Bharat Ratna Maharshi Dhondo Keshav Karve

2012-01-24T22:52:00.003+05:30

Maharshi Dhondo Keshav Karve

Maharshi Dhondo Keshav Karve (Devanāgari: महर्षी डॉ. धोंडो केशव कर्वे) (April 18, 1858 - November 9, 1962) was a preeminent social reformer of his time in India in the field of welfare of womankind.

Before Karve's time, Hindu social mores used to discourage education of girls, and parents routinely married off their daughters often before their puberty usually to young boys, but at times even to grown-up widowers. Social mores also disallowed remarriages of widows so that if a breadwinning man died, his widow's remaining life would turn bleak because, lacking education, she could not support herself. The widow had to spend her life serving the household of her late husband's relatives.

Maharshi Karve was one of the pioneers in India in breaking with extraordinary fortitude and perseverance the above harsh social mores against womankind. He promoted education of women and freedom for widows to remarry if they wished to do so. The Government of India recognized his reform work by awarding him its highest civilian award, Bhārat Ratna in 1958, (the year in which, incidentally, he completed his 100 years of life. He lived for four more years.)

The appellation, Maharshi, which the Indian public often assigned to Karve means “a great sage”. Those who knew Karve affectionately called him as Annā Karve. (In Marāthi-speaking community, to which Karve belonged, the appellation Annā is often used to address one's either father or an elder brother.)

Early life

Annasaheb Karve was born on April 18, 1858 at Sheravali, Khed Tālukā of Ratnāgiri district in Mahārāshtra. He was a native of Murud in the Konkan region. He was born in a lower middle-class Chitpāvan Brahmin family. His father's name was Keshav Bāpunnā Karve. In his autobiography, he wrote of his struggle to appear in a certain public service examination, walking 110 miles in torrential rain and difficult terrain to the nearest city of Sātārā, and his shattering disappointment at not being allowed to appear for the examination because he looked too young.

Karve studied at Elphinstone College in Bombay (Mumbai) to receive a bachelor's degree in mathematics.

First Marriage

Karve's parents arranged his marriage when he was 14 to an 8 year old girl named Rādhābāi. Karve had written in his autobiography:

"… I was married at the age of fourteen and my wife was then eight. Her family lived very near to ours, and we knew each other very well and had often played together. However, after marriage, we had to forget our old relation as playmates and to behave as strangers, often looking toward each other but never standing together to exchange words…. We had to communicate with each other through my sister…… My marital life began under the parental roof at Murud when I was twenty…".

Radhabhai died in 1891 during childbirth at age 27, leaving behind a young son named Raghunath Karve. Raghunath became a visionary social reformer.

Second Marriage

Reformatory thoughts concerning the then prevalent harsh social mores against womankind, stated above, were already stirring up the mind of Karve by the time Radhabai died. Implementing his own reformatory thoughts with extraordinary courage, two years later he chose as his second wife a widow --a 23 year old widow named Godubāi-- rather than an unmarried girl whom he could have easily arranged to secure as his new wife according to the prevalent social mores. Godubai, who had been widowed at age 8 within three months of her marriage even before she knew, as she would say later, what it was to be a wife. Before marrying Karve, Godubai had started studying in her early twenties at Panditā Ramābāi’s pioneering Shāradā Sadan as its first widow student, and had also displayed equal courage, like Karve, in defying social mores against remarriages by widows.

Concerning his marriage to Godubai, Karve described in his autobiography how he had asked for her hand in marriage to her father:

"I told him…..[that] I had made up my mind to marry a widow. He sat silent for a minute, and then hinted that there was no need to go in search of such a bride".

Career as a college professor

During 1891-1914, Karve taught mathematics at Fergusson College in Pune, Mharashtra.

Inspirations

The work of Pandita Ramabai inspired Karve to dedicate his life to the cause of female education, and the work of Pandit Vishnushāstri and Pandit Iswar Chandra Vidyāsāgar inspired him to work for uplifting the status of widows. Writings of Herbert Spencer had also highly influenced him.

