Tuesday, May 31, 2011

A homage to Kanaiyalal Maneklal Munshi former Governor of Uttar Pradesh of India by Bishwa Nath Singh as flashed on the f.b. on May 27,2011.

A homage to Kanaiyalal Maneklal Munshi former Governor of Uttar Pradesh of India by Bishwa Nath Singh.

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Kanaiyalal Maneklal Munshi was a versatile multi-faceted genius, a philosopher in action,a man of great ideas and great courage and a statesman with full of passion and wisdom..He was a politician of repute, great writer, educationist, lawyer, Indian Independence Movement Activist an authority in Gujarat literature and founder of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, an educational trust that was founded by him in 1938.He was born on December 30,1887 in the township of Bharuch(Broach) in Gujarat State of India and educated in Baroda( Vadodara) where he had excelled in his education. He had come under the influence of Sri Aurobindo while studying at Baroda College. Sri Aurobindo Ghosh who had a profound impression on him. Munshi was also greatly influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Bhulabhai Desai, and Mohammed Ali Jinnah. After acquiring his degree in Law from the University of Bombay, he enrolled himself as an advocate in 1913, and soon became a member of the Bar. He began practicing at the Bombay High Court. His fame spread as a good and successful lawyer spread and he began getting cases from all over India. About this time his first novel was being serialised in a Gujarati weekly. During World War I, he was greatly influenced by the Home Rule Movement. In 1912-13, he took part in the activities of the Social Reform Association and championed the cause of widow remarriage. He led by example and married Lilavati Sheth, a widow, in 1922 who was one of his literary critics after the death of his first wife, Atilakshmi Pathak, whom he had married when he was just thirteen years of his age.. He had also founded the Children's Home for delinquent children at Chembur, Bombay in 1939Under Sri Aurobindo's influence, he was attracted to armed rebellion against the British. He even learnt to make bombs, but when he moved to Bombay in 1915, he drifted towards the Home Rule Movement, and was later elected member of the Subjects Committee of the Indian National Congress in 1917. When Sardar Patel was organising the Bardoli Satyagraha, he had lent his support, and when Mahatma Gandhi announced the Salt Satyagraha, he joined the movement along with his wife. He started the movement for a Parliamentary wing of the Congress, and later became Secretary of the Congress Parliamentary Board in 1938. The same year he founded the well-known th Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and Institute of Agriculture at Anand in Gujarat State.He was an active participant in the Indian Independence Movement ever since the advent of Mahatma Gandhi. He joined the Swaraj Party but returned to the Indian National Congress on the behest of Mahatma Gandhi with the launch of the Salt Satyagraha in 1930. He was arrested several times, including during the Quit India Movement of 1942.He was a great admirer of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and had served in the Central Legislative Assembly in the 1930s.After the India got independence in the midnight of August 15,1947 he was appointed diplomatic envoy and trade agent (Agent-General) to the princely state of Hyderabad, where he served until its accession to India in 1948. He was on the ad hoc Flag Committee that selected the Flag of India in August 1947 and on the committee that had drafted the Constitution of India under the chairmanship of B. R. Ambedkar. He and Purushottam Das Tandon were among those who strongly opposed propagation and conversion in the constituent assembly. He was also the main driving force behind the renovation of the historically important Somnath Temple by the Government of India just after independence. He was appointed as the Governor of Uttar Pradesh where he remained as Governor, of Uttar Pradesh from 1952 to 1957. In 1959, he had separated from the Nehru-dominated (socialist) Congress Party and started the Akhand Hindustan Movement. He believed in a strong opposition, so along with Chakravarti Rajagopalachari .he had founded the Swatantra Party, which was right-wing in its politics, pro-business, pro-free market economy and private property rights. The party enjoyed limited success and eventually dropped. Later, he had joined the Jan Sangh. Being a prolific writer and a conscientious journalist, he started a Gujarati monthly called Bhargava. He was joint-editor of Young India and in 1954, started the Bhavan's Journal which is published by the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan to this day. Munshi was President of the Sanskrit Viswa Parishad, the Gujarati Sahitya Parishad, and the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan.Apart from founding Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, he was instrumental in the establishment of Bhavan's College, Hansraj Morarji Public School, Rajhans Vidyalaya, Rajhans Balvatika and Panchgani Hindu School (1924). He was elected Fellow of the University of Bombay, where he was responsible for giving adequate representation to regional languages. He was also instrumental in starting the department of Chemical Technology. esides being a politician and educator, he was also an environmentalist. He initiated the Vanmahotsav in 1950, when he was Union Minister of Food and Agriculture, to increase area under forest cover. Since then Van Mahotsav a week long festival of tree plantation is organized every year in the month of July all across the country and lakhs of trees are planted. enjoyed limited success and eventually died out. Later, Munshi joined the Jan Sangh.. He was also a litterateur with a wide range of interests. He is well known for his historical novels in Gujarati, especially his trilogy Patan-ni-Prabhuta (The Greatness of Patan), Gujarat-no-Nath (The Ruler of Gujarat) and Rajadhiraj (The Emperor). His other works include Jay Somnath (on Somnath temple), Krishnavatara (on Lord Krishna), Bhagavan Parasurama (on Parshurama), and Tapasvini (The Lure of Power) a novel with a fictional parallel drawn from the Freedom Movement of India under Mahatma Gandhi. He had done several notable works in English.He was a versatile writer besides possessing many qualities. He was well known for his historical novels in Gujarati, especially his trilogy Patan-ni-Prabhuta (The Greatness of Patan), Gujarat-no-Nath (The Ruler of Gujarat) and Rajadhiraj (The Emperor). His other works include Jay Somnath (on Somnath temple), Krishnavatara (on Lord Krishna), Bhagavan Parasurama (on Parshurama), and Tapasvini (The Lure of Power) a novel with a fictional parallel drawn from the Freedom Movement of India under Mahatma Gandhi. He had done several notable works in English.He was a versatile writer besides possessing many qualities. He will be often remembered in nutshell as the Founder of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan,Home Minister of Bombay State (1937-40),Agent-General of India in Hyderabad State (1948), Member of the Constituent Assembly of India,Member of Parliament, Union Minister for Agriculture & Food (1952-53) and Governor of Uttar Pradesh (1952-57) He had passed away on February 8, 1971 leaving behind a legacy to do good to others .Such man is rarely born. Let us join to pay our humble obeisance to his lotus feet and seek his bliss for well-being of all living-being of this universe!
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Photos: (1)K.M.Munshi is remembered widely for his statesmanship and for literary pursuit.(2)Master Tara Singh was seen speaking at a conference duly attended by K.M.Munshi and Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (3)Kanaiyalal Maneklal Munshi was a versatile multi-faceted genius, a philosopher in action,a man of great ideas and great courage and a statesmanship with full of passion and wisdom.

