This holy city and especially Banaras Hindu University (BHU) welcomed the decision of the Government to give Bharat Ratna awards to BHU founder Mahamana Madan Mohan Malaviya (posthumously) and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the eve of their birth anniversary.
Though Malaviya hailed from Prayag (Allahabad), he made Kashi (Varanasi) his Karmbhoomi, where he realised his dream of setting up a unique university campus that had all branches of education. Top leaders including Annie Basant, Mahatma Gandhi and many others strongly supported Malviya’s imagination.
Despite all hurdles, he succeeded in laying the foundation of the BHU which was housed in a sprawling campus of 1,300 acres of land. Malaviya wanted that there should be a campus where the students could get education in all branches right from oriental sciences and theology to engineering and medical sciences. He succeeded in carrying the BHU towards the path to making his dreams a reality.
For the last two weeks, the university has been busy with his birth anniversary celebrations which started on December 14 when as per Hindi Panchang his birth anniversary falls. As per the English Calendar it falls on December 25 when even Prime Minister Narendra Modi will remain present on the campus. Three years ago, the university celebrated the 150th birth anniversary year of Malaviya in grand way. The BHU is now ready to celebrate its centenary year in 2016 for which programmes will start from next year.
Besides Malaviya, who is also known for his espousal of Hindu nationalism and was one of the initial leaders of the far-right Hindu Mahasabha, Varanasi has also produced several tall personalities who were awarded Bharat Ratna namely educationist Bhagwan Das, sitar player Pt Ravi Shankar and shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan.
Malaviya was born in an educated orthodox Hindu family at Prayag (Allahabad) in 1861 and started his career as a teacher in Allahabad District School even as he continued to pursue his education. Malaviya passed llB and first practiced in the district court and then in the High Court. Malaviya decided to give up his roaring practice on his 50th birthday to serve the country.
A social reformer and an educationist, Malaviya was catapulted into the political arena soon after his inspiring speech at the second Congress session in Calcutta in 1886. He went on to serve Congress for almost 50 years — as Congress president for four times — in 1909 (lahore), in 1918(Delhi), in 1930 (Delhi) and in 1932 (Calcutta). He, however, bid farewell to active politics in 1937, to focus his attention on social issues.
While BHU vice-chancellor Prof Girish Chandra Tripathi and Dean Prof G Agney Shastri hailed the decision, at Malaviya Bhawan where he spent most of his time, a special puja-archana programme was organised.
A resolution was passed saying wherever the name of Malviya is written on buildings and elsewhere, Bharat Ratna would be added. Malaviya died in 1946