Social work

In 1893, Karve founded Widhawā-Wiwāhottejak Mandali, which, besides encouraging marriages of widows, also helped the needy children of widows. In 1895, the institution was renamed as Widhawā-Wiwāha-Pratibandh-Niwārak Mandali (Society to Remove Obstacles to Marriages of Widows).

In 1896, Karve established a Hindu Widows' Home Association and started in Hingane, a village then in the outskirts of Pune in Maharashtra, Mahilāshram, a shelter and a school for women, including widows. He started Mahilā Vidyālaya in 1907; the following year, he started Nishkām Karma Math (Social Service Society) to train workers for the Widows Home and the Mahila Vidyalaya.

Later, Widows Home was renamed as Hingane Stree Shikshan Samsthā. Still later, as the institution flourished by leaps and bounds, it was renamed as Maharshi Karve Stree Shikshan Samstha[6]. When Karve had started his shelter and school for women, including widows, in 1896, he had to start it in the remote village of Hingane outside the city of Pune because the dominant orthodox Brahmin community in the city had ostracized him for his reformatory activitities. (Karve himself belonged to the Brahmin community.) With his meager resources, for many years Karve would walk several miles from Hingane to the city of Pune to teach mathematics at Fergusson College and also collect in his spare time paltry donations from a few progressive donors, even as some others from the orthodox community would openly hurl insulting epithets at him when he went around to spread the word of his emancipatory work and collect donations.

Karve's 20 year old widowed sister-in-law, Pārwtibāi Āthawale, was the first widow to join his school. After finishing her education, she joined him as the first lady superintendent of the then Hindu Widows' Home Association.

After reading information about Japan Women's University in Tokyo, Japan, Karve felt inspired to establish in 1916 in Pune the first university for women in India, with just five students. The curriculum was tailored to the aptitudes of women.

During 1917–1918, Karve established a Training College for Primary School Teachers and another school for girls, named Kanyā Shālā.

In 1920, an industrialist and philanthropist from Mumbai, Sir Vithaldās Thāckersey, donated Karve's university 1.5 million Indian rupees --a substantial sum in those days-- and the university was then renamed as Shreemati Nāthibāi Dāmodar Thāckersey Indian Women’s University or SNDT Women's University.

In March 1929, Karve left for a tour in England. He attended the Primary Teachers' Conference at Malvern, and spoke on Education of Women in India at a meeting of the East India Association at Caxton Hall, London. During 25 July - 4 August 1929, he attended an educational conference in Geneva, and spoke on The Indian Experiment in Higher Education for Women. During 8 - 21 August, he attended in Elsinor the international meeting of educationists under the auspices of the New Education Fellowship.

During his subsequent tour of America, Karve lectured at various forums on women's education and social reforms in India. He also visited the Women's University in Tokyo. He returned to India in April 1930.

In December 1930, Karve left for a fifteen-month tour in Africa to spread information about his work for women in India. He visited Mombasa, Kenya, Uganda, Tanganayika, Zanzibar, Portuguese East Africa, and South Africa .

In 1931, the SNDT university established its first college in Mumbai, and moved its headquarters to Mumbai five years later.

In 1936, Karve started the Maharashtra Village Primary Education Society with the goal of opening primary schools in villages which had no schools run by the District Local Boards. He also encouraged maintenance of reading habits of adults in villages. In 1944, he founded the Samatā Sangh (Association for the Promotion of Human Equality).

In 1949, the Government of India recognized SNDT University as a statutory university.

The SNDT University and other educational institutions for women started by Karve currently cover the spectrum ranging from pre-primary schools to colleges in humanities, sciences, engineering, architecture, and business management.

Besides dedicating his life to the emancipation of women in India, Karve stood for the abolition of the caste system and the curse of untouchability in the Hindu society.

