Mahadev Govind Ranade
Encyclopedia
Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade (16 January 1842 – 16 January 1901) was a distinguished India
n scholar, social reformer and author. He was a founding member of the Indian National Congress
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..
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 establish the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha and the Prarthana Samaj, and would edit a Bombay Anglo-Marathi daily paper, the Induprakask, founded on his ideology of social and religious reform.
Brahman
family. He was born in Niphad
, a small town in Nasik district, and spent much of his childhood in Kolhapur where his father was a minister. He began studies at the Elphinstone College
in 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. Great scholar and founder of Bori, Mr. Bhandarkar
was his classmate. Ranade later got his MA degree at the top of his class.
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.”
, 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
.
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 Encyclopædia 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:
In 1943, B. R. Ambedkar
praised Ranade and rated him favorably against Gandhi and Jinnah:
, 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.
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 (i.e. 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 future.He however was insistent that his young wife i.e Ramabai Ranade should do his bidding in the matters of social reforms ( this also has been confirmed by her in her memoirs.)
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n scholar, social reformer and author. He was a founding member of the Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
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..
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 establish the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha and the Prarthana Samaj, and would edit a Bombay Anglo-Marathi daily paper, the Induprakask, founded on his ideology of social and religious reform.
Biography
Ranade belonged to an ChitpavanChitpavan
The Chitpavan or Chitpawan, also known as Konkanastha Brahmins , are a Smarta Brahmin community of Konkan, the coastal region of western Maharashtra in India....
Brahman
Brahmin
Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...
family. He was born in Niphad
Niphad
Niphad is the name of a town, and of the taluka headquartered there, in the Nashik District of Maharashtra, India. The Marathi name signifies a place without mountains; indeed, the taluka's topography is fairly level with hardly even any hills....
, a small town in Nasik district, and spent much of his childhood in Kolhapur where his father was a minister. He began studies at the Elphinstone College
Elphinstone College
Elphinstone College is an institution of higher education affiliated to the University of Mumbai. Established in 1856, it is one of the oldest colleges of the University of Mumbai. It was exalted as a prestigious seat of learning during the British Raj and is generally observed for its vibrant alumni...
in Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, at the age of fourteen. He belonged to Bombay University
University of Mumbai
The University of Mumbai , is a state university located in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was known as the University of Bombay until 1996 when the city of Bombay was renamed as Mumbai. The affiliated colleges of the university are spread throughout the city of Mumbai and four coastal districts in...
, one of the three new British universities, and was part of the first batches for both the B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
(1862) and the LL.B. (Government Law School
Government Law College, Mumbai
The Government Law College, also known as GLC and located in Mumbai, India, is the oldest and one of the most distinguished law schools in India...
, 1866) where he graduated at the top of his class. Great scholar and founder of Bori, Mr. Bhandarkar
Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar
Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar was an Indian scholar, orientalist, and social reformer.-Early life:Bhandarkar was born in Malvan in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra. After his early schooling in Ratnagiri, he studied at Elphinstone College in Bombay...
was his classmate. Ranade later got his MA degree at the top of his class.
He was appointed Presidency
Bombay Presidency
The Bombay Presidency was a province of British India. It was established in the 17th century as a trading post for the English East India Company, but later grew to encompass much of western and central India, as well as parts of post-partition Pakistan and the Arabian Peninsula.At its greatest...
magistrate
Magistrate
A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...
, fourth judge of the Bombay
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
Small Causes Court
Small Causes Court
In Indian cities, the Small Causes Court is responsible for adjudicating matters related to civil cases. The court is responsible for cases relating to tax, , property disputes and other such cases...
in 1871, first-class sub-judge at Pune
Pune
Pune , is the eighth largest metropolis in India, the second largest in the state of Maharashtra after Mumbai, and the largest city in the Western Ghats. Once the centre of power of the Maratha Empire, it is situated 560 metres above sea level on the Deccan plateau at the confluence of the Mula ...
in 1873, judge of the Poona Small Causes Court in 1884, and finally to the Bombay High Court
Bombay High Court
Bombay High Court at Mumbai, Maharashtra, is the High Court of India with jurisdiction over the states of Maharashtra & Goa, and, the Union Territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli...
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
Retrenchment
Retrenchment is an act of cutting down or reduction, particularly of public expenditure.-Political usage:The word is familiar in this, its most general sense, from the motto of the Gladstonian Liberal party in British politics, "Peace, Retrenchment and Reform."The manifesto for 1906 Liberal...
. 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
Syndic
Syndic , a term applied in certain countries to an officer of government with varying powers, and secondly to a representative or delegate of a university, institution or other corporation, entrusted with special functions or powers.The meaning which underlies both applications is that of...
and dean
Dean (education)
In academic administration, a dean is a person with significant authority over a specific academic unit, or over a specific area of concern, or both...
in arts at Bombay University, where he displayed much organizing power and great intimacy with the needs of the student class. A thorough Marathi
Marathi language
Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...
scholar, he encouraged the translation of standard English
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
works and tried, with some success, to introduce vernacular
Vernacular
A vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...
languages into the university curriculum.
