Madan Mohan Malviya

Context

• The Prime Minister has paid tributes to Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya on his Jayanti. 

Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya

• About:
  • He was born in Allahabad and took early education under the ‘pathshala’ system, and was proficient in Sanskrit.
  • In 1879, he graduated from the Muir Central College (today’s Allahabad University) and started working as a teacher at a local high school.
  • He joined the Indian National Congress at its Calcutta session in 1886  
  • He rose up the ranks, and became president four times — in 1909 (Lahore), in 1918 (Delhi), in 1930 (Delhi), and in 1932 (Calcutta). 
  • Malaviya was part of the Congress for almost 50 years.
  • Malaviya was one of the early leaders of the Hindu Mahasabha and helped found it in 1906. 
  • He was given the title of ‘Mahamana’ by Rabindranath Tagore and the second President of India, Dr S. Radhakrishnan gave him the status of a ‘Karmayogi’.
• Contributions:
  • He was a scholar and thinker who worked towards spreading education among citizens and supported the nationalisation of railways.
  • He helped establish the Hindu Mahasabha (“Great Society of Hindus”) in 1906, which brought diverse local Hindu nationalist movements together.
  • He is known for founding the Banaras Hindu University in 1916 and for becoming one of the torchbearers of the freedom struggle acting as a bridge between the Moderates and the Extremists in the Congress.
  • In the freedom struggle, Malaviya was midway between the Liberals and the Nationalists, the Moderates and the Extremists.
  • In 1930, when Mahatma Gandhi launched the Salt Satyagraha and the Civil Disobedience Movement, he participated in it and courted arrest.
  • Awards awarded: In 2014, he was posthumously conferred with Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest civilian award.
  • In 2016, the Indian Railways started the Varanasi-New Delhi Mahamana Express in the leader’s honour.

Source: PIB