Family

Karve had four sons: Raghunāth (from his first marriage), Shankar, Dinkar , and Bhāskar. All of them rose to eminence in their own fields of work. Raghunath Karve was a professor of mathematics and a pioneer in sex education and birth control in India. Dinkar was a professor of chemistry and an eminent educationist. (Dinkar's wife, Irawati Karve, was a leading sociologist of India.) Bhaskar (and his wife Kāveri) worked in Hingane Stree Shikshan Samstha in various leading capacities.

Raghunath published a health magazine, especially promoting sex education and birth control. Dinkar wrote a book titled "The New Brahmans: Five Maharashtrian Families" in which he profiled his father along with other Brahmin reformers, and coauthored a book titled A History of Education in India and Pakistan (1964). Irawati wrote a sociological book in Marathi and a compilation of her essays. A son, Ānand, of Dinkar and Irawati, won at a ceremony in UK in 2002 the prestigious Ashden Award of two million Indian rupees which is given for innovative work concerning the environment in the Third World. The judges declared themselves as excited about Anand's work concerning an integrated fuel-from-waste system that can create thousands of rural entrepreneurs all over the world, while saving trees and reducing dependance on petroleum[8][9].

Annasaheb Karve often exhibited eccentricities which were not uncommon among men of his generation, was a man of extreme principles, and could be logical to excess. He used to pay for food whenever he had his meals at his son's place. He never accepted a gift from anybody for himself. A son tried to buy him warm clothes but had to accept money in return; he suggested the son donate money to his social work. On the flip side, Durga Bhagwat has written a devastating indictment of Karve, alleging that he preyed on young women who were facing hard times, and tried to put them under debt of gratitude so that they would be drawn into his coterie for life, looking heartlessly upon them as possible recruits in his social mission. But he was also capable of courage of thought. Karve was in his 90s when his eldest son Raghunath died. Visitors feared they may have to listen to the old man's terrible torment. But Karve calmly and courageously told them that Raghunath was old and death at that age wasn't unusual. 'Having to witness the death of your children is one of the hazards of living to a very long age, and that is my lot. Nothing can be done about it.'

Autobiographical works

Karve wrote two autobiographical works: Ātmawrutta (1928) in Marathi, and Looking Back (1936) in English. He ended the latter with the words: Here ends the story of my life. I hope this simple story will serve some useful purpose.

Awards and honors

* 1942 - Awarded Doctor of Letters (D. Litt.) by Banaras Hindu University
* 1951 - Awarded D.Litt. by Pune University
* 1954 - Awarded D.Litt. by S.N.D.T. University
* 1955 - Awarded Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India
* 1957 - Awarded LL.D. by University of Mumbai
* 1958 - Awarded Bharat Ratna by the Government of India

Photos:

Maharshi Dhondo Keshav Karve

Maharshi Karve with India's First Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru

Albert Einstein with Mahrshi Karve
Berlin-1929

Maharshi Karve with India's first President Dr. Rajendra Prasad

Photo of the First Day Cover of the stamp of Maharshi Karve

Bharat Ratna Award

2008-08-16T13:35:00.008+05:30

IRAWATI KARVE

Irawati Karve (15 December 1905 - 11 August 1970) was an Indian anthropologist.
She was born in Mynjan in Burma and educated in Pune, India. She received a masters degree in Sociology from Pune in 1928 and a doctorate in Anthropology from Berlin in 1930. She served as the Head of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Deccan College till her retirement. She wrote in both Marathi and English on a wide variety of academic subjects as well as topics of general interest.
She was the daughter-in-law of Maharshi Dhondo Keshav Karve. Dinkar Karve, her husband, was an educator. Her daughter, Gauri Deshpande, made a name for herself as a writer.
She presided over the Anthropology division of the National Science Congress held in Delhi in 1947.
She died in Pune of heart attack in 1970.

Her principal books are:

Hindu Society - an interpretation(1961) - A study of the Hindu society based on data collected on her field trips and her perusal of texts in Hindi, Marathi, Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit. Paying, the most attention to the caste system, she discusses the pre-Aryan existence of the phenomena and traces its development to its present form.
Kinship Organization in India(1953) - A study of various social institutions in India.
Maharashtra -Land and People (1968) - A brief description of various social institutions and rituals therein.
Yuganta - A look at the main characters of the Mahabharata. These character studies treat the protagonists as historical characters and use their attitudes and behaviour to understand the times they lived in. Written originally in Marathi, it was later translated by the author into English. The book won the Sahitya Academy award in 1968.
Other Marathi works -Paripurti,Bhovara,Aamachi Samskruti,Samskruti, Gangajal.

