Mumbai University convocation hall photo 16

Sir Narayan Ganesh Chandavarkar (2 December 1855 – 4 May 1923) was an early Indian National Congress politician and

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

reformer. He was regarded by some as the "leading Hindu reformer of western India".''Modern Religious Movements in India''
by

J. N. Farquhar John Nicol Farquhar (6 April 1861 – 17 July 1929) was a Scottish educational missionary to Calcutta, and an Orientalist. He is one of the pioneers who popularised the ''Fulfilment theology'' in India that Christ is the crown of Hinduism, tho ...

- Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 43, No. 2, Book Review Supplement (Jun., 1975), pp. 349-351

Early life

Narayan Ganesh Chandavarkar was born in Honavar in the

Bombay Presidency The Bombay Presidency or Bombay Province, also called Bombay and Sind (1843–1936), was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India, with its capital in the city that came up over the seven islands of Bombay. The first mainl ...

on 2 December 1855. His maternal uncle was Shamrao Vithal Kaikini, another notable reformer from the Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin community. He served as a Dakshina Fellow in Elphinstone College for some time before earning a law degree in 1881. Shortly before the Indian National Congress was founded in 1885, N. G. Chandavarkar went to England as a member of the three-man delegation. The group was sent to educate public opinion about India right before general elections took place in England. Sir Narayan Ganesh Chandavarkar
- Congress Sandesh G.L. Chandavarkar writes

Career

He was the vice chancellor of the university of Bombay.He was elected the president of the annual session of the Indian National Congress in 1900 and one year later he was promoted to the high bench at the

Bombay High Court The High Court of Bombay is the high court of the states of Maharashtra and Goa in India, and the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. It is seated primarily at Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), and is one of the ol ...

. He took a break from politics for the next twelve years and devoted his time to the judicial system and various social groups till 1913. The main social group he worked with was the Prarthana Samaj ("Prayer Society"). He took the leadership reins from

Mahadev Govind Ranade Mahadev Govind Ranade (18 January 1842 – 16 January 1901), popularly referred to as Justice Ranade, was an Indian scholar, social reformer, judge and author. He was one of the founding members of the Indian National Congress party and owned ...

after the death of the latter in 1901. The organization was inspired by the Brahmo Samaj and was involved in the

modernization Modernization theory is used to explain the process of modernization within societies. The "classical" theories of modernization of the 1950s and 1960s drew on sociological analyses of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and a partial reading of Max Weber, ...

of Hindu society. Chandavarkar was knighted in the 1910 New Year Honours List.London Gazette, 21 January 1910
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Return to politics

He returned to the realm of Indian politics in 1914. A schism in the Congress in 1918 came to separate the organization into two camps. Chandavarkar became the head of the ''All-India Moderates Conference'' in 1918 along with

Surendranath Banerjea Sir Surendranath Banerjee often known as Rashtraguru ( bn, Rāṣṭraguru, Teacher of the Nation; 10 November 18486 August 1925) was Indian nationalist leader during the British Rule. He founded a nationalist organization called the Indian Nati ...

and

Dinshaw Wacha Sir Dinshaw Edulji Wacha (2 August 1844 – 18 February 1936) was a Parsi politician from Bombay. He was one of the founding members of the Indian National Congress. Wacha was also the president of the Congress in 1901. Wacha was associat ...

. In 1920 "he presided over the public meeting held in Bombay to protest against the report of the Hunter Committee on the Jallianwala Bagh atrocities which was appointed by the Government of India." Mahatma Gandhi was inspired by this to move a resolution on the topic. Later, on Chandavarkar's advice, Gandhi called off his

Civil Disobedience Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be called "civil". Hen ...

campaign in 1921.

Notable quotes

*Noting the general trend of Hindu reform movements in the early twentieth century he remarked

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chandavarkar, Narayan Ganesh Indian National Congress politicians from Karnataka 1855 births Marathi people Hindu law jurists People from Uttara Kannada Presidents of the Indian National Congress 1923 deaths Judges of the Bombay High Court Knights Bachelor Indian Knights Bachelor Hindu reformers 19th-century Indian politicians 20th-century Indian politicians 19th-century Indian judges 20th-century Indian judges Members of the Bombay Legislative Council Prarthana Samaj