and short stories, Sathe wrote a play, a travelogue on Russia, 12 screenplays, and 10 ballads --powade(Marahti).

Sathe wrote directly from his experiences in life, and his novels celebrate the fighting spirit in their characters who work against all odds in life.

Lok Rajya, a Maharashtra state government fortnightly, published on November 1, 1993, a special commemorative issue concerning Sathe. The state government also issued in 1998 a collection of his works under the title Lokshahir Annabhau Sathe Nivadak Sahitya.

Other achievements

Sathe worked among the poor.

To generate social awareness, he organized stage performances of powade and tamasha

Tamasha

Tamasha is a traditional Marathi folk art form. often with singing and dancing, widely performed by local or travelling theatre groups within the state of Maharashtra, India. It has also been the subject of several Marathi films...

, ethnic dances chiefly performed by women, which are popular in rural Maharashtra. He produced 14 tamasha shows. In the late 1940s, the then Home Minister of the Bombay state

Bombay State

The Bombay State was a state of India, dissolved with the formation of Maharashtra and Gujarat states on May 1, 1960.-History:During British rule, portions of the western coast of India under direct British rule were part of the Bombay Presidency...

 government Morarji Desai

Morarji Desai

Morarji Ranchhodji Desai was an Indian independence activist and the fourth Prime Minister of India from 1977–79. He was the first Indian Prime Minister who did not belong to the Indian National Congress...

 had banned tamasha shows, but Sathe courageously defied the ban by renaming them as lokanatya. People in Maharashtra conferred the epithet lok shahir on Sathe.

on the Occasion of Postage stamp of Anna Bhau Sathe at Chembur,Mumbai Honrable minister Mr.Pramod Mahajan, called Ann as A saint of Maharashtra.

Sathe was an important mobilizer in the Samyukta Maharashtra movement. He used the medium of powade to great effect in that movement. on the same occasion he sung a Chakkad as Mazi Maina Gavavar Rahili Mazya Jiwachi hottiya Kahili"-edited by Prof. Balaji Shinde and Amartya shinde,Nerul Navi Mumbai-706 also wrote by Mrs.Radha Shinde and Aditya Shinde

Sathe was attracted to communism and had visited USSR. He was a founder member of the Lal Bawta Kalapathak of the Communist Party

Communist party

A political party described as a Communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government...

 in Maharashtra.
Also Annabhu sathe was the member of Matang Samaj Kaminty at Satara and Sagli

Personal life

Sathe lived a life of destitution. After spending 22 years in a Ghatkopar slum

Ghatkopar

Ghatkopar is a suburban neighbourhood of eastern Mumbai. It is also a railway station serviced by Central Railway line of the Mumbai suburban railway.-History:...

, Sathe moved to a modest house in Goregaon

Goregaon

Goregaon is the locality situated at the north of Mumbai . It is a railway station on the Mumbai suburban railway on the Western Railway railway line....

which the state government provided him in 1968, one year before he died.

Honors

Many cultural organizations and roads in Maharashtra have been named after Sathe.
Shahir Bapu Pawar (Solapur, Contact no 8805500620) have written song on Annabhau Sathe's life
& release Audio cassettes & CD's also
Recently on 1 Aug 2011 Shahir Bapu Pawar awarded by Annabhau Sate award by Maharshtra Government,
Shahir Bapu Pawar have written Pawada on Matang Cast & release first Matang Samaj Yashogata.This great artist who attained success and world fame, without the foundation of any formal education, sank slowly due to personal problems. The Maharashtra Government aided him considerably in his last few years

External links

• http://www.manase.org/maharashtra.php?mid=68&smid=23&pmid=8&id=800