Banarsidas Chaturvedi (24 December 1892 – 2 May 1985) was a noted
Hindi-language
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
writer, journalist and recipient of
Padma Bhushan
The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...
awarded by
Government of India
The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...
in 1973. He was born on 24 December 1892 in
Firozabad
Firozabad is a city near Agra in Firozabad district in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. It is the centre of India's glassmaking industry and is known for the quality of the bangles and also glasswares produced there.
During the reign of A ...
in the
North-Western Provinces
The North-Western Provinces was an administrative region in British India. The North-Western Provinces were established in 1836, through merging the administrative divisions of the Ceded and Conquered Provinces. In 1858, the nawab-ruled kingdom ...
of
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
and died on 2 May 1985.
He served as a nominated member of
Rajya Sabha
The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...
for twelve years.
Banarsidas became interested in the plight of
indentured labourers
Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract, called an " indenture", may be entered "voluntarily" for purported eventual compensation or debt repayment ...
(
Girmitiya) of Indian origin in Fiji where he spent several years. He wrote extensively about the predicament of
Indians in Fiji
Indo-Fijians or Indian-Fijians (also known as Fiji Indians) are Fijian citizens of Non-resident Indian and Overseas Citizen of India, Indian descent, and include people who trace their ancestry to various regions of the Indian subcontinent.Gir ...
. With the intervention of
Reverend C. F. Andrews, the system of indentured labour in Fiji was formally ended in 1920.
He was actively associated with the founding and construction of Hindi Bhavana of
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...
's
Visva Bharati
Visva-Bharati () is a public central university and an Institution of National Importance located in Shantiniketan, West Bengal, India. It was founded by Rabindranath Tagore who called it ''Visva-Bharati'', which means the communion of the w ...
at
Santiniketan
Santiniketan is a neighbourhood of Bolpur town in the Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum district in West Bengal, India, approximately 152 km north of Kolkata. It was established by Maharshi Devendranath Tagore, and later expanded by his son ...
in 1939.
A book in English titled 'Charles Freer Andrews, a Narrative' written by Banarsidas with
Marjorie Sykes
Marjorie Sykes (11 May 1905 – 17 August 1995) was a British educator who went to live in India in the 1920s and joined the Indian independence movement, spending most of the remainder of her life in India. She wrote many books and became ac ...
as co-author and foreword written by
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
was published in 1949.
References
Further reading
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1892 births
Hindi-language writers
1985 deaths
People from Firozabad
Nominated members of the Rajya Sabha
Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in literature & education
Journalists from Uttar Pradesh
20th-century Indian journalists
20th-century Indian politicians
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