Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya was an Indian educationist and politician notable for his role in the Indian independence movement and as the four times president of Indian National Congress. He was respectfully addressed as Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya and also addressed as Mahamana.
Malaviya strived to promote modern education among Hindus and eventually founded Banaras Hindu University (BHU) at Varanasi in 1916, which was created under the B.H.U. Act, 1915. He was Vice Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University from 1919–1938.
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.
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.
He was posthumously conferred with Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award, on 24 December 2014, a day before his 153rd Birth Anniversary.
Malaviya was born in Allahabad, North- Western Provinces, India on 25 December 1861, in a Brahmin family to Pandit Baijnath and Moona Devi Malaviya. His ancestors, known for their Sanskrit scholarship, originally hailed from Malwa (Ujjain) in the present-day state of 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 Bhagavatam. 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 (Allahabad District 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.
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 Noncooperation 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 (on behalf of the depressed classes among Hindus) and Malaviya (on behalf of the other Hindus). 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.
The slogan “Satyameva Jayate” (Truth alone will triumph) 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 Post issued stamps in his honour in 1961 and 2011 to celebrate his 100th and 150th birth anniversaries, respectively.
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 (MNIT) 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.
Mahamana Express train (plying between Delhi and Varansi) has been flagged off by Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi on 22 January 2016. The train is named after Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya and is equipped with modern facilities such as bio-toilets in every coach and air-conditioned compartments.
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