Indian Worthies

INDIAN WORTHIES. VOL. I. Copies can be had at :- I. The Manoranjak Grantha Prasarak Mandali, Girg~on, Bombay. 2. Messrs. CopalNarayen & Co., Kalbadev~ Bombay. 3· Mrs. Radhabat Atmaram Sagoon, Kalbadevi, Bombay. 4- Messrs. Ra.mchandra Govind & Sons, Kalbadevi, Bombay. And all other leading Book-Sellers of Bombay, INDIAN WORTHIES. Vol. I. " Live.r of ,91'tdt mefl 4U remitul1111 We crrrt~RaA:e•v liru ...Wime, .And, dtpJrting, lcrr1111 fleAi11d 111 Foot-primr 011 "" llt.IRtU of time.• P.al• of Life-LoNGFELLOW a BOMBAY: MANORAMJAK 8RANTHA PRASARAK MANDALI. t906. All rights reserfJel. Printed at THB KARNATAK PRINTING WoRKS, Girgaon, Bombay. PREFACE. Hero-worship shines in biography. Life-stories, it they are well-written, have that instructive effect which is absent from even the best fiction. Bearing that fact well in their minds, the publishers have undertaken to submit, to the Indian public, life-stories of many eminent Indians, of the different provinces of India. This, the first volume of the series._ contains only four life-stories; because, the volume has been published especially for the Congress occasion; and further because, the publishers have wished to submit a specimen of the quality of the work which they hope to furnish .. As will be seen frem the advertisement on the cover of this volume, the second volume will contain life· stories of many Indian worthies;-life·stories written by the best writers available to the publishers. Sometimes~Jn t~ series, a life-story will be found, of which the subject will happen to be less well-known to one province than to another. But, the publishers hope that, as in the case of Vishnu Shastri Chiplunkar, the merit will justify the selection. The publishers trust that these life-stories of emi· nent Indians will meet with appreciative patronage from the Indian public. It remains for the publishers to do the grateful duty ot acknowledging the help they have ungrudgingly derh·ed from different sources ; and in so doing they must first offer their most hearty thanks to the learned ii contributors who have, at the sacrifice of their most precious time .... willingly responded to the publishers' call as a call of duty, and worked for them with great zeal and interest. THE MANORANJAK GRANTHA } PRAS:\RAK MANDALI; GJRGAON; BOMBAY. 20th, December, 1906. CONTENTS: 1. The late Mr. Justice Madhao Govind Ranade: ·by Mr. D. V. Kirtane, B. A., BAR·AT·LAW. ... 3 2. The late Mr. Jamshedji Nusserwanji Tata; by Prof. Pestonji A. Wadia, w. A, ... 6'] ,3. The late Mr. Vishnu Krishna Chiplunkar ; by Mr. N.C. Kelkar, B.A. LL.B. ng 4· The Hon. Mr. Dadabhai Nowrojee; by a.n ~Indian Nationalist,' ... ... ... l67 :MADHAV GOVIND RANADE. MADHA V GOVIND RANADE. "Such a man is born once in an age,"' was said of Mr. Justice Ranade by a late Director of Public Instruc tion. It is now five years since that mighty heart ceased to beat and that mighty pulse ceased to throb. It seems, however, difficult to conceive and realise that the great Indian leader of the latter half of the Igth century has disappeared from our midst. As there are certain epochs in the world's history that stand out distinct and prominent, signalizing great changes, forming mile·stones,· indicating the distance run by the race, so do we mark at long intervals, the appearance of great men upon the stage of the world_ with whom great movements are identified, and who stand out as turning posts, guiding the bumble pilgrims on their way through life. Their appearance does not seem to be the result of mere accident or a casual phenomenon, but the sequence of an inscrutable mora] law. \Vhether they appear on the field of battle, amidst the roar of canon, or in the august council chamber 1 on the platform or in the pulpit, or in yet humbler spheres, they are all equally great and equally entitled to the reverence of posterity. Such men appear like migratory planets in the firmament, illumine the skies for a short while and then pass away. 3 INDIAN WORTHIES. Since the down-fall of the Peshwa's Government in 1818, and up to the year 1857, the history of Maha· rashtra presents a perfect blank. It was a period of complete national prostration, such as always supervenes the fipal extinction of one nation by another. The old order bad disappeared, while the new order had not yet assumed any definite shape and form. The work of settling the country had only just commenced, when the avalanche of the mutiny convulsed the country from one end to the other. The Western Presidency, however, entered upon an epoch of peace and uninterrupted progress immediately after the storm of the mutiny had subsided, and