Mahadev Govind Ranade

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Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade (16 January 1842–16 January 1901) was an Indian judge, author, and reformer.

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[edit] Professional Career

Ranade began studies at the Elphinstone College in Bombay at the age of fourteen. He belonged to Bombay University's first batches for both the B.A. (1862) and the LL.B. (Government Law School, 1866).

He was appointed Presidency magistrate, fourth judge of the Bombay Small Causes Court in 1871, first-class sub-judge at Poona 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 1886, 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.

In addition, 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. Himself 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.

[edit] Activism

[edit] Religious

With his friends Dr Atmaram Pandurang, Bal Mangesh Wagle 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.

[edit] Political

Ranade founded the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha 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.

The 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica stated that the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha "frequently helped the government with sound advice". Not everyone agreed. In a letter to Henry Fawcett, Florence Nightingale wrote:

“ [T]he Poona Sarvajanik Sabha (National Association) […] again pretends to represent the people and merely represents the money lenders, officials, and a few effete Mahratta landlords. ”

In 1943, B. R. Ambedkar praised Ranade and rated him favorably against Gandhi and Jinnah:

“ Ranade never received the honours of apotheosis as these great men of India today are destined to receive. How could he? He did not come with a message hot from Senai. He performed no miracles and promised no speedy deliverance and splendour. He was not a genius and he had no superhuman qualities. But there are compensations. If Ranade did not show splendour and dominance, he brought us no catastrophe. If he had no superhuman qualities to use in the service of India, India was saved from ruin by its abuse. If he was not a genius, he did not display that perverse super-subtlety of intellect, and a temper of mind which is fundamentally dishonest and which has sown the seeds of distrust and which has made settlement so difficult of achievement.

There is nothing exuberant and extravagant in Ranade. He refused to reap cheap notoriety by playing the part of an extremist. He refused to mislead people by playing upon and exploiting the patriotic sentiments of the people. He refused to be a party to methods which are crude, which have volume but no effect, and which are neither fool-proof nor knave-proof, and which break the back even of the most earnest and sincere servants of the country and disable them from further effort. In short, Ranade was like the wise Captain who knows that his duty is not to play with his ship clever and masterful tricks, just for effect and show in the midst of the ocean, but to take it safely to its appointed port. In short, Ranade was not a forged bank note and in worshipping him we have no feeling of kneeling before anything that is false.

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[edit] Social

Ranade was not the the founder of the social conference movement, which he supported till his death, directing his social reform efforts against infant marriages, the shaving of widows' heads, the heavy cost of marriages and other social functions, and the caste restrictions on travelling abroad, and he strenuously advocated widow remarriage and female education.

In connection with this reform agenda, Swami Vivekananda criticized Ranade's call for better, more worldly spiritual guides for India than the sannyasins:

“ Vive Ranade and the Social Reformers! — but, O India! Anglicised India! Do not forget, child, that there are in this society problems that neither you nor your Western Guru can yet grasp the meaning of — much less solve! ”

[edit] Family

Ranade belonged to an orthodox Chitpavan Brahman family. He was born in Niphad and spent much of his childhood in Kolhapur where his father was a minister. 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.

[edit] References

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