18 JAN 1842-16 JAN 1901 MAHADEV GOVIND RANADE

Mahadev Govind Ranade

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Mahadev Govind Ranade

Born18 January 1842 Niphad, Nashik District,Maharashtra, India

Died16 January 1901

Occupationscholar, social reformer and author

Spouse(s)Ramabai Ranade

ChildrenNo children

Mahadev Govind Ranade (18 January 1842 to 16 January 1901) was a distinguished Indian scholar, social reformer and author. He was a founding member of the Indian National Congress (INC) [1] and owned several designations as member of the Bombay legislative council, member of the finance committee at the centre, and the judge of Bombay High Court.[2]

A well known public figure, his personality as a calm and patient optimist would influence his attitude towards dealings with Britain as well as reform in India. During his life he helped to establish the Vaktruttvottejak Sabha, the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha and the Prarthana Samaj, and would edit a Bombay Anglo-Marathi daily paper, the Induprakash, founded on his ideology of social and religious reform.

[hide]

1Biography
1.1Religious
1.2Political
1.3Social
2Works
3In popular culture
4See also
5References

Biography[edit]

Mahadev Govind Ranade was born in Niphad, a taluka town in Nashik district. He spent much of his childhood in Kolhapur where his father was a minister. He began studies at the Elphinstone College in Bombay (now known as Mumbai), at the age of fourteen. He belonged to Bombay University, one of the three new British universities, and was part of the first batches for both the B.A. (1862) and the LL.B. (Government Law School, 1866) where he graduated at the top of his class. Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar was his classmate. Ranade later got his MA degree at the top of his class.[citation needed]

He was appointed Presidency magistrate, fourth judge of the Bombay Small Causes Court in 1871, first-class sub-judge at Pune in 1873, judge of the Poona Small Causes Court in 1884, and finally to the Bombay High Court in 1893. From 1885 until he joined the High Court, he belonged to the Bombay legislative council.

In 1897, Ranade served on a committee charged with the task of enumerating imperial and provincial expenditure and making recommendations for financial retrenchment. This service won him the decoration of Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire. Ranade also served as a special judge under the Deccan Agriculturists' Relief Act from 1887.

Ranade held the offices of syndic and dean in arts at Bombay University, where he displayed much organizing power and great intimacy with the needs of the student class. A thorough Marathi scholar, he encouraged the translation of standard English works and tried, with some success, to introduce vernacular languages into the university curriculum.

He published books on Indian economics and on Maratha history. He saw the need for heavy industry for economic progress and believed in Western education as a vital element to the foundation of an Indian nation. He felt that by understanding the mutual problems of India and Britain both reform and independence could be achieved to the benefit of all and insisted that an independent India could only be stable after such reforms were made. Reform of Indian culture and use of an adaptation of Western culture, in Ranade’s view, would bring about "common interest ... and fusion of thoughts, amongst all men."

Religious[edit]

Along with his friends Atmaram Pandurang, Dr.Bhandarkar and Vaman Abaji Modak, Ranade founded the Prarthana Samaj, a Hindu movement inspired by the Brahmo Samaj, espousing principles of enlightened theism based on the ancient Vedas. Prarthana Samaj was started by Keshav Chandra Sen, a staunch Brahma Samajist, with the objective of carrying out religious reforms in Maharashtra. He presided a function to honor his friend, Virchand Gandhi, who had defended Indian culture and Hinduism in 1893's world religion parliament in Chicago, USA.

Political[edit]

Ranade founded the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha & Ahmednagar Education Society and later was one of the originators of the Indian National Congress. He has been portrayed as an early adversary of the politics of Bal Gangadhar Tilak and a mentor to Gopal Krishna Gokhale.

Statue of Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade

Social[edit]

Ranade was a founder of the Social Conference movement, which he supported till his death, directing his social reform efforts against child marriage, the shaving of widows' heads, the heavy cost of marriages and other social functions, and the caste restrictions on traveling abroad, and he strenuously advocated widow remarriage and female education. He was one of the founders of the Widow Marriage Association in 1861.[3] Ranade attempted to work with the structure of weakened traditions, reforming, but not destroying the social atmosphere that was India’s heritage. Ranade valued India’s history, having had a great interest in Shivaji and the Bhakti movement, but he also recognized the influence that British rule over India had on its development. Ranade encouraged the acceptance of change, believing traditional social structures, like the caste system, should accommodate change, thereby preserving India’s ancient heritage. An overall sense of national regeneration was what Ranade desired.

