Commending the book, which is Nadeem Khan’s English translation of Patil’s historical Marathi novel “Rankhaindal”, Gadkari expressed hope that people now in India ” those outside Maharashtra” and in Western countries would see a just picture of the king, as the history written during the Mughal era and British rule was unfair to him.”.There were many things that were unfair to him, some even called him a ‘lootera’ (a bandit). I can say with full confidence that Shivaji’s personality was complete, it was exceptional.In our current governance system, how a king should be, how a king should act, he is an example of that,” he said.Tharoor, too, congratulated the author for bringing his skill of “novelisation of history” to best use and able to pull off two volumes on Shivaji in fictional form, who he admits is an extraordinarily interesting figure to read about in any Indian language.He seconded Gadkari saying that Shivaji has indeed come through various renderings in the national imagination — from demonisation during the Mughal era to being hailed as “original Hindu nationalist” by freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak.”We have had demonisation of him (Shivaji), as Gadkari ji reminded us of ‘lootera,’ a bandit, which was propagated by the partisans of the Mughal side.Then, we had the veneration of him as the great anti-colonial resistance figure, and this notion of resistance.”You had different interpretations even within Maharashtra.Jyotiba Phule’s interpretation of Shivaji as the voice of the subaltern, as the voice of the underclass rising up, versus, say, the Bal Gangadhar Tilak version of the original Hindu nationalist, portraying Shivaji as the origin of Hindu nationalism,” explained the 69-year-old Congress leader.Touted by publishing house Westland Books as the dazzling second volume of Patil’s “The Wild Warfront”, the book reconstructs Shivaji Maharaj’s life and battles through intensive research.Patil, known for his novels like “Ranangan”, “Chandramukhi”, “Panipat”, and “Sambhaji”, has sold over 50,000 copies of the two volumes in Marathi — “Jhanjhawat” (The Whirlwind) and “Rankhaindal” (The Wild Warfront).
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