Veteran Kannada poet Chandrashekar Patil ‘Champa’ passes away

Bengaluru: Veteran Kannada poet, playwright and public intellectual Chandrashekar Patil, popularly known as “Champa”, passed away today at the age of 83.

He was suffering from age-related ailments and breathed his last at a hospital in Bengaluru, sources said.

After retiring as a professor of English from Karnatak University, Patil had served as the President of Kannada Sahitya Parishat and as the Chairman of Kannada Development Authority.

As an activist, Champa had lead many Kannada social and literary movements such as Gokak agitation, Bandaya movement, anti-Emergency agitation, agitation for the implementation of Mandal report, Farmer’s movement, to name a few.

He was the editor of the influential literary journal Sankramana started with two of his friends. Protesting the assassination of his friend and Vachana scholar M. M. Kalburgi, he had returned his Pampa Award, the highest literary honor of the Karnataka government.

He has several literary works to his credit. Ardha Satyada Hudugi (1989), a collection of poems won him Karnataka Sahitya Akademi Award for Poetry. His other notable works include Banuli, Madhyabindu, Gandhi Smarane, Hoovu Hennu Taare, Shalmala Nanna Shalmala, and Gundammana Gazhalagal.