Award is good... let’s move ahead now: Pune’s Padma Vibhushan Babasaheb Purandare is humility personified

Balwant Moreshwar Purandare popularly known as Babasaheb Purandare was conferred with the Padma Vibhushan on Friday. Reacting to the announcement, Purandare said, “The award is indeed a good news and recognition to the work. I feel we should all move ahead now.”

Padma Vibhushan is the second-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, second only to the Bharat Ratna.

Rejoiced by the announcement Babasaheb Purandare’s son Prasad Purandare said, “It is indeed a moment of pride that Babasaheb has been conferred with Padma Vibhushan. His contribution to the history of Maharashtra has been unparalleled. This award is the recognition of the work he has done throughout his life.”

Purandare was also conferred with state’s highest honour Maharashtra Bhushan in the year 2015 by the Maharashtra state government.

Purandare, who is best known for his book on life and times of Chhatrapati Shivaji called Raja Shivchattrapati and play Janata Raja also on the life of Shivaji, calls himself a balladeer of Shivaji and presented the romanticised life and times of Shivaji through his works and speeches for the last three quarters of a century. However, some Maratha groups, a caste to which Shivaji belonged, and progressive groups and individuals had then objected to Purandare being conferred with state’s highest honour.

Their three main objections to Purandare’s works are that he casts aspersions on the parenthood of Shivaji and thus on his mother Jijabai’s character, he depicted Shivaji as an anti-Muslim crusader and glorified the role of Brahmin gurus in his life.