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Bishwa Nath Singh :
K.M.Munshi was also a litterateur with a wide range of interests. He is well known for his historical novels in Gujarati, especially his trilogy Patan-ni-Prabhuta (The Greatness of Patan), Gujarat-no-Nath (The Ruler of Gujarat) and Rajadhir...aj (The Emperor). His other works include Jay Somnath (on Somnath temple), Krishnavatara (on Lord Krishna), Bhagavan Parasurama (on Parshurama), and Tapasvini (The Lure of Power) a novel with a fictional parallel drawn from the Freedom Movement of India under Mahatma Gandhi. Munshi also wrote several notable works in English.He had written mostly based on fictional historical themes namely (1)Earlier Aryan settlements in India (What he calls Gaurang's - white skinned). (2) Krishna's endeavors in Mahabharata kaal and (3) More recently in 10 th century India around Gujarat, Malwa and sourthen india. His novel Prithvi Vallabh was made into a movie of the same name twice. The first adaptation was directed by Manilal Joshi in 1924 and the second version was by Sohrab Modi in 1943.He had held many important Post in both State Govt. & Union Govt. as Home Minister, Bombay and Union Minister for Agriculture & Food besides being Governor of Uttar Pradesh.As founder of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan,he excelled his performance as its Chancellor.Let us join to pay our humble obeisance to his lotus feet and homage to him!

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Bishwa Nath Singh:

Dr. Kanhaiyalal Maneklal Munshi, the founder of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan is reckoned as one of the luminaries of the Gujarati literature who had established his reputation as an outstanding novelist, particularly of the historical romance. His "Kulapati's Letters," contributed to the Bhavan's Journal, were widely read and appreciated

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( Photo of K.M.Munshi)

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ishwa Nath Singh :
Let us join to pay our humble obeisance to the lotus feet of this great man having towering personality and seek his bliss for well-being of all living-being of this universe!One can see my write-up on a homage to him as flashed on my Profile Page of f.b.

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f.b.
May 27,2011.

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