Madan Mohan Malaviya was an Indian educationist and politician notable for
his role in the Indian independence movement and as the four time president
of Indian National Congress. He was respectfully addressed as Pandit Madan
Mohan Malaviya and also addressed as 'Mahamana'.
Malaviya is most remembered as the founder of Banaras Hindu University at
Varanasi in 1916, which was created under the B.H.U. Act, 1915. The largest
residential university in Asia and one of the largest in the world, having over
35,000 students across arts, sciences, engineering, medical, agriculture,
performing arts, law and technology. Malaviya was Vice Chancellor of Banaras
Hindu University from 1919–1938 Malaviya was the founder of Ganga
Mahasabha at Haridwar in 1905, Malaviya was the President of the Indian National
Congress on two occasions. He left Congress in 1934. He was a member of the
Hindu Mahasabha. He was a president of the special session of Hindu Mahasabha
in Gaya in 1922 and in Kashi in 1923. Malaviya was one of the founders of
Scouting in India. He also founded a highly influential, English-newspaper,
The Leader published from Allahabad in 1909. He was also the Chairman of
Hindustan Times from 1924 to 1946. His efforts resulted in the launch of its
Hindi edition named Hindustan Dainik in 1936.
Malaviya was posthumously conferred with Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian
award, on 24 December 2014, a day before his 153rd Birth Anniversary.
Early life and education Malaviya was born in Allahabad,
North-Western Provinces, India on 25 December 1861, to Pandit Brij Nath and
Moona Devi. His ancestors, known for their Sanskrit scholarship, originally
hailed from Malwa, Madhya Pradesh and hence came to be known as 'Malaviyas'.
Their original surname was Chaturvedi. His father was also a learned man in
Sanskrit scriptures, and used to recite the Srimad Bhagavat.
Malaviya was traditionally educated at two Sanskrit Pathshalas and later
continued education at an English school. Malaviya started his schooling
at Hardeva's Dharma Gyanopadesh Pathshala, where he completed his
primary education and later another school run by Vidha Vardini Sabha. He
then joined Allahabad Zila School, where he started writing poems under the pen
name Makarand which were published in journals and magazines.
Malaviya matriculated in 1879 from the Muir Central College, now known as
Allahabad University. Harrison College's Principal provided a monthly scholarship
to Malaviya, whose family had been facing financial hardships, and he was
able to complete his B.A. at the University of Calcutta.
Although he wanted to pursue an M.A. in Sanskrit, his family conditions did not
allow it and his father wanted him to take his family profession of Bhagavat
recital, thus in July 1884 Madan Mohan Malaviya started his career as an
assistant master at the Govt High School in Allahabad
Political career In December 1886, Malaviya attended the
2nd Indian National Congress session in Calcutta under chairmanship of Dadabhai
Naoroji, where he spoke on the issue of representation in Councils. His address
not only impressed Dadabhai but also Raja Rampal Singh, ruler of Kalakankar
estate near Allahabad, who started a Hindi weekly Hindustan but was looking
for a suitable editor to turn it into a daily. Thus in July 1887, he left his
school job and joined as the editor of the nationalist weekly, he remained here
for two and a half years, and left for Allahabad to join L.L.B., it was here
that he was offered co-editorship of The Indian Opinion, an English daily. After
finishing his law degree, he started practising law at Allahabad District
Court in 1891, and moved to Allahabad High Court by December 1893
Malaviya became the President of the Indian National Congress in 1909 and
1918. He was a moderate leader and opposed the separate electorates for
Muslims under the Lucknow Pact of 1916. The "Mahamana" title was conferred to
him by Mahatma Gandhi. To redeem his resolve to serve the cause
of education and social-service he renounced his well established practice
of law in 1911, for ever. In order to follow the tradition of Sannyasa
throughout his life, he pursued the avowed commitment to live on the
society's support. But when 177 freedom fighters were convicted to be hanged in
the Chauri-chaura case he appeared before the court, despite his vow and
got acquitted 156 freedom fighters. He remained a member of the Imperial
Legislative Council from 1912 and when in 1919 it was converted to the Central
Legislative Assembly he remained its member as well, till 1926. Malaviya was
an important figure in the Non-cooperation movement. However, he
was opposed to the politics of appeasement and the participation of
Congress in the Khilafat movement. In 1928 he joined Lala Lajpat Rai,
Jawaharlal Nehru and many others in protesting against the Simon Commission,
which had been set up by the British to consider India's future. Just as the
"Buy British" campaign was sweeping England, he issued, on 30 May 1932, a
manifesto urging concentration on the "Buy Indian" movement in India. Malaviya
was a delegate at the Second Round Table Conference in 1931.
