Dr. Shashishekhar Naithani (1924-1998)
Dr. Shashishekhar Naithani’s journey started from Chaidaar Pali of Pauri Garhwal. After completing primary education in his village and higher secondary from Lancedowne, he graduated from DAV College Dehradun and then completed his post-graduation from Allahabad University.
In 1949-50 Dr. Naithani established Hindi department at St. Xavier’s College Bombay and then at Bombay University. And thus began a new era of Hindi language and literature on the soil of Bombay (now Mumbai).
Dr. Naithani was a professor in college but compiled school text books ‘Bharati’ for 9 th , 10 th and 11 th standards which were being studied in all of Gujarat and Maharashtra from 1956 to 1971. Strengthening the students’ foundation by introducing the works of good writers and poets, inculcating good values and morals to lead a better life – these were his objectives.
Post independence, many government and semi government organisations such as ONGC, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum, nationalised banks, telephone nigam were established. Dr. Naithani conducted several workshops for training Hindi officers of Hindi departments at these organisations. He staged several Hindi plays so that general public understands, learns and comfortably uses conversational Hindi.
Dr. Naithani’s biggest contribution has been emphasising simplicity and purity of language. After all, language is a means of communicating one’s mind to others and the real beauty of language is in its simplicity. He emphasised the importance of purity of written as well as spoken language. With much affection and harmony, Dr. Naithani dedicated his entire life serving Hindi in its simplest and purest form.
To know more about Dr. Shashishekhar Naithani, click