Rao Bahadur Raghunath Narasinha Mudholkar (16 May 1857 – 13 January 1921), was an Indian politician who served as the President of the Indian National Congress for one term, succeeding Pandit

Bishan Narayan Dar Pandit Bishan Narayan Dar (1864 – 19 November 1916) was an Indian politician who served as the President of the Indian National Congress for one term in 1911. Dar belonged to a prominent Kashmiri Pandit family from Lucknow. His uncle Pandit Sh ...

. He presided over 27th session of Indian National Congress at Bankipore (Patna) in 1912. Raghunath Mudholkar was born in

Dhulia Dhule is a city located in the Dhule District in the northwestern part of Maharashtra state, India known as West Khandesh. Situated on the banks of Panzara River, Dhule is the regional headquarters of MIDC, RTO, and MTDC. The city is mainly kn ...

, Khandesh, in a respectable middle-class

Deshastha Brahmin Deshastha Brahmin is a Hindu Brahmin subcaste mainly from the Indian state of Maharashtra and northern area of the state of Karnataka. Other than these states, according to authors K. S. Singh, Gregory Naik and Pran Nath Chopra, Deshastha Br ...

family on 16 May 1857. He had his education partly at Dhulia and partly in

Vidarbha Vidarbha (Pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, �id̪əɾbʱə is a geographical region in the east of the Indian state of Maharashtra and a Proposed states and union territories of India#Maharashtra, proposed state of central India, comprising th ...

. Then he went to Bombay and graduated from Elphinstone College where he was granted a Fellowship. He was leading Lawyer practising at Amravati along with G. S. Khaparde and Moropant V Joshi. He was invested as a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire in January 1914, in recognition of his public services. He was a devout Hindu, advocated social reforms like female education, widow remarriage and removal of Untouchability. As a follower of Gokhale, he believed that developing nationalism required British cooperation and therefore the national movement should be constitutional and nonviolent. He was in the Congress from 1888 to 1917, and thereafter joined the Liberals. He was in the Congress delegation of 1890 sent to England to voice the grievances of the Indians. He was President of the Indian National Congress held at Bankipur in 1912. He admired Parliamentary democracy but opposed British bureaucracy. He criticised the economic policy of the Government, helped to establish a number of industries in Vidarbha and advocated technical education. He founded several social organisations and worked for the uplift of the poor. He died on 13 January 1921. His son Janardhan became Judge at the Supreme Court of India during 1960–1966.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mudholkar, Raghunath Narsinha Presidents of the Indian National Congress People from Dhule Indian National Congress politicians People from Amravati 1857 births 1921 deaths Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire Rai Bahadurs Marathi people Members of the Imperial Legislative Council of India History of Vidarbha