However, during the Civil Disobedience Movement, he was arrested on 25 April
1932, along with 450 other Congress volunteers in Delhi, only a few days
after he was appointed in 1932 at Delhi as the President of Congress after the
arrest of Sarojini Naidu. In 1933, at Calcutta, Malaviya was again appointed
as the President of the Congress. Thus before Independence, Malaviya was the
only leader of the Indian National Congress who was appointed as its
President for four terms. On 25 September 1932, an agreement known
as Poona Pact was signed between Dr. Ambedkar and Malaviya. The agreement
gave reserved seats for the depressed classes in the Provisional legislatures,
within the general electorate and not by creating a separate electorate. Due to
the pact, the depressed class received 148 seats in the legislature, instead of
the 71 as allocated in the Communal Award proposal of the British Prime
Minister Ramsay MacDonald. After the pact, the Communal Award was modified to
include the terms as per the pacts. The text uses the term "Depressed Classes"
to denote Untouchables among Hindus who were later called Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes under India Act 1935, and the later Indian Constitution of
1950. In protest against the Communal Award
which sought to provide separate electorates for minorities, Malaviya
along with Madhav Shrihari Aney left the Congress and started the Congress
Nationalist Party. The party contested the 1934 elections to the central
legislature and won 12 seats. Journalistic career
Malaviya started his journalistic career as the Editor of the Hindi daily
'‘Hindosthan’' in 1887. Raja Rampal Singh of Kalakankar impressed by the
speech and the personality of Malaviyaji, during the 2nd Congress
Session in Calcutta held in 1886. requested Malaviya to take up this
position. Then in 1889, he became the Editor of
the "Indian Opinion". After the incorporation of "Indian Opinion" with
the "Advocate" of Lucknow, Malaviya started his own Hindi weekly
"Abhyudaya"(1907-1909 under his editorship).
Also, his poems were published under the pseudonym of ‘Makrand’ in ‘Harischandra
Chandrika’ magazine, articles on religious and contemporary subjects
published in ‘Hindi Pradeepa’. When the English Government tried to
bring in the Press Act and Newspaper Act in 1908, Malaviyaji started a campaign
against the Act and called an All India Conference in Allahabad. He then
realized the need of an English Newspaper to make the campaign effective
throughout the country. As a result, with the help of Motilal Nehru he
started an English daily the "Leader" in 1909, where he was Editor 1909-1911 and
President 1911-1919. In 1910, Malaviyaji started the Hindi
paper `Maryada'. In 1924, Malaviya along with the help of
national leaders Lala Lajpat Rai and M. R. Jayakar and industrialist Ghanshyam
Das Birla, acquired Hindustan Times and saved it from an untimely demise.
Malaviya raised Rs.50,000 rupees to acquire the Hindustan Times and
industrialist Ghanshyam Das Birla paid most of the cash. Malaviya was the
Chairman of Hindustan Times from 1924 to 1946. His efforts resulted in the launch
of its Hindi edition 'Hindustan' in 1936. The paper is now owned by the
Birla family. In 1933, Malaviya started Sanatana
Dharma from BHU, a magazine dedicated to religious, dharmic interests.
