SANDESH

Wednesday, 28th November, 2023. Kartik vad beej. V.S. 2080

Editor emeritus of Bhagavadgomandal: Chandulal Patel.

Legacy: “PatelBandhu” (Patel clans) monthly magazine, organizations like “Patel Yuvak Mandal” (Patel Youth Forum)and “Patel Vidyarthi Ashram” (Patel Students’ Hostel) and other such community activities.

This day 59 years ago, Chandulal Behcharlal Patel, the eminent education minister of the erstwhile Gondal state, and the editor of the perennial Gujarati language magnum opus Bhavadgomandal departed from our midst. Born to Gondal’s poet laureate Behcharlal and Maniben – who wrote under the pen name “Vihari” – in Shihore town on 5th August, 1889. Behcharlal had translated the Bengali national song “Vande mataram” into Gujarati. “namu safal vimal jalvaali maa – vande maateram, dhaanye lilichham hariyaali – maa vande mataram”. This song was sung at morning assembly in all schools of Gondal state. Starting with the value system imbibed from his mother, Chandulal’s primary education was completed in Bhayadar village, secondary education in Gondal, and higher education from Shamaldas  college of Bhavnagar. His association with thought leaders of the time, like Motibhai Amin, Kant (poet), Himatlal Anjaria, Bhikshu Akhandanand and others kindled a strong desire in Chandulal for service to the nation and community. On completion of his matriculation, in 1914 he joined Patidar Yuvak Mandal to serve the community. He joined Gondal state’s education department as an “inspector” in 1916, and was promoted to be the education minister 10 years later in 1926.

His desire for community service and the job of education minister were well synchronised, and he went at it with enthusiasm and dedication. He was inspired by his Monarch BhagaBapu’s reformist thoughts, and with his blessings, made female education compulsory across Gondal State.  He started adult education programmes too. He reworked literature rapid readers for schools, to promote and sustain nationalist values and thoughts. He played a major role in organising the “Kathiavad State Conference”. With full support and resources from Maharaja Bhagavatsinhji, he reformed the structures of assistance for the abandoned and homeless citizens of Gondal as well as the orphanages in the state.

Chandulal Patel had been influenced by the works of poet “Narmad”, and was inspired to establish “Premshaurya Society” (courage adoration society). It was during this period that he became initiated activity in student assistance, “PatelBandhu” (Patel clans) monthly magazine,  Patel Youth Forum, (Patel students’ Hostel” etc. During the 1915 “Sahitya Parishad” (literary convention) in Surat, Chandulal was entrusted by (convention chairman) Ranjitram Mehta, to look after the preservation and presentation of transcripts of old manuscripts, monograms, copper plates,  rock carvings,  and other unpublished materials.

Maharaja Bhagavatsinhji had noticed Chandulal’s work ethic, dedication, organisational abilities, and forethought. He decided to entrust his dream task to Chandulal for execution. He entrusted Chandulal with compiling and editing a comprehensive Gujarati lexicon ( for which had been collecting raw material for years). The Maharaja was an intellectual giant, passionate about knowledge and education, a patron of literature with an instinctive recognition of merit, and one who cared intensely for his subjects. Hence, he was convinced that if anyone could do this job, it was Chandulal Patel.

Chandulal Patel embraced this responsibility with glee and excitement. Maharaja Bhagavatsinhji established a department of lexicon within his own office in on 1st October, 1928, and started the work of editing and compiling the lexicon starting with nearly 20,000 words laboriously collected by him till then. We may well be surprised that Chandulal worked on his regular duties as education minister till 5:30 in the evening, and then started on the lexicon from 7:00 pm till 10:30 pm.

Ten years and immense effort later, the first volume of 902 pages, was published in 1938. It covered twenty-six thousand six hundred and eighty-seven words from “a” to “å”. The second volume took another 6 years to be published in 1944. The speed of compilation picked up after that and by 1953, Volume 7 and 8 had been published with the last volume 9 coming out in 1954. Chandulal devoted his full time to the lexicon after he retired from the state job. (state was Saurashtra after independence, where he was education officer). He completed this immense task across 29 years, with dedication, devotion, attention to details while keeping away from any publicity what so ever. This task had cost two lakhs, seventy-two thousand, four hundred and fifty rupees. The post-independence Saurashtra government had awarded Chandulal a purse of eleven thousand rupees for completing this gigantic task. 1954 saw the “Gujarati Sahitya Parishad” ( Gujarati literary Convention) honour Chandulal with the “Ranjitram Gold Medal”, in spite of not being a litterateur, for this humongous editorial contribution (to the language). The unfortunate part was that by the time the lexicon was ready, Maharaja Bhagavatsinhji was no more. The then Prince of Gondal – Vikramsinhji gave him a purse of rupees 1500.00 with the words, “The major credit for successfully completing the task of compiling the lexicon under the guidance of Maharaja Bhagavatsinhji (his father) belongs to Chandulal Patel”.

Chandulal Patel had also edited “Gandhi gyankosh”, and “Gandhiji Na Vichaarratno” -gems of Gandhiji’s thoughts. The latter was subsequently inducted by Gujarat university as a text book. The rapid readers prepared under his guidance had been adopted by other princely states of Saurashtra for their schools as well.

Subsequent to retirement from service with Gondal State and later Saurashtra government, Chandulal suffered a stroke at an advanced age. There is an evocative episode described by Rajanikumar Pandya in an article called “shabdayogi” (wordsmith) about Chandulal. Chandulal needed to sign some papers about his pension. His stroke afflicted right hand did not work well, so his trusted long time assistant suggested that Chandulal could put his left hand thumb print, instead of a signature on the pension papers, so that the pension could be paid to him. A normally calm Chandulal blew up, and scolded his assistant “Nary a girl in Gondal puts her thumb print anywhere, and you want me to put my thumb print on this document? Take it away, I don’t want the pension”. Such was his sense of pride in what he had achieved in Gondal. He was willing to let his pension go, but not use his thumb print to get it!

His sons posthumously published his biography “Jivan Panth”. Chandulal Patel’s biography was then published under the name “Jivan Rang”, (A conflict of names coming from the original Gujarati article) edited by Savitriben Patel, Prafullchandra Patel and Krishnachandra Patel. Chandulal passed away on 28th November, 1964.  There will always be a doubt about how many of the new generation will familiar with the humongous editing job that Chandulal accomplished. Salutations to Chandulal Patel - the producer of this great lexicon called “Bhagavadgomandal” on this anniversary of his passing.

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