MADAN MOHAN MALAVIYA

MADAN MOHAN MALAVIYA

Context

• The Prime Minister of India paid tribute to Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya on his 159th birth anniversary (25th December, 2020).

Contribution of Madan Mohan Malaviya

• • Drawn to politics, Malaviya joined the Indian National Congress at its Calcutta session in 1886 — it had been founded a year previously at the Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College in Mumbai.
  • Malaviya rose up the ranks, and became president four times — in 1909 (Lahore), in 1918 (Delhi), in 1930 (Delhi), and in 1932 (Calcutta). Malaviya was part of the Congress for almost 50 years.
  • Malaviya was one of the early leaders of the Hindu Mahasabha, and helped found it in 1917. He was a social reformer and a successful legislator, serving as a member of the Imperial Legislative Council for 11 years (1909–20).
  • Malaviya strived to promote modern education among Indians and eventually cofounded Banaras Hindu University (BHU) 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.
  • He is also remembered for his role in ending the Indian indenture system, especially in the Caribbean. His efforts in helping the Indo-Caribbeans is compared to Mahatma Gandhi’s efforts of helping Indian South Africans
    • The Indian indenture system was a system of indentured servitude, by which more than one million Indians. were transported to labour in European colonies, as a substitute for slave labour, following the abolition of the trade in the early 19th century.
    • The system expanded after the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1833, in the French colonies in 1848, and in the Dutch Empire in 1863. Indian indentureship lasted till the 1920s.

• He also founded a highly influential, English-newspaper, The Leader published from Prayagaraj 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
  • He popularized the term ‘Satyamev Jayate’. However, the phrase originally belongs to the Mundaka Upanishad. The term now is the national motto of India.

• Devnagri was introduced in the British-Indian courts because of Malviya’s efforts with the British government.

• • He worked immensely for Hindu-Muslim unity. He is known to have given famous speeches on communal harmony.

• He worked for the eradication of caste barriers in temples and other social barriers. Malaviya made massive efforts to ensure the entry of so-called untouchables into any Hindu temple. For example, temple entry movement at the Kalaram Temple