Justice Giridhar Malaviya is the grandson of Mahamana Madan Mohan Malaviya. He was born on the university campus when Malaviya ji was the Vice-Chancellor of the University. He is now the Chancellor of the BHU.
In this Zoom interview with Dr Vijay Rana, the editor of India Briefings.com he remembers some of the childhood memories of his days with Mahamana. He sheds light on the personality, lifestyle and political and ethical values that helped him to create one of the finest universities of India, Banaras Hindu University..
Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya (25 December 1861 – 12 November 1946) was an Indian freedom fighter, scholar and education and social reformer. He played a prominent role in the Indian National Congress.
He was the only Congressmen to become party president four times before independence. Later he had differences with top Congress leadership, including Mahatma Gandhi and founded Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha.
Malaviya strived to promote modern education among Indians and eventually cofounded Banaras Hindu University (BHU) at Varanasi in 1916. The largest residential university in Asia and one of the largest in the world. It has over 40,000 students studying arts, commerce, sciences, engineering, linguistic, Ritual medical, agriculture, performing arts, law and technology from all over the world. 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 Prayagaraj 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.[9]
He was posthumously conferred with Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award, on 24 December 2014, a day before his 153rd Birth Anniversary.
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