Legal career In 1891, Malaviya completed his LL.B.
from Allahabad University and started practice in Allahabad District Court and
then from 1893 practised at the High Court. He soon earned huge respect as
one of the most brilliant lawyers of the Allahabad High Court. He gave up his
legal practice when he was at his pinnacle in 1913 on his 50th birthday so
that he could serve the nation thereafter.
About his legal career, Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru mentions of him - ...a brilliant
Civil Lawyer and Sir Mirza Ismail said - I have heard a great lawyer say that if
Mr.Malaviya had so willed it, he would have been an ornament to the legal
profession. Malaviya only once again donned his
lawyers robe in 1924, following the Chauri-Chaura incident in which a police
station was attacked and arsoned in February 1922, as a result of which
Mahatma Gandhi called off the then launched Civil Disobedience movement.
The sessions court had sent to gallows 170 persons for the attack. However,
Malaviya defended them in the Allahabad High Court and was able to get 155
persons saved from the gallows. The remaining 15 also were recommended for
clemency by the High Court, whereafter their sentences were also commuted from
death to life-imprisonment. During these arguments, the then Chief Justice Honble
Sir Grimwood Mears bowed thrice to Malaviya as a Mark of great appreciation
for the sheer brilliance of his arguments.
Banaras Hindu University In April 1911, Annie Besant met Malaviya
and they decided to work for a common Hindu University at Varanasi. Besant and
fellow trustees of the Central Hindu College, which she had founded in 1898,
also agreed to Government of India's precondition that the college should
become a part of the new University. Thus Banaras Hindu University was
established in 1916, through a Parliamentary legislation, the 'B.H.U.
Act 1915', and today it remains a prominent institution of learning in
India. In 1939, he left the Vice-Chancellorship of BHU and was
succeeded by S. Radhakrishnan, who later became the President of India.
Spread over 16.5 square km and a student population of about 30000, BHU is the
largest residential university in Asia. Social work
Malaviya played an important part in the removal of untouchability and in giving
direction to the Harijan movement. The Harijan Sevak Sangh was founded at a
meeting in 1933 at which Pandit Malaviya presided.
Malaviya asserted - if you admit internal purity of human soul, you or
your religion can never get impure or defiled in any way by touch or
association with any man. To solve the problem of untouchability,
Malaviya followed a Hindu method, of giving Mantradīkshā to untouchables. He
said that - Mantras would be a certain means of their upliftment socially,
politically and spiritually. He worked for the eradication of caste
barriers in temples and other social barriers. Malaviya made massive efforts
for the entry of so called untouchables into any Hindu temple. In March 1936,
Hindu Dalit leader P. N. Rajbhoj along with a group of 200 Dalit people
demanded entry at the Kalaram Temple on a Rath Yatra day. Malaviya in the
presence of priests of Kalaram Temple, gave diksha to the assembled people and
gave them entry into the temple. Then these Dalit members also participated in
the Rath Yatra of Kalaram Temple. In 1901 Malaviya established a boys'
hostel named Hindu Hostel in Allahabad. Scouting
Though, Scouting in India was officially founded in British India in 1909, at the
Bishop Cotton's Boys School in Bangalore, scouting for native Indians
was started by Justice Vivian Bose, Malaviya, Hridayanath Kunzru, Girija
Shankar Bajpai, Annie Besant and George Arundale. Malaviya became its first
Chief Scout. In 1913, he also started a scouting
inspired organisation called All India Seva Samiti.
Legacy The slogan "Satyameva Jayate" is also a
legacy given to the nation by Pandit Malaviya as the President of the Indian
National Congress in its session of 1918 at Delhi, by saying that this slogan
from the Mundakopanishad should be the slogan for the nation.
He started the tradition of Aarti at Har ki Pauri Haridwar to the sacred Ganga
river which is performed till date. The Malviya Dwipa, a small island across the
ghat, is named after him and carries his bust.
