Makarand Paranjape (born 1960) is an Indian poet, literary critic, professor, novelist, and former Director of the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies (IIAS) in Shimla. Since 1999, he is Professor of English at the Center for English Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Wiki/Biography
Makarand R. Paranjape was born on Wednesday, August 31, 1960 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat (age 63 years 2023). His zodiac sign is Virgo. He attended Bishop Cotton Boys School in Bangalore. In 1980, he received his BA (Honours) in English from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi. He won first place in his first and second year of graduation. He also holds a master’s degree in English Literature from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 1985, he received his PhD from the same institute on the topic of mysticism in Indian English poetry.
family
Parents and siblings
There is not much information about his parents and siblings.
wife
In 1987, Makarand Paranjape married Sarina, a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). In 2006, he married Devaki Singh, the daughter of Arun Singh, the former federal defense minister of the Indian government. He was a minister in the government led by Rajiv Gandhi. They divorced in 2014. Makarand Paranjape is now married to Gayatri Iyer.
Gayatri Iyer, wife of Makarand Paranjape
Devaki Singh, wife of Makarand Paranjape
Profession
professor
In 1980, Makarand Paranjape began his teaching assistant career at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). In 1986, Makarande Paranjapur returned to India. He joined the University of Hyderabad first as a lecturer and then as a reader. In 1994, he served as associate professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. From 1999 to 2018, he served as Professor of English at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Director/Chairman
In August 2018, Makarande Paranjapur was appointed Director of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS). From 2005 to 2006, he served as Chairman of the Center for Linguistics and English. In 2006, he was appointed Director of the Center for English Studies, serving for one year. From 2013 to 2015, Makarand Paranjape again served as Chairman of the Center for English Studies. He currently serves as the Director of the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Niwas, Rashtrapati Bhavan, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India.
writer
He has published over 120 academic papers and over 200 theses in various journals and edited books around the world.
novel
- This time I promise it will be different: a short story.New Delhi: UBS, 1994
- Narrator: A novel. New Delhi: Rupa, 1995
- Body Support, New Delhi: Rupa, 2013
The Last Secret of Identity, 2022
poetry
- Quiet flame. Delhi: Rupa, 1991
- Play as the God of Darkness. Delhi: Rupa, 1992
- Used books.New Delhi: Indialog Publishing House, 2001
- Partial Disclosure.New Delhi: Mantra Books, 2005
- confluence.New Delhi: Samvad India, 2007
- Passenger in transit/Passageiro em Transito. São Paulo: Humanitas, University Press of São Paulo, 2016
translate
- Vessel from the original Marathi Hodya, designed by Hemant Govind Joglekar.New Delhi: BR Publishing, 1994
Edit books
- Indian Poetry in English. Madras: Macmillan, 1993
- Sarojini Naidu: Selected Poems and Prose.Delhi: HarperCollins India, 1993
- New Anthology of Indian Poetry in English. Delhi: Rupa, 1994
- Sarojini Naidu: Selected Letters. Delhi: Kali for Women, 1996
- The House of Spiritual Appearance: The Story of Sri Aurobindo Ashram – Delhi Chapter, New Delhi: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1997
- The best in Raja Rao. New Delhi: Kata, 1998
- Penguin Aurobindo Reader. New Delhi: Penguin, 1999
- Sri Aurobindo’s Little Book. New Delhi: Penguin, 2001
- Penguin Swami Vivekananda Reader.New Delhi, 2005
- Cyclone Swami: Vivekananda of the West. With Sukajan Sengupta.New Delhi: Samvad India, 2005
- Dharma and Development: The Future of Survival.New Delhi: Samvad India, 2005
- Science and Spirituality in Modern India.New Delhi: Samvad India, 2006
- Earth Lessons: Three Essays on Saving the Planet. Co-edited with Devaki Singh.New Delhi: Vikram Sarabhai Foundation, 2008
- Science, Spirituality and Modernization in India. New Delhi: National Anthem, 2008
- Sacred Australia: Postsecular considerations.Melbourne: Magellan’s Clouds, 2009; Indian edition with new foreword and preface, New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan, 2010
- Indian English and Indian vernacular. Co-edited with GJV Prasad. New Delhi: Pearson Longman, 2010
Awards, Honors, Achievements
- Makarand Paranjape has been the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) Chair in India Studies at the National University of Singapore since August 2010.
- From October to December 2014, Makarand Paranjape served as the first DAAD-Eric Auerbach Visiting Professor of World Literature at the University of Tübingen, Germany.
- In the 2008 and 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Awards, he served as Chair of the Pan-Commonwealth Jury for Europe and South Asia.
Facts/Trivia
- In August 2020, Makarand Paranjape was accused of irregularities by another official, leading to a dispute with the agency’s chairman and deputy chairman. In April 2021, Paranjap responded to critics in an interview with The Wire. Later, it was revealed that he had violated the MoA (memorandum of association) of the institute during his tenure as director of the institute and had no conflict with any other particular department head of the institute.
- In Makarand Paranjape’s coffee table poetry collection The Last Secret of Identity, published in January 2022, Paranjape discusses how he got out of a difficult relationship. The novel “Dedicated” tells the story of a middle-aged man having an extramarital affair with a woman 25 years younger than him.
- Makarand Paranjape serves as the Chief Editor of several out-of-print and rare Indian English books published by Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi.
- Makarand Paranjape is the founding editor of the global bi-annual publication Evam: A Forum for Indian Representatives. ES: Revista de Filologia Inglesa, University of Valladolid (Spain), South Asia Review (USA), Situations: Cultural Studies in Asian Contexts (Seoul, South Korea), Indialogs: Spanish Journal of Indian Studies, Universitat Autònoma of Barcelona (Spain) and SARE: Southeast Asia Review is one of the journals for which the author serves as a member of the editorial board.
- Makarand Paranjape is a columnist for the Sunday Observer, Business Standard, The Pioneer and Life Positive and currently writes columns for Swarajya, Mail Today and DNA.
- In 2016, during the Jinan University riots, Makaran Paranjapet expressed support to the BJP government. In one article, he suggested that the Gandhi-Nehru family should leave the Congress. Ahead of the 2019 general elections, Paranjapur wrote an opinion piece supporting the candidacy of Priyanka Gandhi, sister of former party president Rahul Gandhi.
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education