Raghunath Karve - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Raghunath Karve

Encyclopedia

Raghunath Dhondo Karve also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal...

: रघुनाथ धोंडो कर्वे/ र. धो. कर्वे) (January 14, 1882- October 14, 1953) was a professor of mathematics and a visionary social reformer from 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...

, India

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...

. He was a pioneer in initiating family planning

Family planning

Family planning is the planning of when to have children, and the use of birth control and other techniques to implement such plans. Other techniques commonly used include sexuality education, prevention and management of sexually transmitted infections, pre-conception counseling and...

and birth control

Birth control

Birth control is an umbrella term for several techniques and methods used to prevent fertilization or to interrupt pregnancy at various stages. Birth control techniques and methods include contraception , contragestion and abortion...

for masses 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...

in 1921.

Raghunath was the eldest son of Bharat Ratna

Bharat Ratna

Bharat Ratna is the Republic of India's highest civilian award, awarded for the highest degrees of national service. This service includes artistic, literary, and scientific achievements, as well as "recognition of public service of the highest order." Unlike knights, holders of the Bharat Ratna...

Maharshi Dhondo Keshav Karve. His mother Radhabai died during childbirth in 1891 when he was nine. That event influenced his outlook on the issue of pregnancy.

He was born in Murud. He studied at New English School, Pune. He stood first in matriculation examination conducted in 1899. He went to Fergusson College

Fergusson College

Fergusson College is a degree college in western India, situated in the city of Pune. It was founded in 1885 by the Deccan Education Society and at that time was the first privately governed college in India. It is named after Sir James Fergusson, the Governor of Bombay, who donated a then...

, Pune and obtained Bachelor of Arts

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...

degree in 1904.

Karve started his professional career as a professor of mathematics at Wilson College

Wilson College

Wilson College can refer to:* Wilson College , Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, USA* Warren Wilson College, Asheville, North Carolina, USA* Lindsey Wilson College, Kentucky, USA* Wilson College, Princeton University, New Jersey, USA...

in Mumbai. However, when he started publicly expressing his views about family planning, population control, and women's right to experience sexual/sensual pleasure as much as men, the conservative Christian administrators of the college asked him to resign from the professorship. He then devoted himself to the above causes.

On his own initiative, Karve started the very first birth control clinic in India in 1921, the same year when the first birth control clinic opened in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

Samaj Swasthya

Karve published a 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...

magazine Samaj Swasthya (समाजस्वास्थ्य) starting from July 1927 until 1953. In it, he continually discussed issues of society's well being through population control through use of contraceptives so as prevent unwanted pregnancies and induced abortions. He promoted responsible parenting by men, gender equality, and women’s empowerment and right to experience sexual/sensual pleasure. As an illustration of some of Karve's radical thoughts, he expressed the thought that so long as childbirth and venereal diseases are prevented, women could engage in promiscuity—even perhaps with male prostitutes—for the sake of variety in sexual pleasure, if they so desire, without in fact harming their husbands.

Wife's support

Karve's wife, Malati, supported his cause though it brought them social ostracism besides his loss of his professorial career. She shared the couple's financial responsibility, and the two chose to remain childless.

A Critic's Analysis

Literary critic M V Dhond has written three essays on Karve. In the third essay, he analyses why Karve was not as successful in his mission as much as Margaret Sanger

Margaret Sanger

Margaret Higgins Sanger was an American sex educator, nurse, and birth control activist. Sanger coined the term birth control, opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, and established Planned Parenthood...

and Marie Stopes

Marie Stopes

Marie Carmichael Stopes was a British author, palaeobotanist, campaigner for women's rights and pioneer in the field of birth control...

, his counterparts in US and UK respectively.

Karve’s mission was not restricted to that of Sanger and Stopes namely happy family life, emancipation of women, control of population. Karve wanted women to have as much sexual freedom and sensual pleasure as men.

Dhond claims contemporary society’s objectives were restricted to those of Sanger and Stopes and hence not only Karve’s mission has a whole suffered, he himself was persecuted by society at large. There were other reasons too: Karve’s unattractive personality, poor finances and lack of networking skills.

It’s unfortunate Karve was not alive when three major events, that make us understand woman sexuality better, took place- 1. Publication of the Kinsey report in 1953 2. Publication of Masters and Johnson

Masters and Johnson

The Masters and Johnson research team, composed of William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson, pioneered research into the nature of human sexual response and the diagnosis and treatment of sexual disorders and dysfunctions from 1957 until the 1990s....

’s book in 1966 and 3. Publication of The Hite Report in 1976. These documents have proven how right Karve was with his thoughts on woman's sexuality.

External links

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Samaj Swasthya

Wife's support

A Critic's Analysis

Further Reading and Viewing

External links