The Indian Postal Department issued postage stamp in his honour in 1961 to
celebrate his 100th birth anniversary and then in 2011 to celebrate his 150th
birth centenary Malviya Nagar in Allahabad, Lucknow,
Delhi, Dehradun, Bhopal, Durg and Jaipur are named after him. A square in main
city at Jabalpur is named after him and is called Malviya chowk.Malaviya
National Institute of Technology at Jaipur is named after him, as is Madan
Mohan Malaviya University of Technology in Gorakhpur, UP. The Hostels of IIT
Kharagpur, IIT Roorkee Saharanpur Campus and BITS Pilani, Pilani and Hyderabad
campuses are also named Malviya Bhawan after him. In memory of him, Shrigoud
Vidya Mandir, Indore celebrate his birth anniversary as MAHAMANA Divas on every
25 December. They have also declared a fellowship programme for poor Sanatan
Vipra boys on this day. Mahamana's life size portrait was
unveiled in the Central Hall of India's Parliament by the then President of
India Dr. Rajendra Prasad, and his life-size statue was unveiled in 1961 by
the then President of India Dr. S. Radhakrishnan in front of the BHU main
gate on the occasion of his birth centenary. In front of the main Gate
leading to the Assembly Hall and outside the porch, there exists a bust of Pt.
Madan Mohan Malaviya, which was inaugurated by the former Lt. Governor
of Delhi, Dr. A.N. Jha on 25 December 1971.
On 25 December 2008, on his birth anniversary, the national memorial of
Mahamana Madan Mohan Malaviya, "Malaviya Smriti Bhawan" was inaugurated by the
then President of India A P J Abdul Kalam at 53, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg,
in Delhi. 2011 was celebrated as his 150th birth
centenary by the Government of India under the Chairmanship of India's prime
minister Dr Manmohan Singh, who announced the establishment of a Centre
for Malviya Studies at the Banaras Hindu University in addition to scholarships
and education related awards in his memory, and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi
released a biography of Madan Mohan Malaviya.
On December 24, 2014, Madan Mohan Malaviya was honored with Bharat Ratna,
India’s highest civilian honour. Works
A criticism of Montagu-Chelmsford proposals of Indian constitutional
reform. Printed by C. Y. Chintamani, 1918.
Speeches and writings of Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya. Publisher G.A. Natesan,
1919. Biographies
Malaviyaji, a brief life sketch of Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, by B. J.
Akkad. Pub. Vora, 1948. Malaviyana: a bibliography of Pandit
Madan Mohan Malaviya by Sayaji Rao Gaekwad Library. Ed. Prithvi Nath Kaula.
1962. Role of Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya in our
national life, by Chandra Prakash Jha. Modern Publications, 1977.
Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya: a socio-political study, by Sundar Lal
Gupta. Pub. Chugh Publications, 1978. Mahāmanā Madan Mohan Malaviya: An
Historical Biography, by Parmanand. Malaviya Adhyayan Sansthan, Banaras
Hindu University, 1985. Struggle for Independence: Madan Mohan
Malaviya by Shri Ram Bakshi. Anmol Publications, 1989. ISBN 81-7041-142-4.
Madan Mohan Malaviya: the man and his ideology, by S. R. Bakshi. Anmol
Publications, 1991. ISBN 81-7041-429-6. Madan Mohan Malaviya, by Sitaram
Chaturvedi. Publ. Division, Ministry of I & B, Govt. of India, 1996. ISBN
81-230-0486-9. Visionary of Modern India- Madan Mohan
Malaviya, by S K Maini, K Chandramouli and Vishwanath Pandey. Mahamana
MalaviyaJi Trust. 2009. "The Making of Malaviya " by Prof Rakesh
Pandey,2010,Kishore Vidya Niketan,ISBN:81-86101-61-6
References External links
Mahamana Madan Mohan Malaviya, Biography at BHU website
Madan Mohan Malaviya University of Technology, Gorakhpur
Malaviya National Institute of Technology
Madan Mohan Malaviya at varanasi.org.in