Anand Yadav


Anand Ratan Yadav was a Marathi writer from Maharashtra, India. He is best known for his autobiography Zombi.
He was born on 30 November 1935 in the village Kagal near Kolhapur, Maharashtra in a poor family. His illiterate farmer father was not in favor of educating him. So young Yadav ran away from home, and, facing many hardships, received education as high as a doctorate from Pune University. His books such as Jhombi and Nangarani depict his struggle for education.
He died in 2016 at Pune.

Literary work

Yadav was one of the early writers of Marathi Gramin Sahitya.
His novel "Zombi" won a Sahitya Akademi Award in 1990. The novel is an autobiographical story of a young boy, his loving mother, his life of utter poverty, and his eagerness to receive education.
Yadav wrote three sequels to autobiographical Zombi :
Nangarani , Gharabhinti , and Kachawel .
The famous Marathi movie Natarang is based on Yadav's novel Natarang.
The lesson Gaavachi Sanskruti he Gaavache Vyaktimatva in Marati textbook of Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education is taken from his book.

82nd Marathi Sahitya Sammelan

Yadav was elected as the president of the 82nd Marathi Sahitya Sammelan which was held at Mahabaleshwar in March 2009. However, he resigned from that position four days before the sammelan in response to protests primarily by members of the varkari mahamandal against some of the material in his biographical novel Santasurya Tukaram. The mahamandal members had demanded his resignation with a warning that they would disrupt the sammelan if their demand was not met.