4. Name : Shankar Ramachandra Kharat.
Born : 11 / 0 7 / 1 9 2 1
Place : Atpadi, Sangli District, Maharashtra.
Introduction:
Kharat was born in Atpadi, the secondary capital of the former princely state of Aundh,
now in Sangli district. As an adult, he converted to Buddhism.
Kharat was associated with B.R. Ambedkar. He served for some years as the vice-chancellor
of Marathwada University and as a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council.
In his writings , Kharat mainly wrote about the life experiences of people from the Dalit
community.
5. Brief Information:
Shankar Ramchandra Kharat (1921–2001) was a Marathi writer from Maharashtra, India. He was
born in Atpadi, secondary capital of the former princely state of Aundh, now in Sangli district.
He had converted to Buddhism in his adulthood. He was worked with Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar
for many years. He was a true follower of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar. Babasaheb told him "We
have doctors, engineers, lawyers and many educated people in our community but we don't
have writers in our community. Our community literature needs to be focused and established
all over India.You need to take this responsibility. Then ShakarRao Kharat started writing books
and stories about Dalit's Stories and literature. He established "Dalit literature" all over India.
For some years, Kharat served as the vice-chancellor of Marathwada University and member of
council of Maharashtra State. In his writings, he mainly wrote about the life experiences of
people from Dalit community.
6. LIFE :
Dr. Shankarrao Kharat was the first child in the family born by Father: Shri RamchandraTatya
kharat and Mother: Smt. Savitri Ramchdra kharat, followed by three brothers named
Dnyaneswar, Maruti and Sopan and three sisters named Bhagirathi, Pavitra and
Shevanta. He received his education till Secondary high school at Shree Bhavani High School
at Atpadi, after which, he moved to Pune to receive his further education.Where, he received
his Bachelor’s degree in Arts and ranked top in Maharashtra. Later, he decided to move to
Mumbai in search of a job and to enroll himself in Bachelor's Degree course in Law (LLB),
where he came in contact with Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and became his personal secretory.
He also fulfilled his responsibilities as the national joint secretory of Schedule Cast Federation
led by Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar himself. Meanwhile, he led the Union of Ammunition factory
worker at Pune and soon gained a reputation as the lawyer of the poor people. Dr. Ambedkar
expressed his concern about Dalit literature and inspired him to write about the miserable life
led by Dalits, especially when a non-dalit writer, an upper cast the one from his own
hometown called ShriVenkatesh Madgulkar, could write about Dalit community .