the Government of the whole of the Peninsula passed into the direct bands of the Crown. With the establishment of the Universities, and the foundation of schools and colleges, the flood·gates of Western knowledge and learning were thrown open, and men were wanted who could, with discretion, direct and guide the floods into the proper channels. As the first fruits of Western education and en; lightenment. the Universities brought out a batch of young men, most of whom in after years attained to high positions in the services and professions. Amongst the first batch so brought out by the Bombay Univer· sity, was a young man, who was the first in India to obtain the degrees of Master of Arts and Bachelor o'r Laws, and who in later years by his genius and intel· 4 M. G. RANADE. lectual achievements, obtained undisputed an~ univer· sal recognition as the "Prince of Indian Graduates". · This Prince of Indian Graduates and future states man, judge. philosopher, r~former, and the recognised leader of Western India, was born at Niphad, a small. town in the Nasik Collectorate, on Tuesday, the 18th January 1842. The Ranades, originally came from Bhobhar Pachuri, in Chiplun Taluka, in the Ratnagiri District. The family migrated into the Maharashtra nine genera~ tions ago. The great-great-grand-father of the great-grand father of Mr. Justice Ranade first settled at Karkamb near Pandharpur, under the protection of the Sardars Patwardhan. Mr. Ranade's great-grand-father Bhaskar rao, well known in the Maratha records, as "Appaji Bhagvant", was the representative of the Chief ofSangli at the Peshwa's Court. Bhaskarrao Appa's parents had twenty children, all, however, dying in infancy or child-hood. Appa's mother, a pious and God-fearing lady, performed the most severe and trying penances, and as a reward, as it were, for her penances, she gave birth, the twenty-first time, to Bhaskarrao Appa, who rose to eminence and lived to enjoy a green old age. Appa had four sons. Each of these sons had again four sons. One of Appa's sons named Amrit Appaji Ranade became a Mamlatdar in the Poona District. Govindrao, the father of the hero of this sketch, was one of the four sons of Amritrao Appaji. Govind Amrit \\'as for some years a ~hadnis or assistant 5 INDIAN WORTHIES. Mamlatdar in the Niphad Taluka of the Nasik District. Later on, he joined the service of the Kolhapur State and rose in that State from a Jababnis and Mamlatdar to a Khasgi Karbhari or Master of the House-hold. Govindrao joined the Kolhapur service after Madhavrao was born at Niphad. His family shortly followed him there. It was on this journey, on the high road from Ambegaon to Kolhapur, that Madhavrao, then a child of three years, met with an accident, which, had it proved fatal, would have deprived India of the benefits of the services of one of her ablest and noblest sons. The party consisted of Madhavrao and his sister, both little children of three and two years of age, their mother Gopikabai, and uncle VithaJrao, with one peon. Those were days, when railway communication had not been introduced into this country. Horses and bullock-carts were the only conveyances then known and available. The Ranade party was on its way from Ambegaon to Kolhapur. It was a dark night. Gopikabai lay fast asleep with her two little ones by her side in the bullock-cart. Vithalrao followed the cart at a dis· tance of about a mile. As the cart was crossing a shaded tract, little Madhav slipped out of the cart and fell on the road. Neither the peon walking along-side of the cart, nor the driver noticed the child falling, and the cart proceeded on its way. A short time after, as Vithalrao rode past the spot, the 6 M. G. RANADE. ·~hild hearing the sound of the horse's hoofs, realised its position., and recognising its uncle, cried out • Uncle I have fallen here!" Vithalrao could scarcely believe his ears. There was no cart within hearing or even in sight. Not a single person was on the road. He dis mounted, and to his intense consternation be found Madhav lying on the road, to all appearance perfectly .pleased with his adventure. It is awful to contemplate what would have hap pened, had Vithalrao not been following the cart, or had the child not cried out at the sound of the horse's hoofs i the child would have in all probability been devoured by the wolves, then existing in troops in those parts. Vithalrao lifted up the child, and spurring his horse, soon joined the cart. The mother, the peon. the driver, were all unconscious of the absence of the child. Vithalrao awakened the mother, and asked her if she had with her both her little ones.

Load more