Though Ranade criticised superstitions and blind faith, he was conservative in his own life. He chose to take prayaschitta (religious penance) in case of Panch-houd Mission Case rather than taking a strong side of his opinions.[4][5]

Upon the death of his first wife, his reform-minded friends expected him to marry (and thereby rescue) a widow. However, he adhered to his family's wishes and married a child bride, Ramabai Ranade, whom he subsequently provided with an education. After his death, she continued his social and educational reform work. He had no children. Ramabai Ranade in her memoirs has stated that when one equally prominent Pune personality, Vishnupant Pandit, married a widow, Ranade entertained him and a few guests at his home. This was not liked by his orthodox father who decided to leave Ranade's home in Pune and go to Kolhapur. It was only after he, Mahadev G. Ranade, told the father that he would resign from his government job that the father relented and canceled his plans to go to Kolhapur. Ranade decided never to do any such thing in the future. He however was insistent that his young wife, Ramabai Ranade, should do his bidding in the matters of social reforms.

Works[edit]

Ranade, Mahadev Govind, Rise of the Maratha Power (1900); reprint (1999) ISBN 81-7117-181-8
Bipan Chandra, ed., Ranade’s Economic Writings New Delhi, Gyan Books Pvt. Ltd. (1990) ISBN 81-212-0328-7.

In popular culture[edit]

A television series on Zee Marathi named Uncha maaza zoka (roughly translated as 'I have leapt high in Life') based on Ramabai's and Mahadevrao's life and their development as a 'women's rights' activist was telecasted in March 2012,.[6] This series was critically acclaimed and celebrated throughout Maharashtra.

The TV series was based on a book by Ramabai Ranade titled "Amachyaa Aayushyaatil Kaahi Aathavani" (in Marathi), wherein Jastice Ranade's name is given as "Madhav". He himself is quoted as saying that "I am Vishnu (Madhav) and not Shiva (Mahadev)" (see pages 12, 121). This anomaly was found out by Ms. Vibhuti V. Dave, while translating the book in Gujarati, titled "Amaaraa Sahajivan naa Sambhaaranaa[6]".

Mahadev Govind Ranade, hailing from Mumbai, was one of the most ardent supporters of women's rights and liberation. Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade graduated from Elphinstone College in Mumbai and became a teacher and journalist. Like so many other young men of his generation, he questioned the customs and beliefs of his society. In 1869 Ranade joined the Widow Marriage Association, and in 1870 the Prarthana Samaj. At first, he and his colleagues were engaged in "intellectual protest against superficial dogmas untenable for a rational mind," but later they became more interested in social action. In 1871 Ranade was made a judge in Pune where he joined a group of committed social reformers intent on achieving real change. Soon after he had received this appointment his wife of almost twenty years died. Social reform colleagues expected he would marry a widow. But Ranade's father, anticipating this disaster, moved quickly to arrange a marriage between his thirty-one-year-old son and an eleven-year-old girl. Ranade protested but did not refuse the match. Married to Ramabai, Mahadev became both husband and teacher, mentoring the girl who became one of India's most important social reformers. In the years that followed, Ranade was wavering between an agenda for reform on the one hand and a traditional society on the other. He wanted to encourage widow remarriage and female education and oppose child marriage, but his own personal life was conflicted between tradition and modernity. As a result he failed to take a more radical stand. Despite all these personal issues, Ranade stood as one of the most reputed social reformers on the basis of the National Social Conference (begun in 1887) - and in his philosophy of social change. The National Social Conference built by Ranade was one of the most important institutions for social reform. He was a firm believer in the Golden Age of India when women enjoyed a higher status than they did in his time and he blamed the Smritis and the Indian Puranas for their fall. He believed that only gradual reform, accomplished without radical change, could bring about the restoration of the golden age. He believed that the change had to be evolutionary. Outside forces, he felt, could at best be a stimulant, for change but the true impetus for change could only come from within Indian society itself. Ranade described the society he hoped to see as changing "from constraint to freedom, from credulity to faith, from unorganized to organized life, from bigotry to toleration, from blind fatalism to a sense of human destiny." He warned his critics that to stand still or work against change would result in decay and possibly the extinction of Indian society. Various reformers working either alone or with local organisations attended the National Social Conference where they learned about initiatives all over the sub-continent. In his role as founder-leader, Ranade recommended four methods of accomplishing social change. His favourite method was the use of arguments to try and prove to the opponents that there were a number of customs being followed which were not a part of real Indian culture. He tried to persuade people that the emphasis of the reformers should be on legislation. When all else failed only then was social rebellion was in order. At the second annual meeting of the National Social Conference in 1889 over five hundred people took a solemn vow that they would support widow marriage and female education, and cease practicing child marriage and the exchange of dowry. This was a significant step, in Ranade's view, towards the identification of reforms for women with an all-India agenda. Thus Ranade was a significant reformer who, in his own way, did much for the advancement of women from their repressive situation in nineteenth century India.