He published books on Indian economics and on Maratha
Maratha
The Maratha are an Indian caste, predominantly in the state of Maharashtra. The term Marāthā has three related usages: within the Marathi speaking region it describes the dominant Maratha caste; outside Maharashtra it can refer to the entire regional population of Marathi-speaking people;...
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
With his friends Dr Atmaram Pandurang, Bal Mangesh Wagle and Vaman Abaji Modak, Ranade founded the Prarthana SamajPrarthana Samaj
Prarthana Samaj, or "Prayer Society" in Sanskrit, was a movement for religious and social reform in Maharashtra based on earlier reform movements and traditions of Maharashtra formed in 1849 by Ram Balkrishna Jaykar and others in Mumbai. It was secret in order to avoid the wrath of the powerful...
, a Hindu
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
movement inspired by the Brahmo Samaj
Brahmo Samaj
Brahmo Samaj is the societal component of the Brahmo religion which is mainly practiced today as the Adi Dharm after its eclipse in Bengal consequent to the exit of the Tattwabodini Sabha from its ranks in 1859. It was one of the most influential religious movements responsible for the making of...
, espousing principles of enlightened theism
Theism
Theism, in the broadest sense, is the belief that at least one deity exists.In a more specific sense, theism refers to a doctrine concerning the nature of a monotheistic God and God's relationship to the universe....
based on the ancient Vedas
Vedas
The Vedas are a large body of texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism....
. Prarthana Samaj was started by Keshav Chandra Sen, a staunch Brahma Samajist, with the objective of carrying out religious reforms in Maharashtra
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...
.
Political
Ranade founded the Poona Sarvajanik SabhaPoona Sarvajanik Sabha
Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, , was a sociopolitical organisation in British India which started with the aim of working as a mediating body between the government and people of India. It started as an elected body of 95 members elected by 6000 persons on April 2, 1870. The organisation was a precursor...
and later was one of the originators of the Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
. He has been portrayed as an early adversary of the politics of Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Lokmanya Tilak –, was an Indian nationalist, teacher, social reformer and independence fighter who was the first popular leader of the Indian Independence Movement. The British colonial authorities derogatorily called the great leader "Father of the Indian unrest"...
and a mentor to Gopal Krishna Gokhale
Gopal Krishna Gokhale
Gopal Krishna Gokhale, CIE was one of the founding social and political leaders during the Indian Independence Movement against the British Empire in India. Gokhale was a senior leader of the Indian National Congress and founder of the Servants of India Society...
.
The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica stated that the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha "frequently helped the government with sound advice". Not everyone agreed. In a letter to Henry Fawcett
Henry Fawcett
Henry Fawcett PC was a blind British academic, statesman and economist.-Background and education:Fawcett was born in Salisbury, and educated at King's College School and the University of Cambridge: entering Peterhouse in 1852, he migrated to Trinity Hall the following year, and became a fellow...
, Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale OM, RRC was a celebrated English nurse, writer and statistician. She came to prominence for her pioneering work in nursing during the Crimean War, where she tended to wounded soldiers. She was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night...
wrote:
In 1943, B. R. Ambedkar
B. R. Ambedkar
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar , popularly also known as Babasaheb, was an Indian jurist, political leader, philosopher, thinker, anthropologist, historian, orator, prolific writer, economist, scholar, editor, a revolutionary and one of the founding fathers of independent India. He was also the Chairman...
praised Ranade and rated him favorably against Gandhi and Jinnah:
Social
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. 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 movementBhakti movement
The Bhakti movement is a Hindu religious movement in which the main spiritual practice is loving devotion among the Shaivite and Vaishnava saints. The Bhakti movement originated in ancient Tamil Nadu and began to spread to the north during the late medieval ages when north India was under Islamic...
, 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.
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
Ramabai Ranade
Ramabai Ranade was an Indian womens' rights activist.After marrying Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade, Ramabai studied Marathi and English. Inspired by her husband, she started 'Hindu Ladies Social Club' in Mumbai to develop public speaking among women. Ramabai was also the president of Seva Sadan...
, 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 (i.e. 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 future.He however was insistent that his young wife i.e Ramabai Ranade should do his bidding in the matters of social reforms ( this also has been confirmed by her in her memoirs.)
Works
- Ranade, Mahadev Govind, Rise of the Maratha Power (1900); reprint (1999) ISBN 8171171818
- Bipan Chandra, ed., Ranade’s Economic Writings New Delhi, Gyan Books Pvt. Ltd. (1990) ISBN 8121203287