The Mahamana must get his due
India has forgotten MM Malaviya, who set up BHU and championed women’s education
With some anguish I would like to remind you of an esteemed personality who doesn’t find the prominent place in many people’s memories that it deserves. I am talking about Madan Mohan Malaviya. It’s his birth anniversary today. Ideally a good essayist shouldn’t turn his writings into a diary of historical events. But it is necessary in Malaviya’s case. Without that it is impossible to describe his multifaceted character.
Born in 19th century colonised India, Malaviya had anticipated that political independence will become meaningful only when we mould a generation of progressive and cultured young people. For this a world-class university was the need of the hour. How could this dream come true? A small incident will give you an idea about the kind of effort he put in to accomplish this. The Nizam of Hyderabad was renowned to be tight-fisted. Getting him to make a donation was perceived next to impossible. Armed with a steely determination, Malaviya managed to extract such a large purse of donation from the Nizam that even today there is a Nizam Hyderabad Colony in the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) where dozens of teachers and their families reside. In my eyes, the place deserves more respect than New Delhi’s Hyderabad House.
In the same manner — through a mix of fighting, cajoling and persuasion — Malaviya laid the foundation of the BHU. Along with donors, Malaviya had to use his persuasive powers on the tallest intellectuals of India and the world. It was a unique campus where in one classroom professors from overseas taught engineering or science wearing neckties, even as their colleagues in the ancient history department donned Indian attire. Even in those days Malaviya did not forget to establish a women’s college.
It wasn’t that he ignored everything else when he got busy with setting up the university. Malaviya became president of the Indian National Congress four times. He also founded the Hindu Mahasabha. Mahatma Gandhi considered him as his consciencekeeper and called him his elder brother on public platforms. Still, Malaviya didn’t hesitate in disagreeing with the Mahatma when it came to principles. During the Quit India Movement of 1942, when Bapu asked students to boycott schools, Malaviya publicly expressed his displeasure. Boycotting educational institutes was something Malaviya considered antithetical to a nation’s interests. “If children don’t study, how can they prepare for running the country?” was Malaviya’s credo.
Don’t you think that callous politicians have hurt independent India more than any- body else? Malaviya realised that Bhimrao Ambedkar was emerging as a huge force in Indian politics. And his differences with Gandhi were growing. That is why the Pune agreement signed on September 24, 1932, was modified to placate Ambedkar. Malaviya, too, put his signatures on the agreement signed between Gandhi and Ambedkar. Had it not been signed, the British would have sowed seeds of conflict in the name of Dalits. This shows that Malaviya was a true visionary.
Few people are aware that 172 people were sentenced to be hanged in the Chauri Chaura case. By then Malaviya had left legal practice owing to politics and social work. Still, he fought the case on their behalf and managed to get 153 people acquitted. He even appealed to the viceroy to stop Bhagat Singh’s death sentence. If his appeal had been accepted, it would have changed the course of politics in the country. While we are on the subject, let me tell you about his association with the publication of Hindustan Times in Delhi along with Leader and Abhyuday in Allahabad. If you read about him, you’ll discover that Malaviya was concerned about subjects as diverse as gender parity, a society free of discrimination and the importance of education for people’s awakening. No wonder Rabindranath Tagore honoured him with the encomium Mahamana (a luminous mind and magnanimous heart).
After studying at the Banaras Hindu University I began working as a journalist and was transferred to Allahabad in 1982. The city is Malaviya’s place of birth. I was surprised to note that even as Mahamana was revered in Varanasi, most conversations in Allahabad began with the Nehru family. Was it because after Jawaharlal Nehru, his descendants stayed active in politics even as Malaviya’s children chose to pursue other professions?
Despite his immense contributions history didn’t give Mahamana the place that he deserved. All of us are to blame for this.