Ariticle in Times Of India 19 June 2005 on Yuganta

Like many Indian kids, my first exposure to the Mahabharata was through a combination of Amar Chitra Katha and bedtime stories from my grandparents. These gave me the basic narrative, but I can't pretend they interested me greatly in the epic. Then in my adolescence, my mother handed me a slim book of essays: Yuganta by Dr Irawati Karve, translated from the Marathi original.
Yuganta has never been out of print since it was published in Marathi in 1969 and English in 1974. An earlier Marathi version won the Sahitya Akademi prize in 1967. It is a starting point for anyone seeking to read the epic. Jean Claude Carriere used it for his brilliant script for Peter Brook's theatrical version of the epic, and Ashok Banker, who having finished his retelling of the Ramayana and is now set to start on the Mahabharata, writes that he is on his third copy of the book, the first two having simply fallen apart with use. Yet Karve herself, evidently a remarkable woman and scholar, is perhaps in danger of being forgotten. This year is her centenary, yet there seems to be little to mark it.
This is tragic because in Yuganta she produced one of the most electrifying books on Indian culture. I still remember the shock of reading it. Suddenly those storied characters became real, complex personalities set in an identifiable world. Karve assumes a basic knowledge of the story and briskly takes the reader through the origins of the Mahabharata, its variants and the facts that are known, from archaeology and historical analysis, of the world it was set in. Her training was as an anthropologist, one of the first Indian women to leave the country to get a Ph.D in the subject, from Berlin, and this background shows in the precise way she describes the hierarchies and rituals of Kshatriya society in which the Mahabharata is set.
Karve avoids iconoclasm for its own sake. All too often retellings of the classics become vehicles for putting forth the writer's own agenda, and while this can be valid and even interesting, the original usually suffers. Karve certainly has interests, for example in examining the often overlooked world of the women of the epic, Gandhari, Kunti and Draupadi, each of whom is the subject of an essay. But other essays deal with Bhishma, Drona, Karna and Krishna, and the focus is always on the Mahabharata, and how understanding it leads to a greater self understanding.
Two essays stood out for me. The Final Effort looks at two of the most enigmatic characters of the epic—Vidura and Dharma (Yudhishtra). Karve uses her knowledge of Kshatriya customs to suggest (as have others) that the two were father and son, but could not acknowledge each other as such, for fear that Vidura's lower sutta status might imperil Dharma's claim to the throne. It's a twist more daring than any K-serial on TV could make, yet so scholarly is the evidence and Karve's presentation of it, that it seems quite plausible. The second, The Palace of Maya, demonstrates how the epic also tells the story of the historical displacement of the forest world of the tribes by the pastoral world of the Aryans.
Both essays would have been controversial when Karve wrote them in the sixties and, sadly, perhaps they would be even more so now, at a time when the epics have been so politicised. All the more reason to value Yuganta then and the particular mindset that produced it. Karve's training in the West allowed her to use its techniques of scholarly observation and critical analysis, but her roots in Indian culture gave her a passionate identification with the story that few foreign observers would be able to summon. Girish Karnad's Hayavadana, based on an Indian folktale, but mediated through Thomas Mann's story from that same theme, is one of the few other examples I can think of this process. It was our good fortune that gave us Irawati Karve as a guide.

Not so quiet has flown the Iravati

- Jai Nimbkar

The name Iravati is rather unusual, but then her whole life was unusual. The daughter of Hari Ganesh Karmarkar was born in Burma in 1905 when he was working as an engineer there and was named after the river Irawady.

