English
Shraddheya Baba Amte, the renowned social worker and the recipient of numerous national and international awards and honours, was a tireless crusader against all odds, and a champion of the rights of leprosy afflicted, orthopedically handicapped, visually impaired, hearing and speech crippled, and the abandoned. In order to find ways for the rehabilitation of these marginalized people, Baba founded a charitable trust – ‘Maharogi Seva Samiti’ (MSS) – in 1950, and started his work on a rather hostile wilderness area at the outskirts of the then Warora town, a place later named Anandwan – ‘Forest of joy’ – by the famous Marathi litterateur late P. L. Deshpande.
The opening of Anand Niketan College, on June 20, 1964, was Baba’s another step towards the larger social welfare and rural upliftment. The present premises of Anand Niketan College is an example of Anandwan’s realization of the ideal of recasting the hidden energy of the most neglected into potential use, as the buildings of the college were erected through the labours of the lepers and the crippled inmates of Anandwan. Since then, the college has been functioning as a torchbearer of the advancement of knowledge, awareness, progress and, the facilitator of quality education for the economically weaker youths of the rural, remote areas.
The department of English came into being on 20th June 1964, and has an illustrious history of the distinguished scholars and academicians who have worked either as lecturers and professors in the department, or were its scholarly students. The strong foundation of the department was laid by Prof. Dr. K. K. Reddy, appointed on 20/06/1964, with his student-centric teaching ability and love of research and publication. ‘SESAME’, an anthology of English prose, edited by Dr. K. K. Reddy and published by S. Chand, New Delhi, was prescribed by R. T. M. Nagpur University as curriculum for B. A. I, from 2003 to 2008. The second faculty to join the college was Prof. K. Satyanarayan (20/06/1966) who, along with the routine teaching responsibilities, also held some of the important positions in the university administration, one of them being the Chairman of the Board of Studies of English in R. T. M. Nagpur University. In 1993, an equally capable and linguistically versatile faculty Dr. B. R. Pandey joined the department on 28/12/93, under the leadership of the head of the department Dr. Reddy.
With the first generation teachers’ careers nearing their retirements, the new faculties in the form of P. M. Bansod, Asst. prof. (01/12/1999), and Mr. A. L. Pandhare (03/06/2004 – on contract Basis) were appointed so as to fill the gap that was likely to be created due to retirements of the senior teachers. Later, A. N. Barde, Asst Prof. was appointed on 11/07/2005, Mr. A. L. Pandhare, Asst. Prof. was regularized in service from 03/06/2008 after his SET qualification in 2008 and, the last faculty to join the department (15/02/2014) was Mr. S. V. Tiple.
Faculty
The faculties of the department are engaged in research, publication academic/professional development activities. A UGC sponsored national conference was organized by the department on 2nd February 2012. The topic of the conference was “Ecocriticism: Developing Environmental Consciousness through English Studies”. The key note speakers were Dr. Nirmal Selvamony, Head, Deptt. of English, Central University of Tamilnadu, Thiruvarur and Dr. Anand Patil, a bilingual writer and former Head, Dept. of English, Goa University. About 100 delegates attended the conference and 35 research papers were presented and were published in the proceedings.
Guests on the Dais & Publication of Proceedings
Delegates & the students of the department
List Of Staff Members
At present, four fully qualified faculties, appointed as per UGC guidelines, work in the department on full-time, regular basis who are consistently engaged in the activities of teaching, research, publication, extension and institutional governance. Besides these regular faculties, the department uses services of the faculties on CHB.
