Makarand R. Paranjape (born 31 August 1960) is an Indian novelist, poet, former director at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla, and former professor of English at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi."Our Contribution to Society at Large Needs to Improve." The Tribune. 29 September 2018.Professor Makarand Paranjape, Centre for English Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University website
Early life and education Makarand R. Paranjape was born in 1960 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. He was educated at Bishop Cotton Boys' School in Bangalore and at St. Stephen's College, University of Delhi, where he received a B.A. (Hons.) in English in 1980. Thereafter, he joined the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign for his M.A. in English Literature and, subsequently, a PhD, in 1985, on the topic Mysticism in Indian English Poetry.
Career Makarand Paranjape had started his career in 1980 as a teaching assistant at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and returned to India in 1986 to join the University of Hyderabad, first as a lecturer and then a reader. In 1994, he joined the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Delhi as an associate professor and, between 1999 and 2018, served as a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.Makarand Paranjape, short Biography Université Interdisciplinaire de Paris, (UIP).INDIAN LETTERS once a month with Mohan Ramanan: Paranjape The Practical mystic New Straits Times, 30 March 1994.
IIAS Controversy Paranjape was appointed as Director of IIAS in August 2018. In August 2020, 63 charges of irregularities were filed against him according to the Vice Chancellor and he was asked to resign from the post."War Within: It's Right versus Right at Shimla's Esteemed IIAS" The Daily Guardian. Utpal Kumar and Kunal Roy. 8 September 2020. Paranjape offered a rebuttal to his critics through an interview with The Wire in April 2021."As Scholars Accuse IIAS of Opaque Practices, Chairperson and Director Go Head to Head." Akshaya Mukul. The Wire. 4 April 2021. However, it was later reported that he had violated the MoA (memorandum of association) of the institute as its Director and that it was not any clash with other specific individual heads at the institution."IIAS Saga Takes Ugly Turn as Top Functionaries Issue Statement Against Director." The Wire. Akshaya Mukul. 9 April 2021. Paranjape resigned from the post in 2021 after he was given a farewell by the institute on 30 July 2021.
Works and reception In his coffee-table book of poems published in January 2022 as Identity's Last Secret, Paranjape discussed how he "came out of a difficult relationship." In 2013, Makarand R. Paranjape published a novel called Body Offering."Fifty Shades Darker!" Neha Jain. Millennium Post. 2 June 2013. The novel is a tale of a middle-aged man's extra-marital affair with a woman 25 years younger than him. The Sunday Guardian dubbed the book as one "that walked in the long shadow cast" by Russian-American writer Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 novel Lolita."Paranjape's Novel Is More Erratic than Erotic." Aditya Mani Jha. The Sunday Guardian. 10 August 2013.
Personal life In 1987, Paranjape married Sarina, a graduate student at UIUC. In 2006, he married Devaki Singh, daughter of Arun Singh. He is now married to Gayatri Iyer. No date provided to the current marriage in the source.
Honours ICCR Chair in Indian Studies, National University of Singapore, August 2010 onwards. October–December 2014: Inaugural DAAD-Eric Auerbach Visiting Chair in World Literatures at the University of Tübingen, Germany.
Notes
References
External links Makarand Paranjape Webpage at JNU
See also
Indian English Literature Indian Writing in English