At the age of seven she was sent to India for schooling to Huzoor Paga, a boarding school for girls (and one of the first schools for girls in Maharashtra), in Pune. There she made friends with a classmate, Shakuntala Paranjpye, daughter of Wrangler R.P.Paranjpye. Shakuntala’s mother took Iravati to stay with her family: this was to change the course of her life. At this intellectual, atheistic household, she was exposed to a wide range of books and people, one of whom was judge Balakram, who instilled in her an interest in anthropology, a field in which she was to work and leave her mark. It was during this period that she met and later married Dinakar Karve, a Professor of Chemistry in the Fergusson College, Pune, the second son of Maharshi Dhondo Keshav Karve,
one of the pioneers in the field of women’s education and widow remarriage in the country.

After her B.A. from Fergusson College, Iravati got an M.A. in sociology under the guidance of Dr. G. S. Ghurye, the founder of the department of sociology in Bombay university. Her husband, who had realized her intellectual ability, decided that she should study abroad in order to realize her full potential. She accordingly went to Berlin and obtained a Ph.D. in anthropology under the guidance of Prof. Eugen Fischer, Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Eugenics and Human Heredity in 1930.

After returning to India, she worked for a brief period as Registrar of S.N.D.T. College in Pune. Her real interest, however, lay not in the administrative field but in scientific research and the academic field. She eventually accepted a post in the Deccan College Post-graduate Research Institute, and spent her entire professional life working in her chosen field under the aegis of this institute.

The main problems she addressed in her work were, “What are Indians? Why are we what we are?”. The goal she thus set for herself was very much in line with the general aims and objects of anthropology. Specific questions she sought answers to were

whether more detailed cultural and physical configurations can be established in India in terms of historical, proto-historical folk movements,
What were the physical features of the people who were responsible for the numerous historic and proto-historic sites found all over India,
What is caste ? To find answers to such questions, her approach was ethno-historical, perhaps the result of her training in Berlin.

She started simultaneous investigations in four inter-disciplinary branches: Paleo-anthropology, indological studies, epics and oral traditions, systematic physical anthropological investigations in various regions, and detailed sociological studies in different linguistic areas.

Iravati Karve felt that instead of haphazardly taking measurements of the people of India as a whole, a systematic study of the people of one limited region would be more significant for finding out the racial composition of a cultural region. She was not in favour of taking measurements of primitive groups or caste groups. She said that, for instance, a sample of a hundred subjects from the Maharashtrian Brahmins could not give an idea of the gene pool of the twelve endogamous sub castes of the Brahmins.

The two prominent Brahmin sub-castes, Chitpavans and Deshastha Rigvedi, are quite different from each other, and the latter is much closer to Marathas. She therefore strongly advocated that sampling for the Indian population should be done at the caste level and not the caste-cluster level. This concept of caste as a unit of study and a research tool has revolutionized Indian anthropology.

Dr Karve also studied kinship terms and usages and family organization in the Rigveda, Atharvaveda and Mahabharata. She collected data from Gujarat, Karnataka, Orissa, Kerala, Tamilnadu and Uttar Pradesh. The results of these studies were organized into a book ‘Kinship organization in India’ (1953).

This work which has run into three editions, is a classic in cultural anthropology and a basic source book for scholars wishing to work in this field.Her work brought her recognition in India and abroad. She was elected President of the Anthropology section of the Indian Science Congress in 1947 and was offered a lecturership in the School of Oriental and African Studies at London University.

Her most important contribution includes a number of books such as ‘Hindu Society, an Interpretation’, in which she has presented a fresh interpretation of the caste structure, ‘Kinship Organization in India’, and ‘Maharashtra, Land and People’. She has also written ‘Yuganta’, a critique, in Marathi, on the Mahabharata, which earned her the Sahitya Akademi award. Her unorthodox interpretation of various characters hurt the sentiments of some traditionalists, but the book became vastly popular. It has been translated into various Indian languages as well as into English, and is still going into new editions over thirty years after her death in 1970.
Iravati Karve died in her sleep on August 11, 1970 at the age of sixty five. She brought to her scholarship a combination of intellectual integrity, tremendous mental energy and an ability to find a rapport with a wide range of people, and left a permanent mark on learning and literature in modern India.