Alumni
The department also takes pride in a long line of alumni functioning in the various governmental and non-governmental positions throughout Maharashtra and beyond, by attempting various competition exams and by having higher qualifications. To name a few, following is the list of the recent alumni who are serving as Heads, Assistant Professors and teachers of English –
| Sr. No. | Name Of The Student | UG Passing Year | Placement |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Mr. Mohit Sawe | 2005 | Asst. Prof. Vivekanand College, Bhadravati, Dist. Chandrapur |
| 2. | Mr. Manoj Madavi | 2005 | Asst. Prof. Annasaheb Gundewar College, Nagpur |
| 3. | Mr. Dilip Bawne | 2006 | Asst. Prof. Arts & Comm. College, Tukum, Chandrapur |
| 4. | Mr. Ravi Gajbhiye | 2006 | Asst. Prof., Ashti Dist. Gadchiroli |
| 5. | Mr. Kishor Mahajan | 2007 | Asst. Prof. Ambedkar college, Chandrapur |
| 6. | Mr. Dipak Wakde | 2008 | Astt. Prof., Comrade G. S. Parulekar College, Talasari Dist. Palghar |
| 7. | Mr. Ajay Kite | 2008 | Asst. Prof., Kinwat, Distt. Nanded |
| 8. | Mr. Prithviraj Khobragade | 2008 | Contributary Lecturer, Paoni |
| 9. | Mr. Rajendrakumar Sakhre | 2008 | Contributary Lecturer, Ambedkar College, Chandrapur |
| 10. | Mr. Ashish Katore | 2010 | Asst. Prof. Chintamani College, Ghuggus, Dist. Chandrapur |
| 11. | Mr. Pravin Thamke | 2004 | Maharashtra State Welfare Dept.’s School Wani, Dist. Chandrapur |
Courses Offered
The department offers Compulsory English subject to the Arts faculty students of Part I, II & III; to the Commerce faculty students of Part-I & II; and those of Science faculty Part-I.
As an optional subject, English Literature for B. A. students, and Supplementary English for B. Sc. / B. Com. is available.
Activities
Value Added/Add-on/Skill Enhancement Courses
Various Value Added/Add-on/Skill Enhancement Courses are conducted to cater to the potential needs of students. In the session 2020-21, the following 30 hours courses were conducted –
1. Value Added Course – ‘Soft Skill Development’ by Dr. a. L. Pandhare
2. Add on Course – ‘Communicative English Grammar & Vocabulary Building’ by A. N Barde
Spoken English Workshop
In order to provide the students with an additional atmosphere of English language listening and speaking, the Digital Language Lab software was purchased from Orell Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Kochi. It was used for demonstrating various aspects of pronunciation, and for listening and speaking practice in ‘A Workshop on the
Basics of Spoken English’ that was conducted by the department from 26th December 2016 to 14th February 2017.
1. Value Added Course – ‘Soft Skill Development’ by Dr. a. L. Pandhare
2. Add on Course – ‘Communicative English Grammar & Vocabulary Building’ by A. N Barde
English Literary Association Activities
Detailed Report of English Literary Association Activities – View
Video presentation of plays
The department has ‘English Literary Association’ to promote the students to further their literary interests and to organize various learning and creative activities. Most of the co-curricular activities are held under the under auspices of English Literary Association.
For example, the act-wise video presentations of the plays of Shakespeare, “Julius Caesar” (2011-12-13), “The Merchant of Venice” (2015-16) and, “My Fair Lady” a film adaptation of G.B. Shaw’s, “Pygmalion” (2011-12-13), in BA III English Literature course, was organized for the students.
Guest Lectures
Under the same banner two Guest Lectures, one of Dr M. S. Deshpande, Head, Dept. of Physics, ANC, on “The Origin of Universe and our Changing Conceptions about its Structure” (25th Sept. 2013) and the other of Prof. Dr. M. K. Gupta, Dept. of English, Lokmanya Tilak College, Wani, on “Why/ How to study Literature” (23 Sept. 2014) were organized.
For example, the act-wise video presentations of the plays of Shakespeare, “Julius Caesar” (2011-12-13), “The Merchant of Venice” (2015-16) and, “My Fair Lady” a film adaptation of G.B. Shaw’s, “Pygmalion” (2011-12-13), in BA III English Literature course, was organized for the students.
Dr. M. S. Deshpande delivering Guest Lecture
Dr. M. K. Gupta talks on “Why/ How to study
Literature”
Staff & Students
Poster Competition
A syllabus based ‘Poster Competition’ was organized for the students of English Literature under the banner of English Literary Association, on 20th September 2016, for which the prizes of Rs. 500/-, 300/- & 200/- were given. The poster competition was held in the College Hall and the topic for the competition was the autobiographical presentation of the prescribed authors, allotted group-wise, to the students. About 70 students participated in the competition.
University level Participation of students
Two students of the department Mr. Rupesh Pise and Mr. A. J. Lohakare represented the college in the university level Power Point Presentation Competition on English Literature held at Gondwana University Gadchiroli on 13th March 2017. ‘Shakespearean quotations’ was the topic of their presentation.
Two students of the department Mr. Rupesh Pise and Mr. A. J. Lohakare represented the college in the university level Power Point Presentation Competition on English Literature held at Gondwana University Gadchiroli on 13th March 2017. ‘Shakespearean quotations’ was the topic of their presentation.
