Department of English  


ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT

 The Department of English was established in 1957 with one Reader, that is, Dr. M.K. Naik and one Professor, that is, Prof. Armando Menezes. The genius of these two, each a great mind in his own way, shaped the Dept. and set a tradition of devotion and commitment towards teaching and research, which is being continued till today.  In course of time, the Department grew into a full-fledged Department with one Professor, five Readers and three Lecturers. The Department of English has completed 50 years of its fruitful existence in 2007 and celebrated its Golden Jubilee in a befitting manner with Padmashri Shashi Deshpande as the chief guest on the occasion. In the course of 50 years, the Department has been instrumental in fulfilling the aspiration for higher education of the students of North Karnataka and has produced a large number of students with M.A, M.Phil, and Ph.D degrees. The Department has also organized Orientation and Refresher Courses, Workshops, Seminars and Symposia for the benefit of students and teachers. It is also involved in inter-disciplinary programmes.

            This Department has the credit of having produced teachers who have served here and later went on to become Vice-Chancellors, Directors, Heads of the Departments of other universities, well-known Poets and Novelists, Presidents of State Sahitya Academy,  Sahitya Parishat and even Sangeet-Nrutya Academy etc.  Several Students of the Department have joined Indian Administrative Service, Karnataka State Administrative Service and Indian Police Service. To name only a few, Ravi Shankar (IPS), K. S. Mandegar (IPS), Dr. Guru Prasad (IPS), Kongwad (KAS), Arvind Jannu (KAS), Gangadhar Adagatti (KAS), R.L. Patil (KAS), D.A. Math (KAS), C.I.Math (KAS), Mahantesh Bilagi (KAS), R.J. Walikar (IAS), Kyatan (KAS) and Girish Patil.

Prof. Armando Menezes

          Prof. Menezes was an intellectual giant with high idealism and uncompromising moral principles. He had a successful record as the Principal of Karnatak College, Dharwad, M.N. College, Visnagar (Gujarat) and Rajaram College, Kolhapur (Maharashtra), before he joined the Dept. of English as Professor and Head.  He was one of the pioneers of Indian Poetry in English and was complimented for his poetry by no less a writer than Sri Aurobindo.  He not only authored several volumes of poetry, brought out collections of essays and radio-talks, he also set a new tradition of Vachana translation. He translated the Vachanas of the great saints of the 12th century Virashaiva movement such as Basaveshwara, Akkamahadevi and Siddharama and five volumes of Shunya Sampadane, a rare work which records the spiritual discourse of the Shivasharanas.  Above all he was a true teacher whose memory is alive in the hearts of his students.  On his 65th birthday greetings came to him from such great personalities as Dr. Radhakrishnan, Humayun  Kabir, Mulk Raj Anand and others.  The Dept. is proud to inherit from him a legacy of commitment to the cause of the teaching of language and literature.   

Prof. M.K. Naik:

          After the retirement of Prof. Menezes in 1966, Dr. Naik took over as Head, and steered the administration of the Department for almost two decades, during which period the Department made tremendous achievement in terms of research and publications. Dr. Naik brought great credit to the Department by the distinctions won by him during his tenure as the Head of the Department. He was awarded such honours as the National Fellowship of the UGC, National Lectureship of the Senior Commonwealth Fellowship, Canada and the British Council Visitorship, Cambridge. He was the President of All India English Teachers’ Conference, New Delhi.   With the help of the British Council, he was able to invite a large number of writers and scholars from abroad which provided the students of the Dept. an exposure to rare scholarship.

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