2008-08-13T16:53:00.002+05:30

Dr. Shankar Dhondo Karve

He is the most less known of all the sons of Mahrshi Karve, mainly because his work area was not in India. He mainly worked in Mombasa, Kenya. He was a pioneer doctor in Kenya & a stamp was issued on his 80th birthday by Kenyan governmen, which is a very rare occasion. He took initaiative in establishing the Pandya Memorial Clinic in 1947. It was the first clinic to be open for all religions & races in the whole of East Africa. He was a gyanecologist.
Like all other successful Karves he also got able support from his wife Revati.

Photos:

Raghunath Karve

2008-08-13T16:08:00.005+05:30

Raghunath Karve

Raghunath D. Karve (1882-1953) was an Indian professor, reformer and a visionary. He was instrumental in initiating family planning and birth control for masses in Mumbai, India.

Raghunath, the eldest son of the well known social reformist Bharat Ratna Maharshi Dhondo Keshav Karve, was a professor of mathematics at Wilson College in Mumbai. His mother died during childbirth in 1891 when he was very young, an experience which coloured his outlook on the issue of pregnancy. He sacrificed his successful academic career to devote himself to the causes of birth control and women's reproductive health. He was asked to resign by the conservative Christian administrators of the college. He started the very first birth control clinic in India in 1921 on his own initiative, in the same year when the first-ever birth control clinic had opened in London. Although there is little public awareness about reproductive health issues and open discussion about sex is still a taboo, his contribution proves to be revolutionary and pioneering. His pursuits caused him social ostracism and public humiliation. Karve started a Marathi magazine named Samaj Swasthya from 15 July 1927 to 1953 that discussed issues of social well being and advised men and women to use contraceptives so as to make men see reason in taking their share of responsibilities in parenting a child and prevent unwanted pregnancies thereby reducing incidence of induced abortions.

However, Raghunath was fortunate to have a deeply supportive spouse, who participated in his work and bore the financial responsibility of their family. In 1923, he talked about gender equality and women’s empowerment—ideas that were nonexistent at the time.

His biography, in Marathi, is written by Y D Phadke.

Interview of Amol Palekar, director of Dhyas Parva, a film on Raghunath Karve

Amol Palekar speaks on his directorial ventures and successes

You may remember him as the dutiful, short-kurta-ed Ramprasad Dasharathprasad Sharma or the bold shirted Laxmanprasad Dasharathprasad alias Lucky Sharma from Golmaal; or call him Sanjay, the smiling hero from Rajnigandha; the shy Arun Pradeep from Choti Si Baat.

Still soft-spoken and ever charming, the simple, believable hero of yore—Amol Palekar—was in the Bay Area in a different role: as director. His latest film Dhyaas Parva, which is on the life of social reformist Raghunath Karve, screened recently at several venues in the Bay Area. We took the opportunity to share his thoughts on the film and get a peek into his career and future projects as a director.

Why did you decide to make a movie on Raghunath Karve?

I am fascinated by the marginalized people, the forces that drive them, and where they derive the strength to stand against society for their beliefs and convictions. I had dealt with this subject in a different way in my earlier film Daayra (selected by Time magazine as one of the top 10 films of 1996), and Aakreit. Raghunath Karve is one such example where I could try to understand the marginalized person in relation to the society which is supposedly progressive, educated, cultured, and very tolerant. Why was a visionary like Karve so shabbily treated by society? As a citizen I wanted to know and have a look at ourselves self critically. That is how the whole thing evolved. We did research for about 1½ years before I started making the actual script. And as we kept on doing more and more research, it kept on becoming that much more fascinating.

