Govind Purushottam Deshpande

Govind Purushottam Deshpande (2 August 1938 – 16 October 2013^[1]) popularly known as GPD or Gopu, was a Marathi playwright and a scholar of modern Indian theatre, China studies, Sanskrit, and Marathi, as well as an academic of history, politics, and foreign policy. He was a professor of China studies at the Centre for East Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, in New Delhi, where he taught for thirty-five years. He pioneered 'political plays' in Marathi theatre and went on to write seminal works such as Udhwasta Dharmashala (1973), Andhar Yatra (1987) Satyashodhak (1994), and Rastey (1996), some of which were translated into Hindi and English, helping shape the modernist movement in Indian theatre in the 1970s.^[2][3][4][5] He was the author of Dialectics of Defeat: The Problems of Culture in Postcolonial India (2006), The World of Ideas in Modern Marathi: Phule, Vinoba, Savarkar (2009), and Talking the Political Culturally and Other Essays (2009).^[6]

He was a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1996) for playwriting, the Kala Gaurava Puruskar (2005), and the Jeevan Gaurava Puraskar for Literature (2010). He wrote a column titled "Of Life, Letters and Politics" in Economic and Political Weekly for three decades. He was one of the founding members of the Institute of Chinese Studies in Delhi and also served as its director. Later, the institute, along with Deshpande's family, established the GP Deshpande Award in his memory.^[7][6]

Born in Nashik, Deshpande grew up in Rahimatpur, where he went to school. He completed an MA in Ancient Indian History from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, and enrolled for a PhD at the School of International Affairs, New Delhi. This school subsequently became part of the Jawaharlal Nehru University. Deshpande completed his PhD and later taught at the Centre for East Asian Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

Deshpande edited magazines including Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) and the Journal of Arts and Ideas, and he wrote a column in EPW for three decades.^[6] His collection of essays on culture and politics, Dialectics of Defeat: Problems of Culture in Post-Colonial India was published in 2006, and he also issued a collection of poems, Ityadi Ityadi Kavita. He was the editor of an anthology of Indian plays in translation, Modern Indian Drama,^[8] published by Sahitya Akademi in 2004. As a screenwriter, his credits include Drohkaal (1994)^[9] and Dev (2004),^[10] both directed by Govind Nihalani; Bharat Ek Khoj (1989), directed by Shyam Benegal.^[9] He also had cameo in a Marathi film, Pune 52.^[11] Twelve of his books have been acquired by The Library of Congress, including a few on Chinese foreign policy.^[12]

Deshpande received the Maharashtra State Award for his collective work in 1977, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for playwrighting in 1996, the Kala Gaurava Puruskar in 2005, and the Jeevan Gaurava Puraskar for Literature in 2010.

Deshpande lived in Pune after retirement. He suffered a brain haemorrhage in July 2013 and was hospitalised, after which he fell into a coma. He died at home on 16 October 2013, aged 74.^[2][13]

Deshpande's wife is a women's rights activist. His daughter is an economist at the Delhi School of Economics, and his son is a publisher with LeftWord Books and a theatre activist with Jana Natya Manch in Delhi.^[11] The Marathi actress Jyoti Subhash is his sister, and her daughter Amruta, also an actress, is his niece.

• Udhwastha Dharmashala (published in English as A Man in Dark Times), directed by Dr Shreeram Lagoo (Marathi), Om Puri (Hindi), Rajinder Nath (Hindi), Shyamanand Jalan (Padatik) in 1982.
• Andhar Yatra (A Journey in Darkness), directed in Marathi by Satyadev Dubey and in Hindi by Rajinder Nath.
• Satyashodhak (The Truth Seeker) on the life and times of the 19th-century social reformer Jotiba Phule, directed by Sudhanva Deshpande and performed by Jana Natya Manch.^[14] The Marathi productions were directed by Sharad Bhuthadia (Kolhapur) and Atul Pethe (Pune), who also directed a Kannada production in Heggodu.
• Antim Divas directed by G.P. Deshpande for Padatik in Kolkata (in Hindi) and by Jyoti Subhash in Marathi.
• Chanakya Vishnugupta directed by Satyadev Dubey for the National School of Drama in Hindi with Ashish Vidyarthi and Baharul Islam in the title roles, and by Dr Shreeram Lagoo in Marathi with himself in the title role.
• Music System directed by Vijay Kenkre in Marathi.^[15]
• Raastey directed in Marathi by Vijay Kenkre,^[15] and Hindi by Jyoti Subhash, directed by Satyadev Dubey for the National School of Drama Repertory Company, and by Arvind Gaur.^[16]