(Last Updated on : 02/08/2010)

MAHADEO GOVIND RANADE (1842-1901), Indian lawyer, reformer and author, was born on the 16th of January 1842 at Niphad, in Nasik district, of a Chitpavan Brahman family. When his father was minister at Kolhapur he attended the Anglo-vernacular school in that town, and joined the Elphinstone Institute in Bombay at the age of fourteen. He was one of the first graduates of the Bombay University, taking the B.A. in 1862 and the LL.B. in 1866. Having entered government service he became presidency magistrate and then fourth judge of the small cause court at Bombay in 1871, first-class sub-judge at Poona in 1873, and judge of the Poona small cause court in 1884, after which, as special judge under the Deccan Agriculturists' Relief Act from 1887, he came into close contact with the difficulties of the agrarian classes. In 1886 he was a member of the finance committee appointed to report on the expenditure, both imperial and provincial, with a view to retrenchment. This service won him the decoration of C.I.E. He became a member of the legislative council of Bombay in 1885, and occupied that position until raised to the high court in 18 9 3. Being an energetic social reformer, he directed his efforts against infant marriages, the shaving of widows, the heavy cost of marriages and other social functions, and the caste restrictionz on travelling abroad. He strenuously advocated widow remarriage and female education. He was the founder of the social conference movement, which he supported till his death. In the political sphere he founded the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, through which he frequently helped the government with sound advice. He was also odne of the originators of the Indian National Congress. In Bombay University, where he held the offices of syndic and dean in arts, he displayed much organizing power and great intimacy with the needs of the student class. Himself a thorough Mahratti scholar, he encouraged the translation of standard English works, and tried, with some success, to introduce vernacular languages into the university curriculum. Though reared in the strictest tenets of Hinduism, his deep religious feeling and trained intellect craved something higher and broader than he could find in the traditional forms and orthodox teaching of his race. The same spiritual want being felt by many enlightened Hindus, he joined with his friends, Dr Atmaram Pandurang, Bal Mangesh Wagle and Vaman Abaji Modak, in founding a new sect in Bombay known as the "Parthana Samaj." This community resembles, in all essential points, the Brahma Samaj of Bengal. Its principles of enlightened theism are based on the ancient Vedas. He published ' In the British Museum.

books on Indian economics and on Mahratta history. He died on the 16th of January 1901. He left no children, but his widow continued his work of social and educational reform at Poona.

See G. A. Mankar, Justice M. G. Ranade (Bombay, 1902).

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18 JAN 1842-16 JAN 1901 MAHADEV GOVIND RANADE

Mahadev Govind Ranade

Contents

Biography[edit]

Religious[edit]

Political[edit]

Social[edit]

Works[edit]

In popular culture[edit]

See also[edit]

Search Results

Prarthana Samaj - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mahadev Govind Ranade - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mahadev Govind Ranade - Dimdima

Prarthana Samaj - Important India

Encyclopaedia Eminent Thinkers (Vol. 22 : The Political ...

Mahadev Govind Ranade - Volume 3 - Page 14 - Google Books Result

Mahadev Govind Ranade , Indian Freedom Fighter

Career's Indian History - Page 247 - Google Books Result

Railway Assistant Loco Pilot Exam. - Page xx - Google Books Result

Longman History & Civics Icse 8 - Page 55 - Google Books Result

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