British linguist Ronald E Asher, specialized in Dravidian languages, passes away

LONDON: Renowned British linguist Ronald E Asher (RE Asher) who specialized in Dravidian languages has passed away. He died at the age of 96 in Edinburg. Asher, a multi-lingual scholar had reached India in 1953 to learn Tamil. In 1963, he started learning Malayalam as well. He learnt Malayalam and translated many works into English and made them popular. Asher’s son David Asher informed about his father’s demise to writer P Sreekumar. He passed away on December 26.

AE Asher was born in June 23, 1926 in Nottinghamshire, England. He has won many honors like Royal Asiatic Society Fellow and Sahitya Akademi Honorary Member.

He translated Vaikom Muhammed Basheer's ‘Ntuppupappakkoranandarnu’, ‘Pathummayude Aadu’ and ‘Balyakalasakhi’ and Thakazhi's ‘Thottiyude Makan’, Muttath Varki's ‘Evil Spirit’ and K.P. Ramanunni's ‘Sufi Paranja kadha’. He has written articles on Malayalam writers in the Penguin literary reference book. He has been honored with Kerala Sahitya Akademi Fellowship.

He came to Kerala for the last time in 2010 to receive the award named after his friend Vaikom Muhammed Basheer. Whenever he came to India, he used to visit Thakazhi and Basheer's house. Even after Basheer's death, he came to meet his family members.

Asher received his Ph.D from London University in 1955 and has also visited countries like Pakistan and Sri Lanka. From 1965 to 1993 he was a professor at Edinburgh University. He served as Visiting Professor of Malayalam at the University of Michigan in 1968 and at the Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam in 1995. He wrote two grammar books for the Tamil language in 1982 and 2002.