What kind of response did you hope to evoke amongst the audience? Did you want them to know how society behaved during a certain period in history, or was there a deeper message you wanted to convey?
It’s not just about how society was at that time and how better off or worse off we are today. It is also about all the issues he (Karve) talked about. He was so far ahead of his times. He started the first birth control clinic in India in 1921. History tells us that Marie Stobes started the first ever birth control clinic in the world in the same year, and we rightly acknowledge her as the pioneer. But we don’t even know about Karve. Hence, the purpose of this film is, firstly, to make people aware that such a great man existed right amongst us. This realization itself, I think makes you feel proud that there was an Indian who could see so far ahead. Also, as early as 1923, he talked about gender equality and women’s empowerment—ideas that were nonexistent at the time. When he stood up for these concepts, there were legal cases against him and he was socially ostracized. Such a great man and his life, I think, can only inspire us.

How has the film been received?

The film has won national accolades, six state awards, and acclaim in international quarters as well. However, it is not sufficient to rest on these laurels. So I went on another journey of taking the film to the people in Maharashtra where the film has been seen by more than a 100,000 people by now, from a tiny place called Latur, to another small town in the northern part where Marathi films hardly ever reach because they cannot compete with mainstream Hindi cinema. The purpose is not only to make a good artistic film, but also to take its content to the maximum number of people. So that is what I am doing here, reaching out to the NRIs so that they can take it further, and help me to take it further.

How do you go about getting financing for your movies? I read that you had budget problems with Kairee and you had to work with a small budget.

(Smiles) It wasn’t a problem. I was asked, “You made this film in such a peanut budget. Suppose somebody gave you Rs. 5 crore, how would this film be different?” And I said I don’t need Rs. 5 crore, so I would return the money and I would make it in exactly this amount.

Merely because you have a bigger budget does not necessarily mean that you will make a better film. How to use your talent and your creative peak is also important. If you see the technical talent that has worked with me in this film—I have Bhanu Athaiyya, who is the only Oscar award winner from our country. She is also the costume designer for Lagaan. But she came and worked on a shoestring budget for Dhyaas Parva; the kind of ethnicity she has maintained in that shoestring budget is unbelievable. My art director Nitin Desai has names like Devdas and Hum Dil de Chuke Sanam in his resume.

So how do you get them to come and work for you?

It is in the subject that I am making, and it is also, I think, because I am able to excite them slightly more, stretch their creativity a little more than what is required for a mainstream simple cinema. And they all have given a little more than their best. That’s why I am able to make such a grand film in that budget.

Dhyaas Parva was released last year. In today’s times of simultaneous releases in India and the U.S., why has it taken so long for the film to be brought to the Indian-American audience?

You are talking of the simultaneous release hype of mainstream cinema. Mainstream cinema works on different kind of insecurity. Such multiple releases are done because you don’t know whether the film is going to bomb or not. I am not worried about that. I don’t have to release my film at 300 centers at the same time so that if nobody turns up in the second week, I will have still recovered my money. I have been taking the film to various strata of people, right from the yuppie non-Maharashtrian crowd, to absolute orthodox village crowds. And you should see the way people come forward and offer to help take the film further. This is a different kind of ball game that you are talking about here. You release a film: a) to make money. That is one aspect, and a legitimate approach of doing it. I am doing it for a different purpose. I want the message, the content to reach out to maximum number of people. So if it does tomorrow or day-after tomorrow, it is still relevant. I am not losing out on anything.

Dhyaas Parva is not mainstream cinema. Is it an art movie? Independent film? How do you classify it?

I would not use clichéd superficial labels. This film goes much beyond that. If at all, you will need to coin a new term for it.

So what would you like to label it?

You label it. (Laughs). In any case I don’t label my films. It is the media that loves to do that. All I can say that it is a great film that is not only absolutely fascinating in technical excellence, but also a film with purpose, a film which not only makes you ponder, but also makes you feel responsible.

There is a lot of information about you and your films as a director, in the media, especially in places like Germany, and in Europe. When did you turn director?

Oh, that happened long back. In fact, I haven’t been acting for the last 16 years. So it is no news at all. I made my first film as a director way back in 1980s. So that (directorial career) is also no great news.

What can we look forward to in your future films?

If you see all the films I have made, right up to Dhyaas Parva, each film is different. And I promise to keep that in my next film.